Unusual interview questions

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Today I conducted an interview. One of the question asked to the candidate was:

Tell me, what do you see on the image up there?

If you are the candidate, what would be your answer?

I will share with you various interesting & unusual interview questions presented to the interview candidates to gauge their personalities in the upcoming posts.

The fire breathing dragon!

Image source: http://prettygirlwallpaper.com

Have you encountered a fire breathing dragon amongst us human?

A human dragon huffs & puffs when bottled up with anger & frustration. Some have a longer light fuse while some very short fuse. Some explode like the M16 machine gun while some may be a walking time bomb.

Not all are bad dragons. Made friend with a few dragons recently. They aren't really bad tempered dragons when you have the chance to know them better. They just need to vent out the frustration inside them & they feel better after that. Main reason they gave me is that they have no one to talk to about a bad day at the end of the day.

One dragon particularly admitted that when she was staying with her sister's family, she felt better after playing with her little nieces & nephews. Laughing & playing with the children made her anger vapourised & her calm down. Now that her sister's family has moved to another country, she lives alone with no pets. She doesn't have anyone to cheer her up on a bad day.

Never underestimate the power of laughter! Just a simple sincere smile to a person may transform an angry dragon to a happy one.

Remember your smile is priceless.

Is the Glass Half Empty or Half Full?

The cafeteria at my work place holds the award for cooking the most unhygienic, greasy, lumpy & salty food I could ever find!

Imagine overnight balance chicken from the chicken rice stall being deep fried & resold the next day.

Imagine finding a nut bolt among your meehoon goreng (fried rice noodle)!

Imagine finding baby snail, caterpillar & bits of sand in your leafy vegetables!

Imagine getting upset tummy *ahem* more like severe purging after eating their sambal belacan...

Therefore, I would rather walk in the fastest stride my 2 chubby legs could managed for 10 minutes under the scorching hot sun to reach the nearest edible food court, huffing & panting for air. Spend between 10 to 15 minutes eating lunch before hurrying back to the office again in the next 10 minutes.

Fyi, my lunch break is only half an hour.

If one is wiling to go through this vigorous walk everyday just to have a decent lunch, how good can the food at the cafeteria be, right?

To pacify my dissatisfaction over the super short lunches, I took it as a way to have my daily 20 minutes exercise. Otherwise, I would just end up sitting in front of the computer from 9am to 5pm & being a couch potato at home in the evenings & on the weekends.

At least I won't be killed by a hidden nut bolt in my meehoon goreng.

How to ease pressure at work in Theory vs Reality

In theory: When working in a condusive environment...

Rules from: 'How to stop worrying & start living".

1. Do not imitate others.

2. Apply this 4 good working habits:

a. Clear your desk of all papers except those relating to the immediate problem at hand.

b. Do things in the order of their importance.

c. When you face a problem, solve it then & there if you have the facts necessary to make a decision.

d. Learn to organize,delegate & supervise.

3. Learn to relax at your work.

4. Put enthusiasm into your work.

5. Count your blessings - not your troubles.

6. Remember that unjust criticism is often a disguised compliment.

7. Do the very best you can.

vs. in Reality: For the unlucky ones who work for the Boss from Hell (Boss)

1. One may find that the Boss usually follows the Big Boss's style of management - Unconciously, they imitate ways of doing things. E.g. Big Boss likes meetings. Daily meetings with staff for updates. Then weekly meeting with staff for weekly updates. Basically you get to repeat what you have said to Boss from Monday to Friday in the weekly meeting.

2.a. A clean table without paper is a flag up for your Boss to ask you, "So you don't have much work, eh?" A very dangerous situation because when comes to cost cutting time, they usually cut the headcount of people whom the Boss think is redundant; i.e. idle staff.

2.b. In WHOSE order of importance? Things you may find is important but your Boss thinks otherwise..How?

2.c. What happened to order of importance in 2.b.?

2.d. Everything that you do, you have to report to the Boss every day who then reports to the Big Boss every day. How to organize? Everything must follow Big Boss's style.

3. How to relax when your every moves are being watched? E.g. Whenever you walk away from you desk, the Boss would so coincidentally passes by & asks you, "Going for tea, eh?"

4. What enthusiasm? Do less, less chance of being targetted by the Boss. Do nothing, nothing for the boss to complain about.

5. Counting the blessings yes, but what blessings???

6. If getting sarcasm remarks from the Boss are compliments, then one gets many compliments every day... *Yeah, pun indetended*

7. Yes, no matter what, must have the Die-Hard spirit!

Ok, so how do we survive the reality when the going gets tough?

Tips on how to outwit, outplay & outlast the Boss:

1. Follow the Boss's style. mimic if need be.

2a. Always...repeat ALWAYS have a table filled with reports, papers, books to show that you are very busy with tight datelines.

2b. Boss's priorities are YOUR priorities

2c. Do things in order of importance? See no.2b

2d. Organize, tag & label everything that you do to give the Boss ease of checking what you do when you are on leave.

3. Always stay alert, not relax & let your guards down, especially on the Boss's mood of the day.

4. Put enthusiasm into staying out of the Boss firing range. Always keep Boss's command in black & white in case he uses his 'at will dementia skill' when questioning your work. E.g. "Who asked you to do that?!" Do only when be told. Tell only when asked. Don't be a smart aleck. The Boss may not appreciate having a subordinate who is smarter than him.

5. Every day if you could survive from 9am to 5pm without getting any firing from the Boss is your blessing already. Don't be demanding!

6. If you could practise no.4 & get the result of no.5 then you can most likely reduce the number of 'compliments' you get from the Boss.

7. Lastly, "Never say die!"