Interview Questions from Hell
 

I'm compiling a small dossier on some of the nastiest, trickiest interview questions kicking around wannabe land. I'll start the ball rolling with this little doozy:
"I don't like Scottish people - I reckon you're a bunch of sponging soapdodgers. Whadya think about that then?"

(bonus points if you can guess the company, triple bonus points if you can name the interviewer)

British Airways :p

I guess my response would be my Wife is Scottish, outside now, queensbury rules you cad!

The toughest of all interview questions is usually presented out of the blue and it is:

"Say something funny."

I suppose that would the que for one o f those "An Englishman, Irishmand and Scottsman..." type of jokes.

Asked of a female pilot:
"What do you do about sexual harrassment?"
Answer:
"I'd ask him not to complain."

If you can make them laugh at interview, you will probably get the job!

I have great reply for the "tell me something funny" line and I'll not post it for obvious reasons.

It is however good enough for a Peter Kay video and will have the Interviewer booking my sim slot from the interview room there and then.

it involves sitting on hands and spiral staircases that is all I shall say.....

I know of someone who had a line of questioning that went something like this (the interview was at Heathrow)

"How did you get here today then"?
"By car"
"Did you break the speed limit"?
"No"
"Oh come, everyone does it, how can you justify it?"
"Have you ever tried to do 70 mph on the M25 in rush hour"

Another one I know someone got asked (this was for a US Airline)
Situation : You are about to undertake the first sector of your line check with the Chief Training Captain. You walk back up the airstairs having done the walkaround and a passenger informs you he saw the Captain drinking an alchoholic drink in a bar earlier in the afternoon. What do you do?

You know, the last interview I ever had, a few weeks before Sep 11th as it happened, with a UK turboprop operator, ... there were 8 wannabes sitting round this table with the chief pilot and ops manager doing the group-interview thing, they went round the table one by one asking us the old "where do you see yourself in 10 years" ... it was funny watching one young wannabe after the other, singing the same old song "turboprop captain with this airline of course", knowing full well they were bullsh!tting and the CP knew it too, he just sat there nodding with this increasingly wry smirk on his face. I came last in line and I thought this guy is getting sick of listening to it, so I just said "to be honest sir I expect to work bloody hard for this company for three or four years, and then look to move on to a jet operator". Straight away the boss gave me a big cheesy grin and at the time I thought 'yep, right thing to say'. However, I didn't get the job :(

What would you guys say ... I mean they MUST know that 90% of you who apply to battered-old-turboprop operators are going to use it as a stepping stone, if it was me conducting the interview I'd rather that people just came out and admitted it ... maybe not ... ah well c'est la vie.

For a cadetship;

"Your a student you've never done a decent days work in your life, why should we employ you over all these hard working people we are interviewing."

still got the job though.

Hwel

What was your reply????

If they are asking nasty questions it is for you to decide what these people are going to be like as employers and if they are worthy of your hard won skills !.

The worst question I ever had at an interview was "would you lie for the company/department"
What would you answer???
I answered not if it involved safety in any way, but if it was to pacify lot's of angry people with a "the next will be in an hour" type lie then not a problem.. No didn't get it, but got much better one two weeks later :p

I think you have to base your replies on book answers for these kinds of questions. By that I mean never admit to be happy to lie, never agree that some people are less desirable than others, always be prepared to deal with safety issues head on, etc. You might feel like brown noser but come the moment for real most would not want to get into a character bashing excercise, lie for a company potentially maginifying its problems or fly with someone in charge who is sloshed.

Best one I heard of was:

"You're in the hotel restaurant on a stop over and in walks the Captain with a skirt on....what do you say?"

I caught a mate out with this one and he's an F/O for a major! :D

VFE.

Hi VFE (should'nt you be revising)???:D

The answer to your above question depends on weather you think the interview panel are looking for a sense of humour or not!!!! ;)

How about this one from BA:-

Q. Why did you want to be a pilot?

A. The View! (correct answer apparently)

*Remember, Keep it simple Guys n Gals*:rolleyes:

W-S.

I'd say "Of course I would" But then I'd point out that they really didn't know if I was being truthful when I said that.

Easy, I'd say it depends on whether the colour of the skirt clashed with her accesories.

Jeezus, I don't stand a chance! I would have actually said "blah blah blah blah blah blah..."

Answer(s) for the red dress answer:

1) If SHE wants to wear a dress on her time off, I don't see a problem with that.

or

2) Tell her to wait for me to get my dress :}

Psychometric test question:

"Put these in order of preference: Small boys, Guns or Flowers"

:eek:

What does that say about a person!!!!!

Another similar psycho question was;

"Do you prefer a well crafted gun or a well written piece of prose"

At first you think 'what the h#ll?' but on reflection it's pretty obvious which category each answer will put you in. Remember there are no wrong answers in a psych test.

PP

ps. I went for the gun (not literally!) and they gave me a job!:p

One from British Midland for direct entry:

'You've just completed your pre-flight checks programming the FMS (2 sectors, so you'll be returning later in the day), the captain has just returned from doing his walkaround, and walks back into the cockpit, departure is in about 40 mins, and you suddenly remember you've left your licence and passport at home on the kitchen table.' (No other relief duty is available either) and you live 20 miles from the airport.

What do you do?

No Sponsor,

.......and your answer was?????

(2 sectors, so you'll be returning later in the day)

.....that was the plan 10 minutes ago!

Surely this question must have evolved with the new bmi.....

re: left licence at home (bmi reg interview)
 

I had that one the other day. I don't think there is a strictly correct answer. I think what the interviewers were looking for was an ability to talk an answer through and to see if you can back up your reasoning.

Heh... dead easy that one, peops, but you're still going to get it in the neck for messing up.

Tell the captain the truth and then ask him/her for their decision. Slopy shoulders. Frankly, if there was no standby cover, the chances of a ramp check are so small, I think it would not be a problem to despatch. If you do get pulled up, you genuinely own a licence and a passport (not needed if you're not disembarking the aircraft), so it's just a case of paperwork and hassle, depending on your destination. Won't make you popular, but it's a business.

If you're going to Zurich or somewhere similar.. to hell with it.. go. If you're going to Jeddah or Florida.. ermm.. well, delay the flight, go home, get your stuff and take it in the neck.

The truth always wins, and the captain makes the final decisions regarding the crew. Remember that, and you can't go wrong :)

I don't think there is a right answer for this one.

I think its designed to make you argue your point in a constructive logical manner.

I f you answer in either way you are setting yourself up for a come back.

If you said yes. They would start hitting you with but it means you are breaking the law etc.

If you said no. they would come back and say but do you never speed etc.

Its a question to basically to wind you up to see if you can argue logically under stress.

They proberly don't care what the answer is and most companys i should suspect have unoffical SOP's for this occurance which are passed on after sacrificing a virgin trolley dolly after completing the LHS course.

As said above if your flying short sectors around europe, so what, your airline ID will do for a passport if required. Ramp check its a technical paper work cop which dosn't effect flight safety, big deal If the CAA did every AOC holder for every technical cockup in paperwork every inspection nobody would be operating. I should imagine its one of the things you do once and the whole hassel means that you never forget it again.

Now if they asked a question about what would you do if you discovered that the charts aboard where one day out of date.
Technically an easy question but i am sure some of the small twin taxi guys out there could tell you the pressure they would be under to fly it.

(BTW i wouldn't but i cheat and make sure i have my own set of current charts so the situation wouldn't occur.)

MJ

And... it's more straightforward with x years experience in the job, then being asked these things with no commercial flight experience in an interview.

My own personal fave from my interview : "How would you bring your concerns to the captain if you weren't happy about how a particular aspect of the flight was being conducted ?"

As for the charts... jock.. I wouldn't have a clue if they were out of date or not. All ours have is the 'valid from' date :D Although, thinking about it, for my type, I could ask 'what would you do if the nav database was out of date in the FMC by one day ?', and yes, it's a simple answer for those of us fortunate enough to have conscientious employers.

Jock's right.... most people won't have the 'job' knowledge to answer the questions with any certainty, but their interviewers will know b/s when they smell it !

oops been studying for my FAA biannual (have to remember i ain't allowed SVFR on a VFR PPL). The FAA charts do have a valid from and to.

If i remember rightly chart updates are issued via AIC (green) updates in the UK.

And can be checked at http://www.ais.org.uk/

I am off to find that Issue 12 for Scotland which i found the other week to chuck it in the bucket. ;)

MJ

1. Small boys. Much easier to pick up than large boys. When I'm picking up a mooring in rough waters the ones with the handles on top are even better.

2. Guns. Axl Rose a bit of a plonker, so second on the list.

3. Flowers. Yuk! Boddingtons much nicer.

Stu

The correct answer is as follows:

Flowers - cargo makes more money then passengers.

Small Boys - do not weigh as much as an adult, therefore offer a fuel saving.

Guns - require much extra paperwork to be completed, which costs money.

I've never had an airline interview.

What would you answer to:

" Your Captain busts minimas on an approach, what do you do?"

Minimas exsist for safety, therefore the captain is compromising the safety of the aircraft - so I guess the correct thing to do would be to report it.

Only possible if you don't end up as a steaming hulk at the threshold...............;) Now where was that ASR form?

PP

What about..

You are FO on a long haul flight leaving in 5 minutes full of passengers.

You notice the captain taking a swig from a hip flask, what do you do?

Ask if i could have a sip too.

Here's one

You are overhead your destination and the weather is below minimum. You have enough fuel on board for your diversion but must make it now. The captain insists on staying in the pattern and not diverting. What do you do.

Any suggestions?

Explain exactly that to the captain and make sure that you say it loud enough so that it's on the CVR for the crash investigators to hear! ;)

Difficult questions

I was being interviewed for a Flight Test Engineer job with a large manufacturer of small airliners. Several interviews, one was a one-on-one with a retired astronaut who was head of flight safety.

Sat down, expecting an easy question (most people start off with an easy question). "So, you're in the back of a jet managing a flight trial, when the Test Pilot in the front screws up and endangers the aircraft, how do you handle it?"

After that he went onto the technical questions, which were even worse - I eventually backed myself into the position of saying that the company's safety and trials planning system was full of holes and needed a major redesign. He heard me out silently, thought for a minute, then said "Yep, that's pretty much my opinion as well." Phew!!

Incidentally the answer I gave to the TP question - was not "report it", that is the wrong answer. The right answer - at-least for the flight test world - is far more complex. Starting with determing whether the aircraft is likely to be damaged and from that whether to terminate the sortie or not, the subsequent actions were (in my opinion, and this seemed to go down well) to have a doors-closed talk with the TP (captain!) about it, discuss what has happened, and get to the point of a mutual understanding of what went wrong, and how to stop it happening again. Reporting somebody should only happen after discussions, telling them that you're doing so, and if it's proved impossible to reach an understanding of how to avoid a future transgression. Obviously the picture changes slightly if something has been damaged but the bottom line is (a) nobody deliberately screws up, and (b) reporting somebody, particularly behind their back, will probably destroy any trust or teamwork between you. In the airline world I believe that this is called CRM !



Bad answers

Worst answer I've ever seen, I was interviewing somebody for a job in an airworthiness office.

Me: "Could you tell me how you'd work out the safety limitations of an aeroplane"
Candidate: "I'd ask the designer"
Me: "Okay, but assuming they're asking you for advice, what would you give?"
Candidate: "I'm sorry I don't understand the question"
Me: "Okay, let's start at basics, could you just draw the basic V-N diagram for me on the flipchart behind you".
Candidate (shouts): "I don't know what you're expecting for this kind of salary" Whereupon picks up jacket and leaves interview room.


Good answers

Just bear in mind those of you starting out on your careers, that the majority of these questions don't have defined right answers (although there are plenty of wrong ones). What an interviewer is looking for, by and large, is your ability to reason through the question, and justify your answer.


G

Trick question!
 

Who do you vote for to run the country

A: A confessed alcoholic who regularly sleeps until noon
B: A cross dreesing man with a criminal back ground
C: A war veteran with 20 years service for his country and a medal of honour

A is Winston Churchill
B - I forget, I think it's Rosevelt possibly J Edgar Hoover?
C - Adolf Hitler

Think this realtes to your child carer question. I bet one of them is that girl who went to the states and was accused of killing the child?

No one has mentioned the question I always dread........ "And so Captain why do you want to work for XYZ?"

Question within a question
 

Perhaps what they are really asking here is - what do you know about our company?

Have you researched enough to give us an answer like:
I am impressed with the way xyz deals with it's passengers or the environmental impacts of it's operation?

I'd say, I like a company that calls me "Captain" As a fresh new FO with no hours - it shows they're serious about my future as a long term asset to their company! (As am I!)

Has anyone on this thread answered the question about the captain who goes through the DA without visual. I know you talk in the bar afterwards but how do you handle the immediate situation? Forcing a GoAround is a sticky wicket to bat on but not doing it puts you in an unsafe situation - What's the best thing to say?

Can anyone add to this list? I think these sort of questions would be very useful to me in my perparation.

Cheers