Since I decided to go job hunting a little while ago I've been ona few interviews and noticed a disturbing trend. Well, two actually. They are both insane questions I've been asked by potential employers. One is just a bad timewaster and the other is downright stupid. Here they go:

WHAT KIND OF SALARY ARE YOU LOOKING FOR?
Look, assuming that question isn't asked by some guy posting on Craigs list looking for a website and announcing you are willing to spend up to $100 for it, it's a totally worthless question. With a minute or two of Google research you can find out what the going rate for any job at any kind of company is, that is if you don't already know. The question isn't how much do I want to make, the question is will I accept what you are offering. You're offer isn't going to double because of my answer is it? Didn't think so. The only purpose of asking this question is to see if you can save some cash. When I got hired at Playboy they asked me that and I said "Well... I'm making $24,000 a year now..." (That's right, as Creative Driector of a whole massive record label I was making $24,000. kick ass) and when they came back with their initial offer of $32,000 I was blown away and accepted. I was on top of the world, for about a week until I realized that everyone else with my title and in my position was making over $40,000. Then I felt like a chump. And guess who suddenly wasn't interested in putting in the 110% I had the previous week.

We're all adults here. Can we just skip the game playing. Tell me what you budget is, what you'd pay other people for that and we'll move on from there. I don't mind jumping through hoops when I know there's a reason for it. There's no reason for this one. The last two times I've been asked this question I've said "I don't know, haven't thought about it" but I think this little rant is my new answer.

WHAT WOULD YOU SAY IS YOUR WEEK POINT
What? My weak point? My weak point is I lose all respect for someone when they can't think of an original question to ask and pull this tired old and utterly useless one out of the trash heap. What do they expect me to say here? Uh, My weak point is I call in sick to work when I'm not, I waste a lot of time during the day, I steal stuff from my employeers? Please. This is one of those stupid psych-out questions where there's no right answer, it's just asked to see how the person reacts to it and it's a hunk of shit. If you answer this question with a something that is too bad you don't get the job, answer it with something that is not bad enough and you are lying. They just want to see you squirm.

How about this, have an ounce of creativity and think of something on your own, rather than asking me something that your dad was probably asked when he was trying to get a car salesman job back in 1960. I'm weak point is I can't just sit around and smile while I'm being force fed this crap anymore. Another useless twist on this is asking about your strong point, although rarely used without the weak point question as a starter. You have my resume, look at my job history, call my reseferences, do 5 minutes of work yourself if you really want to know this junk.

OK, that's my rant for the morning. This is one of those things that you don't notice as it's going on, only later when you think back do you see how stupid it was. The funny thing is I haven't heard back from a few of these jobs yet, and since my resume is hosted on this site there's a good chance those people might read this. Maybe those people won't want to hire me after reading this, but you know what, maybe I don't want to work with someone who's clearly going to be so predictable and unimaginative.