Ever Been Asked to Tell a Joke in an Interview Before?

bugzy3188

So I am doing a third round over the phone interview today and the interviewer told me "At some point during this interview, I want you to interrupt me and tell me a joke" he said "I don't care what kind of joke, dirty, clean, just any joke". Of course at the moment ALL I could think about were inappropriate jokes, because, well if you knew my friends, Im sure some of you understand. But I felt like this would be an awkward position, I dont know him, whats considered "dirty" and outright offensive? It took me a while but I came up with one and told it, I will give you the shortened version:

So Beethoven had recently passed away, one day someone noticed music coming from his grave site. The person goes over to investigate and sure enough it was the source. He got the caretaker and brought him over, the caretaker had a listen and said "Oh thats his 9th symphony, except its playing in revers, there goes his 8th symphony, thats in reverse as well then the 7th, 6th, 5th..." by this point a crowd had gathered. Finally after listening for a while the caretaker shot up and shouted "No need to worry folks! he is just decomposing!" badump tshhh

Anyone else ever been asked to tell a joke in an interview? I got a chuckle, wondering if it is some sort of self confidence test or if I am just overanalyzing it like I usually do.

N2IT

No..... That has never happened to me.

philz1982

Sounds like a cool company.

anhtran35

YES. Basically it's to gauge if you are a social-able guy.

kly630

Yes. I've had that experience in the past. It was for a sales position. I instantly thought of about 3 racist, sexist, or generally offensive jokes and opted not to tell them. Turns out that was the right answer. The interviewer was looking to see if I would tell something offensive, cause in his words a lot of people will, which would be problematic in a sales role where you don't really know people.

bugzy3188

Well I managed to make it past this round, now its a 3 hour in person interview for round 4, this is by far the longest interview process that I have been through. I kind of figured there was a test in place when he said the joke can be dirty, I just couldnt imagine that ending well at all, thank god I just read a meme not a day before with the joke that I told or I would have drawn a blank. And yes this does seem like a very cool company to work for, I am very excited about this one

kly630

@bugzy3188, that's pretty interesting that your interviewer prefaced the request with "it can be dirty." I think it's still a pretty big risk to tell an offensive joke at an interview, even if someone asks for it.

In my interview experience the request was prefaced with nothing of the sort. They asked "tell me a joke, any joke you know." I didn't have a clean one so I politely declined and mentioned I just didn't have one. That's when the interviewer basically told me " You probably thought of an inappropriate joke, didn't you? About 70% of people will tell me an offensive one. I just wanted to see who would risk offending someone they didn't know. In a sales role you can't really be sure how people will react to that kind of stuff so it's better to stay away from it."

Edit:
So yeah, short version tell a joke as long as it's clean.

coreyb80

I remember in my interview for my present employer he asked me if he came to my house for dinner what would I ask the wife to cook. Had a good laugh before that question, but it's definitely a test to see if you're sociable.

kohr-ah

I've never had to tell a joke but I been asked odd questions and I have asked odd questions when interviewing people as well. Mostly I do it to see if they will fit with my team members well.

Nothing offensive usually something like:
"If you had to be a sidekick to superman or batman. Which one would you choose?"
"The data center is guarded by a gang of 5 year olds and we need to get to it. How many can you take in a fight?"
"Would you be a jedi knight or a sith lord?"

Rumblr33

"Would you be a jedi knight or a sith lord?"

Would you judge the person on the way they answered this question? The reason I ask is because this is a good vs evil connotation and choosing to be a Sith Lord could be misconstrued as being dark and dangerous. Just my thoughts.

kohr-ah

Nope there is never any wrong answer. Most the time itis to break the ice to get them to ease up a bit and not be so tense.

Also we can use dark dangerous people where I work.