On: The Dumbest Interview Question

[Dove]

You could always reply, "What's the worst thing about working here?"

[btilly → Dove]

My version of that question is, "Why did the last 3 people to leave here do so?" The way people talk about those who have departed can give some surprisingly honest information about actual problems in the workplace.

[dpritchett → Dove]

That's a fair question but it could be hard to pull off the follow-up question without it coming off as a gotcha. Tread lightly.

[ellyagg → dpritchett]

It is a gotcha. How on earth could you deliver that as a reply to the original question and not have it be a gotcha?

[foulmouthboy → Dove]

That's a perfectly good question for an interviewee to ask. The interviewee needs to figure out if they're going to like working here or not and if the inherent annoyances about this particular job are going to turn the person into an asshole, then I'd like to know about it sooner rather than later.