The 11 Weirdest Things To Ever Happen On A Job Interview

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We recently published a story about the craziest things people have had to do on the job, thanks to a hilarious thread we found on Reddit. 

Then we came across another funny one: what's the weirdest thing that has ever happened to you during a job interview? 

Be thankful if the worst hand you've been dealt is a few moments of awkward silence between you and your interviewer. 

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An Exclusive Interview With Rugby Legend Anthony "Axel" Foley

Anthony Foley (nicknamed "Axel" after the "Beverly Hills Cop" movies) is a legendary Irish rugby player who, in addition to playing in 62 international test matches for Ireland, is also one of the all-time leading scorers for Munster Rugby, an Irish province team in the European division.

In 2006 Foley captained Munster to a heroic Heineken Cup win, the Super Bowl for European rugby. I caught up with Anthony two days before he reclines on his couch to watch his former teammates from Ireland take on the USA in the Rugby World Cup down in New Zealand. 

TL: At the last Rugby World Cup in 2007, Ireland had loads of momentum going into the tournament, but ended up with a disappointing performance. Now, in 2011 Ireland enters the World Cup without that momentum, losing their previous 4 games, so how will they fair down in the mecca of international rugby?  

AF: Ah, they'll do well! Ireland has had a good run, they have had enough warm up matches, and physically their in good nick, just great shape. Now is when it really matters, now it's all about winning! I just hope their confidence is not dented by those recent losses. It's a great team, and all of Ireland knows we have good players. It's the best team set we've sent to the Rugby World Cup.  Deccy (Ireland's head coach Declan Kidney) picked sides that could win! 

TL: Where those warm up matches against Scotland, England, and France, all teams playing in the World Cup as well, similar to, say, pre-season or spring training games in American football, or baseball? 

AF: Yes, right. Look, you want to win those games against Scotland, England, and France, especially the ones at home. It's disappointing to lose, but it is all about preparation now. Preparation, and the team getting used to making decisions under game pressure. They're ready! 

TL: Ireland starts their World Cup on September 11th against the USA. Ireland is favored to beat the Americans by at least 30 points. But will playing on the 11th bring in an additional element to the game? 

AF: September 11th is a very emotional and poignant day, and the game will reflect that a bit. Recently, I heard that the most loss of life on that day was of Irish heritage, so the sympathy with America really hit home in Ireland. We know what it means for the Americans. But, in rugby, you can't play on emotion for 80 minutes. Emotion will only get you so far. I'd imagine the USA will wear a black arm band, or so, maybe the Irish too. 

TL: So how do you think the game will go down? 

AF: I expect the American's will come out very strong, going to give it good the first 30-40 minutes, but Ireland needs to get off to a good start as well and not have their confidence dented. This is a must win to start the World Cup, and worry about Australia later. They must win! 

TL: The USA's coach is Eddie O'Sullivan, the former coach of the Irish team and a man you played under who was forced out of the job 1 year into a 4 year contract. How is he preparing the Americans? 

AF: Eddie has something to prove after the poor performance in the 2007 World Cup, and based on how he left the Irish team. He is a great coach, and will motivate the Americans well. And September 11th will be a motivating factor, but as I said, in rugby, you can only play on that emotion for so long. 

TL: In Pool C it is Australia, Ireland, Italy, Russia and the USA. What are your predictions? 

AF: Australia and Ireland will go to the quarter finals. I think USA can beat Russia. It would be a big victory for America to win a game in the World Cup, and they can do it against Russia. 

TL: Lastly, America loves fast, tough, violent sports, but rugby is not even on the radar. What's it like playing the American Eagles, and will the US ever become competitive on an international scale? 

AF: The Americans are massively physical! Their let down is on the technical side. Only a handful of US players play for European teams where you must make decisions under pressure.  However, the USA will become more of a force sooner rather than later. Based on rugby 7's coming to the Olympics, and if the USA invests in the universities to promote rugby it won't take them too long to become competitive. The Americans are physically dominant and the stock of available US athletes is frightening. 

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Can You Answer This Impossible Interview Question Posed To An Interviewee At UBS? (UBS)

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An interviewee at UBS for a math-heavy quant job was asked one of the toughest Wall Street interview questions we've seen yet.

Can you write your own math formula given a set of conditions on the spot?

If you want to be a quant at UBS, you'll have to.

To test your skills, try to answer this question posed to an interviewee a couple of years ago:

The number 1978 is such a number that if you add the first 2 sets of numbers, you'll will get the middle 2 sets of numbers. So in 1978, 19+78=97; so the question is write a formula that can find numbers that satisfy these conditions.

Have fun! We'll post the answer next week.

In the meantime, try these easier Wall Street interview questions >

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Interview: An Update On Small Business Hiring In America

President Obama has received a lot of flak for failing to create jobs. He is expected to pitch a national job training program during his big jobs speech tomorrow. 

Meanwhile, small businesses credited with creating 58,000 of the 91,000 new private sector jobs in August are struggling to get government funding. 

Year-to-date hiring by small businesses is down 2.6%, while paycheck's have declined 0.3%, according to SurePayRoll's 2011 small business scorecard. The survey which collects data from 32,000 customers and looks at the smallest businesses across 35 cities, found that cities like St. Louis bucked the trend. We spoke with Michael Alter CEO of SurePayRoll about his findings and what he expects for small businesses in the coming year.

BI: Based on the scorecard, what are individual cities doing right or wrong?

A lot of these are very local. Our data includes small businesses and contractors. In cities where you see growth, contractors are higher and are doing more to create jobs. In St. Louis we've seem month-over-month and year-over-year growth which is a good sign but small businesses aren't sure whether they should be hiring full time employees because they are getting new orders, so you see them take on contractors but the paychecks may go down. 

There are 5 stages really first small businesses reduce work hours, then they layoff workers and both indices go negative. Then they come back and increase work hours and overtime, then they start to bring in contractors and finally start hiring permanent employees again. 

The challenge is we've been hovering from the bad stage to stage 3 and aren't moving up from there. 

BI: Do you think the burden to help small businesses should fall on the federal or state/local governments? 

The burden should really be on all of them. Small business owners are not discerning on where they get the funding, they just want access to it. We survey small business owners on economic prospects. Now, only 1 in 2 is optimistic i.e. 1 in 2 in pessimistic, and 2 in 2 has given up belief in any government help. One of the small business owners we have said "I choose to be optimistic about the future, not clueless". There is a lot uncertainty about what the government might or might not do. 

BI: Small businesses are adding more jobs than big firms but even they have been cutting down on jobs. Do you see a similar trend in the future?

I expect to see reduction in hiring. The ADP report overstates larger companies and understates smaller companies. Until optimism picks up I see this trend continuing. If a business owner is optimistic he may add a second delivery truck, if he is pessimistic he won't because he doesn't want people hunkering him down. 

BI: What do you expect from President Obama's job speech on Thursday?

Government programs that provide short-term and long-term funding and reduce paperwork and allow more Small Business Administration (SBA), quicker. Maybe a reduction in corporate tax rate. I would like to see an infrastructure bank set-up for small businesses. Coming out of past recessions, small businesses have got us out of it. Earlier SB owners could max-out their credit cards, 401K, borrow from friends and family. Now banks are cutting down on credit, gyrations in the stock market affecting 401K there isn't much to borrow and getting a second mortgage on a home is pretty tough. These ways of bootstrapping aren't there anymore and the government needs to step in.

BI: Additional thoughts?

If you look forward we continue to bounce at the bottom. The challenge is that small business productivity has been growing at a rate greater than their revenues. Thus, others are more stable because a number of existing businesses are able to increase their revenues without adding additional employees (revenue growth at lower cost). But that doesn't put us back to work.

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