Woman dumbfounded after being asked to make paper planes in job interview

06 February 2023 , 11:24

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The employer set the interviewees an unusual task (stock photo) (Image: Getty Images)

Job interviews can be baffling. With no shortage of weird and wonderful questions out there, there's plenty of ways employers can try to test out your brain, and it's not uncommon for interviewees to leave a meeting wondering what the questioner was thinking.

From quizzes about Doctor Who to fashion queries, it's hard to believe everything that's been asked before. Of course, there's also that dreaded question: can you tell us about your weaknesses? There's more on how to answer that head-scratcher here.

But one woman has shared what might just be the wackiest interview task yet after replying to a Mumsnet forum about that very topic.

The job seeker did not think the task was relevant to the position (stock photo) (Getty Images)

When quizzed about unusual job interviews, she replied: "Not necessarily strange, but I went to a group interview once for a retailer and we had to work out in small groups how to fly 2 digestive biscuits on a paper airplane." To make matters worse, she couldn't understand the benefit of the bizarre task.

"This was for a cashier position," she explained. "Unsure how it was relevant, really. It didn't showcase our individual skills or strengths, it was just dominated by one bloke in our group who liked the sound of his own voice."

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Unfortunately, the woman did not secure the role, though she now has a story for the ages.

Replying to her post, commenters compared notes on how the job hunter could have responded, seemingly gobsmacked by the request.

"I would wrap the biscuits in the paper and lob it across the room! Or bash the biscuits into crumbs and roll them up in the middle," one person wrote, before they joked: "Or just cut my losses and eat the biscuits."

A second responder said: "I would have walked out of that one."

Elsewhere, a commenter shared a story about a time when they couldn't walk out of an interview. "I got locked out my house about an hour before an interview so had to borrow my friends too small trousers. As I sat down in the silent room they very loudly unzipped. Everyone looked down at me now flying low. I was too embarrassed to zip up so just carried on," they wrote.

Luckily the story had a happy ending. "I got the job and they all took the p*** in the pub!" the post concluded.

Amber O'Connor