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Craziest prep for an interview?

Way back when I interviewed devs, I prepped a bank of Simpsons and Star Trek trivia questions if the candidate answered one of the softball questions ("What are your hobbies?", etc ) that related to either subject. On rare occasion a candidate claimed to be a big trekkie so I asked..

<Deep Space Nine was in it's 5th season>
Me: "What was the name of Captain Sisko's ship?"
C: "Sisko? Was he from the original series?"
Me: "No, Deep Space Nine"
<awkward silence>
C: "Is that the new series?"
Me: "Not really, but lets do an original series question. What does the middle initial 'T' stand for in James T Kirk?"
<awkward silence>
C: "I have no idea. I don't think it stands for anything."

He didn't make the cut.

My boss at the time said I should not document any of those questions/answers just in case we are sued for discrimination.

Comments
  • 5
    From the top of my head, my guesses would have been "Defiant" and "Tiberius".
  • 2
    I ask people to fill in the blank on old school hip hop.

    Example "complete the following sentence":
    "Whoop whoop, ___________"
    "It's tricky to ___________, to ___________ that's right on time
  • 3
    Why would any of those questions have any bearing on the job? What kind of job was this?
  • 2
    @Fast-Nop

    >Would have been "Defiant"

    U.S.S. Saratoga (Season 1, Episode 1)
  • 3
    @Fast-Nop
    Both are correct. The defiant was one of the few named ships in the entire series.
  • 1
    Wasn't sisko captain of deep space 9? or is that considered a station?
  • 3
    @PaperTrail But "Defiant" is also correct. That's the ship stationed at DS9, and its commanding officer is most often Sisko.
  • 1
    @PaperTrail
    I wouldn't say that was his ship. Sisko was a lieutenant commander and first officer on the Saratoga, his wife died aboard that ship.
  • 1
    I dont remember any of this shit.
  • 1
    @Demolishun
    Yes, he was the captain of ds9. It was actually a bit of a snub since a commander would usually helm a Starfleet space station.
  • 4
    @Demolishun

    >Why would any of those questions have any bearing on the job?

    No bearing at all. They were softball questions. If he was honest, I wouldn't have cared if pulling hair-balls out of drains is his weekend hobby. A so-called 'trekkie' not knowing about Deep Space Nine or the middle inital 'T'?

    He wasn't not-hired only on my input, my boss and others felt he was answering questions just to seem like he was culturally fit. Like interviewing for Bass Pro and saying things like 'I fish a lot, caught a 100 pound tuna out of the lake last week.' Nope...not gonna make the cut saying things like that.

    >What kind of job was this?

    Software Developer
  • 2
    Ooooh, I knew Tiberius!! Wiiii!!

    @Demolishun Well to me it would matter because if you claim to be an expert of sorts on the star trek saga and don't know shit about it.. it's probably you lied (or over estimated) your other skills too.
  • 1
    @PaperTrail "It's a trap!" or "I have a bad feeling about this." or "Tachyon something something nanites."
  • 0
    Damn it people, now I dug this up from my memory:

    https://youtube.com/watch/...
  • 1
    @SortOfTested

    > first officer on the Saratoga

    A trekkie that used to work here (went to the conventions, even had a uniform), got me on that one because of a technicality. Sisko became captain when the captain was killed, even if was only a few minutes before the ship was destroyed (and he was in the escape pod).
  • 2
    @PaperTrail
    Battlefield promotions don't count 😋 it was never his ship.
  • 2
    @SortOfTested That wasn't even a battlefield promotion. If the captain falls, the first officer takes the lead, but doesn't rise in rank. Instead, the functional role falls down on his rank.
  • 4
    @Fast-Nop

    >That wasn't even a battlefield promotion

    With the power of wikipedia, Sisko didn't become a captain until season 3. *shrug*

    Now I need a time machine so I can fact check 'Mark'.

    <set the machine for over 20 years ago>

    Me: "Ha! In your face! Sisko never the official captain of the Saratoga!"

    Mark: "Dude? Its a TV show, get a life."
  • 1
    @PaperTrail
    Hey, don't start the lore fight if you're not willing to get drunk and hash it out over the course of days 😋
  • 1
    @PaperTrail To be fair, Star Trek itself sometimes messed up the disctinction between the rank of captain and being the commanding officer.

    That's probably because it's already somewhat messy in the Navy today. The commanding officer aboard a ship is called "captain" regardless of rank. Just "captain", without name. On the other hand, rank captains who do not command the ship are addressed as "captain Surname".

    However, since a Navy captain is equivalant to an Army colonel (much above the Army captain), i.e. the highest rank below the generals, you don't have many too Navy captains running around on ships just for the lulz.
  • 1
  • 2
    @PaperTrail @Fast-Nop @SortOfTested I suppose it depends on how you look at it? Defiant was the ship that Sisko commanded, but Saratoga was the ship he was associated with backstory wise. So both qualify since the question said "Sisko's ship", not "the ship that Sisko captained".

    I mean if anybody asked me what Data's ship was, for example, I'd say Enterprise D/E even though Data never captained it (Riker would be a different story because he goes on to captain the Titan later on in books, but whatever).
  • 2
    @Fast-Nop @RememberMe
    Whose ship is this ship? Is this your ship? Or did it become your ship?
  • 2
    @RememberMe
    That story line got retcon'd. Data now canonically dies ignominiously to create a plotline for Picard.
  • 2
    @SortOfTested Doesn't matter whose ship it is - as long as it isn't Wesley's. ^^
  • 1
    @SortOfTested whose boat is this boat? I had no idea that book existed lol. Never really paid Colbert much attention apart from his D&D session with Matt Mercer (and even then, I watched it because Mercer).

    Data was killed off in Nemesis, right, was something changed? I haven't watched Picard yet.

    @Fast-Nop word
  • 0
    @SortOfTested How was data's death shameful? He died saving people.
  • 2
    @Demolishun

    After his death his existence was declared a crime and forbidden from happening again. Kind of the definition of ignominy.
  • 2
  • 0
    @SortOfTested That's because regressive SJWs have taken over Star Trek. And Star Wars also. And Terminator. Actually, all of Hollywood. Which is why I don't go to their movies anymore.
  • 3
    @Fast-Nop
    Star wars, I agree with

    Youre off base here though, Roddenberry was the original SJW. CBS changed shit to make money. They couldn't do that paying high salaries.
  • 0
    Can I try the Simpsons questions?
  • 0
    @ArtOfBBQ

    >Can I try the Simpsons questions?

    What design/pattern is on the Simpsons's kitchen window curtains?
  • 2
    @PaperTrail And if you don't get it right "HAH HA!"
  • 1
    @PaperTrail Damn it I'll see myself out. Thank you for the interview
  • 3
    @ArtOfBBQ
    Carrot looking corn cobs. Definitely not bbq.
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