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Ask HN: Do you have a go-to joke for job interviews?

4 points by bkfh ↗ HN
My partner was in an job interview the other day and the interviewer asked what her favorite joke was.

She somehow managed to cite a meme she saw earlier that day which was kind of funny. Later she asked the interviewer what joke others' would tell?

He said that no one really knows good jokes anymore. However, he was generally more interested in seeing the interviewees' reaction to his question.

Do you have a go-to joke for job interviews?

6 comments

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mindcrime
"Did you hear the one about the interviewer that failed the interview on behalf of their company by asking the candidate about their favorite joke - something which has no business being asked in a professional setting like that?"
bkfh
I will def remember that one for future interviews
mindcrime
All joking aside (hah, hah) if they insisted on hearing a joke, I'd probably tell this one just to keep things moving along:

An electrical engineer, a mechanical engineer, and a Microsoft software engineer were in a car driving to a conference together. Going down a hill, the brakes went out and the car crashed into a tree at the bottom. Luckily no one was hurt, so they get out and start trying to figure out what happened. The mechanical engineer says "I think a brake line was over-pressured and burst, letting all the brake fluid out and that's what caused the brakes to fail." The electrical engineer thinks for a minute and says "No, it was probably a short-circuit in the anti-lock braking system." The Microsoft guy doesn't say anything for a minute, so one of them asks him what he thinks. He says "I don't know, but let's push the car back to the top of the hill and try again."

itronitron
Setup: How many feminists does it take to change a light bulb? ... Punchline: That's not funny.
sigmaprimus
Nope, but what I want to know is did she get the job?

I can think of a bunch that I would avoid, but I suppose the best would be a "Dad Joke" that somehow fits into the companies marketplace.

Eg. For a coding Job I might use

Q. How did the programmer die in the shower? A. He read the shampoo bottle instructions: Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

jjgreen
Horse goes into a pub, landlord says "why the long face?"