Job interview question that made no sense

[UltraMega]

I went to an interview with a computer repair company. I almost for sure wouldn't take the job because the pay is low but I was still curious so I went. They had me fill out a test and one of the questions/tasks was "set the time to list the operating system at 17 seconds". 

 

I'm sure this is something I could do but I don't get what that question was asking. Any ideas? 

[ENTERPRISE]

Its talking about the boot manager I think. Say for instance you have two operating systems on your PC, everytime you boot you get an OS selection screen. This screen you can dictate how long it stays up before it makes an automatic selection. 

 

Either way, the question is ambiguous. Should be written differently. 

[UltraMega]

21 minutes ago, ENTERPRISE said:

Its talking about the boot manager I think. Say for instance you have two operating systems on your PC, everytime you boot you get an OS selection screen. This screen you can dictate how long it stays up before it makes an automatic selection. 

 

Either way, the question is ambiguous. Should be written differently. 

Yea, after thinking about it for a while later on, that was my best guess as well but didn't occur to me at the time. If it had just said "change the timeout setting for the 'select OS' menu" or something like that, that would have been much easier to understand. I definitely know how to do that... 

No loss though, it was a dumb job and I have a bunch more interviews scheduled. Kinda the first time in a long time I've looked for a job, been self-employed for a long time but covid messed that up. It's dope this time around because my resume is a lot better than it was the last time I was looking for a job so I'm getting a lot of offers and have the ability to be picky. I have an interview coming up for a way better job that really wants me so yea, things are looking good on that front. 

Edited April 15, 2022 by UltraMega

[ENTERPRISE]

Good luck with the job hunting bud

[bonami2]

It always the same thing. They think they are smarter and end up making dumb question.

 

I hate interview any career path got dumb interview

[Sir Beregond]

I had this one interview probably a decade ago when I was still in desktop support. The question wasn't even technical in nature. The manager asked something dumb about if certain trees only grew on the north side of the mountain because "reasons"? I don't recall the exact question unfortunately, but it was something like that.

 

I just looked at him and said, is this the question where you want my answer to be "I don't know, I'll have to look it up?" because if not, then that is a weird question.

 

Yeah I didn't get the job, but that was indeed the reason he asked it. I still think it was dumb. Better to ask me actual technically related questions and if you hit me with something I don't know, I'll tell you.

[UltraMega]

59 minutes ago, Sir Beregond said:

I had this one interview probably a decade ago when I was still in desktop support. The question wasn't even technical in nature. The manager asked something dumb about if certain trees only grew on the north side of the mountain because "reasons"? I don't recall the exact question unfortunately, but it was something like that.

 

I just looked at him and said, is this the question where you want my answer to be "I don't know, I'll have to look it up?" because if not, then that is a weird question.

 

Yeah I didn't get the job, but that was indeed the reason he asked it. I still think it was dumb. Better to ask me actual technically related questions and if you hit me with something I don't know, I'll tell you.

Yea, it felt like a lot of the questions were designed that way. It was a written test so there was no communication with another person about any of it in this case. I don't think a single question actually had anything to do with computer repair. 

[Sir Beregond]

18 minutes ago, UltraMega said:

Yea, it felt like a lot of the questions were designed that way. It was a written test so there was no communication with another person about any of it in this case. I don't think a single question actually had anything to do with computer repair. 

Oh interesting. Don't think I've ever had one of those, but I am also not really in technical roles anymore.