Did I Say That?

For interviews, you are advised to have memorized answers for some questions like how do you see yourself in the next five years or why did you leave your last job.  But I have been caught unprepared for some simple ones.

One such question was asked by the Vice President of Academic Affairs of a small college who ended the interview by asking me what book have I read lately.  What I usually do when I was not prepared what to give for an answer was to go through what transpired in the past week or so in my head. For this question that was what I did and my answer was "I read a cookbook".  I was into cooking and that was the last one I read.  I research recipes of what I like to cook and I go through cookbooks for the best way to prepare them.  I remember her saying, cookbook with a surprise with a bit of a sarcastic tone.  She did not like my answer and I do not think I liked the question then either.

In another interview, I was asked "what are your hobbies?".  Again I went through my past week or two and I answered, "I attend the activities of my children like their soccer and basketball games and programs my husband sings in".  The interviewer was not impressed with my answer and rephrased the question into "what do you do for fun".  For me, my priority in life then and even now is my family and being there at their games or programs meant a lot to me and that filled my time and made me happy. Isn't that what hobbies are for?  To heck with sophisticated answers like I love playing the piano which one of the principal investigators in a research place I used to work at said is a good answer. It will make you look like a people oriented person since such instrument bring people around you.

I have given answers which in retrospect make me appear like I have not much grey matter in my brain or an airhead. Or could it be I reached a point of exhaustion from answering questions from a panel of 6 interviewers.  One such occasion was an interview held in the Philippines for the prestigious Fulbright Scholarship that will afford me a chance to come to the United States to study.  One member of the panel of interviewers asked me what I  would say if somebody asked me to describe the Philippines to somebody who has not been there.  I said it was a beautiful place with plenty of coconut trees and beaches with a beautiful sunset or something close to this.  Oh my.  Thinking back after the interview, that was I get for watching too many beauty pageants.

By the way I did not get any job offers from those interviews but I  have had also job offers from other successful ones but I do not remember what the questions were asked and any answers that are worth remembering or cringing about now.