# Interview with a transformer

In which I give GPT-2 some standard interview questions

* * *

### Interview with a transformer

#### In which I give GPT-2 some standard interview questions

 **Tell me a little about yourself  
** Well, I’m from Scotland and I grew up in Edinburgh with my parents. It’s a
great city to work in, but that doesn’t do it for me. If you could make the
city the best in the country it would be a fantastic city — but it’s not. We
spend more time with the people here, the people who are here in Scotland, so
in some ways we’re like them.

I come from the south of England and I’ve always hated coming into Glasgow. I
come from an area where the city is pretty big and it’s a great city on the
south coast. At home we only have two or three shops and I was born and raised
in one of those tiny shops. So all I have really ever done is travel and
experience things and it comes out very well in the movies, in TV, for
example.

It’s one of the best places to work, the most incredible city, but, you know,
I’m just going to say it, I never really wanted the job at all.

 **What are your biggest weaknesses?  
** If I’m not being honest, we have a weakness with a lot of things. I would
say that our health and our fitness were a little bit down last year — it
comes with the territory.

It comes with the territory of being a team, and we really didn’t have that a
lot of times. That was also really a team thing. Even though we had good
moments and good performances, I think I had a little bit of a slow start.

I think it started with that summer. After the offseason, which was a big one,
I think the team became healthier a little bit. I think we really needed a
better summer, or maybe even a shorter one, so it felt like we were trying to
get better.

I think that, this summer, I feel like I’m making more progress and being more
consistent and being in better shape, and I think it’s been the case a little
bit. It’s only just now in July that I feel like I’m in a better place.

You had great chemistry together.

 **What are your biggest strengths?** How would you describe yourself to a
potential employer?

SV: I’ve been fortunate to work in many industries including fashion design,
video gaming, and social media. I’ve worked at many different companies where
I have found a good fit with the team where I reside. I’ve worked in every
aspect of the industry, whether it be fashion, graphic design, or marketing, I
enjoy working with the people who contribute to the brand and helping
customers understand its vision. In that time my favorite thing to do has
always been meeting the customers and making them proud.

What’s your weakness? What do you struggle with most?

SB: I’m definitely an optimist, I like to believe that things can always work
out and that no matter how hard you work you can always learn things from your
situation.

If you were a godlike being, what would you be like to work for and why?

SB: Most of us think we could become something great, but how good is it and
do we actually want it?

 **Where do you see yourself in five years?**

I have no idea. I don’t like to look. I have no idea what will happen in five
years. But I’m certainly going to keep doing new music for our new album
because I really feel that we’re in a place in the world and people are
changing all the time.

How much pressure do you put on yourself at all times?

It’s the music that’s being made up in the moment. Sometimes I worry about
things. Sometimes I go out and have fun with people. I don’t want to be too
concerned about things. I try to be a little more concerned with what’s
happening with music and the world I live in and what I’m doing and what that
means to me. I don’t want to be too concerned because I feel like sometimes
it’s important to see what’s happening on the outside. I feel like now we’re
all in a position where we’re all more concerned with the outside world and
we’re all looking at the same things and thinking about the same things.

 **Out of all the other candidates, why should we hire you?**

As chief exec of a major tech provider, the person working on a product for a
billion users is one who has a deep understanding of what is going on in the
world of tech… and is very, very smart. We do think there will be a lot of
interest in my skillset and experience, as well as those of a senior partner
and manager of the Microsoft Office team — but that we need an established
team of experience to help lead what we’re doing.

You’ve taken the time to learn both the software and business strategies that
Microsoft is implementing with Office 365, and you have made the transition to
Office 365 so seamless you don’t notice. As someone who has spent over 18
months on the road convincing your boss and your peers (including a couple of
the people at the top, like VP Products) that this was a good idea to launch
Office 365 alongside all of your other programs, and you’ve spent the summer
running office space and hiring an amazing team of Office 365 experts, have
you made the transition to Office 365 that smooth for you?

 **How did you learn about the opening?**

I had a lot of questions.

How do you view the relationship between the two of these guys?

I’m a huge fan of the work they’ve done for years now. I’m happy that they are
in the position and the company they are. That makes it the perfect place for
them.

It’s been a wild ride, hasn’t it?

I never thought I would be here, and it’s a different place than I knew. I was
happy at Universal, but this is just another ride. I can’t wait for it to
stop.

 **Why do you want this job?** I’m your manager.” I think his idea was to make
up to me a little piece so that I would hire him, that maybe he’d have a
better shot at getting hired. He said: “Okay, I’ll give you the job.” But
that’s not how it went. I’ve always, from the very very beginning, been an
honest, straight-forward journalist, doing my job and giving it to what I
thought was the right person.

Did you know about the affair until long after you had the job? Yes, we had a
long conversation about it, and I was very upset and embarrassed to find out I
had taken it on with someone else. It was just a matter of me trying to figure
out what was wrong. Of course, it’s quite hard for a man to know that a woman
wants to be with him but he also hasn’t found anyone suitable. It turns out
that that is really difficult for a lot of men to see.

Did you talk to Robert about the affair? Yes, I talked to him.

 **What do you consider your biggest professional achievement?**

I’ve always been very passionate about giving back to the community that made
me in this industry, and it’s something I’ve tried to incorporate into my day.
My first real job out of college was for a non-profit group that helped
connect people with resources for mental health, and that gave me a tremendous
amount of confidence in myself and the talent I have for helping people. I
ended up working at a really wonderful facility in Los Angeles, and I got to
create a beautiful office for a group of people that was working to get their
voices heard and bring awareness to the issue, with the support of a great
team and an amazing team of staff that have been with me throughout this
journey. They got me out of school in my last semester and into something I
really cared about, which is helping my fellow humanity and I’m still going to
be there for as long as possible. I just hope to continue making a substantial
impact on people’s lives and I want to continue to be a resource to the people
that I can’t get to every day.

 **Tell me about the last time a co-worker or customer got angry with you.
What happened?**

A: When I was a teacher, the school fired me. I wasn’t fired. I was fired for
being too friendly to the students. I never touched their desks. I let the
students talk to me. No one ever came to my defense. I was never interviewed.

Q: Do you feel your behavior toward customers is consistent with your
profession?

A: I’ve always had a way of doing things. As an educator, that’s how I’ve been
trained. It doesn’t matter if I’ve had a few drinks. I’ve made the same
mistakes in the past. It’s not what anyone would expect from you as a lawyer.
I know people who have been fired from this profession because of misconduct.
I’ve learned not to repeat that mistake.

Q: How does the bar industry view you and how might they view you?

A: I have no respect for any institution of higher learning. I am an
independent contractor. They have nothing to do with my legal practice unless
I do a great job.

 **Describe your dream job.**

Make sure you are getting a good one.

Do not give up until you achieve your dream.

If you get stuck in the dream job, get others to give positive feedback.

If you get stuck at the job itself, try to explain to the hiring manager that
you are not suitable for the job, so that he/she will change to you.

If your dream job doesn’t suit you or you decide to stay in your true dream
job, then go for something that better suits you and your interests.

What do you mean by: “I’m going to be rich?”

This is a good idea to be honest. If your dream job is going to take you away
from all your friends and loved ones, it is time to quit.

You can easily do that by just quitting your dream job.

If you will not quit any time soon, then think again, that you’ve done the
hard work for the past decade.

So stop dreaming, stop working and you’ll never get rich.

 **Why do you want to leave your current job?**

I wish to move onto another role — what I can do to help?

I’m considering leaving my current employer. Can I take on more responsibility
to be more effective to meet my goals?

I need a bit more support and guidance so I can stay on the job. How can I
find that further?

If you have a specific question regarding the benefits and entitlements
offered under the Fair Work Act or the Employment Relations Act , please
contact our team on 03 466 3836 or email us asap@birmingham.gov.uk or click
here to access an online contact form.

For more information, contact the Fair Work Ombudsman on 1300 051 755 or email
freeharassment@fairwork.gov.au.

If you would like more information, contact Employment Services at 1300 021
781 or email essans@engagementservices.org.au.

 **What kind of work environment do you like best?**

“The worst work environment.”

How do you work out when you get the chance? (When you’re home).

“A long walking, stretching session.”

Are there certain jobs that you’ve always held dear?

“Oh yes, we hold a lot. I love being in front of the mirror for my hair.”

What is the coolest thing you do?

“You never know how to take something for granted, until you have it.”

What is a job worth doing?

“I like it that way.”

What would the title of this site be?

“A Job Site”

How does a manager make people feel?

“If you have it, you deserve it.”

What do you make of the ‘pink-pigging’ of jobs?

“It’s just another way of saying ‘You haven’t been hard enough.’”

When/if you change your job will you still want someone else?

 **Tell me about the toughest decision you had to make in the last six
months.**

Michele Bachmann: It was the vote to keep Guantanamo Bay open, and I do
remember it. I had voted to keep the detention center open because it would
help us secure our borders. At the time the Bush Administration was making a
major push for that — they were calling it Operation Gatekeeper — and they
said we couldn’t keep people there for any longer with some of the information
that was being created, and that would be the last place we would want to keep
our people. They would be safe in other places, where the United States did
have a commitment to keeping them. A few days before the vote on this vote,
the General Accounting Office called our office to say that there had been
significant increases in prisoners being transferred to the island, and there
were significant gains in the ability of detainees to move around, and to
change their identities. In other words, this country was allowing people’s
rights to get out of line, as if the American people were a bunch of idiots
who weren’t smart enough to know that when I was born there was an agreement
that

 **What is your leadership style?**

I like to say that I am a team player. I come up in a team and try to make
them work together and play as a team.

What are your biggest strengths?

Strengthful people have strengths, but I have a passion for life. I don’t want
to waste time or effort; I love life.

Can you describe yourself in five words?

I’m kind of…I’m a mix, man, I’m pretty much all over the place.

Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

I’ll probably be a senior on a basketball team. I probably wouldn’t want to be
too involved with the business side of things. But still, whatever I get into
in my life, I’m gonna do it.

Did you always want to be like this?

It sounds a bit cliché, but I’m just one of the good guys out there.

Which actor or comedian would you not want to be yourself?

I don’t want to just be a comedian.

 **Tell me about a time you disagreed with a decision. What did you do?**

Bennett: I don’t recall specifics. I remember it as, “Oh, they didn’t think I
should do this.” I didn’t even have the idea in my head at that point. I
wasn’t thinking.

GROSS: When did you decide to change your body after having the operation?

Bennett: My wife said, “You’ll have to come back and do it again.” And I said,
“Wait, how fast do you know?” And she said, “Fifteen years.” So 15 years
earlier.

GROSS: When did you realize that you made the right decision?

Bennett: I knew I was right.

GROSS: Your husband came to your son’s wedding and said, I want you to be his
right-hand man. What did you think? I wanted you to tell him something so you
won’t be ashamed of your family.

Bennett: He’s a great guy, by the way.

GROSS: So if you knew he wanted to take you

 **Tell me how you think other people would describe you.**

I would say that I am a pretty outgoing, friendly and cheerful person. I am
not overly religious and do not practice religion. I am not a conservative or
conservative-type person.

Would you say you are a good listener?

I am good at listening to others, I like to listen to what they have to say. I
am a good listener though that does not necessarily mean I know everything.

I think that it’s important to listen more than you would like to hear but we
have to remember that I am not perfect yet. Some of the things that we hear on
a daily basis are going to be important information and others are going to be
completely out of mind.

Can you share what you love about your job?

I like the things I do most or some of the things I do less. I love building,
I love designing, so I like to build projects for others. I like that because
I want them to be happy.

Do you have a hobby?

Yeah. I do play cards

 **What can we expect from you in your first three months?**

Our customers have shown me that they are excited about my company, so they
are eager to hear from me about opportunities in the community and what they
can do for us, and I am looking forward to receiving such feedback and ideas
from the other communities.

What are the first steps you would take to increase engagement of your
audience?

I would like to offer other options for people to express themselves, rather
than just have the option of commenting or asking questions. When I think
about new options for my audience to connect, I want them to be able to engage
with the brand, and it should not be hard to understand or communicate with a
customer. I believe that it is only with this type of opportunity that the
brand can grow, which is why I am always looking for other ways to engage with
my audience and engage them.

What do you do to maintain your brand recognition?

I keep the brand as fresh in mind as possible, so that by the time someone is
looking at the brand, I want them to think it is fresh when they see

 **What do you like to do outside of work?**

I’m a gamer and a gamer girl so I do a lot of video games. I love to dance and
I like to dance to music. So that sort of things. Anything to do with
computers and games.

What is your least favorite game?

That’s the hard one to answer because you know, they do keep coming up so many
times. I think I have the least favorite. You’ll find some great titles, like
Minecraft and it’s absolutely one of my favorites that I always put time into.
One of the greatest games to date is that you get to be in the game and I just
love that and it’s really awesome to me. I’m not an expert in the game itself
but it was quite the experience.

But the others… [Laughs] I don’t even like them. I think it’s a little bit too
much. I think some of them are just too hard.

What game would you like to see at PAX Prime?

I think right now it would be Dragon Age II

 **What was your salary in your last job?**

I started off at $7.25 an hour, and then after my first month went from $7.25
to $15 an hour.

What did it take to get the job?

I did it with a lot of hard work, but when I found the job, it was not good
pay.

What was the worst part?

I was put on a paid weekend shift. I think it was a lot of overtime. And I had
to stand at the kitchen counter, which is a very good job, but a miserable
job.

Why?

I was working 10 hours a day and was not allowed to relax. I had to make my
own coffee and eat at the restaurant.

How did you get in trouble with the company?

I have an older sister, and I was working with her at the restaurant. I had to
be there all the time just to keep up to speed with her. That has got to be
stressful.

How old was she when it happened?

She was

 **A snail is at the bottom of a 30-foot well. Each day he climbs up three
feet, but at night he slips back two feet. How many days will it take him to
climb out of the well?**

Each day we observe two snails. We put the snail in a box with his burrows. We
also put a piece of paper on top of the box, and we put an apple to get him to
eat. If he tries to eat the paper we have to put him back in the well. If
that’s too much, we put a small piece of bread in the box, so the snail eats
it. We take him out of the box and put him where he can climb, then we repeat
every day until he gets the hang of climbing up the walls of his burrows and
he starts climbing up the walls of his well.

The other day he climbs up, grabs one of the apple slices, and goes for an
apple-basket. How far will he go out of the well before he falls in?

There are two ways to put the snail in the well, but which is more effective?

 **What questions do you have for me?**

I am going to assume you are a pretty nice human being and a fairly
sophisticated web developer. You would probably not run such a request to me
that way but that is the best way to get my thoughts.

You would probably want to verify that the data I provide is as I think it is
(the answer is no, it is not), verify the integrity of the data I provide (it
is not), and if you think the response is not sufficiently robust, verify some
additional data.

If you already have a valid source you should have no problem with that. Also,
please know that your request is just as valid as mine, you just asked for
something more detailed in the form of a list of attributes to verify.

If you have a few questions (anything that doesn’t fall into the above
categories), I would be happy to answer them as well. Also, please know that
my answers are only as accurate as I am able to provide them. My time is
limited and I cannot respond to comments with replies.

Thanks.

 **What do you expect me to accomplish in the first 90 days?**

You’ve already been doing that.

You’ve already done exactly the same thing. You may have even been an asshole
in the process. We didn’t know each other when we were first in the house.
Some of us were still friends, some we barely knew, some we didn’t care enough
to invite over for coffee as friends. I’d just be sitting there waiting to be
invited. That was how it was before I came over to the house to live. The
people I worked with had a few relationships that they had with each other at
the time, but we had few people like me. I was the new kid and would sit there
and watch. We would make a lot of jokes about how I was different, but we’d
mostly just be laughing as they would run around getting dirty and getting
into everything. I wasn’t in school at the time.

Then came the “happiness-quotient.” Now, it wasn’t the same as being happy. I
felt like the whole house was on fire at any given second.

 **If you were to rank them, what are the three traits your top performers
have in common?**

“The thing I’d rate top 10 or top 20, maybe top five, is that they’re all
smart. You never need to see an injury on film to get a solid read on a player
if he is smart and well-prepared. They’ll be the ones looking after your back
and doing everything. If they are a good defensive player but not the most
gifted in the passing game, they will probably get the first shot when you’re
on the verge of losing a game.”

Do you see the team growing?

“I think it will grow. I think it will be harder. It will be more intense.
There will be more of a physical edge to our play. This was a good year to get
out of the playoffs — maybe even a cup — because the teams were really good.
But the playoffs aren’t as good as you think. We still have a chance to turn
it around. I think that our fans and the people within the game see a team
that is better than some teams in the West.”

 **What really drives results in this job?**

We work, and work we did, with the help of our mentors — a group of people
working on an actual project in the lab. We know the work we do, and we use
the best of what we are doing to bring out what we do best. I think that the
ability to see what can/should have been done better and why, and then to
implement those lessons to the software that you are using today, is one of
the most important things. This knowledge can’t be taught at a university, but
it can be learned — and often through many steps in the process.

If you are not an engineer, your best tool in this process may be your
intuition. Some people have much more knowledge on this area than others —
what is it that you do with your intuition? What do you see in the software
that you do not see. It may be that you are able to see certain problems in
the software in new or different ways that other people cannot. Often this
knowledge comes with years of experience. Sometimes this information can be
gained in a matter

 **What are the company’s highest-priority goals this year, and how would my
role contribute?**

I spend much of my time on the business side focused on the operational side
of the business. It’s no secret that the product is the single most important
aspect of a company, both for the success of an application and its long-term
sustainability. The product makes decisions that impact customers, increase
productivity, reduce costs, and change how things are being delivered. The
team spends a lot of time working on features, improving the product’s user
experience, and improving its processes.

I have a personal belief that we don’t build companies to make a profit, and
that we build them to improve the people and the world around them. Every
company has high-end executives with an appetite to go beyond profit, but they
know best what the right way to make money is. I would want to be one of those
high-end executives.

What would the company’s main challenge in 2012 be?

The first thing is to execute our goal(s) to produce at the levels we’ve
agreed to commit to. We’ve committed to spending at least $20

 **What percentage of employees was brought in by current employees?**

Employee-level data is available for all employees of an organisation, the
data is divided according to the role of a job and each role is assigned a
number, an employer can create a system which can track the numbers for each
employee of the organisation and they are all added together to arrive to the
answer in an overall total. This is not done for small companies, this is done
for larger, professional companies.

How many employees is the organisation?

The answer to this question is important for organisations. Companies are
required to be able to calculate the numbers of members based on the number of
employees, which allows you to determine how large a organisation is. In terms
of numbers of employees, a large company is one with more than 3,000 employees
(a large company is defined as with more than 5,000 employees), a small
company or one with fewer than 50 people is one with less than 2,000
employees.

 **What do you plan to do if** _____ ends up in this place?

If you want to protect someone who can’t help themselves, it has to be by
putting your whole heart into it. In my experience, as hard as it is to speak
that way, the most important thing is that you’re honest about it, or you
won’t get very far. I used to say to some people I was “pissed off.” They
weren’t listening, so I said, “I am really pissed off about _____.” It stuck
with me until people stopped asking me that question. I was talking about my
mother at the time, and she was crying the whole time. She didn’t want me to
say it was about her, but she was, I knew it was her last day. I went to the
car, put on a smile, and walked home. This goes along with what I mentioned
above: being honest with yourself and with others.

Do you think that what people are saying about you is based on what you say
and say about yourself?

I would argue that it

By [John Ohno](https://medium.com/@enkiv2) on [August 23,
2019](https://medium.com/p/7fc60890f74c).

[Canonical link](https://medium.com/@enkiv2/interview-with-a-
transformer-7fc60890f74c)

Exported from [Medium](https://medium.com) on September 18, 2020.