r/mildlyinfuriating • u/PureKin21 • Jun 22 '26

I just wanted a hot dog Tried applying to McDonald's wtf does this even mean

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I guess things happen to me?????

61.1k Upvotes

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933

u/Difficult-Bicycle681 Jun 22 '26

Oh fuck... No wonder I find them so hard to answer lmao

509

u/vandersnipe Jun 22 '26

I turn my brain off and answer based on how they expect a neurotypical person to answer.

218

u/Blockster_cz PURPLE Jun 22 '26

What would the correct answer be to the posted question?

474

u/mort96 Jun 22 '26

Not me. I think it's looking for a kind of "bad things always happen to me" attitude.

319

u/rbb36 Jun 22 '26

Exactly. They're trying to find "I am the thing that happens!" energy when you're mopping the toilet for $8/hr.

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u/Glossy-Water Jun 22 '26

I am the one who happens waltuh

36

u/Natural_Vast_9495 Jun 22 '26

I am the one who mops!

3

u/oldsecondhand Jun 22 '26

"I'm not not in danger. I am the danger. I'm the one who knocks!"

3

u/cindyscrazy Jun 22 '26

I think the "correct" answer is "Not Me"

A 'victim' type of person thinks "(bad)Things happen to me constantly". A more 'stable' person thinks "life happens to everyone, this is not a problem"

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u/TheMysticalBaconTree Jun 22 '26

More like, when the toilet floods, they want someone who can go “it’s okay, I know where the mop is” rather than the person who goes “aaaargh, stupid toilet, why does this always happen to ME”.

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u/Hippopotasaurus-Rex Jun 22 '26

Exactly. They are phrasing it in a way that it can be interpreted differently but they are asking if you feel like you’re always right and good but are wronged constantly. Basically the woe is me type.

0

u/Thunderbridge Jun 22 '26

Alternatively, I think they could be looking for the attitude of 'I just exist and things happen to me' as opposed to 'I go out and make things happen!'

Looking for ambitious mindset

8

u/mort96 Jun 22 '26

Well the picture is of a sad person with a would after a biking accident, so..

0

u/raverbashing Jun 22 '26

Correct

The full question would actually be something like: "I'm clumsy, I keep dropping things, or I take personally stuff that happens outside of my control"

0

u/XFX_Samsung Jun 22 '26

Are you sure it's not showing a scraped knee situation and asking if you can relate?

0

u/cglogan Jun 22 '26

Specifically, I think they are trying to discern if you take accountability for your actions. Things don't just "happen to you"; for whatever reason you fell off your bike

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u/mort96 Jun 22 '26

Yeah absolutely. If it was the same picture but coupled with "I sometimes make mistakes" it would've been much more appropriate to answer "Me"

52

u/SnugglyCoderGuy Jun 22 '26

Not Me.

"Things don't happen to me! I make things happen!"

2

u/Mister_Crowly Jun 22 '26

Or "THINGS DON'T HAPPEN TO ME! I HAPPEN TO THINGS!"

1

u/SnugglyCoderGuy Jun 26 '26

"I am Death, destroyer of worlds"

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u/Different_Pattern273 Jun 22 '26

This is just one of those exams where you are told a bunch of crap about how you are supposed to think and then at the end it asks you questions where you regurgitate what they want to hear. More than likely this question was preceded at some point by a slide that said something like "The ideal employee does not blame situations are things happening to them, but strives to be a person who makes things happen." or some other such nonsense.

They are basically asking if you are the type of person who blames the universe every time something goes wrong or do you solve the problems instead (if I had to guess, the very specific thing they are screening here is people who have excuses for not coming to work that they don't think are good enough like this character skinned their knee because they fell off their bike). So they want you to disagree with this, but you would probably be given the explicit answer earlier in material that came before the question.

These are incredibly common at minimum wage jobs for massive companies like McDonald's or Walmart.

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u/vandersnipe Jun 22 '26

Amazon and Google have these screening questions for corporate roles. Amazon’s is more annoying though.

4

u/Hippopotasaurus-Rex Jun 22 '26

Whole Foods does too. For a “shopper” position. During the holidays. Ive only really see it in low level corporate places personally.

3

u/YjorgenSnakeStranglr Jun 22 '26

Do they now? When I applied to Amazon a few years back they barely checked to see if I had a pulse

1

u/vandersnipe Jun 22 '26

Yeah, I applied for a business analyst role back in 2024 and had to take a behavioral assessment before the interview process. I can't post a link here, but a few subreddits have screenshots of some of the assessment questions.

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u/Kitten_K89 Jun 22 '26

My daughter recently applied to McDonald's. Unfortunately there was no preceding video or explanation for the questions. They were incredibly weird. She and I were both very confused.

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u/Different_Pattern273 Jun 22 '26

Hrm. I would guess two things: 1. they have trouble finding job candidates that can read and understand complex sentences so they kept it as brief as possible. 2. They probably had AI put the entire thing together.

2

u/gimp-24601 Jun 22 '26

These are incredibly common at minimum wage jobs for massive companies like McDonald's or Walmart.

I got a job working for a... fantastic cable company in the 00s and they had an extensive test like this. I remember one of the questions was "working hard is how you get ahead"

It was a terrible job but had decent pay/benefits. Gotta filter out people who wont chase that carrot.

1

u/Lexx2k Jun 22 '26

Kinda want to have this as an online test now, to see if they would hire me or nah.

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u/stilljustacatinacage Jun 22 '26

Just make sure to eat breakfast this morning, and you'll be fit to answer these questions.

1

u/mellow--mind Jun 22 '26

But I did eat breakfast this morning

4

u/cpteric Jun 22 '26

not me, meaning you make things happen, not the other way around.
don't ask me why tho, shit happens is like law #1 of the universe.

5

u/kanrad Jun 22 '26

You think people in the C-Suite comprehend cause and effect? Much less entropy?

4

u/SETHW Jun 22 '26

It's testing for what they'd describe as victim mentality. Do you see the world through a lens of personal agency where you make things happen? or are you more passive and "let yourself" be bulldozed by bad luck then blame that luck. I don't like it because much if not most of our lives are ruled by the material conditions we are immersed in.

1

u/Vi_Rants Jun 22 '26

"Not Me."

"Things happen to me" means that the person believes in the existence of events/circumstances outside their control. The corporation wants people who believe that any bad thing in their lives is their own fault. Things don't happen to them, they cause things to happen to them.

So, stuff like "My manager sexually harassed me; I must have been dressed wrong."

1

u/Sunshinetrooper87 Jun 22 '26

it wants you to not be a drama queen.

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u/SnugglyCoderGuy Jun 22 '26

I just imagine how the most sterile HR person or corporatized manager would say things and that's what they want to have the answer to be.

In this case its "Not Me" because "Things don't happen to me! I make things happen!"

55

u/kaisadilla_ Jun 22 '26

I'm neurotypical and idk what am I supposed to answer to "Fantasy? Me / not me". Is "me" autistic because I'm saying I like imaginary stuff, or is "not me" autistic because I'm saying I don't like things not being real and genuine?

6

u/wholesomehorseblow Jun 23 '26

The right answer is no because fantasy implies you are a free thinker which is bad according to corporations

2

u/LilJourney Jun 23 '26

What I'm getting from this entire post is that I should keep my current job because I'm never getting hired for another one. I am reading all of these and it makes sense as you all are explaining, but trust me that's not the answers my brain spits out.

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u/wholesomehorseblow Jun 23 '26

It's simple

Does saying yes make you seem: Creative, like you might report violations, that you may desire time off work for vacation or accidents, that you have things that will make you want to return to your house? then it's the wrong answer.

Just act like you are a cold unfeeling robot programmed to serve Ronald McDonald

10

u/vandersnipe Jun 22 '26 edited Jun 22 '26

Not me because yes me has the sense of victim mentality and be flagged as hard to work with.

Edit:

Typo

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u/siliril Jun 22 '26

How does someone answering "Me" to "Fantasy" relate to a victim mentality? I'm not seeing the connection. I could see they may be a daydreamer instead of a doer.

20

u/anerdknownaswill Jun 22 '26

Every time someone in this thread asks about the knight thing the replies are about the original post. So weird

5

u/siliril Jun 22 '26

Bots is my best guess. 

6

u/chunli99 Jun 22 '26

Not me because yes me has the sense of victim mentality and be flagged as hard to work with.

That’s the answer to the bicycle one OP posted, jot the fantasy one. Fantasy would be have the wrong answer be Me because it’s not grounded in reality.

4

u/gimp-24601 Jun 22 '26

be flagged as hard to work with.

More difficult to motivate read: manipulate.

1

u/PunctuationGood Jun 22 '26

Please don't take anyone on Reddit talking about autism seriously.

5

u/Fuzzy_Toe_9936 Jun 22 '26

i put my mind into that of a corporate cuck. "why, yes, i do love new difficult challenges daily in a job with 0 work stability- i mean, an everchanging workplace!" "i'd come here on my days off just to shine your shoes, sir!"

3

u/indifferent_goldbrow Jun 22 '26

Wait... But that's just what we neurotypicals do. We act how we think a typical person would... Or is it just me? Was I neurospicy all along?

2

u/nolaks1 Jun 22 '26

I do this so often when I don't want the extra attention that comes with neurodivergence. It's comforting knowing I am not the only one lol

2

u/No-Internal7978 Jun 22 '26

I do that for all tests and I always test well. I'm fairly normal lol

1

u/vandersnipe Jun 22 '26

This further proves how autism is hard af to diagnose since some symptoms are rather uncommon in people, which is why I wish testing were more affordable to avoid self-diagnoses lol. Many symptoms are common experiences among everyday people to some degree. You also have to factor in that symptoms overlap with borderline personality, ADHD, dyspraxia, and bipolar disorder.

I have ADHD, autism, and dyspraxia, so my life is on hard mode lol

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u/elviscostume Jun 26 '26

I call it my worksona

3

u/taco_jones Jun 22 '26

This is how I find out i have autism?

6

u/vandersnipe Jun 22 '26

I mean, it could be other things at play too. It's not always autism.

6

u/taco_jones Jun 22 '26

On reddit it is

3

u/vandersnipe Jun 22 '26

I forgot we're on Reddit. Oh, yes, you absolutely have autism

2

u/StrongExternal8955 Jun 22 '26

You can't catch autism in a draft, someone has to give you the virus /s

1

u/FakeTherapist Jun 22 '26

THIS IS SO HARD

1

u/dumbasPL Jun 22 '26

The only problem with that, is that you'll likely also have to do that during work. Fuck that.

1

u/wholesomehorseblow Jun 23 '26

You're supposed to answer like the only thing you have going is bring a wage slave

Things happen to me? No, you aren't accident prone and take fault for things

Fantasy? Nope! Dreamers dream of bigger things but you're a good worker who knows their place at the bottom

1

u/vandersnipe Jun 23 '26

You put it so bluntly. I wish jobs just said this lol

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u/No-Cat-9339 Jun 22 '26

If you can do that why dont you just do that the rest of your life and be normal.?

1

u/vandersnipe Jun 22 '26

Because it’s exhausting and damn near impossible to do 24/7. Also, autism is on a spectrum.

“Hey, why can’t you stop being disabled?” Is an odd question.

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u/No-Cat-9339 Jun 22 '26

Autism isn't a disability if you can just turn it off.

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u/vandersnipe Jun 22 '26 edited Jun 22 '26

You don't understand what masking is, and you're being way too pedantic like a typical Redditor. I mean “turning my brain off” as in relaxing and not trying to overanalyze a question presented to me the best I can. In other words, I have to gaslight myself to pass tests and interviews. It's honestly the only way I can survive and leads to autism burnouts. Maybe you should read up on autism in research papers instead of being ignorant.

By your logic, people who can't use their legs and have to use wheelchairs aren't disabled because they have a wheelchair, which is stupid af.

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u/Modo44 Jun 22 '26

I think everyone does, but people on the spectrum statistically choose different responses when answering "whatever".

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u/gimp-24601 Jun 22 '26 edited Jul 01 '26

I've always felt like I could lie convincingly which appeared to be good enough.

To me that seems like the entire point of most interviews. Are you willing/able to continue the farce, or are you going to rock the boat?