Unusual Job Interview Questions
Riley Boylan
As a hiring manager, asking questions like, What's the greatest challenge you've overcome?" is important to learn about an applicant. But what creative interview questions will help paint a fuller picture of a potential candidate?
If your candidate is very stiff and formal, consider loosening her up with a question like this one, asked by Gallup during a Data Analyst interview. It should reveal something about your candidate's character.
Ice breaker questions help candidates relax at the beginning of interviews, give them a chance to warm up their communication skills and give them a fun first impression. They can also be a good way to test for culture fit and general candidate attitudes.
But over the last few years, as I've needed to hire more Eriks and Jeffs, I've tried to be more intentional about it. And, after a lot of tripping over myself, I realized: If I want to consistently hire the Eriks and Jeffs of the world, I can't ask the typical interview questions more suited for the John and Jane Does of the world. You know the ones -- they range from the generic, personal openers ("So tell me about yourself") to the predictable and job-related fillers ("What do you see as the biggest trends in marketing today?")
What to ask: This happens before any phone or in-person interview. In the job description, I like to bury a line of copy that reads, "Attention to detail test: Use the word 'transform' somewhere in your application." I may change the word, but I always use this and always bury it deep inside the job req.
This one can be tough for candidates. A response can easily snowball into an excessively long and sentimental story. It probes into their personal vision, while also assessing questions of what candidates can add to your company's culture.
This lets you see how well a candidate can come up with something creative on the spot. This may be a particularly good question for people interviewing for a marketing, advertising or sales position.
This question can reveal whether things went smoothly at their last job. If the candidate is quick to respond, it was likely a mutual break. If there is some hesitation or teeth-clenching, you may want to ask follow up questions to try to uncover what the issues may have been.
Editor's note: In this series, we're sharing unusual interview questions and approaches to help leaders find the best candidates for their open jobs - and help IT professionals prepare for any question that comes their way in an interview. Here, Clive Fenton, chairman and co-founder of Step5, explains why he wants to know what candidates have done wrong in their careers.
My advice is also to be yourself and don't be afraid to share personal information where appropriate. I see too many corporate personas in interviews when I really want to see someone's true character.
In this article, learn more about why employers ask unique interview questions, what some good questions to ask are, and how you can answer them in the future.Why Do Companies Ask Weird, Fun Interview Questions?Some companies have gained a reputation for asking weird interview questions. In fact, this is a fairly common practice among tech companies and organizations in Silicon Valley. For example, the interview process at companies like PayPal and Google involved giving prospective employees brain teasers.
Think about it this way: Those general questions everyone asks will likely get you equally general answers. Unique job interview questions tend to reveal unique answers, giving you insights into whether an interviewee is a good cultural fit, what kind of problem-solving skills they may have, and whether they have the right soft skills for a particular role.
Icebreaker questions help candidates relax at the beginning of an interview. They also give prospects a chance to warm up their communication skills, give them a good understanding of your company's values and culture, and serve up a fun first impression.
While you should avoid asking your candidate directly if he possesses these traits (because he may say yes regardless of what is true), your sales interview questions should indirectly help you understand whether or not he possesses them.
Using a sales personality test like The DriveTest followed by a well-constructed behavioral interview, that asks some of the sales interview questions outlined here can help to take the guesswork out of the hiring process. That way, you can feel confident knowing that you have chosen the right person for your sales team.
Interviewers typically ask this question to see how efficiently an interviewee can define personal and professional boundaries. The interviewer wants to see if your professionalism overpowers your need for gossip.
Not a single person mentioned the typesafe C++ way of doing it with a template. Actually, not a single person even mentioned the WORD template during an entire interview. Well, maybe one candidate did.
Again, employers understand that these are unusual questions, and the worst thing you can do is refuse to play along. But practice makes perfect. This Muse article breaks down seven different types of brainteaser interview questions and the best ways to tackle them.
Well, this one is at the top of crazy interview questions. It is often asked by recruiters, as it helps to reveal your creativity and out of the box thinking. Let your imagination work for you and try to remember the funniest stories of your life. Have you never tried to uncork the bottle of wine with a clip?
Often times, hiring managers turn away from asking traditional interview questions to gain greater insight into candidates. While you never know exactly what questions will be asked, you can expect a few unusual questions that may throw you off.
Finally, a chance to make my case for Cascadian independence! I think any interviewer around here would be amused by that answer (but I certainly hope I never get asked, because what a weird question).
My all-time favorite example of a weird interviewee question (I am stealing this from another poster on a long-ago thread) was about the politics of their federal workplace. Specifically in the context that the candidate modeled himself on a fictional character who had murdered his way to the presidency.
With the job I have now, my interviewer (now my boss) did ask about my hobbies but it was the beginning of a pleasant, getting-to-know-you conversation that clearly had to do with establishing a personality fit between us. It worked, we get along great (though we have no hobbies in common).
It may help to explain that we always name our favorites first (there are usually 3-5 people in these interviews); it gives the candidates time to think and helps set up that answers are going to be a range of things. In a recent interview it was Me: 2017 O.Henry Prize stories, coworker 1: some book on dog training that saved her life with a new puppy and she went on about for awhile, coworker 2: MaddAddam series by Margaret Atwood, coworker 3: Currently rereading his entire Calvin and Hobbes collection.
A month ago I was interviewing for my current position and I was asked what I wanted my legacy to be. All I could think of to say is that I wanted to be remembered as being kind & compassionate. Not sure what made this question relevant since I work in fabric R&D. When I told the recruiter she laughed and said I forgot to you she was weird.
Sometimes candidates start talking their way through an answer and then ask to change animals. Brilliant! This is someone who is prepared to second-guess, to re-evaluate. Sometimes they laugh. Brilliant! This is someone that can bring a little humor to something as stressful as an interview. A person who says they are like their dog may tell me about the quiet way they support others or their efficiency in always bringing back what is thrown to them or their dependability in keeping routines. I have hired monkeys who are industrious but also playful and sloths who take their time really thinking things through before they act and who like to stay in one place for a while. By the time people finish answering the question, they tend to sit proudly owning these good characteristics of themselves.
This is only one question in an interview that is comprised of many typical behavioral questions. It is not a make-or-break question as far as the interview goes, but it does give us a window into how a person thinks. When presented with something out of the box (as often happens when you work in a public service environment like ours), we like to know that you will find a way to flow with it.
At its most basic level, the question tells us if a person can handle being asked an unexpected question for which they do not have a ready answer, because you get those kinds of questions all the time on a public desk. Someone who struggles with this question may need to start in a more junior position where they are not left alone on the desk.
Our interview process is something we continue to hone, in conjunction with the development of our employment policies, our review process, our budgeting for staff, our team organization. All of these are puzzle pieces that fit together to create the kind of workplace we think will foster the kind of public service we aspire to.
It is my job as interviewer to build enough trust during the interview process that you will venture out to answer an odd question. So far no one has rolled eyes at me, but several have commented that they really enjoyed the conversation and this question in particular. Anecdotal, of course.
Yeah I would be super confused because I always get technical interviews since I have a technical job. Today I was asked to draw out a network (just a basic network or one I have worked on in the past) and explain how it worked, and then they were able to ask me follow up questions and I could refer back to my drawing. At first it was a little jarring because I DID have to think on the spot, but then I warmed up to it and it gave them quite a bit of insight into some of my skillset (hopefully good insight!) without having to answer unrelated questions.
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