The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Beware these interview queries
As you prepare answers to common job interview questions, you should also expect some curveballs. These weird interview questions won’t be about your skills and work experience. After all, there’s only so much of your personality a recruiter can absorb from asking you about your proficiency with PowerPoint.
From determining your animal double to which famous person you would choose to be for a day, hiring managers like to force you off the traditional path to see how you think and what that reveals about you. Don’t let these intentionally weird interview questions trip you up.
Monster asked almost 150 recruiters to tell us some of the most unusual questions they’ve asked job candidates, and why. The questions can be grouped into four main categories:
■ Hypothetical situations
■ Preferences and opinions
■ Morality tests
■ Travel
Let’s take a closer look at these categories and some examples of weird interview questions.
1. Hypothetical situations
This is the most popular category under which the weird interview questions fall. Recruiters ask candidates to pretend they’re in a certain situation or to imag- ine themselves as someone or something else.
■ “What president would you like to have dinner with and why?”
■ “If you could spend a day with anyone in the world, alive or dead, who would it be, what would you talk about, and why this person?”
These kinds of questions are meant to test your creative thinking. One recruiter said he was looking for “cre- ativity, depth of response, and knowledge of history.”
Another wanted to see “how unusual, different, unique the candidate is and how they handle an unusual situation.”
Certain hypothetical inter- view questions are more complex so as to assess your problem-solving skills. The answer is less important than the logic you use to arrive at your answer. For example:
■ “Imagine you got lost in a country where no one spoke your language and there was no internet, what would you do to get home?”
The interviewer wants to see that you are able to keep a cool head and come up with a plan of action on the spot.
The final type of hypothetical question is one that wants you to imagine yourself as another person or inanimate object. Some examples:
■ If you could be any famous person in the world, who will you be and why?
■ If you were a part on a bicycle, what would it be and why?
The interviewer is keen to see how quickly you can respond and provide justi- fication for your answers. Interviewers also use these kinds of questions as a way to get you to relax a little and show off a bit of your personality. This is why it’s important to back up your answers with some substan- tial reasons.
2. Preferences and opinions
Like hypotheticals, weird interview questions that ask you to choose between two options or give your opin- ion are meant to lighten the atmosphere and let your personality shine through. Such questions are often a good indication of whether you’d be a good cultural fit. For example:
■ “What is better, a cat or a dog?”
■ “What do you think of garden gnomes?”
■ “Where do you like to eat?”
Again, there’s no right answer to any of these ques- tions. Your explanation is what’s of particular interest to hiring managers. Do you seize up at these ques- tions, or can you relax a bit and engage the interviewer with a short, entertaining story to justify your answer?
3. Morality Tests
Granted, an interviewer can’t ask you about your religious beliefs (that falls under illegal interview questions), but your personal values are a good indicator of whether a job will be a good fit for you. Naturally, interviewers are going to want to see how you deal with questions that are intended to go against the grain. For example:
■ “What would be the one crime you would commit if you knew for certain you could get away with it? And if you did so, would your own conscience get to you since the judicial system didn’t?”
■ “What’s your worst sin of the seven deadly sins?”
Recruiters use these questions to determine your character. They’re not hoping for a particular answer but they do want the question to be answered sufficiently. One recruiter said they ask questions like this “to see how [the candidate] reacts to the question, how honest they are, and how polished the answer is.”
4. Travel
The final category of weird interview questions focuses on travel, both where you’ve been and where you’d like to be. For example:
■ “What’s the m ost unusual, unique, crazy, or weird place you have ever visited?”
■ “What is the rare oncein-a-lifetime vacation you have taken or want to take?”
As with previous questions, recruiters are hoping your answer will help them to assess cultural fit, as well as your ability to think quickly. Again, they’re more concerned with the quality of your answer over one particular answer.