Have any of you read Glassdoor's Top 25 Oddball Interview Questions? If not, I have copied in the questions below. Glassdoor compiled the top 25 weirdest interview questions for 2013. I want to talk to you about the questions and strange interview questions in general.
First, yes these are very weird interview questions without a doubt!!! So, what is happening here in 2013? Essentially, HR professionals are becoming psychologists without a psychology degree. Now, is that a bad thing? Well it depends on your opinion. In the comments section of that article, one person commented, "At the interview stage you are up against some dozen other select candidates whom so closely match you, as if all were cut from the same mold. How do you differentiate? How do you trip up a well rehearsed, confident interviewee? You ask one of these questions. Yes, as idiotic as it sounds, it all factors in. It's not so much the answer, but how you react. Even if the question is meant to disarm or break the ice, again the way you respond will matter." This is very true. However, there are about 50 of these type of comments, "I would say and when you have a question that actually relates to the job, my qualifications for it, and my strengths and weaknesses as an employee, I will be happy to answer." OR "I really hate these type of moronic job interview questions. Why are you wasting my time?"
Again, depending how you look at it will shape your opinion. Lets dive into it.
If you give the latter answer of, this is moronic or stop wasting my time; what do you think the interviewer will do or say? Chances are that type of response will not bode well them.
It's not always about your answer and having the perfect answer to every interview question. Instead, interviewers want to see your reaction to the question. Do you stumble, look away, ramble on, lie, deceive, make something up, roll your eyes... the list goes on.
One question I commonly asked in every single interview was, "What is one common misconception about you?" Honestly, I did not care what the answer was because it wasn't important to qualifying you for the job, however, what I was looking for is how you answer an offbeat question and what would response be. These kind of things happen all the time when you are meeting with high level executives. They ask you questions you weren't prepared for. What will be your response?
Questions like these tell an interviewer what you will do in a high pressure situation!
While I'm not advocating for more of these weird questions in interviewing, I do believe that they have their place in typical interview questions.
So how do you answer these questions
Below are two answers I copied from the comments section... Can you figure out which of the two is the better answer?
7. “What do you think about when you are alone in your car?” My answer would be "When I'm in my car alone I think about interviewers who ask stupid questions that have absolutely nothing to do with my ability to perform the job."
Answer to number 3: You need exactly 4 quarters. Nobody specified coins, so I have to assume fractions of the whole.
Honestly - which one do you think ANY interviewer would want to hear? While on the surface, all these questions seem "stupid" or "moronic", they will throw off even the most prepared candidate. The interviewer wants to see how you will act on the job and in ANY job, curve balls are always thrown at you. How will you react when a curve ball is thrown?
There are a few ways you can approach an answer to any type of bogus interview question.
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