Your hair and clothes are pristine. You conduct a final run-through of common interview questions. Calm descends upon you. You are confident and cool as you enter the job interview.
That is, until your prospective boss slings a question like those listed on Glassdoor’s annual Top 25 Oddball Interview Questions list. For example:
1. “If you were on an island and could only bring three things, what would you bring?” -Yahoo, Search Quality Analyst interview.
First, take a deep breath and remember the interviewer isn’t trying to trick you. Instead, they are trying to learn how you think on your feet, how you problem solve or how you work on a team or individually. Through creative or challenging questions, the interviewer wants to find out if you will be a valuable addition to the company and a good cultural fit.
So, back to the question: Remember, it is okay to request clarity before proceeding. You want to demonstrate your ability to ask smart questions and find out all the information you need to inform your answer. For example, clarify if the island is a desert island or is equipped with contemporary amenities, such as access to Internet.
If the latter, you might say you would bring a wifi-enabled laptop with wind generator to charge the batteries, a sharp knife and a lighter! The point is, you have technology to keep up with regular civilization, including workday obligations (laptop); a vital tool in day-to-day operations (knife); and a tool to start fires and create light (lighter), ensuring a more amenable living and working environment. These answers show you can prioritize effectively.
For advice on answering three additional oddball interview questions, follow this link to the full post over at Glassdoor: Four Tips for Answering Oddball Interviewing Questions.
Great advice! I went on over and read your full post and found your insights incredibly wise and they will definitely help interviewees (is that a word?) take these quirky questions in stride.
It’s been a long time since I’ve sat for a traditional interview, but looking back, the most sweat-inducing questions asked were ones about my strengths and weaknesses. While I knew what they were, in theory, I wasn’t quite sure how to properly articulate what I knew back then. I’m wiser and more confident now, but that was then…
As a die-hard creative soul, I might have enjoyed the oddball questions back then. I’m not sure if my likely answers would have been well-recieved, but I didn’t know you then either. 😉
Hi Samantha,
You bring up a great pain point for interviewees (and yes, indeed, that is a word!), and that is how to properly articulate their own value.
So many careerists don’t have the proper perspective about their own stories, so when pressed, they under-sell themselves and/or focus in on the humdrum details and/or buzzwords.
And I agree! Your creative soul would have fared quite well in response to the oddball questions – I have no doubt!
Cheers,
Jacqui
Are you sure you’re not writing these posts from atop a mountain somewhere, Jacqui? 😉
I am echoing Samantha’s comments re. the wisdom and insight you are offering your readers – many of whom are in varying stages of climbing their own “career mountain”.
Keeping one’s head is just as important in the interview as it is in the wild. I’m sure that many careerists will find your suggestion that the “less-than-perfect response, if articulated thoughtfully with energy and poise will be well received” provides a solid stepping-off place when the ground seems less-than-stable.
Hello Marianna,
Really adore your ‘climbing their career mountain’ metaphor. You not only write the most mellifluous comments, but they nearly always leave me with a whole new impression of the blogs I write.
I particularly like your conclusion: “… provides a solid stepping-off place when the ground seems less than stable.”
Thank you so much!
Jacqui