Weird interview questions

[Dogeatdog]

What have been the weirdest questions you have been asked at a job interview? One of mine was ‘if you could be any animal what would it be and why?’ I answered a Parrot because that way I can still talk to people and if they begin to annoy me I can fly away.

I didn’t get the job.

[MTVN]

I've never had one but my brother once got asked 'how many lightbulbs are there in the UK'

Think they finally cut him off after 20 minutes when he was just getting into the number of lights on Britain's motorways

[bots]

i've cut a few interviews short and walked out because I didn't like the direction they were taking, but I can't remember specifics

[Livia]

I was once asked in an interview to tell a joke. Which I did.... but it was strange.

[Morgan.]

I was asked ‘If you were a biscuit which would you be’ once at an interview

[michael21]

What have been the weirdest questions you have been asked at a job interview? One of mine was ‘if you could be any animal what would it be and why?’ I answered a Parrot because that way I can still talk to people and if they begin to annoy me I can fly away.

I didn’t get the job.

You been punk :dance:

[Dogeatdog]

You been punk :dance:

I wish I was it would’ve made a lot more sense.

[Dogeatdog]

I was once asked in an interview to tell a joke. Which I did.... but it was strange.

Do you mean the situation itself was strange? Or you told a strange joke?

[Dogeatdog]

I was asked ‘If you were a biscuit which would you be’ once at an interview

I don’t get how these sort of questions have any relevance to the job role. I’m guessing it’s just some weird way of trying to find out about your personality, but I would rather them ask me that question directly.

Out of curiosity what biscuit would you be Morgan?

[Dogeatdog]

i've cut a few interviews short and walked out because I didn't like the direction they were taking, but I can't remember specifics

That’s a shame I would’ve liked to hear more about that :laugh:

[AnnieK]

A lot of times I think interviewers are bored :laugh: They like to throw curved balls in to see how people think on their feet, rather than being so prepared for interviews.

People always used to put "reading" on their CVs as an interest because they thought it looked good. I always used to ask what the last book they read was and people would fall apart as they couldn't think quick enough.

[Morgan.]

I don’t get how these sort of questions have any relevance to the job role. I’m guessing it’s just some weird way of trying to find out about your personality, but I would rather them ask me that question directly.

Out of curiosity what biscuit would you be Morgan?

Well I never got to answer the question. They cut me off halfway through my detailed analysis over which personality traits each biscuit type held

[Dogeatdog]

Well I never got to answer the question. They cut me off halfway through my detailed analysis over which personality traits each biscuit type held

That was bit rude of them I would’ve been intrigued to hear that. I did have a conversation like this in work once before and I described someone as a rich tea biscuit, they was not happy. :hehe:

[Dogeatdog]

A lot of times I think interviewers are bored :laugh: They like to throw curved balls in to see how people think on their feet, rather than being so prepared for interviews.

People always used to put "reading" on their CVs as an interest because they thought it looked good. I always used to ask what the last book they read was and people would fall apart as they couldn't think quick enough.

It’s just so random though. Have you had to interview many people before AnnieK?

[AnnieK]

It’s just so random though. Have you had to interview many people before AnnieK?

I work in recruitment so I do a lot of pre-interviews with candidates, go through interview prep with them and pump clients for info on their interview process so my candidates can be prepared as possible.

I also interview staff to work with me.

Thankfully my clients tend to follow fairly standard interview techniques so I've not heard of too many curve ball questions from my candidates but recruitment press is always full of "oddest interview questions......ever!" type articles :laugh: Like these:

https://www.thebalancecareers.com/top-weird-interview-questions-2059482

[Dogeatdog]

I work in recruitment so I do a lot of pre-interviews with candidates, go through interview prep with them and pump clients for info on their interview process so my candidates can be prepared as possible.

I also interview staff to work with me.

Thankfully my clients tend to follow fairly standard interview techniques so I've not heard of too many curve ball questions from my candidates but recruitment press is always full of "oddest interview questions......ever!" type articles :laugh: Like these:

https://www.thebalancecareers.com/top-weird-interview-questions-2059482

Sounds like you’ve been doing that for a long time, I bet overtime you’ve become used to reading people’s body language a lot easier and catching out the lies. Do you ask people the odd weird interview questions often or do you tend to just stick primarily to standard questions.

In that article, if I was asked any of those questions I’d crumble to pieces :laugh:

[Braden]

They asked me, if I were in an apocalypse:

a) who would my sidekick be?
b) what my weapon of choice be?
c) what would my theme song be?

Thought it was quite a cool question, but the company ended up being really **** and robotic for such a fun question.