New Year’s resolution for some HR pros: Breathe new life into your candidate interviews. And we just happen to have a selection of potential questions that could kick-start your fresh approach.
Glassdoor, the jobs and career website, recently unveiled its Top 25 Oddball Interview Questions for 2013. Check these out and see if there’s any you might spring on unsuspecting job applicants:
- “If you were to get rid of one state in the U.S., which would it be and why?” – Asked at Forrester Research of a Research Associate candidate.
- “How many cows are in Canada?” – Asked at Google of a Local Data Quality Evaluator candidate.
- “How many quarters would you need to reach the height of the Empire State building?” – Asked at JetBlue of a Pricing/Revenue Management Analyst candidate.
- “A penguin walks through that door right now wearing a sombrero. What does he say and why is he here?” – Asked at Clark Construction Group of an Office Engineer candidate.
- “What songs best describe your work ethic?” – Asked at Dell of a Consumer Sales candidate.
- “Jeff Bezos walks into your office and says you can have a million dollars to launch your best entrepreneurial idea. What is it?” – Asked at Amazon of a Product Development candidate.
- “What do you think about when you are alone in your car?” – Asked at Gallup of an Associate Analyst candidate.
- “How would you rate your memory?” – Asked at Marriott of a Front Desk Associate candidate.
- “Name 3 previous Nobel Prize Winners.” – Asked at BenefitsCONNECT of an Office Manager candidate.
- “Can you say: ’Peter Pepper Picked a Pickled Pepper’ and cross-sell a washing machine at the same time?” – Asked at MasterCard of a Call Center candidate.
- “If we came to your house for dinner, what would you prepare for us?” – Asked at Trader Joe’s of a Crew candidate.
- “How would people communicate in a perfect world?” – Asked at Novell of a Software Engineer candidate.
- “How do you make a tuna sandwich?” – Asked at Astron Consulting of an Office Manager candidate.
- “My wife and I are going on vacation, where would you recommend?” – Asked at PricewaterhouseCoopers of an Advisory Associate candidate.
- “You are a head chef at a restaurant and your team has been selected to be on Iron Chef. How do you prepare your team for the competition and how do you leverage the competition for your restaurant?” – Asked at Accenture of a Business Analyst candidate.
- “Estimate how many windows are in New York.” – Asked at Bain & Company of an Associate Consultant candidate.
- “What’s your favorite song? Perform it for us now.” – Asked at LivingSocial of an Adventures City Manager candidate.
- “Calculate the angle of two clock pointers when time is 11:50.” – Asked at Bank of America of a Software Developer candidate.
- “Have you ever stolen a pen from work?” – Asked at Jiffy Software of a Software Architect candidate.
- “Pick two celebrities to be your parents.” – Asked at Urban Outfitters of a Sales Associate candidate.
- “What kitchen utensil would you be?” – Asked at Bandwidth.com of a Marketer candidate.
- “If you had turned your cell phone to silent, and it rang really loudly despite it being on silent, what would you tell me?” – Asked at Kimberly-Clark of a Biomedical Engineer candidate.
- “On a scale from one to ten, rate me as an interviewer.” – Asked at Kraft Foods of a General Laborer candidate.
- “If you could be anyone else, who would it be?” – Asked at Salesforce.com of a Sales Representative candidate.
- “How would you direct someone else on how to cook an omelet?” – Asked at PETCO of an Analyst candidate.
Do you have any oddball interview questions you pull out of your bag of tricks? Let us know in the Comments below.