# Most unusual or cleverest interview question?



## Damo (26 Feb 2008)

Given that the vast majority of interview questions are bland and lead to bland answers I'm interested to know what is the most unusual, best or cleverest interview question that either you were asked or have asked and why was it so good?

Thanks 
D


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## John Rambo (27 Apr 2008)

True story...a friend of mine is part of a two person interview panel. About two weeks ago they asked a guy 'What's your greatest weakness?' and the guy answered 'fat birds'. Apparently the silence made for a truly great tumbleweed moment...


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## clonboy (27 Apr 2008)

do you like food??

CEO asked me,, still laugh to his day,, think he was getting at the fact the job involved travelling globally,, being alone for long periods and stying in hotels,,

got the job anyhow

and funny, here i am now in a hotel room,, starving,, time to go for food i guess,,,


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## rsob (27 Apr 2008)

John Rambo said:


> True story...a friend of mine is part of a two person interview panel. About two weeks ago they asked a guy 'What's your greatest weakness?' and the guy answered 'fat birds'. Apparently the silence made for a truly great tumbleweed mpment...



Priceless


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## Guest120 (27 Apr 2008)

Damo said:


> Given that the vast majority of interview questions are bland and lead to bland answers I'm interested to know what is the most unusual, best or cleverest interview question that either you were asked or have asked and why was it so good?


Before we all answer, how do you define your terms 'unusual', 'best' and 'cleverest'?


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## Bank Manager (27 Apr 2008)

My boss loves to ask the question 'what are you good at?' - seems simple enough - but try it..............!

Regards,

BM


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## Don_08 (27 Apr 2008)

A question that Standard Life were asking in their graduate interviews:

If you were babysitting a 2 year old and they got hold of a knife and cut themselves deeply along their arm what would be the first thing you would do?


I think a good answer was -  " well they would not have got hold of a knife in the first place"


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## Satanta (28 Apr 2008)

I remember a friend telling me of one that I found pretty interesting, it was for an engineering position to give a little context... 

"How many petrol stations in Dublin City?"

On getting the position, he queried the rational behind the question. He was told that they asked it for two main reasons (and happily admitted that they had no idea what the figure was, nor did they mind if the person answered 1 or 1 million):

1) to see how the people reacted to a question they had not prepared and (chances are) did not know the answer to

2) to see what thought process the person used to come up with an estimate (this was the follow up question if the thought process wasn't explained in giving the answer [e.g. there are ten in such and such an area of the city, so extrapolating that out over the entire city gives x])


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## Lauren (28 Apr 2008)

Was asked one in an interview for a senior IT role in a large Irish company...

'Lets get to the real stuff now, tell me, can you be a thunderin bit*h?


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## NicolaM (28 Apr 2008)

Brave interviewer(s)!!!!!!!

might as well go down the route of 'Are you planning to get pregnant any time soon?'


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## Caveat (28 Apr 2008)

Heard of an interviewer who was reading the paper at his desk, looked up in boredom, and said "impress me" and went back to his paper. 

- the interviewee then calmly took out a lighter and set his paper on fire.


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## MrMan (28 Apr 2008)

Made the last 50 for air traffic controller and was given plenty of info to learn prior to interview, basically about the general operations and requirements on the job and tons of info on the irish aviation authority. One of the first questions was 'what do you know about jet engines' it was made worse by the fact that two of the panel of three were nice and could feel my pain and tried to bail me out but the other guy kept pressing with things like 'how does the fuel system work etc. 
I sometimes wonder was he reading from the wrong sheet.


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## Lauren (28 Apr 2008)

you have me thinking now...remember years ago having an interview at the facility of a beef baron . The role as an admin role and the guy interviewing me came walking into the interview with a blood spattered white coat and wellies...He took the while coat off (thankfully) but I kept thinking about the white wellies under the table facing me...One of the questions was 'Do you like steak?'


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## liaconn (28 Apr 2008)

I was at an interview for promotion in the Civil Service several years ago when one of the interviewers asked me something which had been asked earlier during the interview by another member of the board. I answered it again starting my reply with ' well, as I said earlier...' The interviewer said 'oh,yes so you did. I'll have to start listening to what you're saying'. Charming!


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## becky (28 Apr 2008)

I once asked a candidate how she managed her time everyday - I promted that she could give me an example of what she did yeasterday.

She went into great detail about how made sure she was not late back from lunch and never missed her bus home which left @ 5.30 on the dot.

This triggered a question from me along the lines of did she ever work late to complete a task:

Again no problem here once she left the office @ 5.15 as she need that amount of time to make sure she did not miss her bus home which 'left at 5.30 on the dot'.


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## Mpsox (28 Apr 2008)

If I am interviewing for a management/supervisory position, I always ask
"if you delegate something, who is responsible for ensuring the task is done, on time and correctly."

I guarantee, one in four people will answer wrong (the correct answer by the way, is not the person doing the task, it's the person who delegates it)


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## casiopea (28 Apr 2008)

I was asked by one guy on a panel of 4 at the end of the interview.
"What's my name".

They'd all introduced themselves at the beginning of the interview but for the life of me I couldnt remember his name at the end of the interview.


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## comanche (28 Apr 2008)

Was asked "who is your favourite muppet?" 

Have been asked questions like design me a house. 

One of googles typical question is "explain something complicated to me" - clever question IMO.


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## ninsaga (28 Apr 2008)

Caveat said:


> Heard of an interviewer who was reading the paper at his desk, looked up in boredom, and said "impress me" and went back to his paper.
> 
> - the interviewee then calmly took out a lighter and set his paper on fire.



Excellent


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## xavier (28 Apr 2008)

"Who dressed you?"

WTF?

"Who chooses your clothes?"

Needless to say I asked him if he'd like me to recommend a good tailor for him as his suit was a little ragged lookin.

Got the job, but turned it down. Who works for a bloke in a shabby suit eh?


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## xavier (28 Apr 2008)

comanche said:


> One of googles typical question is "explain something complicated to me" - clever question IMO.


 
1+1=2
2 = enough times most people need to meet you to assess your suitability or otherwise for a particular role. You don't need me to explain anything complicated to you in my mind because you already seem to be able to make simple stuff complicated.


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## Purple (28 Apr 2008)

xavier said:


> 1+1=2
> 2 = enough times most people need to meet you to assess your suitability or otherwise for a particular role. You don't need me to explain anything complicated to you in my mind because you already seem to be able to make simple stuff complicated.


  Very good.


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## sam h (28 Apr 2008)

It wasn't unusual, but asked one guy who came for an interview with a very large computer manufacturer what he knew about the company (nice easy question to get him relaxed & an opportunity to show off any research he'd done).  He had a very lax attitude...almost had his feet on the desk.  His response was - "don't know really...telephone or TV's...something like that." 
Only time he got animated was when we asked if he had any questions : sat up straight, for the first time and asked "if I was to win a holdiay, would that come out of my annual holidays?".  I said I would discuss if & when he got the job, obviously we never had the conversation!!


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## MichaelDes (28 Apr 2008)

At my first serious job interviews after Graduation, the UK’s largest grocery company [at the time - 18yrs ago] provided an all expenses travel and subsistence to London and back including car hire in Ireland and taxi fares to and from Heathrow. The interviewer, head of marketing was running behind schedule with lunch approaching. After perusing my CV she asked one question only,

"Are you a member of any terrorist organisation or have any affiliation to any?"

"No".

"Great, and thank god - you have the job”.

Needless to say she was worried about appointing a Muslim earlier, and wasn't sure our politics could merge. The gravy train position was accepted by me, but she was sacked on numerous grounds less than four weeks later. Fruitcake probably being the most obvious which is rather apt for a supermarket group...


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## Yeager (28 Apr 2008)

A semi-conductor maufacturer in Co.Kildare has been know to ask if you were an animal what would you be?

Urban myth has it that the best answer to date is 'A dog.......as you go around sniffing peoples crotches and get away with it!'


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## D8Lady (28 Apr 2008)

Well, the question that stumped me at an interview was "Tell me what public figure you admire the most - like George Bush."  I choked.


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## fago76 (28 Apr 2008)

For technical interviews a question like - what's the most complex/interesting technical problem you came up against, how did you solve it.

Usually gives a very clear indication of what someone was involved in and what level of understanding they had.
Lots of questions usually filter from it.


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## becky (28 Apr 2008)

sam h said:


> "if I was to win a holdiay, would that come out of my annual holidays?". I said I would discuss if & when he got the job, obviously we never had the conversation!!


 
Classic  .  At least he had a positive attitude.


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## Dellboy2007 (28 Apr 2008)

John Rambo said:


> True story...a friend of mine is part of a two person interview panel. About two weeks ago they asked a guy 'What's your greatest weakness?' and the guy answered 'fat birds'. Apparently the silence made for a truly great tumbleweed moment...


 

Nearlly fell off the seat there!!


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## Brianne (29 Apr 2008)

At an internal interview by four people which lasted 45 mins, in the last five mins , the last guy said to me , with a smile, obviously feeling he had to ask something ' Well, B......, tell me are you married and how many children have you?'. The other three looked as if they were going to choke and I found it hard not to laugh. I answered very civilly and got the job!!!


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## truthseeker (29 Apr 2008)

The interviewer (my current boss, who was conducting this interview in his office) said to me 'where would you like to be in 5 years time?'. I said 'Sitting on the other side of the desk'. Got the job.


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