Discussion on:

Glassdoor's top 25 oddball interview questions for 2013

BTO: Taking Care of Business -- "we love to work at nothing all day."

Sort of like when Microsoft used the Stones' "Start Me Up" for Windows 95, in which the lyrics include "You make a grown man cry."

"I don't want to work; I want to bang on the drum all day."

So, basically, they've already seen that you're fit to do the job, technically speaking. These questions are brilliant to determine what kind of personality you are, how you think, what your MO is, how you cope with whatever comes your way. It tests your flexibility and ingenuity, your wit and your ability to deal with the (seemingly) absurd. I wish these were the sort of questions I'd gotten on some interviews. Or then again: probably not. Happy where I am.

No. The question you must ask is, "Are you really interested in working for a half-witted bunch of idiots?" These guys couldn't do the job themselves for toffee, and they have no idea whether you are capable of doing the job or not. They are just asking stupid questions, like "If you were a button on a calculator, which button would you be?" or "Estimate the number of frogs on a disused railway line from Edinburgh to Manitoba." A candidate can reasonably ask why, for instance, the interviewer hasn't asked them anything about the ability and skills related to the work.

You must realize some of these are from top companies. The fact that they are top companies is no mistake or accident. These questions are unorthodox, but that's why they're so effective. You cannot prepare for "A penguin walks through that door right now wearing a sombrero. What does he say and why is he here?". That's not in any book. Hence, who you really are, your true skills and work ethic, shines through.

Take Google's question: "How many cows are in Canada?". This is for a data evaluator role. Hence, I assume the person will need a strong base in statistics. This is a difficult statistics question, and an unexpected one. They may not expect you to give an answer, but if you can walk them through the process of obtaining the it, then they know you are good candidate.

I cringe at the thought of some run-of-the-mill consultancy asking someone "How many cows are in Canada" type questions. They think that if Google does it then it must be a thing successful companies do and thus their company will be successful if they do the same thing.

If the interviewer is not aware of precisely why this question is asked, what it is trying to determine, and how to evaluate responses, it will all be a waste of time. Most interviewers haven't the slightest clue how to evaluate how a candidate thinks.

Incidentally, that question about the penguin and the sombrero is the dumbest thing I've ever heard of. What useful information could you possibly gain from the candidate's answer, other than perhaps to gauge the candidate's ability to convincingly B.S. you. Maybe that's what these questions are really designed to assess. For a consultancy, that would make total sense.

I agree with your first two paragraphs. I think the penguin question is more a way to see your personality than your skills (to see if you fit in with the culture), though I don't really see the point of explaining that he's wearing a sombrero.

The one question I think is kind of dumb is the Jeff Bezos one. If I had a million dollar idea, I wouldn't give it away in an interview.

It shows linear vs spacial focus. Some will fixate on the Sombrero and look for a humourous, mexican comment.

Others will wonder why an penguin from the south pole was in Mexico.

There is no correct or incorrect answer but it illustrates thought process, or lack of it.

None. C.A.N.A.D.A not one O, W or S so there are no COWS in Canada, just the C.

I'd rather be hit with one of these than the contrived standard HR questions - what are your strengths and weaknesses? being the chief offender.

If you can identify on your weaknesses and sell them as a strength, you win every time because most people don't. Most people focus on strengths instead, thinking that knowing your weaknesses is...a weakness.

I always say, my weaknesses are my strengths. I am able to identify my weaknesses and work on them to build them into strengths. In essence, the ability to identify weaknesses is a strength.

After I explain this I always ask, "Out of sheer curiosity, what are YOUR weaknesses?" or "What would you say the companies weaknesses are? This shows that you understand everyone has weaknesses and it's not the end of the world, it's being aware of weaknesses that matters, It also usually becomes a 10 minute segue where you can lower the staunch, professional focus of the meeting and make it a bit more of a conversational interview, which is where you can make the most ground and take control of the interview.

My greatest weakness is that I am too much of a perfectionist.

I struggle to accept that not everyone adheres to my high standards, etc etc...

That your middle paragraph is so contrived and lacking in substance is precisely why I detest the strengths and weaknesses question.

Agree with much of your last paragraph - although I'd never be direct/rude enough to turn it on the interviewer, shifting the conversation back to the company itself is a good shout.

Just so I'm clear, because you don't understand the question being asked, you assume the interviewers and employees are a bunch of half-witted idiots? I rarely go an interview without asking a question along the lines of how many quarter does it take to get to the top of the empire state building or if they have expressed an interest in a particular sport, substitute the empire state building for the cross-bar of a soccer goal or hockey post. I don't care about the right answer. I want to see 2 things: 1) Can you logical think through a problem without giving up using context clues and 2) How do you react under pressure. Both are critical aspects of the jobs my employees perform and if they aren't capable of producing an answer and substantiating it with reasonable thought, they are not a viable candidate.

I'm sorry that you aren't capable of understanding the question being asked, but that doesn't make the rest of us unintelligent.

Shows what exactly. An average 11 year old can do the arithmetic. Or the joke answer the lift is free.

So what have you found out.
Your candidate can do basic arithmetic
Or they read the 25 page paperback, questions you might be asked in an interview.

So what exactly have you said with such a question.

I have only basic arithmetic skills
I find even the simplest exercise in logic so stressful it brings out the best in me...
I have a childish sense of humour
I don't know what I'm doing but I found this book in a waiting room, it's great, better still the writing's really big, there are only few pages, so I read it in the week before I had to start interview.
And most of all
I can't be arsed, I'm just going through the motions

The real problem isn't you being stupid, or us thinking you are stupid, it's you thinking your clever because you are on the boss side of the table.

'How does YOUR brain think' is the question.

you on the roof.
That you don't count the height of the housing for the elevator.
Any signage, target lights for low flying arabs
Radio masts
We are taslking HR people here, you give them an answer that isn't on the answer page they were given, you are wrong..

That's my number, if the interviewer can prove me wrong I will accept it.

In an interview for an IT Managerial position, I was asked these questions:

1. What is your favorite movie? - I always answer "The Lion King" because it's about getting what is rightfully mine.
2. If you were to be President for a day, what would you do? I answered: I would concentrate on education because education is the country's future so we can have better citizens who can do well at their jobs or businesses.

There were many others of these types of questions but I remember these two quite well.

Oh, I did not get the job or even a call back.

Your answer to 2. was good, but your answer to one may raise concerns about entitlement issues.

Well, in the movie Simba lost everything to his mean Uncle Scar who wanted the whole kingdom to himself. Simba grew up and with Nala's prodding decided to go back and claim what was rightfully his, especially after seeing how devastated Pride Rock was after Scar's plundering reign. He was able to rally the lionesses to support him and ultimately overthrew Scar.

RIGHTFULLY HIS or RIGHTFULLY MINE.

Nothing is "RIGHTFULLY" anyone's, unless you are one of those who feel entitled. A sense of entitlement will kill any opportunities at the door,

Did you see the movie? I suggest you watch it first. Simba WAS entitled by birthright to rule Pride Rock.

Your answer to 2 would just show me that you are a parrot - you parroted the same bland answer that 90% of the applicants gave.

On the other hand, getting what is rightfully yours could mean that you expect that if you work hard and succeed, that you will move up in the company. That is called ambition, and lots of companies are looking for that.

As always, what you say and what it percieved can be totally different depending on the person receiving the message.

Parrot? You don't know where I live so you possibly could not know what issues the country I live in is facing. I could have talked about running the Department of Finance, or fixing corruption, or take steps to end Poverty etc. etc. Hardly any focus is given to education.

So, what would be your "spicy" answer to number 2?

But your answer to number two still sounded like an answer in a beauty pageant. Regardless, education would be high on most candidates answers. The question is more to do with "how" you would do things. Which leads us on to how we would answer any of the questions and what we want to show our interviewers.

If I was asked how, I would ask the interviewer if he/she has at least 30 minutes for me to be able to explain how. Given the limited time for the interview, that's how much I could say.

Say you wouldn't take the job and why. Everyone has something (generally narcissistic) that they'd like to do if they were president. Humble out and turn it down, there are a gazillion reasons not to as well.

It doesn't show a lack of ambition, not everyone wants to be president, I sure as hell wouldn't, but it's not because I lack ambition but more so because I have integrity and credibility that would be jeopardized in such a role.

The only reason cookie-cutter beauty pageant questions like #2 are asked is because the plain-vanilla company wants to make sure they are hiring someone who uses the proper stock answer. These companies do not want free thinkers and use questions like this to weed them out.

Company's are looking for free thinkers not drones. The same question can be asked for many different reasons, just matters what you are looking for. I haven't seen it used to weed out free thinkers, but I've seen it used plenty of times to focus on them and weed out the drones.

Many people will move up in a company if they work hard and succeed at their roles. The sense of ENTITLEMENT that IF you do work hard you will be rewarded with more than your arranged salary/role for working hard it raises more than one red flag.

1) You will leave if you don' t progress
2) Your motivation to succeed and work hard is not because that is the job you were hired for but that you expect an increase in responsibility and pay if you work hard

It's not AMBITION in any way. It's expectation and entitlement, just as the first question was.

Funny how they both came up from the same person, making him seem as if he expects more than he was hired for and would leave if he doesn't move up fast enough. I would hire him/you based on those answers, nor recommend to other employers.

Next candidate please, thank you Mr. Mukhi we will call you if you are shortlisted for the next interview stage.

"What's rightfully mine" Very possessive, not team focused, selfish etc.

Question 2 not a good one either. What if the employer is a high school drop out who made it on his own, doesn't believe in formal qualifications and is looking for a FIT rather than formal knowledge? That actually fits a great deal of today's most successful business owners.

The first time I was presented with the clock question I blew all the other candidates out of the water by asking for a piece of paper and solving the puzzle. It's not difficult, the idea of questions like this is often to test how well candidates can think on their feet when something unexpected comes along. Nobody knows how many cars there are on the road network right now, or how many windows there are in New York or similar, but it's possible to take a best guess based on some guesstimates. You know, if there are 10m people in the city, living two to a property that makes 5m properties, times four windows per property makes 20m windows, plus maybe another 10m for offices, total 30m windows. Could be way off the mark, the interviewer probably wants to see some form of thought process rather than a blank look and an answer that boils down to "no idea"

edited out comment.. thought it sounded snarky after I woke up and had some caffeine.

sorry about that.

Google is famous for asking Fermi questions to see if candidates can make estimations.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi_problem

@Not~SpamR - you needed a piece of paper to work it out? I don't want to be offensive, but I'd have thought the mere act of asking for a piece of paper would be enough to put someone on the "rejected" pile....

Don't forget car windows, windows of opportunity, eyes (windows to the soul). MS OS . . .

Fail.

Mind you as a developer I'd have to ask for clarification, angle from what and in which direction.

Oh and is this a 24 hour clock?

It's a digital clock

How did having a piece of paper help?
360 degress in a circle = 30 degrees for every 5 minutes. Answer is 60 degrees.
What makes you think you blew the other candidates out of the water?

Answer = none. You don't have the correct letters in Canada to spell cow. Just mho.

8 days a week................
That penguin says nothing and it took a left at Albuquerque........

Some are just so asinine, that any company asking them deserves to get what they get...and not necessarily the best person. Really smart people will recognize those questions as such and go elsewhere.
As for the number of cows in Canada, only a company intimately connected with the dairy industry, either in Canada or in the US dairy import/export business would have any interest in asking it of a candidate.