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CAREERS WEBSITE GLASSDOOR recently released a list of the toughest or most left-of-field questions interview candidates had been asked over the last year, and it really is something.
The questions broadly fall into two buckets: one bucket is “maybe if the wind was blowing in the right direction you could argue there’s value to asking it” and the other is utterly pointless.
The first contains questions like this one from Dropbox: “If you’re CEO, what are the first three things you check about the business when you wake up?” The candidate wasn’t going for the CEO role – they were going for a place on Dropbox’s rotation programme.
The interviewer could argue that the question is merely hunting for the candidate’s commercial acumen and understanding of Dropbox’s business which are fair enough characteristics to be assessed in any candidate. Of course, the interviewer could argue that. But it’s an argument that’s full of holes.
Another question from the first bucket came from Boston Consulting Group: “If you were a brand, what would your motto be?” The person who was asked this was going for a consultant position. Again, one could argue that what the panel were hunting for was the candidate to articulate and illustrate attributes for the role. But it’s a bit of a reach.
The questions that fall into the utterly pointless bucket ranged from “When a hot dog expands, in which direction does it split and why?” to “What would you do if you found a penguin in the freezer?”
Imagine, a human asked another human these question. If my four-year-old asked me some of these, I’d think something was up.
For example, what if I said “I’d invite the penguin to sit down for dinner” and you said “I’d leave him in there”, or “I’d stick him in the oven”, which answer is better? And how can the panel prove it?
Another question was “Would you rather fight one horse-sized duck, or a 100 duck-sized horses?” Whole Foods Market asked this for a meat cutter role.
Clearly you would rather fight 100 duck-sized horses; you’d be able to kick them away or stamp on them. But what does that prove about the candidate?
Or did they want you to say that you would rather fight the horse-sized duck because if you cut it in the right place with your meat cutter the fight would be over in an instant? Daft.
Brainteasers
We have Google to blame for this. In the early noughties they became famous for asking “brainteaser questions”. And then the world followed.
Thankfully, though, Lazlo Bock, Google’s senior vice president of people operations has dumped this style of questioning. He told the New York Times that “we found that brainteaser questions are a complete waste of time”.
How many golf balls can you fit in an airplane? How many gas stations are in Manhattan? A complete waste of time. They don’t predict anything. They serve primarily to make the interviewer feel smart.
Instead, Google now does what all interview panels should do. They ask candidates to talk about a time where they led a team, or solved a complex problem. Questions relevant to the role that challenge the candidates’ experience and can be properly assessed, requiring a logic and rationale.
However, there is still a risk that you could be asked one of those idiotic questions. And if you are, how do you answer them? All you can do is show a logic and rationale for your answer, and deliver it relatively coherently.
For example, a client of mine was recently in an interview for a place on a science course in a top UK university where they were asked “how many molecules are in that bottle of water in front of you?” To answer it, he began to work it out based on the bottle’s size and volume of water, used the bottle as a prop and described his thought process.
It’s thought that a bad hire can cost an organisation anywhere up to three or four times the employee’s salary. If that’s the risk, they should, as much as is possible, make sure they’re getting the best person for the job by asking questions relevant to the role that interrogate the candidate’s experience, and deliver measurable evidence.
I’ve told you what to do if you get thrown one of those showoff curve balls – at the time. Afterwards, though, you might ask yourself if you really want to work for people whose approach to hiring is demonstrably crazy.
Eoghan McDermott is a Director of the Communications Clinic and is Head of Training and Careers there. You can follow him on Twitter here. www.communicationsclinic.ie
“What would you do if you found a penguin in the freezer?”
I’d probably make a coffee and eat it.
My freezer isn’t a chest freezer so the only penguin that could be in it would be the biscuit variety,
You’d eat a frozen Penguin bar? I’m not sure if you’re hiring material.
Oh yeah, I would too. They are a little crunchier and cold. Goes great with a cup of tea. Frozen chocolate bars are lovely.
Does the penguin know he’s in a freezer & did he get there himself or did someone put him there, and if someone put him there, what was their motive?
Are my frozen jelly pops still in there?
In the spirit of stupidity, a sensible answer to the penguin would be; “I’d be having serious words with my pet Polar Bear”. After all, she had assured me there would be no more of this sort of behaviour”.
Charge him rent of course
Interviews are HR trying to justify their jobs at this stage. The qualifications required for some jobs now dont match the actual job but its because there is a large pool of people looking for work to choose from. Its an employers market.
If i had a company the interview would be informal and its sole purpose would be to ensure that the person was a reasonable character. The real test if they were appropriate would come in the 3 month probation period when they start the job.
I once had an interview for a hotel where the HR woman asked a 16 year old me what my achievements in life were to date and where do i see myself in 10 years. I got the job, washing pots in the kitchen.
I disagree with HR trying to justify their jobs with these interviews Shane, with the legal system getting softer towards every sob story that exists employers have never been in greater need of a proper HR function to ensure that everything is done by the book. If an employer wants HR to conduct interviews asking inane questions like this then HR will no doubt oblige them but this is a cultural issue that comes from the very top of the organisation. Also depending on the industry you work in just giving out a 3 month probation and hoping for the best is an insane way of judging potential employees, you’re wasting a huge amount of money and more importantly time and with a properly conducted search you might see huge value with a proper HR function.
I take it you work in HR Teddington! You’re definitely right about HR being on the front line with the legal system.
The HR in my company have to put up with an awful lot. You’d want some patience to be dealing with some of the issues I’ve heard about. school yard stuff……
I still believe in giving people a chance to prove themselves based on their work rather than an interview though. The pressure of an interview can cause some people to fall apart which isn’t reasonable if the job doesn’t require you to perform under pressure in front of people!
Remember that it’s not always about HR! Some of the weirdest encounters I’ve had are from prospective Line Managers who are based I’m HR
I once shared a house with a smart techie guy who was ace in interviews.
He could talk the talk and would get past all those difficult questions.
He was lazy as sin though and would frequently have to miss work due to a sore throat, especially on sunny days.
A properly researched reference on absence time with his previous employer would have rooted that out.
That’s totally not legal to get from a previous employer
They probably wouldn’t have time to check his attendance record when they spend so much time talking about penguins.
Is the Penguin dead or alive?
Catatonic Catherine, the penguin is catatonic!
I once knew a person who owned a foul mouthed parrot. Sick of the parrots rude comments he stuck it in the freezer for a time out. The parrot cursed and screeched going crazy, after a minute it stopped. The man worried he had killed the bird so opened the freezer. There before him stud a very meek parrot. The man asked if he learned his lesson and if he was going to stop cursing and the parrot said “I am, but tell me what did the turkey do?”
*please note, this person is fictitious, none of these events occurred, a parrot wasn’t harmed in the making of this story.
As for the turkey?
It’s Schrödinger’s penguin
If I saw a penguin in the fridge I’d be checking the bread for mould
Is “Catatonic Catherine” her nickname?
Personally I find the “Can you think of a time when you lead a team/project/initiative” questions equally uninspiring, and they invite pre-canned answers.
I’ve done a few technical interviews and I’m more interested in why people make decisions in their role, rather than what they have done or what they claim to have done. The reason for this is that, if motivated, I could easily represent myself as doing the role of any number of my colleagues, peers and seniors.
So rather than someone telling me the story of the team they lead, which was of course faced with adversity through no fault of the candidate, but persevered nonetheless, I’m far more interested in discussing what they’ve observed around them in their workplace, what could be done better, where do they think there’s overkill in the process. If I’m testing a skill such as business requirements analysis I will try to lead them to the answer, because I’m trying to get into a conversation about the ups and downs of the process – that’s how I’ll know how much experience they have, and that’s how I’ll know if they were a leader or just part of the team.
“Can you think of a time when you” would put me off a job, if uttered from the hiring manager’s mouth. It’s fine for testing the communications skills of a recent grad, or junior hire, but if someone asks that of people with 5, 10 or more years experience it sends alarms bells to me that the management team are uninspiring and/or clueless to the nature of the role.
It’s a two-way sales process, and hiring companies would do well to remember that.
Int. What is your biggest fault
Me. I speak my mind.
Int. That’s not a fault
Me. I don’t give a fcuk what you think
Interesting article! Not sure I agree that such questions are totally pointless, but yes the bit about making the interviewer feel smart is probably true!
Please enlighten us then ?
Aldi use horrible interview methods, they make you do a number of tests before you are interviewed like mental arithmetic and problem solving type things. I did all those fairly easily and then when I went in for the interview the guy says ” you did very well in your tests well done, I was very surprised you did so well actually as you really didn’t do very well in your leaving certificate did you?” It his was the first tho g he said to me, totally wanted to put me off my game and make me nervous or see would I be rude back to him. I just said actually I
( hit submit too soon! ) …did great in my leaving thanks very much! I didn’t get the job and I was glad!!
I would have thought it prudent that Aldi, being a supermarket, would assess potential employees aptitude, being the volumes of money transacted by them daily. It’s normal in corporate business to sit such tests, as well as psychometric testing to see if the prospective employee matches the companies perceived best fit. New employees are expensive, what with the extra time and effort in training. These tests help companies make a more educated decision on hiring, as it is very difficult to sack someone these days, with employees enjoying better protection than ever before under the law.
I must agree, throwing someone off is a basic technique for interviewing or seeing how they react to a perceived insult. If you were dealing with a customer you would have to keep your cool and this is a standard interview method to see if you can when provoked.
What would I do if I found a penguin in my freezer? Well that depends on what the penguin is doing in there. If he is moving in, I suppose I would charge him appropriate rent for subletting the area.
Heard of some truely ‘up their own arse’ interview questions. HR tends to be filled with very bitter pills who scramble and muddy the waters to justify their positions.
What would you do if you found a penguin in the freezer? well, i’d put it in the fridge till its defrosted and then roast it for approx 20mins per 500g plus 20mins. I doubt there’d be much meat on it though
I’d push him to one side and ask him where’s the polar bear gone??
The Final Solution? Jesus, that caused a bit of a problem in Germany a while back.
Perfectly good questions for a 4 year old.
I’d walk out – not the sort of company I would want to conform to.
Went for a junior manager supervisor interview in one of those discount stores that has grown big in past few years. Guy in his late twenties doing the interview thought he was amazing because he was on 28k a year, although the poor fitted suit he was wearing would state otherwise. Was hit a lot of bs questions about the gap in my employment history and didn’t get the job in the end. Delighted as better opportunity came along and haven’t looked back since.
Would much rather fight a horse sized duck, then you have only one adversary but 100 duck sized horses would be impossible to fight a heap of 2 ft horses would make shite of Ya. Unless you went one horse at a time and then it could work
You take on the horse sized duck pretty simple a duck that size couldn’t move as it would over heat and couldn’t support its own weight.where as small horses did exist and can function.
Some questions are good in the of problem solving. One big duck(one big problem) 100 small ducks…. How would you deal with unforeseen problems would be more P.C once I was asked to draw I picture of a tree???????
questions that interrogate!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! the candidate’s experience
Please clarify why you see an interview as an interrogation?
Energy signature = Inquisition. Who would want to work for a company that interrogates ?
as the late Terry Pratchett stated, a person’s sanity is inversely proportional to the number of exclamation marks they use.
If a normal person found a penguin in their fridge, a normal person would be shocked and extremely baffled and think they are being stalked or terrorised.
That’s what a normal person would do.
A Google person would have dinner with the penguin. Thank God I’m not a Google person.
A lot depends on the interviewer as well. When you’re stuck for a job there’s no point telling your interviewer that their questions are not suitable.
However if it’s a serious role and you get asked the duck/horse question the best answer is “I’m not sure of the context and would be reluctant to answer without knowing more.” It shows that you just don’t answer for the sake of answering. If you get asked that for a summer job pulling pints, make the interviewer feel smart for asking. If you get asked that by Google, the interviewer already knows that he’s smart so think about the answer”.
If it’s a low level job you need to get filled, you ask nice questions. There’s lots of jobs out there and people seem surprised that you actually want to attract decent employees.
As you go further up the ladder, you can ask harder questions cause the requirements and salary are higher and you want to whittle out those who can’t do it as well as get the right person.
I also ask “What are your weaknesses?” to see if a person has an answer. I don’t pay much attention to it if it’s entry level but having an answer or coming up with one is a good sign. You get to see those who really prepared when you get a good answer here and that makes it worth asking.
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