People usually come across some questions that are considered as the ‘standard interview questions’. These are generally familiar ones which anyone or everyone are expected to answer. Questions such as ‘tell us about yourself’, ‘where do you see yourself in next five years’, describe your biggest achievement’ are that kind of questions which candidates usually feel well equipped to answer. But it becomes difficult for the human resource professionals to differentiate amongst the candidates as they would hear a gamut of responses from the candidates, and further becomes difficult to hire the best one for their organisation.
In the past, job seekers usually enquired about the top interview questions. Now to shake up the routine, the recruiters have introduced some curve-ball questions into their repertoire. These might sound bizarre but they are lot more thought provoking and also will create rich opportunities for deeper questioning. Below are some of the ‘weird questions that recruiters ask.
- How do you rate your memory?
- On a scale of one to ten, rate me as an interviewer?
- If you were a Microsoft program, which one would you be?
- Room, desk and car. which one would you clean first?
The questions might sound a bit unusual and unrelated to the candidates and also can catch a candidate completely off-guard. These are designed to assess a candidate’s analytical thinking as well as the way of viewing the world- with the process of getting to an answer usually more important than the actual answer itself. This can be dealt with more intense thinking than answering immediately. That is expected to be the first thing that a candidate is supposed to do; take time when asked an unusual question during the interview. The interviewer has designed these to intentionally test the candidates and won’t expect them to have an immediate answer at your fingertips.
Always make sure that one have enough knowledge about what the company does and what the role in question aims to achieve. If an opportunity is found to show off technical ability, specialist knowledge or mathematical ability in answering the given question, this is more than likely what the question is designed to do.
These questions, for the most part, are an opportunity to demonstrate the candidate’s powers of lateral thinking. So always make sure to approach the answers with creativity. Some of the questions may have number of possible answers; not all answers are always right or wrong. The candidates must apply reasonable rationale and should answer confidently.