How to answer really off-the-wall job interview questions?
 

Reading the glassdoor.com interview reviews of a place where I'll have a second interview next week, it looks like they ask a battery of physics and logic questions that have nothing to do with the sales job for which I'm applying. It looks like they always ask the same questions, so, of course, I Google'd the answers. One of them is something to effect of "Why is the sky blue?" Another is "What can can be said of an object sliding down another object's 45 deg. angle?" Another is "What is your break even point if you roll a die that costs you $1 per roll and pays out whatever you roll?"

I can figure this stuff out with a pencil and paper and a few min. of thinking, if that's the kind of answer they want. I'm not sure if they want to see my thought process, if I just already know the answers or if I came prepared for those questions by doing my homework on glassdoor.com.

How should I answer?

"Why is the sky blue?"

What are you? 5? You should have paid attention in kindergarden. Next question.

Asking a potential sales person questions like this, simple way to test your logic and speed to logical responses.

The sky isn't always blue.

An object sliding down another, at a 45 degree angle, may move only a short distance - or may slide for infinity, depending on the coefficient of friction of the two objects.

Rolling a standard die (with 1 - 6 dots) ALWAYS pays you back even (assuming you get a 1) and any 2 through 6 rolls pays even better! :)

The questions will probably be verbal and tend to see how quickly you can think on your feet.

I know the answers. My question is how to answer the questions? Immediately reply with a rant on blue having a shorter wavelength, scattering better in sunlight and human retina cones? Or try to reason it out loud and not look like I was waiting for the question and had Google'd it in advance.

You answer it, how you want, without over thinking.

Which will serve as the personality measure they're looking for. If you answer how they want, you're the right guy. If not, perhaps you're not the right fit?

I've done this myself in interviews by speaking to what I thought people wanted to hear...it does nobody any favors.

Be yourself

I feel much, much better about a genuine "I don't know" than a bunch of BS. Nobody benefits when BS starts to roll. Let's not encourage it.

Your very own "Kobayashi Maru". Enjoy!

At night time it's not blue.

These are called provocative questions. The reasoning is that they don't care so much what answer you give but they are watching how you respond to the question. The key is to appear mostly unflappable and demonstrate the ability to give short, logical responses to seemingly off-the-wall questions. Pause briefly after each question to compose your response and give the impression of gravitas. Then give a high level summary response. Just don't ramble and don't give inappropriate responses. Treat the wacky questions as though they are no different than "Tell me about your best experience obtaining a sale by adding value to the customer" and you'll do fine.

That's good advice.

I stumbled on 'what animal would you be?' or something like that. WTF? But MRM is right, treat it as any legit question to get to know you and how you think/respond.

That does not always work.

I'd been courted by Nokia for a couple of months.

Finally gave in and went to meet with them.

Everything went great right up until they gave me the psych eval.

It was subtle, they tried to work it into the conversation but I picked up on it right away.

One of the questions was something like 'how do you handle stress in the workplace" I answered honestly, "I have a cape in my office, I put it on and do a lap of the building with my arms out while making engine sounds with my mouth" or "I have a very distinctive voice, I pick up a phone somewhere in the building and page myself to my extension then walk around and watch people try to figure it out"

As I was leaving pretty sure the security guy had been told to shadow me and make sure I got off the property.

I've been on both ends of an interview and have never been asked, and have never asked off-the-wall questions like this. If they are really trying to find out about logical reasoning, good for them. But if they're just trying to be cute, I don't think I'd have time for that sort of company anyway.

I'd stick with "Tell me about the most difficult but successful sale, and talk about the things you did to push it through."

Then again I interview more for tech and sales ops positions, not sales, so off-the-wall questions may be the norm for sales.

Counterpoint: Asking stupid questions that a manager found on Google is a way he or she gets their jollies off making job candidates squirm.

If I were asked that type of question, if I didn't already know the answer (because my mind is full of useless trivia), I would respond with, "If you give me a second, I can search google like you did and find the correct answer. However, I would much rather focus on a discussion on subjects that are more directly related to my job description and how I am the best candidate for that position." Of course that snarky response wouldl likely be the end of the interview, but I hate those types of logic questions that have really nothing to do with the actual job.

Ok - maybe my answer would be less confrontational, but I would try to redirect the interview back onto the job requirements and how I would be a perfect fit for the job. It is never bad to say "I don't know that answer," especially if it does not directly pertain to the skills that are required for the job. With those stupid logic questions, it also may be worth the effort to talk out loud and walk through your logic, but unless the interviewer is equipped with the knowledge on how to interpret your answer, it's back to my original premise: they just want to get their jollies off by making you squirm.

That said, the best math/logic problem I heard was this:
Question: "Frank has 10 donuts. He gives 2 donuts to Christine. What does Frank have?
Answer: Diabetes. :p

-Z-man.

Depends on the company, the connection with the interviewer and you and the general sense of how things are going; then how much I am willing to put up with.

I speak at a lot of conferences, have briefed goofy stuff at high levels: I never go in with a canned patter. I don't imagine you do either. You have done your homework, now it is about the personal vibe during the interview.

Read the room, sense and respond.

BTW, I have hired a few hundred people in my various careers. I always ask them about their parents, then who was their favorite teacher and why. Never fails.

I went to a senior database administrator interview years ago after the phone interview where I knew the lady was reading me questions from some sort of list. The fellow who was her boss started reading the same questions from the same list and I caught him at it and stopped him. I asked him to ask me about real troubles they were having (plenty), what would I actually do and we talked for nearly two hours and I got the job.

My experience with this in panel interview questions; which is a lot over the last 3 years. Questions like the above I ask them qualifiers because it is important to correctly answer their questions. Also it buys you important time to think and find your answer.

Example: Q - Do you consider yourself.....lucky? Me- Depends on what kind of luck we are discussing; Personal or professional ? Further - 1) 'Luck' that you have influenced / controlled 2) Luck where you have no influence or control?

Technical: Q - Tell me the difference between a series circuit and parallel? Me - What voltage type A/C or D/C?


I find that asking the panel to narrow the question, even if my request seems 'obvious' that it really 'throws' the stress back to them. I've had a few interviewers really 'squirm' and go "uh..........well...........................um.... ....hmmm" If there is too much of this within 10-15 seconds I will let them off of the hook and give 2 possible answers based on what I think

I would go with...
"Why is the sky mother****ing blue? Are you mother****res serious? Because the mother****er in charge made it that way!"
But I'm a state worker and it may be different for you.

Here's what I would do. On the first couple, I would politely state that I wasn't positive on my answer, but I think it's...., but I'm not 100 percent. On the third question, I would say "oh, I get this, very interesting, you would like to know how I would answer a question from a client or a potentional client when I might not know the answer, well, here's how I handle situations like that..." Then you get to impress them with your sales skills.

Good luck,
Rutager

I would argue that it worked out perfectly. Would you rather quit your current gig and go through the upheaval of changing jobs, only to find that their culture is a terrible fit? Not being yourself and giving BS answers is a great way to get a job that you really don't want.

My last interviews were in 1973. I don't recall being asked any questions like that.
Jim

You say I don't know.

It is that simple. :)

No one want's to hire a BS'er.

I once got asked (for an engineering gig) which woman I'd most like to be stranded on a desert island with.

I asked the interviewer "how do you know I'm not gay?"

I got the job regardless.

You could have just answered: Hillary Clinton.

Huh? why would I pick her?

Oh wait, thats right, you cant get through one day without spouting off your narrow minded political views on others. Seriously, dude.. get a life and keep it in PARF. P.s. I'm not a Democrat.

Calm down, it would simply be a way to say what you said.

Hiring- I want people who are comfortable in their own skin. Levity never hurts. And if it does, you likely don't want to work there. Wait wait, I take that back. You might want to work there.

It's why I resisted visiting them to begin with, I knew it was not a fit.

Pretty much the only reason I did go was my CEO was aware of the poaching.

Enough people had signed on to Nokia already that I knew my CEO would have known I was there within 5 minutes of me hitting their lobby.

He stopped by my office the next morning and asked "so, what's your plan"?

I said it's not for me, we both know I'm not going anywhere, althoughhh, the compensation package was VERY attractive and I'm going to have a hard time explaining it to the wife if they do make me an offer and I turn it down.

He said "fair enough, I'll fix the compensation"

Said thanks, and that was that.

How to answer really off-the-wall job interview questions?
 

I'm so glad all of my interviews have centered on technical competence and experience - relevant stuff. I wouldn't have any patience at all for this kind of psychological BS. Either I'm a good fit or I'm not. Either I can do the job or I can't. Don't waste my time with this stupidity.

When I give interviews I keep it relevant too. Technical, personality, interests, experience, etc. I don't have time for head games and I don't like having my time wasted. I extend the same courtesies to others.

The psychological BS is so the clueless HR people have something to ask. I've been a hiring manager as well as being an evaluator in many interviews, nobody whose opinion matters puts much stock in them, unless you just make a fool of yourself.

Obviously, they're asking these questions to fk with you, right? See how you handle off the wall questions with grace, can think on your feet, blah blah blah. So you're smart enough to look this crap up (or maybe you genuinely know it off the top of your head). It's not pertinent. So don't give some soul-sucking super-technical answer. No one wants to be bored out of their minds with minutia. That's not good for sales. Instead, give a quick 1 or 2 sentence answer to the question. Answer it honestly (don't make crap up) to show you know the answer, but you don't have to go into details. If they ask follow-up questions, then go ahead and give as detailed an answer for which they're probing.

Plus, I agree with Matt, above.

My company (a well respected company you all have heard of where it is notoriously difficult to get hired) actually has a policy against questions like this in interviews... some people claim they reveal something about the interviewee and how they reason but imho they exist to throw the applicant off their game and make the interviewer feel smart/superior. They are questions asked by people who don't know how to interview.

What is the maximum airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?

I don't think so in this case. This company's CEO does the second round of interviews and he's a pretty well-known and respected guy. You've probably heard of him.

Ha, good skills. I wish I'd thought of this years ago. I always came second or third in their choice :(

If you've done so much homework (good thing), you might know some things about the company you could offer suggestions for or some improvements. If it were me, I might consider telling them you are thorough in preparing for situations that may lead in unanticipated directions and have already done your homework and know about the questions they are about to ask. Then mention some things about the job/company/product about which you might have some positive input on. Or you might tell them you already know what they are going to ask and what the answers are and ask them to think of another question of that type not on their list.

I have been on both sides of this for the residency interview process. I do pretty well when I have a group of people pimping me with random questions. I would not play Torquemada though when I was on the other side of the table though, hence was not asked back to be an inquisitor a second time. One prospect listed welding on his CV, and Bill, one of the other guys with us, has some welding skills. Bill started tossing out questions about welding, then throws in the bogus question with no right answer and the guy gets a little bent because we are talking about metal shop in a surgical residency interview. He got one of the spots. Bill said he did not want to work with anyone who would let him lay BS on them without griping, which sort of makes sense, but was still crap.

We take the "no head game" approach when we interview candidates. However, I hear from more and more people, out in the job market, that potential employers are interrogating interviewees with bizarre questions. I worry that if I find myself in the market, I might actually be perceived as "difficult" or "evasive" if I try to steer the interview towards relevance. I got no time for the mindless jibba jabba...

IMO, Clueless HR people are the reason many good people don't score a gig.

I had an HR lady assure me bc she had been "doing it" for 30 years she knew my motives for employment, despite what she knew was completely incorrect.

Better yet, I have 7 years of sales experience and by no means an expert, but have really polished myself since leaving school. Same HR lady tells me that my sales experience is the same as any exiting college grad because I'm just not old enough. WHAT!?

So they hired a college grad with a mech engineering degree to build a sales territory from scratch. That individual will fail.