Dealing with Odd-Ball Interview Questions

I can remember a back in the late 1980’s and early 90’s a famous software company in the Northwestern United States was known for asking odd interview questions. One that sticks on my mind was, “If you were a tree, what kind of a tree would you be?”

At the time it seemed kinda stupid but I had an oddball question of my own that I asked, “How do you change a tire?” One of my clients mentioned in a group session that he was practicing interviewing with his family and his daughter asked him a question: “How do you make a Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich?” Someone else commented that they were asked once in an interview a title of a book they had read.

Someone asked, “Is this a legal question?” and someone else commented that they didn’t think it was fair asking this kind of question. The answer is yes, these are all fair and legal questions. But, why in the world would anyone ask these questions if I’m interviewing for an Administrative Assistant or an Electrical Engineer position? What do these questions have to do with the job?

The reason for the question may or may not make sense to the interviewee, but I am sure the interviewer has a reason. Maybe they just want to see how you would react to the odd question. Maybe the question leads to a discussion that helps them better know you as a person. Or maybe they are looking for something specific.

When I use to ask the changing the tire question, I had actually standardized the question within my organization. I had asked everyone working for me to seriously answer the question in writing. I was running the company’s Quality organization and it was made up of Testers, Analysts and Engineers. The tire changing question helped me understand the candidate’s attention to detail, ability to describe a process and their written or oral communication. Plus, it was a common enough life experience that most people knew or had personal experience with.

BTW, my favorite response to this was, “I’d pick up the phone, call triple A and wait by my car for the service truck.” Other answers involved bicycle tires, old fashioned inner tube patching and a manual pump. The point was that there was no one right answer and many different answers. This is the case for most odd questions that come from left field in an interview. It comes down to how you respond and not the specific detail of the response.

So I’d be an Oak tree. Why? Because an oak tree is big, beautiful and provides lots of shade. This response is what I would have answered if I had been asked the question. Why? because it is who I am. I always say that in an interview you need to be yourself, be genuine. And so I remind you, if you are asked an oddball question... think for a second and give a real answer, then smile and wait for the next question.

Happy Passover, Happy Easter

Job search can be compared with the Exodus of the Israelites. You’re in a desert walking without any sign of the promised land. It may even seem like 40 years you’ve been in transition. It may seem like that yet, more and more people are finding jobs and winning the interview and getting job offers.

In the last seven days I’ve worked with five clients regarding salary negotiations and heard back about three others landing and starting new jobs. Passover reminds us that there is a reward at the end of our suffering. Sometimes we never could imagine what lies at the end of our journey.

That reminds me of the old joke about the Priest stopping in Sister Mary Margaret’s religion class. Fr. O’Brien asks, “Sister may I ask the children some questions about Easter. “Why sure Father, we would be proud to show you how well we’ve learned our lessons, wouldn’t we children?” The children all nodded. So Fr. O’Brien asks, “Could someone tell me what happened on the first Easter?”

One girl up front, Maureen Collins quickly raised her hand and said, “Oh yes, Father, that was when Jesus came into the world.” Both the priest and the nun were dismayed. “No, my dear,” said the priest, “that was Christmas day.” Then another child, a girl named Katy raised her hand and said, “Was that when God invented the Easter Egg Father?” Shaking his head he said, “No, Katy, not at all...” “Surely Sister, you’ve covered the Feast of Easter in class!”

Sister, rather embarrassed said, “Class we discussed this just last week, remember!” The children were all sitting in their seats, looking puzzled. And then finally, with a bit of hesitation Tommy Malloy raised his hand. Quietly he said, “Father, that was a Sunday Morning, eh?” Fr. O’Brien said, “Yes, Tommy, go on...” And Tommy said, “And there was this cave with a great stone in front of the opening...” “Go on Tommy,” the priest said.  “And the stone was rolled away and the Lord Jesus came out of the cave...” “Yes Tommy,” the priest and the nun prodded the lad on in unison.

“Oh, yes, Father, the Lord Jesus came out of the cave, looked around and saw his shadow and we get six more weeks of bad weather! Is that right Father?” said a very proud Tommy Malloy.

Hopefully you’re smiling now.

In Man’s Search for Meaning, Viktor Frankl comments that we can endure as long as we know that we have someone in our corner. What the holy days of Passover and Easter reminds us that we can have hope. That if we are people of faith, our God is with us. If we have family or friends we have people who love us. And regardless of how long you’ve been looking for work, you can and will find a job.

Shalom and good Passover and/or Happy Easter, Pax Vobiscum

Job 2: Get Them to See You Working for Them

Okay, you’ve done a great job so far and they like you. Job 1 is done but creating a favorable impression is the foundation. You’ll need to build upon this and get them to see you working for them. There is an old adage that goes, “The best predictor of future behavior is past performance.” This is where your success stories come to play.

In last blog post of December 2009 I first wrote about using success stories (link one) as a means of telling the potential employer about your value. Then in January 2010 (link two) I offered additional insights to building your success stories for an interview. In this posting, I’d like to focus on how to employ your success stories.

Whether you’ve learned from an inside contact what the company really needs or you’ve gleaned it from the interviewer during the early part of the interview, you want to tell your success story in relation to their needs, problems, or opportunities. In other words, what stories best describe you solving their problems? What stories best describe you answering an opportunity and capitalizing on your action? What stories highlight what you could do to fill a gap in their team or organization?

Tell your story in such a way that the listener is excited by the potential of having you on the team. You must tell that story such, that they picture you doing what needs to be done for them. This is very subtle and it is a common technique used by the great storytellers throughout the ages. Allow your listener, the interviewer, to fill in the details in their own mind just like old time radio allowed the listener to create the scenes of Little Orphan Annie, Jack Armstrong or The Shadow in our parents and grandparents minds.

You do this by offering only as much detail as is needed to set the stage; this allows them to identify your story with their challenge, problem or situation. When the interviewee goes into too much detail about the problem, it draws attention to the differences with the problems that the interviewer is faced with. When the candidate drops the name of the past company or the vendors and customers, it prevents the listener from envisioning current company’s vendors and customers.

Then you end your story by describing the results of the actions you took. Relate how you saved the customer’s business that equated to $100,000.00. Or how you helped a new employee be successful and changed the whole team’s attitude and esprit-de-corps. Or whatever the outcome was in your story.

Telling your stories to interviewers in this way drive home that you are the right candidate for the job. It gives them that material they need to justify hiring you over the others interviewed. They like you best because you were a wonderful guest and provided them with all they need to feel good about hiring you.