In Glassdoor‘s annual review of the top 25 oddball questions, asked at job interviews in 2011, tech companies feature highly. Although there’s just one question from Google on the list, the Wall Street Journal recently profiled the search giant’s interview process, highlighting the trademark strangeness of some of the questions.
Oddest Interview Questions
Mashable reports – The “oddball question,” of course, is meant to challenge the job candidate to think on his or her feet. It forces the interviewee to reach beyond prepared remarks and start engaging in problem solving on the spot. The best “weird” questions still have some relation to the kind of work the position entails. (For example, questions about finding the correct sequence could relate to jobs involving organizational systems.)
1. “How many people are using Facebook in San Francisco at 2:30pm on a Friday?” – Asked at Google.
2. “If Germans were the tallest people in the world, how would you prove it?” – Asked at Hewlett-Packard.
3. “What do you think of garden gnomes?” – Asked at Trader Joe’s.
4. “Would Mahatma Gandhi have made a good software engineer?” – Asked at Deloitte.
5. “How would you cure world hunger?” – Asked at Amazon.com.
6. “Does life fascinate you?” – Asked at Ernst & Young.
7. “Name 5 uses of a stapler without staple pins.” – Asked at EvaluServe.
8. “If you could be a superhero, what power would you possess?” – Asked at Rain and Hail Insurance.
9. “If you were a Microsoft Office program, which one would you be?” – Asked at Summit Racing Equipment.
10. “How do you feel about those jokers at Congress?” – Asked at Consolidated Electrical.
Read full list of 25 oddest job interview questions in 2011 on glassdoor.com
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