Oddball Interview Questions: What NOT to do

Since 2013, Glassdoor has put out their list of Top Oddball Interview Questions, sourced straight from their users. In this episode, The Best Team Wins Podcast producer, Christen Calloway, and host, Adam Robinson, discuss this list’s merits (or lack thereof) in a fun deep-dive into interview questions and styles of interviewing.


Listen to this episode on:

                

iTunes                    Google Play         Soundcloud              Stitcher

 

Need an interview guide without oddball questions? Click here to download our free interview guide.

 

Links:

Glassdoor’s Top Oddball Interview Questions:

2013

2014

2015

2016

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Transcripts:

Adam: Welcome to The Best Team Wins Podcast. Adam Robinson here, and today we have a different kind of episode for you. Christen Calloway, the producer  of the show, is joining me here. We’ll be going through Glassdoor‘s list of top oddball interview questions. Should be fun and exciting, and we may learn a thing or two about some wacky ways to find out what people are made of.

 

We always ask our guests what their favorite interview question is, and out of the 75 questions on this Glassdoor survey that were compiled for this oddball list, only two of them have ever been mentioned on this show before.

 

Airbnb, according to the list, asks the question, “How lucky are you, and why?” This is actually one of my favorite interview questions. We heard Joey Dickstein of Flowers for Dreams mention this question on his episode of The Best Team Wins. Then Red Frog Events, a Chicago company, and also Living Social, a daily deals company now owned by Groupon, “What is your favorite 1990’s song? Perform it for us now.” I cannot imagine the pressure that you must a feel in an interview, when asked to sing a song from the ’90s, which in my esteemed opinion was the worst decade for music.

 

Christen : What? No.

 

Adam: Oh yeah. Then it’s a lot like the question we heard Autumn Berrang at  Adjective & Co. asked, “What is your go to karaoke song?” and her rule of thumb was if it’s Nickelback, you’re out.

 

Christen : I think that’s okay.

 

Adam: Which I can see that, I can see that.

 

Christen : What’s your go to karaoke song?

 

Adam: My go to karaoke song has got to be either, ‘Sweet Caroline’.

 

Christen : Yeah, that makes sense.

 

Adam: Which is easy in a crowd pleaser or ‘Ring of Fire’.

 

Christen : Okay, all right.

 

Adam: Because it’s in my vocal range which is not that wide.  You can basically talk that one.

 

Christen : Right, that’s kind of why I do, ‘Just a girl’ by No Doubt because you could scream it and it doesn’t really matter.

 

Adam: Right.

 

Christen : Yeah.

 

Adam: Performance art.

 

Christen : Exactly and that’s what karaoke is.

 

Adam: That’s right.

 

Christen : It’s performance art.

 

Adam: Well, you’re hired. That’s-

 

Christen : I am curious to know what you think about performing, why would Living Social want somebody to perform that in that moment.

 

Adam: Yeah, you know overall, I think oddball interview questions may have their place but they can also be used to create. massive destruction if used incorrectly.  You have to be real careful with questions like this. Interview question should tell you that the person does or doesn’t have the requisite skills or experience or competencies to do the job. These questions have to be job specific.

 

If the job in question involves public speaking or extemporaneous speaking or some kind of public performance or spontaneity that’s meaningful and predictive of success then I could see where this question might actually tell you something. If you’re just trying to find out if somebody on the spot can come up with the song and sing it you know you’re measuring extroversion or some kind of personality trait. It might be meaningful but it’s not job specific and any time you get into questions that you think are really smart but aren’t job specific you could get yourself into some trouble.

 

Christen : Totally, that makes sense. That’s what I was … I’ve bucketed these questions into some categories and one of those is reasoning.  So, there’s a lot of consulting companies on here that are asking some super weird questions like when a hot dog expands, in which direction does it split and why or how many windows are in New York and things like that.

 

Adam: Well, have you ever had a hot dog split anyway but vertically?

 

Christen : [inaudible 00:04:15] but-

 

Adam: Hot dogs only split … Why, because that’s what hot dogs do.

 

Christen : Well, the questions being asked by Space X. So, I’m guessing that-

 

Adam: wow. It’s space, when a hot dog expands Elon Musk wants to know, which direction does it split and why. Well, it splits vertically.  I suspect, I suspect the answer is because the casing is produced vertically so the point of, what do you call it.

 

Christen : Good thing we don’t work for Space X.

 

Adam: That’s why I’m not building rocket ships but the point of failure the pressure on has got to be the direction that-

 

Christen : In which it was made [inaudible 00:05:03]

 

Adam: In which it was produced. You never see a piece of wood split against the grain, that kind of thing, that’s what I’m guessing. That would be my answer.

 

Christen : Right.

 

Adam: I would not be hired by Space X.

 

Christen : Well, out of all of the recent questions, because there’s a lot on here, I mean a lot, like who would win a fight between Spider man and Batman and why?  That doesn’t mean anything except, like, “Tell me how you came up with that answer.” That’s  also the windows question like, “How am I going to calculate how many windows are in New York?” For me it’s how many people are in New York?  Eight million.  How many windows per person do you think there are? Maybe 10 and then you go from there but all of those questions are consulting companies asking you how do you think? That’s what I think.

 

Adam: Yeah, I agree. They want to look at how you approach the problem.  Are you, in this case, actually like some of these questions because it describes … It gives you the opportunity to showcase how you would compartmentalize a very, very complex large, perhaps less clear issue into component parts that each can be analyzed and solved and then by in doing so you answer the question. Apartments in New York or other questions about jelly beans in a jar. They’re are all very similar types of, can you break big problems into small ones and solve the solvable instead of ponder the impossible.

 

Christen : Totally and then another bucket that I was looking at is, which I think you’ll enjoy is there are some entrepreneurship questions from HubSpot. “If I gave you $40,000 to start a business, what would you start?”

 

Adam: It’s an interesting question. If the job in question requires thought process around investing, budget or capital to produce some end result. I like that question if the person you’re interviewing, is entrepreneurial. They will have thought about this but to ask this question of somebody in an accounting role, you might get an answer, you might also get I’ve never wanted to start a business in my life, before.

 

Christen : Right.

 

Adam: Which is not a bad answer if you’re looking for someone to follow systems and process. It just depends on the job you’re trying to hire for if I had $40,000 to start a business, what business would I start? It’s a pretty interesting question and I would suspect you’re going to get answers all over the map and the most important follow up question to any of these questions is probably, why. I would want to know why someone thought that particular opportunity was a great one and that will tell me whether or not they’re thinking logically about about business opportunity which would be big in executive roles or channel development roles or potentially sales roles.

 

Christen : Another question that I saw that is along those lines is, and I think it’s funny because one of the answers …  Well, we’ll get to it but it’s, if I gave you $2,000 how would you double it in 24 hours? How would you double it in 24 hours?

 

Adam: Well, I’m thinking, how would I double $2,000 in 24 hours? Well, there’s the really quick way which is put it on black and spin the wheel.  I’ve got a fifty, well, not quite.

 

Christen : That was the answer I was thinking of.

 

Adam: I’ve got a 47% shot at doubling my money which, as a last resort, may be that you just spin the wheel. I believe you’d have the opportunity to very quickly buy a bunch of things at a low price and sell them very quickly at a high price on the internet.  That would be, I think the fastest way to double $2,000.

 

Christen : Like scalping tickets or anything like that.

 

Adam: That’s exactly right.  Profiting off of a very short term supply demand imbalance.

 

Christen : Absolutely, otherwise gamble it away.

 

Adam: That’s right.

 

Christen : Then a couple of other things that I thought were interesting is-

 

Adam: It’s not gambling if you win.

 

Christen : Yes, yes. There were a couple of other questions that I thought were interesting, which I’m bucketing in skills based so Marriott International asked, “How would you rate your memory?” For me, I think that’s because they’re customer service based and they want somebody to remember a face and a name and what they enjoyed and things like that.

 

Adam: So the right answer is that, I’m sorry what was the question again, very, very poor answer. How would you rate your memory?  It’s interesting, I think, my memory for faces and places is great. My memory for names is not.

 

Christen : I feel like that’s most people, right. What are they trying to get at?

 

Adam: I don’t know, I don’t know. That’s one of those questions I’m unclear on the goal of the question. How would you rate your own memory and why? We talking long term memory, we talking short term memory?

 

Christen : I don’t know. Marriott, if you’re out there let us know.

 

Adam: It’s interesting, I suspect if you were in customer experience and worked the front desk or the concierge desk or some kind of guest services role and  needed to remember people’s names or their requests that becomes pretty interesting but  that’s a very specific kind of memory.

 

Christen : Yeah, I agree. Another tricky question along those lines, which is asked by Forrester which is a research company.  “If you were to get rid of one state in the U.S. which would it be and why?” I just don’t think that there’s any right answer here.

 

Adam: That’s a pretty controversial question in today’s environment.

 

Christen : Totally.

 

Adam: To throw that out there.

 

Christen : I agree.

 

Adam: If you were to eliminate a state, what state would it be and why? That is a question for which there is no good answer.

 

Christen : Absolutely.

 

Adam: There is no good answer and you should never ask a question in an interview that has no good answer.

 

Christen : Yeah, that has no good answer or is controversial or make somebody feel like you’re trying to this is a potentially politically motivated question.

 

Adam: It could be interpreted as such. My first reaction was, Oh God.

 

Christen : No, thank you.

 

Adam: No thanks.

 

Christen : Pass.

 

Adam: Yeah.

 

Christen : There are some other really-

 

Adam: I like all of our states, they’re wonderful.

 

Christen : Right. That’s the politicians answer.

 

Adam: They are wonderful but they are.

 

Christen : They are, they really are for their own unique reasons.  Urban Outfitters was on here three times, which is funny to me, because I think their questions are all kind of fluffy but also maybe about culture and here they are, there are three of them. Number one, what would the name of your debut album be?  Number two,  pick two celebrities to be your parents and tell me why?  You’re a new addition to the crayon box, what color would you be and why?

 

Adam: I hate all of these questions.  I know Urban Outfitters perhaps styles itself as in the Zeit Geist or in the moment and somebody that can answer these questions is going to be a better service to their demographic or whatever.  I think Urban Outfitters should put these questions on their T-Shirts maybe sell them in a T-Shirt bin.  Maybe we should do that [inaudible 00:12:35] pretty good idea. I don’t like this question.  I hate the what color crayon would you be?  What kind of car would you be?  What color car would you be?  If you were a number, what number would you be?

 

Christen : All the-

 

Adam: Number one, that’s the right answer. Those are all, I think it’s voo doo. I don’t think they have any bearing.  What color would you be? Does that make you better or worse at retail?

 

Christen : Right, and I don’t really even think that they’re great for culture either because what does that matter?

 

Adam: Right.

 

Christen : I’m curious to know if you can provide a little bit of insight on this. Benefits Connect asks, name three previous Nobel Prize winners. I don’t know what, why, why?

 

Adam: It’s interesting trivia.

 

Christen : Yeah but why?

 

Adam: It is interesting trivia and I think I could do it.

 

Christen : So do I but I am not going to do it right now but I want to embarrass myself.

 

Adam: I don’t see any reason why that would be meaningful to a company that does benefits ministration. I think would be extremely meaningful if your company was at all involved in Nobel Prizes.

 

Christen : Yes, absolutely.

 

Adam: Right, or public policy or some kind of a consulting business or product business where there’s actually a meaningful body of knowledge to have.

 

Christen : Right.  Novell asks, how would people communicate in a perfect world?

 

Adam: I’m lost.  I don’t understand. In a perfect world, how would people communicate? The answer might be clearly ineffectively.

 

Christen : Right, that was what I was thinking, open and honestly, just something so straight for … There are some other questions on here about communication, like from Kraft Foods, on a scale of one to ten rate me as an interviewer, which I think is your ability to be open and honest.

 

Adam: Well, critical and appropriately critical.

 

Christen : Right.

 

Adam: Unafraid to provide feedback. I think that’s important, particularly for managerial roles. Now thinking back to the, in a perfect world, how would we communicate question?  Asked differently, might be, what ingredients do you believe are necessary for effective communication between you and a teammate or tell me about the last time you felt you had a tough conversation  but delivered it really well.  What did you say that helped the delivery or when was the last time you really botched a critical conversation? What didn’t you do upon reflection that would have resulted in a better outcome? Those kind of questions, way better than, in a perfect world.

 

Christen : In a world.

 

Adam: How much love does it take?

 

Christen : Right, yeah, absolutely.

 

Adam: That kind of stuff does not belong in an interview situation.

 

Christen : I think that’s a good point. The way that interviewers ask the question, can totally change the response and just not be as effective as it could be.

 

Adam: Interviewers would do well to keep it to the job at hand and to specific experiences of the person they’re interviewing. You go outside of those lines, you start to get into some gray area legally and it’s suspect as to whether or not it’s effective at all.

 

Christen : So another bucket that I created for these is some ethical questions, which I think make sense for banks or whatever. So Jiffy Software asks, “Have you ever stolen a pen from work?”

 

Adam: It’s interesting but boy does it create conflict in the interview. That’s tough because an honest person would immediately think, Oh my God, have I ever taken a pen from work. The answer is probably, yes, but was that stealing? I suppose explaining that in an interview, are they looking for someone to admit?  How do they know for sure?  What if I’ve never used office supplies at work, ever and I say no and their presumption is that I’m lying.  That’s a tough question.

 

Christen : Right.

 

Adam: I don’t like it for that reason.

 

Christen : I completely agree and then this is a similar vein from Kimberly Clark, if you had turned your cell phone on to silent and it rang really loudly despite it being on silent, what would you tell me?

 

Adam: I’m sorry. I’m sorry for that I know that was distracting. It’s not a good quote. What does that have to do with anything?

 

Christen : Yeah.

 

Adam: Better would be, give me an example of a business situation in which an avoidable distraction occurred that you could have controlled, what was it? Very, very different approach to getting at the same information. How do you handle unexpected interruption or when you screw up, can you admit it and do something about it?

 

Christen : Right. Yeah, there are a few other questions on here about honesty and how honest can you be or sincere and things like that. Another question that I thought was really interesting is from Norwegian Cruise Lines, do you believe in Bigfoot? What? I’m sorry, excuse me?

 

Adam: Apparently, Well, it is Norway. Perhaps. Perhaps. Perhaps the troll culture and-

 

Christen : He’s alive and well in Norway.

 

Adam: Well, you know it’s cold. It’s cold and people are big so maybe-

 

Christen : You never know.

 

Adam: You never know. I don’t like that question.

 

Christen : It’s terrible.

 

Adam: I don’t know how that relates to anything.

 

Christen : Absolutely.

 

Adam: It’s interesting. I want to know if somebody believes in Bigfoot.

 

Christen : Me too, but I might have some biases based on that answer, which I think you should steer clear from in some situations.

 

Adam: Sure.

 

Christen : I also like this question from Zoc Doc, “What is your least favorite thing about humanity?” Woof.

 

Adam: Yeah, that’s a downer.  What is your least favorite thing about humanity? It just makes me sad.

 

Christen : Yeah.

 

Adam: It makes me sad to think about.

 

Christen : Yeah, don’t ask that question.

 

Adam: Yeah, don’t make people sad in interviews. How about, what’s the best thing about humanity?  Although, that has nothing to do with the job at hand either.  Let’s try this one,  when was the last time a coworker disappointed you with something they said or did?

 

Christen : I like that.

 

Adam: It’s a better-

 

Christen : It’s a better way, yeah and it’s not so general.

 

Adam: Yes.

 

Christen : It relates to the job.

 

Adam: It relates to the job, that’s correct.

 

Christen : Okay, so I will wrap it up here and I actually I like this question. So Brian Goldsmith was on the podcast once before and he really appreciates the succinct and concise answers from people and so McKinsey & Company asks, when you’re 80 years old, what will you want to tell your grandchildren?

 

Adam: I like that question because it’s a way to ask someone what do they expect the arc of their life to look like? Looking back on your 80th birthday, what will you have accomplished? It’s a great way to get at that information and it helps you understand what the person with whom you’re speaking, what they planned for themself in their life and you can determine whether this opportunity you’re interviewing them for and the career path ahead of that opportunity should they do well, are all dots on the path to get them to where they want to go and so, I like that question.

 

Christen : Me too, me too. It makes you feel good. It’s like, what’s your legacy and what do you want to accomplish with your life?

 

Adam: Right. Other versions of that are you know write your own obituary.

 

Christen : Woof.

 

Adam: What would be epitaph on your tombstone say?

 

Christen : No, thank you.

 

Adam: A little morbid. A little morbid.

 

Christen : We’ll post all of these links in the show description. These were actually compiled from four different oddball interview questionnaires from 2013 to 2017 so I we’ll give those to you guys and Adam thank you for the conversation.

 

Adam: Yeah that’s interesting to go through these questions and what I would say to listeners is if if you’re looking for interview questions to ask, most of these questions are not interview questions that you would ask, Great interview questions need not be wacky to be effective. Make it job specific, make it about the person specific experience with a certain situation that’s tied to the job. You can get really interesting and differentiated with your questioning but don’t do dumb stuff like ask people if you were a state in the union that hated itself, which state would you be or what’s the worst thing about humanity?

 

Christen : Yeah, don’t do that.

 

Adam: Those are not fun questions and they could get you sued.

 

Christen : That’s a good point. I didn’t even think about that.

 

Adam: Keep yourself out of court and I would say focus on the positive, focus on the person, focus on the job and you’re going to be just fine versus Trader Joe’s asking, what would you do if you found a penguin in the freezer?  My answer would be let it out.

 

Christen : Call animal control.

 

Adam: Call animal control, that’s correct.

 

Christen : Absolutely.

 

Adam: Well ladies and gentlemen thanks for tuning in to this special episode of the best humans podcast where I’ve been speaking with producer Kristin Callaway and wacky and oddball interview questions compiled over the years, lots of fun, do not do this at home instead subscribe to the podcast to learn how to do this the right way. Ladies and gentlemen, thanks for listening this has been this week’s episode of the Best Team Wins podcast.

 

Tune in next week to the podcast where we are featuring entrepreneurs and business leaders whose exceptional approach to the people side of their business has led to credible results.  Until then, have a great week this is Adam Robinson author of the book, ‘The Best Team Wins’ signing off.

 

Adam: Welcome to The Best Team Wins Podcast. Adam Robinson here, and today we have a different kind of episode for you. Christen Calloway,producer of the show, is joining me here. We’ll be going through Glassdoor‘s list of top oddball interview questions. Should be fun and exciting, and we may learn a thing or two about some wacky ways to find out what people are made of.

 

We always ask our guests what their favorite interview question is, and out of the 75 questions on this Glassdoor survey that were compiled for this oddball list, only two of them have ever been mentioned on this show before.

 

Airbnb, according to the list, asks the question, “How lucky are you, and why?” This is actually one of my favorite interview questions. We heard Joey Dickstein of Flowers for Dreams mention this question on his episode of The Best Team Wins. Then Red Frog Events, a Chicago company, and also Living Social, a daily deals company now owned by Groupon, “What is your favorite 1990’s song? Perform it for us now.” I cannot imagine the pressure that you must a feel in an interview, when asked to sing a song from the ’90s, which in my esteemed opinion was the worst decade for music.

 

Christen : What? No.

 

Adam: Oh yeah. Then it’s a lot like the question we heard Autumn Berrang at  Adjective & Co. asked, “What is your go to karaoke song?” and her rule of thumb was if it’s Nickelback, you’re out.

 

Christen : I think that’s okay.

 

Adam: Which I can see that, I can see that.

 

Christen : What’s your go to karaoke song?

 

Adam: My go to karaoke song has got to be either, ‘Sweet Caroline’.

 

Christen : Yeah, that makes sense.

 

Adam: Which is easy in a crowd pleaser or ‘Ring of Fire’.

 

Christen : Okay, all right.

 

Adam: Because it’s in my vocal range which is not that wide.  You can basically talk that one.

 

Christen : Right, that’s kind of why I do, ‘Just a girl’ by No Doubt because you could scream it and it doesn’t really matter.

 

Adam: Right.

 

Christen : Yeah.

 

Adam: Performance art.

 

Christen : Exactly and that’s what karaoke is.

 

Adam: That’s right.

 

Christen : It’s performance art.

 

Adam: Well, you’re hired. That’s-

 

Christen : I am curious to know what you think about performing, why would Living Social want somebody to perform that in that moment.

 

Adam: Yeah, you know overall, I think oddball interview questions may have their place but they can also be used to create. massive destruction if used incorrectly.  You have to be real careful with questions like this. Interview question should tell you that the person does or doesn’t have the requisite skills or experience or competencies to do the job. These questions have to be job specific.

 

If the job in question involves public speaking or extemporaneous speaking or some kind of public performance or spontaneity that’s meaningful and predictive of success then I could see where this question might actually tell you something. If you’re just trying to find out if somebody on the spot can come up with the song and sing it you know you’re measuring extroversion or some kind of personality trait. It might be meaningful but it’s not job specific and any time you get into questions that you think are really smart but aren’t job specific you could get yourself into some trouble.

 

Christen : Totally, that makes sense. That’s what I was … I’ve bucketed these questions into some categories and one of those is reasoning.  So, there’s a lot of consulting companies on here that are asking some super weird questions like when a hot dog expands, in which direction does it split and why or how many windows are in New York and things like that.

 

Adam: Well, have you ever had a hot dog split anyway but vertically?

 

Christen : [inaudible 00:04:15] but-

 

Adam: Hot dogs only split … Why, because that’s what hot dogs do.

 

Christen : Well, the questions being asked by Space X. So, I’m guessing that-

 

Adam: wow. It’s space, when a hot dog expands Elon Musk wants to know, which direction does it split and why. Well, it splits vertically.  I suspect, I suspect the answer is because the casing is produced vertically so the point of, what do you call it.

 

Christen : Good thing we don’t work for Space X.

 

Adam: That’s why I’m not building rocket ships but the point of failure the pressure on has got to be the direction that-

 

Christen : In which it was made [inaudible 00:05:03]

 

Adam: In which it was produced. You never see a piece of wood split against the grain, that kind of thing, that’s what I’m guessing. That would be my answer.

 

Christen : Right.

 

Adam: I would not be hired by Space X.

 

Christen : Well, out of all of the recent questions, because there’s a lot on here, I mean a lot, like who would win a fight between Spider man and Batman and why?  That doesn’t mean anything except, like, “Tell me how you came up with that answer.” That’s  also the windows question like, “How am I going to calculate how many windows are in New York?” For me it’s how many people are in New York?  Eight million.  How many windows per person do you think there are? Maybe 10 and then you go from there but all of those questions are consulting companies asking you how do you think? That’s what I think.

 

Adam: Yeah, I agree. They want to look at how you approach the problem.  Are you, in this case, actually like some of these questions because it describes … It gives you the opportunity to showcase how you would compartmentalize a very, very complex large, perhaps less clear issue into component parts that each can be analyzed and solved and then by in doing so you answer the question. Apartments in New York or other questions about jelly beans in a jar. They’re are all very similar types of, can you break big problems into small ones and solve the solvable instead of ponder the impossible.

 

Christen : Totally and then another bucket that I was looking at is, which I think you’ll enjoy is there are some entrepreneurship questions from HubSpot. “If I gave you $40,000 to start a business, what would you start?”

 

Adam: It’s an interesting question. If the job in question requires thought process around investing, budget or capital to produce some end result. I like that question if the person you’re interviewing, is entrepreneurial. They will have thought about this but to ask this question of somebody in an accounting role, you might get an answer, you might also get I’ve never wanted to start a business in my life, before.

 

Christen : Right.

 

Adam: Which is not a bad answer if you’re looking for someone to follow systems and process. It just depends on the job you’re trying to hire for if I had $40,000 to start a business, what business would I start? It’s a pretty interesting question and I would suspect you’re going to get answers all over the map and the most important follow up question to any of these questions is probably, why. I would want to know why someone thought that particular opportunity was a great one and that will tell me whether or not they’re thinking logically about about business opportunity which would be big in executive roles or channel development roles or potentially sales roles.

 

Christen : Another question that I saw that is along those lines is, and I think it’s funny because one of the answers …  Well, we’ll get to it but it’s, if I gave you $2,000 how would you double it in 24 hours? How would you double it in 24 hours?

 

Adam: Well, I’m thinking, how would I double $2,000 in 24 hours? Well, there’s the really quick way which is put it on black and spin the wheel.  I’ve got a fifty, well, not quite.

 

Christen : That was the answer I was thinking of.

 

Adam: I’ve got a 47% shot at doubling my money which, as a last resort, may be that you just spin the wheel. I believe you’d have the opportunity to very quickly buy a bunch of things at a low price and sell them very quickly at a high price on the internet.  That would be, I think the fastest way to double $2,000.

 

Christen : Like scalping tickets or anything like that.

 

Adam: That’s exactly right.  Profiting off of a very short term supply demand imbalance.

 

Christen : Absolutely, otherwise gamble it away.

 

Adam: That’s right.

 

Christen : Then a couple of other things that I thought were interesting is-

 

Adam: It’s not gambling if you win.

 

Christen : Yes, yes. There were a couple of other questions that I thought were interesting, which I’m bucketing in skills based so Marriott International asked, “How would you rate your memory?” For me, I think that’s because they’re customer service based and they want somebody to remember a face and a name and what they enjoyed and things like that.

 

Adam: So the right answer is that, I’m sorry what was the question again, very, very poor answer. How would you rate your memory?  It’s interesting, I think, my memory for faces and places is great. My memory for names is not.

 

Christen : I feel like that’s most people, right. What are they trying to get at?

 

Adam: I don’t know, I don’t know. That’s one of those questions I’m unclear on the goal of the question. How would you rate your own memory and why? We talking long term memory, we talking short term memory?

 

Christen : I don’t know. Marriott, if you’re out there let us know.

 

Adam: It’s interesting, I suspect if you were in customer experience and worked the front desk or the concierge desk or some kind of guest services role and  needed to remember people’s names or their requests that becomes pretty interesting but  that’s a very specific kind of memory.

 

Christen : Yeah, I agree. Another tricky question along those lines, which is asked by Forrester which is a research company.  “If you were to get rid of one state in the U.S. which would it be and why?” I just don’t think that there’s any right answer here.

 

Adam: That’s a pretty controversial question in today’s environment.

 

Christen : Totally.

 

Adam: To throw that out there.

 

Christen : I agree.

 

Adam: If you were to eliminate a state, what state would it be and why? That is a question for which there is no good answer.

 

Christen : Absolutely.

 

Adam: There is no good answer and you should never ask a question in an interview that has no good answer.

 

Christen : Yeah, that has no good answer or is controversial or make somebody feel like you’re trying to this is a potentially politically motivated question.

 

Adam: It could be interpreted as such. My first reaction was, Oh God.

 

Christen : No, thank you.

 

Adam: No thanks.

 

Christen : Pass.

 

Adam: Yeah.

 

Christen : There are some other really-

 

Adam: I like all of our states, they’re wonderful.

 

Christen : Right. That’s the politicians answer.

 

Adam: They are wonderful but they are.

 

Christen : They are, they really are for their own unique reasons.  Urban Outfitters was on here three times, which is funny to me, because I think their questions are all kind of fluffy but also maybe about culture and here they are, there are three of them. Number one, what would the name of your debut album be?  Number two,  pick two celebrities to be your parents and tell me why?  You’re a new addition to the crayon box, what color would you be and why?

 

Adam: I hate all of these questions.  I know Urban Outfitters perhaps styles itself as in the Zeit Geist or in the moment and somebody that can answer these questions is going to be a better service to their demographic or whatever.  I think Urban Outfitters should put these questions on their T-Shirts maybe sell them in a T-Shirt bin.  Maybe we should do that [inaudible 00:12:35] pretty good idea. I don’t like this question.  I hate the what color crayon would you be?  What kind of car would you be?  What color car would you be?  If you were a number, what number would you be?

 

Christen : All the-

 

Adam: Number one, that’s the right answer. Those are all, I think it’s voo doo. I don’t think they have any bearing.  What color would you be? Does that make you better or worse at retail?

 

Christen : Right, and I don’t really even think that they’re great for culture either because what does that matter?

 

Adam: Right.

 

Christen : I’m curious to know if you can provide a little bit of insight on this. Benefits Connect asks, name three previous Nobel Prize winners. I don’t know what, why, why?

 

Adam: It’s interesting trivia.

 

Christen : Yeah but why?

 

Adam: It is interesting trivia and I think I could do it.

 

Christen : So do I but I am not going to do it right now but I want to embarrass myself.

 

Adam: I don’t see any reason why that would be meaningful to a company that does benefits ministration. I think would be extremely meaningful if your company was at all involved in Nobel Prizes.

 

Christen : Yes, absolutely.

 

Adam: Right, or public policy or some kind of a consulting business or product business where there’s actually a meaningful body of knowledge to have.

 

Christen : Right.  Novell asks, how would people communicate in a perfect world?

 

Adam: I’m lost.  I don’t understand. In a perfect world, how would people communicate? The answer might be clearly ineffectively.

 

Christen : Right, that was what I was thinking, open and honestly, just something so straight for … There are some other questions on here about communication, like from Kraft Foods, on a scale of one to ten rate me as an interviewer, which I think is your ability to be open and honest.

 

Adam: Well, critical and appropriately critical.

 

Christen : Right.

 

Adam: Unafraid to provide feedback. I think that’s important, particularly for managerial roles. Now thinking back to the, in a perfect world, how would we communicate question?  Asked differently, might be, what ingredients do you believe are necessary for effective communication between you and a teammate or tell me about the last time you felt you had a tough conversation  but delivered it really well.  What did you say that helped the delivery or when was the last time you really botched a critical conversation? What didn’t you do upon reflection that would have resulted in a better outcome? Those kind of questions, way better than, in a perfect world.

 

Christen : In a world.

 

Adam: How much love does it take?

 

Christen : Right, yeah, absolutely.

 

Adam: That kind of stuff does not belong in an interview situation.

 

Christen : I think that’s a good point. The way that interviewers ask the question, can totally change the response and just not be as effective as it could be.

 

Adam: Interviewers would do well to keep it to the job at hand and to specific experiences of the person they’re interviewing. You go outside of those lines, you start to get into some gray area legally and it’s suspect as to whether or not it’s effective at all.

 

Christen : So another bucket that I created for these is some ethical questions, which I think make sense for banks or whatever. So Jiffy Software asks, “Have you ever stolen a pen from work?”

 

Adam: It’s interesting but boy does it create conflict in the interview. That’s tough because an honest person would immediately think, Oh my God, have I ever taken a pen from work. The answer is probably, yes, but was that stealing? I suppose explaining that in an interview, are they looking for someone to admit?  How do they know for sure?  What if I’ve never used office supplies at work, ever and I say no and their presumption is that I’m lying.  That’s a tough question.

 

Christen : Right.

 

Adam: I don’t like it for that reason.

 

Christen : I completely agree and then this is a similar vein from Kimberly Clark, if you had turned your cell phone on to silent and it rang really loudly despite it being on silent, what would you tell me?

 

Adam: I’m sorry. I’m sorry for that I know that was distracting. It’s not a good quote. What does that have to do with anything?

 

Christen : Yeah.

 

Adam: Better would be, give me an example of a business situation in which an avoidable distraction occurred that you could have controlled, what was it? Very, very different approach to getting at the same information. How do you handle unexpected interruption or when you screw up, can you admit it and do something about it?

 

Christen : Right. Yeah, there are a few other questions on here about honesty and how honest can you be or sincere and things like that. Another question that I thought was really interesting is from Norwegian Cruise Lines, do you believe in Bigfoot? What? I’m sorry, excuse me?

 

Adam: Apparently, Well, it is Norway. Perhaps. Perhaps. Perhaps the troll culture and-

 

Christen : He’s alive and well in Norway.

 

Adam: Well, you know it’s cold. It’s cold and people are big so maybe-

 

Christen : You never know.

 

Adam: You never know. I don’t like that question.

 

Christen : It’s terrible.

 

Adam: I don’t know how that relates to anything.

 

Christen : Absolutely.

 

Adam: It’s interesting. I want to know if somebody believes in Bigfoot.

 

Christen : Me too, but I might have some biases based on that answer, which I think you should steer clear from in some situations.

 

Adam: Sure.

 

Christen : I also like this question from Zoc Doc, “What is your least favorite thing about humanity?” Woof.

 

Adam: Yeah, that’s a downer.  What is your least favorite thing about humanity? It just makes me sad.

 

Christen : Yeah.

 

Adam: It makes me sad to think about.

 

Christen : Yeah, don’t ask that question.

 

Adam: Yeah, don’t make people sad in interviews. How about, what’s the best thing about humanity?  Although, that has nothing to do with the job at hand either.  Let’s try this one,  when was the last time a coworker disappointed you with something they said or did?

 

Christen : I like that.

 

Adam: It’s a better-

 

Christen : It’s a better way, yeah and it’s not so general.

 

Adam: Yes.

 

Christen : It relates to the job.

 

Adam: It relates to the job, that’s correct.

 

Christen : Okay, so I will wrap it up here and I actually I like this question. So Brian Goldsmith was on the podcast once before and he really appreciates the succinct and concise answers from people and so McKinsey & Company asks, when you’re 80 years old, what will you want to tell your grandchildren?

 

Adam: I like that question because it’s a way to ask someone what do they expect the arc of their life to look like? Looking back on your 80th birthday, what will you have accomplished? It’s a great way to get at that information and it helps you understand what the person with whom you’re speaking, what they planned for themself in their life and you can determine whether this opportunity you’re interviewing them for and the career path ahead of that opportunity should they do well, are all dots on the path to get them to where they want to go and so, I like that question.

 

Christen : Me too, me too. It makes you feel good. It’s like, what’s your legacy and what do you want to accomplish with your life?

 

Adam: Right. Other versions of that are you know write your own obituary.

 

Christen : Woof.

 

Adam: What would be epitaph on your tombstone say?

 

Christen : No, thank you.

 

Adam: A little morbid. A little morbid.

 

Christen : We’ll post all of these links in the show description. These were actually compiled from four different oddball interview questionnaires from 2013 to 2017 so I we’ll give those to you guys and Adam thank you for the conversation.

 

Adam: Yeah that’s interesting to go through these questions and what I would say to listeners is if if you’re looking for interview questions to ask, most of these questions are not interview questions that you would ask, Great interview questions need not be wacky to be effective. Make it job specific, make it about the person specific experience with a certain situation that’s tied to the job. You can get really interesting and differentiated with your questioning but don’t do dumb stuff like ask people if you were a state in the union that hated itself, which state would you be or what’s the worst thing about humanity?

 

Christen : Yeah, don’t do that.

 

Adam: Those are not fun questions and they could get you sued.

 

Christen : That’s a good point. I didn’t even think about that.

 

Adam: Keep yourself out of court and I would say focus on the positive, focus on the person, focus on the job and you’re going to be just fine versus Trader Joe’s asking, what would you do if you found a penguin in the freezer?  My answer would be let it out.

 

Christen : Call animal control.

 

Adam: Call animal control, that’s correct.

 

Christen : Absolutely.

 

Adam: Well ladies and gentlemen thanks for tuning in to this special episode of the best humans podcast where I’ve been speaking with producer Kristin Callaway and wacky and oddball interview questions compiled over the years, lots of fun, do not do this at home instead subscribe to the podcast to learn how to do this the right way. Ladies and gentlemen, thanks for listening this has been this week’s episode of the Best Team Wins podcast.

 

Tune in next week to the podcast where we are featuring entrepreneurs and business leaders whose exceptional approach to the people side of their business has led to credible results.  Until then, have a great week this is Adam Robinson author of the book, ‘The Best Team Wins’ signing off.

 

Adam: Welcome to The Best Team Wins Podcast. Adam Robinson here, and today we have a different kind of episode for you. Christen Calloway,producer of the show, is joining me here. We’ll be going through Glassdoor‘s list of top oddball interview questions. Should be fun and exciting, and we may learn a thing or two about some wacky ways to find out what people are made of.

 

We always ask our guests what their favorite interview question is, and out of the 75 questions on this Glassdoor survey that were compiled for this oddball list, only two of them have ever been mentioned on this show before.

 

Airbnb, according to the list, asks the question, “How lucky are you, and why?” This is actually one of my favorite interview questions. We heard Joey Dickstein of Flowers for Dreams mention this question on his episode of The Best Team Wins. Then Red Frog Events, a Chicago company, and also Living Social, a daily deals company now owned by Groupon, “What is your favorite 1990’s song? Perform it for us now.” I cannot imagine the pressure that you must a feel in an interview, when asked to sing a song from the ’90s, which in my esteemed opinion was the worst decade for music.

 

Christen : What? No.

 

Adam: Oh yeah. Then it’s a lot like the question we heard Autumn Berrang at  Adjective & Co. asked, “What is your go to karaoke song?” and her rule of thumb was if it’s Nickelback, you’re out.

 

Christen : I think that’s okay.

 

Adam: Which I can see that, I can see that.

 

Christen : What’s your go to karaoke song?

 

Adam: My go to karaoke song has got to be either, ‘Sweet Caroline’.

 

Christen : Yeah, that makes sense.

 

Adam: Which is easy in a crowd pleaser or ‘Ring of Fire’.

 

Christen : Okay, all right.

 

Adam: Because it’s in my vocal range which is not that wide.  You can basically talk that one.

 

Christen : Right, that’s kind of why I do, ‘Just a girl’ by No Doubt because you could scream it and it doesn’t really matter.

 

Adam: Right.

 

Christen : Yeah.

 

Adam: Performance art.

 

Christen : Exactly and that’s what karaoke is.

 

Adam: That’s right.

 

Christen : It’s performance art.

 

Adam: Well, you’re hired. That’s-

 

Christen : I am curious to know what you think about performing, why would Living Social want somebody to perform that in that moment.

 

Adam: Yeah, you know overall, I think oddball interview questions may have their place but they can also be used to create. massive destruction if used incorrectly.  You have to be real careful with questions like this. Interview question should tell you that the person does or doesn’t have the requisite skills or experience or competencies to do the job. These questions have to be job specific.

 

If the job in question involves public speaking or extemporaneous speaking or some kind of public performance or spontaneity that’s meaningful and predictive of success then I could see where this question might actually tell you something. If you’re just trying to find out if somebody on the spot can come up with the song and sing it you know you’re measuring extroversion or some kind of personality trait. It might be meaningful but it’s not job specific and any time you get into questions that you think are really smart but aren’t job specific you could get yourself into some trouble.

 

Christen : Totally, that makes sense. That’s what I was … I’ve bucketed these questions into some categories and one of those is reasoning.  So, there’s a lot of consulting companies on here that are asking some super weird questions like when a hot dog expands, in which direction does it split and why or how many windows are in New York and things like that.

 

Adam: Well, have you ever had a hot dog split anyway but vertically?

 

Christen : [inaudible 00:04:15] but-

 

Adam: Hot dogs only split … Why, because that’s what hot dogs do.

 

Christen : Well, the questions being asked by Space X. So, I’m guessing that-

 

Adam: wow. It’s space, when a hot dog expands Elon Musk wants to know, which direction does it split and why. Well, it splits vertically.  I suspect, I suspect the answer is because the casing is produced vertically so the point of, what do you call it.

 

Christen : Good thing we don’t work for Space X.

 

Adam: That’s why I’m not building rocket ships but the point of failure the pressure on has got to be the direction that-

 

Christen : In which it was made [inaudible 00:05:03]

 

Adam: In which it was produced. You never see a piece of wood split against the grain, that kind of thing, that’s what I’m guessing. That would be my answer.

 

Christen : Right.

 

Adam: I would not be hired by Space X.

 

Christen : Well, out of all of the recent questions, because there’s a lot on here, I mean a lot, like who would win a fight between Spider man and Batman and why?  That doesn’t mean anything except, like, “Tell me how you came up with that answer.” That’s  also the windows question like, “How am I going to calculate how many windows are in New York?” For me it’s how many people are in New York?  Eight million.  How many windows per person do you think there are? Maybe 10 and then you go from there but all of those questions are consulting companies asking you how do you think? That’s what I think.

 

Adam: Yeah, I agree. They want to look at how you approach the problem.  Are you, in this case, actually like some of these questions because it describes … It gives you the opportunity to showcase how you would compartmentalize a very, very complex large, perhaps less clear issue into component parts that each can be analyzed and solved and then by in doing so you answer the question. Apartments in New York or other questions about jelly beans in a jar. They’re are all very similar types of, can you break big problems into small ones and solve the solvable instead of ponder the impossible.

 

Christen : Totally and then another bucket that I was looking at is, which I think you’ll enjoy is there are some entrepreneurship questions from HubSpot. “If I gave you $40,000 to start a business, what would you start?”

 

Adam: It’s an interesting question. If the job in question requires thought process around investing, budget or capital to produce some end result. I like that question if the person you’re interviewing, is entrepreneurial. They will have thought about this but to ask this question of somebody in an accounting role, you might get an answer, you might also get I’ve never wanted to start a business in my life, before.

 

Christen : Right.

 

Adam: Which is not a bad answer if you’re looking for someone to follow systems and process. It just depends on the job you’re trying to hire for if I had $40,000 to start a business, what business would I start? It’s a pretty interesting question and I would suspect you’re going to get answers all over the map and the most important follow up question to any of these questions is probably, why. I would want to know why someone thought that particular opportunity was a great one and that will tell me whether or not they’re thinking logically about about business opportunity which would be big in executive roles or channel development roles or potentially sales roles.

 

Christen : Another question that I saw that is along those lines is, and I think it’s funny because one of the answers …  Well, we’ll get to it but it’s, if I gave you $2,000 how would you double it in 24 hours? How would you double it in 24 hours?

 

Adam: Well, I’m thinking, how would I double $2,000 in 24 hours? Well, there’s the really quick way which is put it on black and spin the wheel.  I’ve got a fifty, well, not quite.

 

Christen : That was the answer I was thinking of.

 

Adam: I’ve got a 47% shot at doubling my money which, as a last resort, may be that you just spin the wheel. I believe you’d have the opportunity to very quickly buy a bunch of things at a low price and sell them very quickly at a high price on the internet.  That would be, I think the fastest way to double $2,000.

 

Christen : Like scalping tickets or anything like that.

 

Adam: That’s exactly right.  Profiting off of a very short term supply demand imbalance.

 

Christen : Absolutely, otherwise gamble it away.

 

Adam: That’s right.

 

Christen : Then a couple of other things that I thought were interesting is-

 

Adam: It’s not gambling if you win.

 

Christen : Yes, yes. There were a couple of other questions that I thought were interesting, which I’m bucketing in skills based so Marriott International asked, “How would you rate your memory?” For me, I think that’s because they’re customer service based and they want somebody to remember a face and a name and what they enjoyed and things like that.

 

Adam: So the right answer is that, I’m sorry what was the question again, very, very poor answer. How would you rate your memory?  It’s interesting, I think, my memory for faces and places is great. My memory for names is not.

 

Christen : I feel like that’s most people, right. What are they trying to get at?

 

Adam: I don’t know, I don’t know. That’s one of those questions I’m unclear on the goal of the question. How would you rate your own memory and why? We talking long term memory, we talking short term memory?

 

Christen : I don’t know. Marriott, if you’re out there let us know.

 

Adam: It’s interesting, I suspect if you were in customer experience and worked the front desk or the concierge desk or some kind of guest services role and  needed to remember people’s names or their requests that becomes pretty interesting but  that’s a very specific kind of memory.

 

Christen : Yeah, I agree. Another tricky question along those lines, which is asked by Forrester which is a research company.  “If you were to get rid of one state in the U.S. which would it be and why?” I just don’t think that there’s any right answer here.

 

Adam: That’s a pretty controversial question in today’s environment.

 

Christen : Totally.

 

Adam: To throw that out there.

 

Christen : I agree.

 

Adam: If you were to eliminate a state, what state would it be and why? That is a question for which there is no good answer.

 

Christen : Absolutely.

 

Adam: There is no good answer and you should never ask a question in an interview that has no good answer.

 

Christen : Yeah, that has no good answer or is controversial or make somebody feel like you’re trying to this is a potentially politically motivated question.

 

Adam: It could be interpreted as such. My first reaction was, Oh God.

 

Christen : No, thank you.

 

Adam: No thanks.

 

Christen : Pass.

 

Adam: Yeah.

 

Christen : There are some other really-

 

Adam: I like all of our states, they’re wonderful.

 

Christen : Right. That’s the politicians answer.

 

Adam: They are wonderful but they are.

 

Christen : They are, they really are for their own unique reasons.  Urban Outfitters was on here three times, which is funny to me, because I think their questions are all kind of fluffy but also maybe about culture and here they are, there are three of them. Number one, what would the name of your debut album be?  Number two,  pick two celebrities to be your parents and tell me why?  You’re a new addition to the crayon box, what color would you be and why?

 

Adam: I hate all of these questions.  I know Urban Outfitters perhaps styles itself as in the Zeit Geist or in the moment and somebody that can answer these questions is going to be a better service to their demographic or whatever.  I think Urban Outfitters should put these questions on their T-Shirts maybe sell them in a T-Shirt bin.  Maybe we should do that [inaudible 00:12:35] pretty good idea. I don’t like this question.  I hate the what color crayon would you be?  What kind of car would you be?  What color car would you be?  If you were a number, what number would you be?

 

Christen : All the-

 

Adam: Number one, that’s the right answer. Those are all, I think it’s voo doo. I don’t think they have any bearing.  What color would you be? Does that make you better or worse at retail?

 

Christen : Right, and I don’t really even think that they’re great for culture either because what does that matter?

 

Adam: Right.

 

Christen : I’m curious to know if you can provide a little bit of insight on this. Benefits Connect asks, name three previous Nobel Prize winners. I don’t know what, why, why?

 

Adam: It’s interesting trivia.

 

Christen : Yeah but why?

 

Adam: It is interesting trivia and I think I could do it.

 

Christen : So do I but I am not going to do it right now but I want to embarrass myself.

 

Adam: I don’t see any reason why that would be meaningful to a company that does benefits ministration. I think would be extremely meaningful if your company was at all involved in Nobel Prizes.

 

Christen : Yes, absolutely.

 

Adam: Right, or public policy or some kind of a consulting business or product business where there’s actually a meaningful body of knowledge to have.

 

Christen : Right.  Novell asks, how would people communicate in a perfect world?

 

Adam: I’m lost.  I don’t understand. In a perfect world, how would people communicate? The answer might be clearly ineffectively.

 

Christen : Right, that was what I was thinking, open and honestly, just something so straight for … There are some other questions on here about communication, like from Kraft Foods, on a scale of one to ten rate me as an interviewer, which I think is your ability to be open and honest.

 

Adam: Well, critical and appropriately critical.

 

Christen : Right.

 

Adam: Unafraid to provide feedback. I think that’s important, particularly for managerial roles. Now thinking back to the, in a perfect world, how would we communicate question?  Asked differently, might be, what ingredients do you believe are necessary for effective communication between you and a teammate or tell me about the last time you felt you had a tough conversation  but delivered it really well.  What did you say that helped the delivery or when was the last time you really botched a critical conversation? What didn’t you do upon reflection that would have resulted in a better outcome? Those kind of questions, way better than, in a perfect world.

 

Christen : In a world.

 

Adam: How much love does it take?

 

Christen : Right, yeah, absolutely.

 

Adam: That kind of stuff does not belong in an interview situation.

 

Christen : I think that’s a good point. The way that interviewers ask the question, can totally change the response and just not be as effective as it could be.

 

Adam: Interviewers would do well to keep it to the job at hand and to specific experiences of the person they’re interviewing. You go outside of those lines, you start to get into some gray area legally and it’s suspect as to whether or not it’s effective at all.

 

Christen : So another bucket that I created for these is some ethical questions, which I think make sense for banks or whatever. So Jiffy Software asks, “Have you ever stolen a pen from work?”

 

Adam: It’s interesting but boy does it create conflict in the interview. That’s tough because an honest person would immediately think, Oh my God, have I ever taken a pen from work. The answer is probably, yes, but was that stealing? I suppose explaining that in an interview, are they looking for someone to admit?  How do they know for sure?  What if I’ve never used office supplies at work, ever and I say no and their presumption is that I’m lying.  That’s a tough question.

 

Christen : Right.

 

Adam: I don’t like it for that reason.

 

Christen : I completely agree and then this is a similar vein from Kimberly Clark, if you had turned your cell phone on to silent and it rang really loudly despite it being on silent, what would you tell me?

 

Adam: I’m sorry. I’m sorry for that I know that was distracting. It’s not a good quote. What does that have to do with anything?

 

Christen : Yeah.

 

Adam: Better would be, give me an example of a business situation in which an avoidable distraction occurred that you could have controlled, what was it? Very, very different approach to getting at the same information. How do you handle unexpected interruption or when you screw up, can you admit it and do something about it?

 

Christen : Right. Yeah, there are a few other questions on here about honesty and how honest can you be or sincere and things like that. Another question that I thought was really interesting is from Norwegian Cruise Lines, do you believe in Bigfoot? What? I’m sorry, excuse me?

 

Adam: Apparently, Well, it is Norway. Perhaps. Perhaps. Perhaps the troll culture and-

 

Christen : He’s alive and well in Norway.

 

Adam: Well, you know it’s cold. It’s cold and people are big so maybe-

 

Christen : You never know.

 

Adam: You never know. I don’t like that question.

 

Christen : It’s terrible.

 

Adam: I don’t know how that relates to anything.

 

Christen : Absolutely.

 

Adam: It’s interesting. I want to know if somebody believes in Bigfoot.

 

Christen : Me too, but I might have some biases based on that answer, which I think you should steer clear from in some situations.

 

Adam: Sure.

 

Christen : I also like this question from Zoc Doc, “What is your least favorite thing about humanity?” Woof.

 

Adam: Yeah, that’s a downer.  What is your least favorite thing about humanity? It just makes me sad.

 

Christen : Yeah.

 

Adam: It makes me sad to think about.

 

Christen : Yeah, don’t ask that question.

 

Adam: Yeah, don’t make people sad in interviews. How about, what’s the best thing about humanity?  Although, that has nothing to do with the job at hand either.  Let’s try this one,  when was the last time a coworker disappointed you with something they said or did?

 

Christen : I like that.

 

Adam: It’s a better-

 

Christen : It’s a better way, yeah and it’s not so general.

 

Adam: Yes.

 

Christen : It relates to the job.

 

Adam: It relates to the job, that’s correct.

 

Christen : Okay, so I will wrap it up here and I actually I like this question. So Brian Goldsmith was on the podcast once before and he really appreciates the succinct and concise answers from people and so McKinsey & Company asks, when you’re 80 years old, what will you want to tell your grandchildren?

 

Adam: I like that question because it’s a way to ask someone what do they expect the arc of their life to look like? Looking back on your 80th birthday, what will you have accomplished? It’s a great way to get at that information and it helps you understand what the person with whom you’re speaking, what they planned for themself in their life and you can determine whether this opportunity you’re interviewing them for and the career path ahead of that opportunity should they do well, are all dots on the path to get them to where they want to go and so, I like that question.

 

Christen : Me too, me too. It makes you feel good. It’s like, what’s your legacy and what do you want to accomplish with your life?

 

Adam: Right. Other versions of that are you know write your own obituary.

 

Christen : Woof.

 

Adam: What would be epitaph on your tombstone say?

 

Christen : No, thank you.

 

Adam: A little morbid. A little morbid.

 

Christen : We’ll post all of these links in the show description. These were actually compiled from four different oddball interview questionnaires from 2013 to 2017 so I we’ll give those to you guys and Adam thank you for the conversation.

 

Adam: Yeah that’s interesting to go through these questions and what I would say to listeners is if if you’re looking for interview questions to ask, most of these questions are not interview questions that you would ask, Great interview questions need not be wacky to be effective. Make it job specific, make it about the person specific experience with a certain situation that’s tied to the job. You can get really interesting and differentiated with your questioning but don’t do dumb stuff like ask people if you were a state in the union that hated itself, which state would you be or what’s the worst thing about humanity?

 

Christen : Yeah, don’t do that.

 

Adam: Those are not fun questions and they could get you sued.

 

Christen : That’s a good point. I didn’t even think about that.

 

Adam: Keep yourself out of court and I would say focus on the positive, focus on the person, focus on the job and you’re going to be just fine versus Trader Joe’s asking, what would you do if you found a penguin in the freezer?  My answer would be let it out.

 

Christen : Call animal control.

 

Adam: Call animal control, that’s correct.

 

Christen : Absolutely.

 

Adam: Well ladies and gentlemen thanks for tuning in to this special episode of the best humans podcast where I’ve been speaking with producer Kristin Callaway and wacky and oddball interview questions compiled over the years, lots of fun, do not do this at home instead subscribe to the podcast to learn how to do this the right way. Ladies and gentlemen, thanks for listening this has been this week’s episode of the Best Team Wins podcast.

 

Tune in next week to the podcast where we are featuring entrepreneurs and business leaders whose exceptional approach to the people side of their business has led to credible results.  Until then, have a great week this is Adam Robinson author of the book, ‘The Best Team Wins’ signing off.