Talent Acquisition Blog

How to spot 101 of the most ridiculous interview questions ever

Are you looking for a job or planning a career move? Then you’ll probably have to do some job interviews. So how can you prepare for the process ahead? You can start by researching the role and the company of course. You can also make sure that you have a clear picture of your own career history to inspire your potential future employer. You’ll also have found the ideal interview outfit that portrays you in a professional way.

Few people enjoy the prospect of a job interview.

There are all those questions they might ask you. You can prepare all you want, but until you go into that room, you won’t know whether you’ll be faced with good interview questions - or bad. But here are some tips to help you get the best out of bad interview questions:

Weird interview questions: If there’s a question that completely throws you, you have two choices. 1. Be up front and say you don’t quite understand and ask them to clarify it. 2 Attempt to answer the question on its own merits. Both responses will reflect well on you.

Personal interview questions: Asking personal questions of a candidate is illegal and rude. If you feel uncomfortable, there’s probably a good reason for the feeling. Politely say that you would prefer not to answer the question.

Wacky interview questions: These are the ones that ask you to imagine you’re something else, whether that’s a tree or a brick in a wall. While they may seem wacky, they are usually carefully designed to gain an insight into the way you approach work, so choose your answer carefully.

What are the oddest job interview questions you’ve ever been asked?

What are the oddest job interview questions you’ve ever been asked? Which interview questions left you perplexed, confused and wondering if you’d stumbled into an acting improvisation workshop?

What makes good interview questions (and why these ones aren’t)

The interview question - a classic case of so much relying on so little. So what’s the secret of the interview question? It has to provide insight into your candidate without feeling too contrived and it also has to work within the limits of the law. Here are a few queries made of job applicants and what stops them from being good interview questions:

What star sign are you?
This put candidates on the back foot straight away. If they don’t believe in horoscopes they’ll have to resist the urge to offend you by saying so. The question doesn’t provide any real value and could feel overly personal.

What is the worst mistake you’ve made in your life?
This question is both too extreme and too personal. It gives no clear boundaries and could make the candidate feel uncomfortable - or encourage them to reveal too much about themselves.

Give me a breakdown of all your jobs with exact dates and places, starting from now and going backwards.
Unless they’re applying for a job memorising facts parrot-style, this is an unfair question to ask. There are much better ways of drawing your candidate out about their career experience.

Finding the right person for the job - it’s quite a job.

No matter how long job interviews have been used to recruit people, there are still some rather unusual interesting approaches to hiring. It seems that plenty of daft job interview questions are still being asked. Here are three of the silliest ones:

Think your recruitment approach is ready for 2012? Check these points to ensure that your organisation really is prepared for the demands of recruiting in the year ahead:

Getting human resources advice from the right people is very important. Whether that’s from an industry body like CIPD or from a peer in another organisation. But many companies are overlooking important advice they could gain in-house – just by asking themselves the right kinds of questions. By asking questions that drill down into your recruitment approach, you can gather insights that will help boost your organisation. These include:

Do you have a recruitment game plan ready for the year ahead? No? It looks like an HR game plan is an essential part of every company’s recruitment approach in the year to come. Here are three reasons why:

Ready for the recruitment challenges of 2012?

Prepared to win in the fight for talent and the battle to recruit the people who will help your business grow? If not, here’s a checklist with the key aspects to consider for next generation HR in 2012:

Human resources advice every business needs in 2012

Here’s some essential human resources advice every business can benefit from in the New Year: assess your recruitment approach. Why does this matter so much? Because actively reviewing your recruitment process at every stage will reveal what is draining your resources – and where the opportunities are to optimise your overall HR approach. Here’s how to achieve it: