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1. полезные ссылки
www.jobbankusa.com/interview_questions_answers/...
careerplanning.about.com/od/jobinterviews/a/job...
2. Don't Get Stumped by Off-the-Wall Job Interview Questions
by Katharine Hansen, Ph.D.
Picture yourself in this scene: You're in a job interview. Everything is going better than you imagined it could. You look professional and fabulous. You are totally prepared. You are on a roll. You're nailing every interview question. You feel wonderful rapport with your interviewer. Suddenly, out of the blue she asks you:
"Imagine you could trade places with anyone for just a week. The person could be famous or not famous, living or from history, real or fictional. With whom would you trade places?"
It's all you can do to keep your jaw from dropping. You're stunned. You feel your mouth drying up and sweat forming on your forehead. Your head is spinning, and your mind is a blank. You're thinking, why in the world is she asking me this absurd question?
Welcome to the world of the off-the-wall interview question -- weird, wacky, gimmicky, and off-beat "wild card" questions that seem to have nothing to do with your ability to handle a job. If they're irrelevant to job performance, why do employers ask them?
They want to see how well you can think on your feet. They want to see if you'll get rattled. They may want to test your creativity or sense of humor. They want to challenge you. Employers who ask these goofy questions no doubt may feel the questions do relate to job performance. In creating stress by asking you a weird question, the interviewer may be testing how well you'll respond to the stress of the workplace.
And let's face it; job-seekers have vast resources at their disposal in the form of books, articles, and Web sites on how to respond to traditional and even those tricky behavioral interview questions (See our Job Interview Questions Database and Interview Question Collections.). So interviewers sometimes want to lob a curve ball at you by asking a question that you probably didn't prepare for. In his book, College Grad Job Hunter, Brian Krueger calls these question "dumb" questions, whose purpose, Krueger writes "is to get past your pre-programmed answers to find out if you are capable of an original thought."
Of course, we won't refute the possibility that some employers may just be sadistic and want to see you squirm, or they relish the amusement of seeing how you'll answer an oddball question.
Because an off-the-wall question can be virtually anything, they are nearly impossible to prepare for. Still, some, like the question about being/meeting/dining with a famous person, have been around for awhile and are worth preparing an answer for -- just in case.
The key to responding to an off-the-wall question is not to let it rattle you. Don't adopt a deer-in-the-headlights look if you get hit with one of these funky queries. Simply smile, take a deep breathe, and take a moment to compose your response. A little bit of silence is better than blurting out something even sillier than the question. You don't have to brilliant. You don't have to be witty. Just be yourself and give an honest response. If worse comes to worst, and you absolutely cannot think of an answer, ask if you can come back to that question later. You may lose a few thinking-on-your-feet points, but you'll gain points for handling a difficult situation with poise.
Above all, take comfort in the fact that there is rarely a wrong answer to these offbeat questions. True, some responses can raise eyebrows. When I taught college students and conducted mock interviews with them, I would occasionally get "Adolph Hitler" as a response to the famous-person question. Rather than thinking the student was a Neo-Nazi, I chalked up that answer to a student who probably knows so little about history that Hitler was the only person he or she could think of.
If you can turn your answer into something job-related, that's a bonus, but it's probably above the expectations of the interviewer. For example, if you're interviewing for a finance job and are asked what you'd do with a large windfall of money, you could give a clever response about how you'd invest the cash.
Below, we've provided some sample off-the-wall questions. The first group are questions submitted by readers, along with the answers they used. Be aware that studying this list of questions may be no help at all if you're ever asked a weird question because you may be asked something totally different from any of these questions. The point is to expect the unexpected, and looking over these questions will at least give you the flavor of what might be asked and enable you to do a little out-of-the-box thinking about how you might respond when you're asked a question as strange as these:
Shelley Feakes, resource navigator at Queens Career Resource Center in Nova Scotia, Canada, was asked: "If aliens landed in front of you and, in exchange for anything you desire, offered you any position on their planet, what would you want?"
"I thought about this question for a minute," Feakes recalls, "then responded: 'First I would want to go change my clothes since the aliens just scared the crap out of me! ... then I would for a job as Chief Navigator so I could enjoy coming to Earth and scaring the crap out of other human beings."
Explains Feakes: "My strategy was this: I first thought that it was a psychological question, that the interviewer was trying to see how far up the ladder I desired to be ... then I thought twice and decided that I would express my creativity and go for an answer that was just as odd as the question itself. It must have worked ... I got the job!"
Another reader was not happy about the odd questions she was asked. "I was asked who my heroes were and how I felt about affirmative action in the same interview. Talk about loaded questions! Looking back, it was obvious that I would be required to be very [politically correct] and think just like them to work there. If I hadn't been a single mother and desperate for work, I would have answered, 'I think this interview is over.'" She doesn't remember how she actually did answer, but notes that "Those questions have nothing to do with the ability to do a job and are out of line. I'm probably lucky they didn't hire me because I'm sure I would have been unhappy there."
Still another reader was asked "if you could be any animal in the jungle what would it be?" He answered: "I would be a gorilla so I could be the king of the jungle because it is survival of the fittest in the jungle. I would also be able to climb trees well and get a bird's eye view of what is going on so I could stay abreast of what was happening in the jungle scene." The reader felt the employer liked his response because he got a second interview. "I thought it was a pretty good answer myself," he observed.
More off-the-wall "wild card" job interview questions:
If you could be any character in fiction, whom would you be?
If Hollywood made a movie about your life, whom would you like to see play the lead role as you?
If you could be a superhero, what would you want your superpowers to be?
If someone wrote a biography about you, what do you think the title should be?
If you had to be shipwrecked on a deserted island, but all your human needs - such as food and water - were taken care of, what two items would you want to have with you?
If you had six months with no obligations or financial constraints, what would you do with the time?
If you had only six months left to live, what would you do with the time?
If you could have dinner with anyone from history, who would it be, and why?
If you could compare yourself with any animal, which would it be and why?
If you were a type of food, what type of food would you be?
If you won $20 million in the lottery, what would you do with the money?
If you were a salad, what kind of dressing would you have?
How do I rate as an interviewer?
If you were a car, what kind would you be?
Who do you admire the most and why?
In the news story about your life, what would the headline say?
www.quintcareers.com/wild_card_interview_questi...
3. 10 Sticky Job Interview Situations and How to Handle Them
by Katharine Hansen, Ph.D., and Randall S. Hansen, Ph.D.
Job interviewing can be an unnerving experience, but if you know how to handle some of the stickiest situations encountered in interviewing, you can be that much more confident. Here are 10 of the stickiest.
The Bad Interviewer. Not every professional who conducts job interviews with candidates knows how to conduct an interview effectively. In fact some are downright lousy at it. A bad interviewer might be unfocused, disinterested, unprepared. He or she might dominate the interview by doing all the talking or might ask inappropriate and illegal questions.
The unfocused, unprepared interviewer probably hasn't read your resume and maybe can't even find a copy. This hapless soul doesn't even know what to ask you. Be sure to offer this disorganized interviewer a copy of your resume while asking, “May I take you through some highlights of my career?”
While the bigmouth interviewer is holding forth, make as many mental notes as you can (or jot them down if you've brought a small notepad). Don't show your exasperation; instead be an attentive listener and hang on the interviewer's every word. Try to get a word in edgewise by leaning forward and opening your mouth slightly, advises Anne Kadet on Smartmoney.com. If that doesn't work, even a nonstop talker will likely eventually ask if you have any questions. At that point, you can ask questions or describe your fit with the company and the position based on the mental notes you've been making.
For inappropriate and illegal questions, see No. 6 below and try your hardest to keep the interview focused on your qualifications for the job.
The "Tell Me about Yourself" Question. Of course, this question is not a question at all but a request for a command performance. It's the most commonly asked interview question, yet it frequently still rattles interviewees. The trick is to make your response a succinct summary of information that is specifically targeted to the job you're interviewing for. (Sell yourself!) For example:
"My background to date has been centered around preparing myself to become the very best financial consultant I can become. Let me tell you specifically how I've prepared myself. I am an undergraduate student in finance and accounting at ___________ University. My past experience has been in retail and higher education. Both aspects have prepared me well for this career."
The interviewer is not looking for your autobiography and probably is not interested in your personal life unless aspects of it are relevant to the job you're interviewing for.
The "Weakness" Question. The conventional wisdom about responding to “What are your weaknesses?” used to be that the candidate should spin a weakness into a strength. For example: “I'm a perfectionist and don't believe anyone can do the job as well as I can, so I sometimes have a hard time delegating.” That type of response has, however, worn out its welcome with interviewers. Other approaches include offering a weakness that is inconsequential to the job (such as being a poor speller and relying on spellcheck) or denying that you have any weaknesses that would stand in the way of your performing the job effectively. The former approach may work but be seen as shallow, while the latter sometimes lacks credibility. After all, everyone has a weakness.
An approach that seems to work well is to talk about an area that was once a weakness but that you have worked to improve. Here's how you could frame the perfectionist example above in terms of professional growth: "I tend to be a perfectionist who has had trouble delegating tasks to others, but I've come to see that teamwork and capitalizing on everyone's strengths is a much more effective way to get the job done than trying to do it all myself."
The "Why should I hire you?" Question. The unspoken part of this question is: “Why should I hire you [above all the other candidates]?” This is your chance to shine, to really make a sales pitch for yourself. Use your Unique Selling Proposition to describe what sets you apart from other candidates. The employer will make a significant investment in hiring and training you, so tell the interviewer that this investment will be justified. For example, you could say: "I sincerely believe that I'm the best person for the job. Like other candidates, I have the ability to do this job. But beyond that ability, I offer an additional quality that makes me the very best person for the job -- my drive for excellence. Not just giving lip service to excellence, but putting every part of myself into achieving it. Throughout my career, I have consistently strived to become the very best I can become. The success I've attained in my management positions is the result of possessing the qualities you're looking for in an employee."
"Off-the-wall" Questions, also known as "Wild Card" or "No-Right-Answer" Questions. Occasionally you'll be asked an interview question that's just downright weird and certainly doesn't seem to have anything to do with the job -- for example, a question like this: "If you were an ice-cream cone, what flavor would you be?" Interviewers often ask these oddball questions to see how quickly you can think on your feet and whether you can avoid becoming flustered. Others, unfortunately, ask them because they enjoy seeing interviewees squirm. Still others are amused by the range of creative -- and not-so-creative -- responses they receive.
Don't let an off-the-wall question rattle you. Take a moment to gather your thoughts and respond the best way you can. There is rarely a wrong answer to this type of question, but quick-thinking candidates can turn the response into an opportunity to impress the employer. A response given by one of my former students has always stuck in my head as being a standout answer. The question was: "If you were a superhero, what would be your super powers, and why?" His response: "I think I would prefer to be a superhero like Batman, who doesn't have superpowers per se, but who relies on his intelligence and use of the right tools to get the job done."
Illegal Questions: It's illegal to ask about age, marital status, children, childcare arrangements, and the like, but employers still do -- or come up with subtle ways to ask, such as by inquiring about when you graduated from high school/college. It's best to address the concern behind the question rather than the question itself by saying something like: "There is nothing about my personal status that would get in the way of my doing a great job for your company." While it may also be tempting to point out the illegality of the question, doing so likely won't endear you to the interviewer.
Salary Questions: As a screening device, interviewers often ask early in the interview what salary you are looking for. If you ask for more than the employer is willing to pay (or occasionally, on the flip side, undervalue yourself), the interviewer can eliminate you before spending a lot of time with you. That's why the best tactic for salary questions is to delay responding to them as long as possible -- ideally until after the employer makes an offer. Try to deflect salary questions with a response like this: "I applied for this position because I am very interested in the job and your company, and I know I can make an immediate impact once on the job, but I'd like to table salary discussions until we are both sure I'm right for the job." Read more in our Salary Negotiation and Job Offer Tutorial.
Questions about Being Terminated from a Previous Job. It's always uncomfortable to be asked your reasons for leaving a job from which you were terminated. Don't lie about it, but don't dwell on it either. You could explain that you and the company were not a good fit, hence your performance suffered. Or that you and your supervisor had differing viewpoints. Emphasize what you learned from the experience that will prevent you from repeating it and ensure that you will perform well in the future. Read more about handling termination.
Questions about Reasons for Leaving a Current Job. This question is similar to the previous question, even if you haven't been fired. Responses about fit with the company and differing views from your supervisor can also work here, but remember never to trash a current employer. Always speak positively about past and present employers even if your experience has not been positive with them. Another good response in this situation is to say that you determined you had grown as much as you could in that job and you are ready for new challenges.
Questions about the Future. Interviewees are often asked, "Where do you see yourself in five (or 10) years?" Strike a delicate balance when responding to this kind of question, with just the right mix of honesty, ambition, and your desire to be working at this company long-term.
Avoid responses such as starting your own business, running for Congress, which suggest that you don't plan to stay with the company.
It's not totally inappropriate to mention the personal (marriage, family), but focus mainly on professional goals. Mention your career and company goals first, and tack on any mention of marriage and family at the end.
Your response could be: "I'm here to let you know that I am the best person for the job. If in the future you feel I would be a candidate for a higher level position, I know I wouldn't be passed up."
OR: "I hope to stay at the company and expect that in five years, I'll make a significant advance in the organization."
OR: "I would like to become the very best ______________ your company has."
And then there's my personal favorite, which a student told me a friend had used. Asked by the interviewer, "Where do you see yourself in five years?" The response: "Celebrating the five-year anniversary of your asking me this question!" While the response probably made the interviewer laugh, it's probably not the best answer.
Final thoughts. Job-seekers need to think of each interview question as an opportunity to showcase an accomplishment or strength. Every response should build momentum toward convincing the interviewer that you deserve to advance to the next level, whether that level is another round of interviews or a job offer.
+ Describe a problem situation and how you solved it.
Sometimes it is hard to come up with a response to this request, particularly if you are coming straight from college and do not have professional experience. Interviewers want to see that you can think critically and develop solutions, regardless of what kind of issue you faced. Even if your problem was not having enough time to study, describe the steps you took to prioritize your schedule. This will demonstrate that you are responsible and can think through situations on your own.
What accomplishment are you most proud of?
The secret to this question is being specific and selecting an accomplishment that relates to the position. Even if your greatest accomplishment is being on a championship high school basketball team, opt for a more professionally relevant accomplishment. Think of the qualities the company is looking for and develop an example that demonstrates how you can meet the company's needs.
What are your salary expectations?
This is one of the hardest questions, particularly for those with little experience. The first thing to do before going to your interview is to research the salary range in your field to get an idea of what you should be making. Steer clear of discussing salary specifics before receiving a job offer. Let the interviewer know that you will be open to discussing fair compensation when the time comes. If pressed for a more specific answer, always give a range, rather than a specific number.
There is rarely a wrong answer to these offbeat questions. True, some responses can raise eyebrows. When I taught college students and conducted mock interviews with them, I would occasionally get "Adolph Hitler" as a response to the famous-person question. Rather than thinking the student was a Neo-Nazi, I chalked up that answer to a student who probably knows so little about history that Hitler was the only person he or she could think of.
If you can turn your answer into something job-related, that's a bonus, but it's probably above the expectations of the interviewer. For example, if you're interviewing for a finance job and are asked what you'd do with a large windfall of money, you could give a clever response about how you'd invest the cash.
1. полезные ссылки
www.jobbankusa.com/interview_questions_answers/...
careerplanning.about.com/od/jobinterviews/a/job...
2. Don't Get Stumped by Off-the-Wall Job Interview Questions
by Katharine Hansen, Ph.D.
Picture yourself in this scene: You're in a job interview. Everything is going better than you imagined it could. You look professional and fabulous. You are totally prepared. You are on a roll. You're nailing every interview question. You feel wonderful rapport with your interviewer. Suddenly, out of the blue she asks you:
"Imagine you could trade places with anyone for just a week. The person could be famous or not famous, living or from history, real or fictional. With whom would you trade places?"
It's all you can do to keep your jaw from dropping. You're stunned. You feel your mouth drying up and sweat forming on your forehead. Your head is spinning, and your mind is a blank. You're thinking, why in the world is she asking me this absurd question?
Welcome to the world of the off-the-wall interview question -- weird, wacky, gimmicky, and off-beat "wild card" questions that seem to have nothing to do with your ability to handle a job. If they're irrelevant to job performance, why do employers ask them?
They want to see how well you can think on your feet. They want to see if you'll get rattled. They may want to test your creativity or sense of humor. They want to challenge you. Employers who ask these goofy questions no doubt may feel the questions do relate to job performance. In creating stress by asking you a weird question, the interviewer may be testing how well you'll respond to the stress of the workplace.
And let's face it; job-seekers have vast resources at their disposal in the form of books, articles, and Web sites on how to respond to traditional and even those tricky behavioral interview questions (See our Job Interview Questions Database and Interview Question Collections.). So interviewers sometimes want to lob a curve ball at you by asking a question that you probably didn't prepare for. In his book, College Grad Job Hunter, Brian Krueger calls these question "dumb" questions, whose purpose, Krueger writes "is to get past your pre-programmed answers to find out if you are capable of an original thought."
Of course, we won't refute the possibility that some employers may just be sadistic and want to see you squirm, or they relish the amusement of seeing how you'll answer an oddball question.
Because an off-the-wall question can be virtually anything, they are nearly impossible to prepare for. Still, some, like the question about being/meeting/dining with a famous person, have been around for awhile and are worth preparing an answer for -- just in case.
The key to responding to an off-the-wall question is not to let it rattle you. Don't adopt a deer-in-the-headlights look if you get hit with one of these funky queries. Simply smile, take a deep breathe, and take a moment to compose your response. A little bit of silence is better than blurting out something even sillier than the question. You don't have to brilliant. You don't have to be witty. Just be yourself and give an honest response. If worse comes to worst, and you absolutely cannot think of an answer, ask if you can come back to that question later. You may lose a few thinking-on-your-feet points, but you'll gain points for handling a difficult situation with poise.
Above all, take comfort in the fact that there is rarely a wrong answer to these offbeat questions. True, some responses can raise eyebrows. When I taught college students and conducted mock interviews with them, I would occasionally get "Adolph Hitler" as a response to the famous-person question. Rather than thinking the student was a Neo-Nazi, I chalked up that answer to a student who probably knows so little about history that Hitler was the only person he or she could think of.
If you can turn your answer into something job-related, that's a bonus, but it's probably above the expectations of the interviewer. For example, if you're interviewing for a finance job and are asked what you'd do with a large windfall of money, you could give a clever response about how you'd invest the cash.
Below, we've provided some sample off-the-wall questions. The first group are questions submitted by readers, along with the answers they used. Be aware that studying this list of questions may be no help at all if you're ever asked a weird question because you may be asked something totally different from any of these questions. The point is to expect the unexpected, and looking over these questions will at least give you the flavor of what might be asked and enable you to do a little out-of-the-box thinking about how you might respond when you're asked a question as strange as these:
Shelley Feakes, resource navigator at Queens Career Resource Center in Nova Scotia, Canada, was asked: "If aliens landed in front of you and, in exchange for anything you desire, offered you any position on their planet, what would you want?"
"I thought about this question for a minute," Feakes recalls, "then responded: 'First I would want to go change my clothes since the aliens just scared the crap out of me! ... then I would for a job as Chief Navigator so I could enjoy coming to Earth and scaring the crap out of other human beings."
Explains Feakes: "My strategy was this: I first thought that it was a psychological question, that the interviewer was trying to see how far up the ladder I desired to be ... then I thought twice and decided that I would express my creativity and go for an answer that was just as odd as the question itself. It must have worked ... I got the job!"
Another reader was not happy about the odd questions she was asked. "I was asked who my heroes were and how I felt about affirmative action in the same interview. Talk about loaded questions! Looking back, it was obvious that I would be required to be very [politically correct] and think just like them to work there. If I hadn't been a single mother and desperate for work, I would have answered, 'I think this interview is over.'" She doesn't remember how she actually did answer, but notes that "Those questions have nothing to do with the ability to do a job and are out of line. I'm probably lucky they didn't hire me because I'm sure I would have been unhappy there."
Still another reader was asked "if you could be any animal in the jungle what would it be?" He answered: "I would be a gorilla so I could be the king of the jungle because it is survival of the fittest in the jungle. I would also be able to climb trees well and get a bird's eye view of what is going on so I could stay abreast of what was happening in the jungle scene." The reader felt the employer liked his response because he got a second interview. "I thought it was a pretty good answer myself," he observed.
More off-the-wall "wild card" job interview questions:
If you could be any character in fiction, whom would you be?
If Hollywood made a movie about your life, whom would you like to see play the lead role as you?
If you could be a superhero, what would you want your superpowers to be?
If someone wrote a biography about you, what do you think the title should be?
If you had to be shipwrecked on a deserted island, but all your human needs - such as food and water - were taken care of, what two items would you want to have with you?
If you had six months with no obligations or financial constraints, what would you do with the time?
If you had only six months left to live, what would you do with the time?
If you could have dinner with anyone from history, who would it be, and why?
If you could compare yourself with any animal, which would it be and why?
If you were a type of food, what type of food would you be?
If you won $20 million in the lottery, what would you do with the money?
If you were a salad, what kind of dressing would you have?
How do I rate as an interviewer?
If you were a car, what kind would you be?
Who do you admire the most and why?
In the news story about your life, what would the headline say?
www.quintcareers.com/wild_card_interview_questi...
3. 10 Sticky Job Interview Situations and How to Handle Them
by Katharine Hansen, Ph.D., and Randall S. Hansen, Ph.D.
Job interviewing can be an unnerving experience, but if you know how to handle some of the stickiest situations encountered in interviewing, you can be that much more confident. Here are 10 of the stickiest.
The Bad Interviewer. Not every professional who conducts job interviews with candidates knows how to conduct an interview effectively. In fact some are downright lousy at it. A bad interviewer might be unfocused, disinterested, unprepared. He or she might dominate the interview by doing all the talking or might ask inappropriate and illegal questions.
The unfocused, unprepared interviewer probably hasn't read your resume and maybe can't even find a copy. This hapless soul doesn't even know what to ask you. Be sure to offer this disorganized interviewer a copy of your resume while asking, “May I take you through some highlights of my career?”
While the bigmouth interviewer is holding forth, make as many mental notes as you can (or jot them down if you've brought a small notepad). Don't show your exasperation; instead be an attentive listener and hang on the interviewer's every word. Try to get a word in edgewise by leaning forward and opening your mouth slightly, advises Anne Kadet on Smartmoney.com. If that doesn't work, even a nonstop talker will likely eventually ask if you have any questions. At that point, you can ask questions or describe your fit with the company and the position based on the mental notes you've been making.
For inappropriate and illegal questions, see No. 6 below and try your hardest to keep the interview focused on your qualifications for the job.
The "Tell Me about Yourself" Question. Of course, this question is not a question at all but a request for a command performance. It's the most commonly asked interview question, yet it frequently still rattles interviewees. The trick is to make your response a succinct summary of information that is specifically targeted to the job you're interviewing for. (Sell yourself!) For example:
"My background to date has been centered around preparing myself to become the very best financial consultant I can become. Let me tell you specifically how I've prepared myself. I am an undergraduate student in finance and accounting at ___________ University. My past experience has been in retail and higher education. Both aspects have prepared me well for this career."
The interviewer is not looking for your autobiography and probably is not interested in your personal life unless aspects of it are relevant to the job you're interviewing for.
The "Weakness" Question. The conventional wisdom about responding to “What are your weaknesses?” used to be that the candidate should spin a weakness into a strength. For example: “I'm a perfectionist and don't believe anyone can do the job as well as I can, so I sometimes have a hard time delegating.” That type of response has, however, worn out its welcome with interviewers. Other approaches include offering a weakness that is inconsequential to the job (such as being a poor speller and relying on spellcheck) or denying that you have any weaknesses that would stand in the way of your performing the job effectively. The former approach may work but be seen as shallow, while the latter sometimes lacks credibility. After all, everyone has a weakness.
An approach that seems to work well is to talk about an area that was once a weakness but that you have worked to improve. Here's how you could frame the perfectionist example above in terms of professional growth: "I tend to be a perfectionist who has had trouble delegating tasks to others, but I've come to see that teamwork and capitalizing on everyone's strengths is a much more effective way to get the job done than trying to do it all myself."
The "Why should I hire you?" Question. The unspoken part of this question is: “Why should I hire you [above all the other candidates]?” This is your chance to shine, to really make a sales pitch for yourself. Use your Unique Selling Proposition to describe what sets you apart from other candidates. The employer will make a significant investment in hiring and training you, so tell the interviewer that this investment will be justified. For example, you could say: "I sincerely believe that I'm the best person for the job. Like other candidates, I have the ability to do this job. But beyond that ability, I offer an additional quality that makes me the very best person for the job -- my drive for excellence. Not just giving lip service to excellence, but putting every part of myself into achieving it. Throughout my career, I have consistently strived to become the very best I can become. The success I've attained in my management positions is the result of possessing the qualities you're looking for in an employee."
"Off-the-wall" Questions, also known as "Wild Card" or "No-Right-Answer" Questions. Occasionally you'll be asked an interview question that's just downright weird and certainly doesn't seem to have anything to do with the job -- for example, a question like this: "If you were an ice-cream cone, what flavor would you be?" Interviewers often ask these oddball questions to see how quickly you can think on your feet and whether you can avoid becoming flustered. Others, unfortunately, ask them because they enjoy seeing interviewees squirm. Still others are amused by the range of creative -- and not-so-creative -- responses they receive.
Don't let an off-the-wall question rattle you. Take a moment to gather your thoughts and respond the best way you can. There is rarely a wrong answer to this type of question, but quick-thinking candidates can turn the response into an opportunity to impress the employer. A response given by one of my former students has always stuck in my head as being a standout answer. The question was: "If you were a superhero, what would be your super powers, and why?" His response: "I think I would prefer to be a superhero like Batman, who doesn't have superpowers per se, but who relies on his intelligence and use of the right tools to get the job done."
Illegal Questions: It's illegal to ask about age, marital status, children, childcare arrangements, and the like, but employers still do -- or come up with subtle ways to ask, such as by inquiring about when you graduated from high school/college. It's best to address the concern behind the question rather than the question itself by saying something like: "There is nothing about my personal status that would get in the way of my doing a great job for your company." While it may also be tempting to point out the illegality of the question, doing so likely won't endear you to the interviewer.
Salary Questions: As a screening device, interviewers often ask early in the interview what salary you are looking for. If you ask for more than the employer is willing to pay (or occasionally, on the flip side, undervalue yourself), the interviewer can eliminate you before spending a lot of time with you. That's why the best tactic for salary questions is to delay responding to them as long as possible -- ideally until after the employer makes an offer. Try to deflect salary questions with a response like this: "I applied for this position because I am very interested in the job and your company, and I know I can make an immediate impact once on the job, but I'd like to table salary discussions until we are both sure I'm right for the job." Read more in our Salary Negotiation and Job Offer Tutorial.
Questions about Being Terminated from a Previous Job. It's always uncomfortable to be asked your reasons for leaving a job from which you were terminated. Don't lie about it, but don't dwell on it either. You could explain that you and the company were not a good fit, hence your performance suffered. Or that you and your supervisor had differing viewpoints. Emphasize what you learned from the experience that will prevent you from repeating it and ensure that you will perform well in the future. Read more about handling termination.
Questions about Reasons for Leaving a Current Job. This question is similar to the previous question, even if you haven't been fired. Responses about fit with the company and differing views from your supervisor can also work here, but remember never to trash a current employer. Always speak positively about past and present employers even if your experience has not been positive with them. Another good response in this situation is to say that you determined you had grown as much as you could in that job and you are ready for new challenges.
Questions about the Future. Interviewees are often asked, "Where do you see yourself in five (or 10) years?" Strike a delicate balance when responding to this kind of question, with just the right mix of honesty, ambition, and your desire to be working at this company long-term.
Avoid responses such as starting your own business, running for Congress, which suggest that you don't plan to stay with the company.
It's not totally inappropriate to mention the personal (marriage, family), but focus mainly on professional goals. Mention your career and company goals first, and tack on any mention of marriage and family at the end.
Your response could be: "I'm here to let you know that I am the best person for the job. If in the future you feel I would be a candidate for a higher level position, I know I wouldn't be passed up."
OR: "I hope to stay at the company and expect that in five years, I'll make a significant advance in the organization."
OR: "I would like to become the very best ______________ your company has."
And then there's my personal favorite, which a student told me a friend had used. Asked by the interviewer, "Where do you see yourself in five years?" The response: "Celebrating the five-year anniversary of your asking me this question!" While the response probably made the interviewer laugh, it's probably not the best answer.
Final thoughts. Job-seekers need to think of each interview question as an opportunity to showcase an accomplishment or strength. Every response should build momentum toward convincing the interviewer that you deserve to advance to the next level, whether that level is another round of interviews or a job offer.
+ Describe a problem situation and how you solved it.
Sometimes it is hard to come up with a response to this request, particularly if you are coming straight from college and do not have professional experience. Interviewers want to see that you can think critically and develop solutions, regardless of what kind of issue you faced. Even if your problem was not having enough time to study, describe the steps you took to prioritize your schedule. This will demonstrate that you are responsible and can think through situations on your own.
What accomplishment are you most proud of?
The secret to this question is being specific and selecting an accomplishment that relates to the position. Even if your greatest accomplishment is being on a championship high school basketball team, opt for a more professionally relevant accomplishment. Think of the qualities the company is looking for and develop an example that demonstrates how you can meet the company's needs.
What are your salary expectations?
This is one of the hardest questions, particularly for those with little experience. The first thing to do before going to your interview is to research the salary range in your field to get an idea of what you should be making. Steer clear of discussing salary specifics before receiving a job offer. Let the interviewer know that you will be open to discussing fair compensation when the time comes. If pressed for a more specific answer, always give a range, rather than a specific number.
There is rarely a wrong answer to these offbeat questions. True, some responses can raise eyebrows. When I taught college students and conducted mock interviews with them, I would occasionally get "Adolph Hitler" as a response to the famous-person question. Rather than thinking the student was a Neo-Nazi, I chalked up that answer to a student who probably knows so little about history that Hitler was the only person he or she could think of.
If you can turn your answer into something job-related, that's a bonus, but it's probably above the expectations of the interviewer. For example, if you're interviewing for a finance job and are asked what you'd do with a large windfall of money, you could give a clever response about how you'd invest the cash.
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