Career Advice Podcasts & Job Seeker Network

Odd Interview Questions

We’ve all had that one interview question that’s stumped us, left us dumb-founded for any answer to avoid the awkward silence that will haunt us for days that we screwed up. And then there are those questions that interviewers ask and we wonder what does that have to do with anything?

A few I’ve encountered include:
• If you could change the color of the sky, what color would you change it to and why?
• How old are you? [I was too young and dumb to realize this was illegal]
• Why do you want to work here? [So simple, yet sometimes can leave me blank]
• What’s the last book you read?

What questions have you been asked that were left out of your preparation?

Comment by Greg Lachs on August 20, 2009 at 9:35pm: When I was doing Career Services in IT a few years ago, I had a student tell me that one of the first questions asked was "How many gas stations are there in Los Angeles?" (We're in Tampa Bay, by the way.) The interviewer wanted to "test" the "reasoning" skills of someone according to my student. Has to be the strangest one I've heard of.

Comment by Anita Campbell on August 22, 2009 at 12:12pm: One question I was asked was during an intra-company interview. The interviewer asked "Have you ever been lied to and how do you handle it" I thought it a very odd question and answered on a personal level. I didn't get the position but asked the interviewer afterwards what he meant by the question. He said that he wanted to know how I would handle confidential matters and if I was comfortable "lying" to people who asked too many questions about a particular issue. Why didn't he just ask that?
Regarding the initial strange questions, asking about sky color change, it might be a way of determining whether you are open to change and color selections do indicate to some degree the type of personality you are. Why do you want to work here requires you to show you did some research into the company and its products/services. Last book read could indicate a similar personality trait indicator like color selection. HR people have to screen individuals very carefully nowadays to weed out potential psychos.