Your Next Job Interview May be Weirder

  • April 19, 2012
  • Fran Stephenson
  • 3 min read

I attended the “Rockstars vs. Roadies, Who Makes a Better Employee?” session at the South by Southwest Interactive Festival last month.

This session was a real stretch for me because I am a one person shop, so I don’t hire people, at least not right now.  A thread which emerged during the session about interview questions got me thinking about interviews today and how the whole structure of interviewing for jobs has radically changed.

The panelists confirmed the continuation of a trend related to interviews and hiring.  That the bizarre, unusual and off-the-wall interview structure is here to stay.

Don’t think this applies to you? Here are the panelists’ favorite screening questions and observations.

Do I want to grab a beer with this person?

Would I want to spend an hour stuck in the airport with this person?

What’s the biggest deal you ever did that fell through and why did it fall through?

They also suggested asking former employers if they would rehire the candidate and measure the time between question and answer. If the former employer hesitates, that indicates a “no” answer regardless of what they actually say.

PR Practitioners who are preparing for interviews need to think and prepare differently. Here are a few resources for prepping for your next job interview.

A recent Forbes article shared what top executive recruiters felt were the top three interview questions.

The Monster Job site offers a very long list of the most used interview questions. Fairly predictable.

It may be more useful to prepare for your next job interview by reviewing some of the weirdest interview questions in this Huffington Post article.

Or have a look at what Toilet Paper Entrepreneur has collected as the best job interview questions.

If you’ve read this far and have clicked through some of the resources, you’ll notice that the traditional questions are nowhere to be found. So, if you’re preparing for a job interview, you might want to prepare to answer some of these:

  • If you were an ingredient in your kitchen, what would you be and why? What about breakfast cereal? Hit song?
  • What color are you?
  • If you won the lottery tomorrow, what would you see yourself doing?

If you’d like to listen to the entire podcast of the session, go here.

What interview questions have you been asked lately? Share some here so we’re all better prepared for our next interview.