When you go for a job interview, it’s always a mystery what questions they’ll ask. Some hiring managers have a set of questions, all typed up, that they ask each candidate. Others like a more free-form interview, where the conversation just flows. And some places want you to present samples of your work, or even solve one of their current problems.
And then, there are hiring managers like these, who ask totally bizarre questions. Glassdoor has gone through their massive database of questions that people have been asked during a job interview in the United States and come up with the ten strangest ones over the past year. I don’t endorse asking any of these questions unless you can justify why it’s valuable to the job. But, go ahead and be glad no one asked you these questions.
1. “When a hot dog expands, in which direction does it split and why?” –SpaceX Propulsion Structural Analyst job candidate (New York, NY).
To read the rest of the questions, click here: 10 of the Strangest True Interview Questions
I hate these kind of questions. They tell the interviewer nothing. They tell me I’m dealing with kooks. I have refused to answer the which animal are you question. It’s demeaning.
Actually, the one about selling hot cocoa in Florida is a great question for sales people. It can get into information around demographics, creative thinking and yes, sales prowess.
I hate these types of questions, too.
I’ve also had:
If you were a cereal, what kind would you be and why?
If you were an animal, what would you be?
If you were a feature in Microsoft, what would you be?
Last time I job searched, I waited and waited and WAITED for someone to ask me the “What tree would you be?” question. I had a very nerdy answer all ready — my thought was that if the interviewer were the hiring manager and he/she knew what a mallorn tree was, we’d get along just fine. 🙂
No one asked the question! 🙁 Though I did get asked what ice cream flavor I would invent. Booooooring!
Ah, Lothlorien! Now I’m going to have to re-read them all again…
Some of these questions I actually like:-)
For the hell of it, I decided to answer all ten of these off the cuff as if I were asked (seriously or no, as I’d assume the interviewer was joking with me):
1. “Lengthwise, because it’s where you embed the ketchup.”
2. “100-duck sized horses, because having so many tiny horses is a childhood dream.”
3. “Where is she? I’ll go ask her for you.”
4. “Cockatiel Infestation.”
5. “I’d ice it an give it a pretentious sounding fake Italian name.”
6. “A partnership with someone who has more money.”
7. “I would marvel at the remarkably astute decision of the penguin to habitate the one appliance made by humans that can approximate it’s natural environment, provided it’s a polar species, in which case, it’s not a very astute penguin at all. So, like, will you need me to unload a truck or what?”
8. “Never give up! Never surrender!”
9. “Quite a lot, I would imagine. Just keep shoving them in until the room’s full and then count them I guess. I’m not an engineer.”
10. “It’s a secret.”