When you’re talking to a job candidate, do you ask what superpowers he’d like to have? No? Then obviously you’re missing out on the newly anointed best practice of asking ridiculous questions in the name of thorough interviewing.
It’s not a new trend (Microsoft’s been known for years for its off-the-wall interview riddles), but now it’s hitting the mainstream employer market. Interviewers say it’s necessary to throw candidates for a loop to catch them with their guard down. There’s also the argument that kooky questions force prospective employees to think quickly and creatively — and that assessing how well they do this gives you insight into their future job performance.
Some sample questions (yes, these are real):
- If you were a type of food, what type of food would you be?
- If you had only six months left to live, what would you do with the time?
- If you could compare yourself with any animal, which would it be and why?
- If you could have dinner with a famous historical figure, who would it be?
- If you were a car, what type would you be?
- If you could be a superhero, what would you want your superpowers to be?
- See this pen? You have 5 minutes to sell it to me.
John Hollon, who recently wrote about the topic on Workforce Management, thinks the premise is bogus. “What kind of insight into a person are you going to get if they say if they would rather be the Human Torch than be Plastic Man? I can hardly imagine a serious interviewer listening to something like that with a straight face.” Maren Hogan at Fistful of Talent thinks these bizarre questions have their origins in power, ignorance or laziness. And Joshua Letourneau at RecruitingBlogs says the use of such questions indicates the interviewer’s “IQ rivals that of a prairie dog.”
My take? I think I’d rather hear about a candidate’s relevant past experience than her preference for chocolate over vanilla ice cream. What do you think?
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