Answer unexpected interview questions

While many interview questions can be predicted, some come at you completely out of the blue, for example: Is a Jaffa cake a cake or a biscuit? How far is the sun from the earth?

Interview questions should be fair and designed to find out if you can do the job. In practice some interviewers come up with very strange questions. Many interviewers believe that ‘clever’, quirky questions sort the sheep from the goats (or, if they are honest, interviewers get bored and want to spice things up). These questions really don’t help predict how you will do the job, but they can show if what happens when you’re thrown into the deep end and how you will fit in with others.

The danger is that you are completely thrown by this kind of question. Let’s be clear – we’re not talking about questions like “what are your strengths and weaknesses?”. Questions like that are difficult, but not unexpected. Some odd questions are actually closely linked to the job, for example: how would you sell me this paperclip? If the job is about selling, influencing, or even improvising on the spot, the question is predictable. So, if you are up for a role which requires you to think quickly on your feet, be ready to sell something (go quickly for the benefits and how owning the paperclip can improve life for the buyer) or argue a case.

If the job requires the skill of quick approximation, be prepared for some mental arithmetic. What’s 12.5% of £50,000 shouldn’t require a calculator. Some oddball questions are tests of approximation, for example how many light bulbs are in this building? or how many pints of milk would you need to fill St Paul’s Cathedral? (yes, there are rare candidates who can approximate cubic capacity like that). Remember that if you are asked to make calculations under pressure it is the thought process that counts, and an intelligent approximation rather than an exact figure is often acceptable.

Fortunately, questions like this are rare. You may well be asked a ‘what if?’ question which is entirely work-related. So if you were up for a hotel receptionist job, you might well have to answer the question how would you handle an angry customer who refuses to pay his bill? One candidate for a technical job was asked if I put you in a sealed room with a phone that had no dial tone, how would you fix it?

Fantasy questions are different because they are unrelated to the real world of work, but sometimes they test lateral thinking: what three things would you take on a trip to Mars? Far more common is the throwaway question at the end of the interview which is supposed to test something of your personality. This could be a straightforward question about the people you consider role models (e.g. which famous person would you love to have dinner with?), or about what you do outside work. Other interviewers believe that ‘off-the-wall’ questions are better at provoking a response: if you were a song, what song would you be? or What’s on your mantelpiece at home? or if you were a car, what model would you be? Ask around for other examples of oddball questions.

How are you going to tackle these questions? People often freeze up when they are faced unusual or unexpected questions. The problem is that this causes an interviewer to have concerns about your ability to improvise under pressure, and also the way you will interact with others.

Here are some tried and tested techniques for handling oddball questions:

If you are going for a job involving any kind of creativity or improvisation, prepare for questions requiring lateral thinking.
Practise the answers you would give to the questions set out in this article.
If you are given a difficult but serious question, ask for it to be repeated, then take your time thinking through your answer.
If you’re asked to calculate something, take a moment and don’t blurt out the first answer.
Don’t be wrong-footed - expect at least one light-hearted question.
Respond with good humour. If you’re asked for a preference (Are you a dog or a cat?) and you don’t have a good answer, you can always say “You’ve got me there. I normally ask ‘what animal in the jungle would you be?’”
Don’t get flustered, because the only wrong answer is where you freeze like a rabbit in the headlights.
Don’t take the question too seriously. A witty, light response works best.
If nothing else, say ‘As I’ll probably think of a great answer on the way home, can I email you later?’
As with the opening of an interview, work hard on keeping a good relationship with the interviewer. Whatever you do, smile.