I recall at various times when going through formal job interviews being asked the odd “crazy” question that had little to do with the company or the role I was being interviewed for. They were questions like: “what is the weight — in kilos — of a Sherman tank?”, or “tell me the number of households in Canada that own a VCR?”. The point of them was to determine how you thought and how you could provide a reasonably valid approximation of something by starting with only a passing knowledge of the subject. As an engineer trained to “state your assumptions” and “show your work”, it seemed a perfectly reasonable approach, although being challenged with it in the heat of a job interview adds a whole other dimension to it…
Anyway, I certainly had a good chuckle when I came across the following articles laying out “the 20 craziest job interview questions” and then the related, absolutely side-splitting, hilarious spoof “responses” of a job-seeker…
My personal favorites from the responses: Facebook, Google (love the simplicity!), Lubin Lawrence (interesting question, brilliant answer), Pottery Barn, Diageo, and UBS (if you don’t split your sides with this answer, you are way too strung out). What are your favorites?
And for the active job seekers out there, there is a bit of decent advice about how to handle these types of questions in the first article I linked to. Good luck, and let me know any “crazy questions” you’ve already had to face down in previous interviews…
