We’ve all been for a job interviews before where everything was going swimmingly then, out of nowhere, the interviewer throws a curve ball.
United Leeds Endeavours looks at the oddest job interview questions over the last 12 months.
US employment agency Glassdoor has compiled a list of the 25 Oddest Interview Questions and it seems that the technology companies were in a competition to out-do each other this year. United Leeds Endeavours, a direct marketing company with offices throughout the UK, picks their top five from this years list:
“How many people are using Facebook in San Francisco at 2:30pm on a Friday?” -Google
“You're in a row boat, which is in a large tank filled with water. You have an anchor on board, which you throw overboard (the chain is long enough so the anchor rests completely on the bottom of the tank). Does the water level in the tank rise or fall?" -Tesla Motors
"How would you cure world hunger?" -Amazon
“Would Mahatma Gandhi have made a good software engineer?" -Deloitte
"You have a bouquet of flowers. All but two are roses, all but two are daisies, and all but two are tulips. How many flowers do you have?" - Epic Systems
A spokesperson for United Leeds Endeavours believes there is some rationale behind asking questions like these. “When big companies do job interviews most of the candidates will be highly qualified. They need to find something to separate them. Asking thought provoking or unusual questions will separate out the candidates that can think quickly on their feet. There is no way to prepare for a questions like these.”
So it seems that for some of these questions there is no right or wrong answer, rather companies are looking for logic, reasoning and ingenuity. The director of United Leeds Endeavour has one final thing to point out, “There is a correct answer to question two, a couple of our bright-sparks got it, can you?!”
