Interview Questions - (1 Viewer)

[cubd8]

I've been doing a series of interviews in my role at my company and have asked all of the standard, expected type of questions.

What are some of the 'best', 'challenging', 'interesting', thought-provoking questions that you have asked, or been asked, in a job interview setting?

Today, I'm interviewing a person for a manager position, tomorrow for a business analyst position so looking for a unique question or two, while fair to the candidate, may put them on their toes. These are group interviews so I can't/won't ask anything odd, just looking to see what else is out there from this group.

thank you in advance!!!

 

[Dan Lambskin]

I've been doing a series of interviews in my role at my company and have asked all of the standard, expected type of questions.

What are some of the 'best', 'challenging', 'interesting', thought-provoking questions that you have asked, or been asked, in a job interview setting?

Today, I'm interviewing a person for a manager position, tomorrow for a business analyst position so looking for a unique question or two, while fair to the candidate, may put them on their toes. These are group interviews so I can't/won't ask anything odd, just looking to see what else is out there from this group.

thank you in advance!!!

I was going to suggest asking them what their favorite kind of sandwich is...could probably learn a lot about a person based on their response

 

[RUSF18]

Just make sure any question you plan to ask, outside of the standard ones, is given a blessing from HR. 

 

[Baloney Sandwich]

One I always like is please tell me about a time you disagreed with your boss on a course of action, what were the circumstances, how did you handle and what was the result?

 

[AAABatteries]

Is your mother a prostitute?

 

[Dan Lambskin]

actually one that kind of stuck out to me recently is that the interviewer asked me to rate current and previous jobs, time at college, and home life on a scale of 1-10 (1 being easy to the point of being boring, 10 being chaotic and overwhelmed) and then rate what my ideal job would be on that scale

 

[Peyton Marino]

what dat mouth do?

 

[Mr. Know-It-All]

If you could save only one, would it be your supervisor or a direct report.

 

[MattFancy]

In my previous job, I worked in HR. One of the Lead Business Analysts that would sit on the interview always had a question for other Analysts he was interviewing.

He would ask them, how many barbershops are in NYC? He had no clue what the answer was, but just liked to see how someone would work through in their mind how they got to answer.

 

[Bucky86]

Is it pee?

 

[Jackstraw]

If you had a warning sign on your forehead what would it say? 

 

[Phil Elliott]

Any situational questions on "give me an example of x, and how did you handle it".

A good one to see how they react to unexpected situation, see what their reasoning is and if they ask any clarification questions: "Estimate the total number of aircraft flying in the air right now". 

MattFancy just posted similar question on barbershops in NYC.

 

[brun]

When interviewing candidates who might report to me I would often ask if they could describe a good manager. I felt their answer might be an indicator of how well we might mesh. Not looking for an exact match, just more of feel. Never thought an answer, by itself, might eliminate a candidate until one guy laughed and said, "Is there any such thing?"

 

[George Jefferson Airplane]

Pie or cake?

 

[George Jefferson Airplane]

Do you loofa your particulars? 

 

[Cjw_55106]

I would assume if they got to the interview portion, they have all the credentials. At that point, the most important thing to me is how well they will get along with the team. 

While I dont have anything specific, my questions would revolve around what they like to do and what type of personality they have. 

 

[Abraham]

By the time people interview with me, a few other people in the org have gone over resume and work experience so I pretty much ignore thT completely.  Here are some of the questions I always ask.  (I interview sales people and account manager types. 

- tell me something you are proud of accomplishing that has nothing to do with work or family. Like, you trained for a marathon or read the bible in a year or learned Spanish or something you did just for you, and you finished it. 

- what are you like when you are angry?

- would your spouse or roommate say you are an organized person?

- when is the last time someone told you "no" and why? 

- when is the last time you told someone n"no?"

- how many times do you hit the snooze button in the morning?

- do you learn through books and videos or by "doing?"

- if I offered you $100 to get up and leave and told you it had no bearing on whether or not you get the job, would you take it?

- if you don't hit your number for three straight months, we won't have a conversation.  You just get a box and take your things and go. You good with that?

what is something you know you need to improve but struggle with?

- last thing (stolen from Google) "I've got to go reply to an email.  I'll be back in 60 seconds. When I return you'll have 3-5 minutes to teach me something I don't know about anything you want. (I have never ever had someone suck at this and be a good salesperson.  Conversely, the ones that do a good job always shine in the role.  I can teach you what we do, but I can't teach you to be a gregarious and like able salesperson. Giving someone a chance to present something to me that they know and are comfortable with is, I my experience, the most useful Barometer of future success.)

 

[cubd8]

Great ideas, keep them coming!

 

[wilked]

I almost always open with "I can read about your work and schooling here on your resume, but tell me about you as a person". 

"What are you most proud of in the last year or so?"

"have you identified something about yourself you need to develop recently? What steps are you taking on it?"

 

[Gawain]

How many Home Depots in the USA. I've gotten answers from 200 to 200,000.

 

[Baloney Sandwich]

I mostly interview salespeople and always ask if they are dog or cat people...I never hire cat people.

 

[eoMMan]

Save the dog or the stranger?

 

[kutta]

I like to give them a real issue we are facing and ask how they would solve it. Sometimes it's a spreadsheet that doesn't balance. Sometimes it's code that doesn't compile. Sometimes it's just talking through a design issue. But I let them interact with whoever is trying to solve the problem and just see how it goes. 

 

[wilked]

kutta, does this mean you are in the room observing as another person asks that question?

 

[JoeSteeler]

I like to give them a real issue we are facing and ask how they would solve it. Sometimes it's a spreadsheet that doesn't balance. Sometimes it's code that doesn't compile. Sometimes it's just talking through a design issue. But I let them interact with whoever is trying to solve the problem and just see how it goes. 

what field?

 

[eoMMan]

what field?

Sally in accounting went number 2 in the coed bathroom and got it all over the seat. 

What do you do? What do you do?

 

[E Street Brat]

How many Home Depots in the USA. I've gotten answers from 200 to 200,000.

2274

 

[Ignoratio Elenchi]

How many Home Depots in the USA. I've gotten answers from 200 to 200,000.

I always use at least one question like this, but I try to tailor them to something I've already learned about the candidate, e.g. if they have a baby at home, "How many diapers are sold in the US annually?"  Or if they're a Red Sox fan, "How many hot dogs are sold at Fenway on an average day?"  Stuff like that.  Obviously I have no idea what the answer is, I just want to hear how they'd approach that kind of question.  

The people I hire generally need to be good at Excel, or SQL, or whatever, but I don't ask about those things.  I just set up a simple problem and hand them my laptop to see how they solve it.  Like, I don't need to ask you if you know how to do vlookups or index/match or pivot tables or whatever.  I'll just give them a spreadsheet with 50,000 rows of data and ask them stuff like, how many of these sales came from New York?  Which month had the highest revenues?  Etc.  As long as they can get the right answer in an efficient manner I don't particularly care how (edit: that's not entirely true, but you get the idea). 

 

[kutta]

kutta, does this mean you are in the room observing as another person asks that question?

Pretty much. We usually agree beforehand what issue we will ask them about. Whoever is working the problem puts it on the screen or draws on the whiteboard and we work through it.

 

[kutta]

what field?

Engineering. Mostly defense software.

 

[eoMMan]

I always use at least one question like this, but I try to tailor them to something I've already learned about the candidate, e.g. if they have a baby at home, "How many diapers are sold in the US annually?"  Or if they're a Red Sox fan, "How many hot dogs are sold at Fenway on an average day?"  Stuff like that.  Obviously I have no idea what the answer is, I just want to hear how they'd approach that kind of question.  

The people I hire generally need to be good at Excel, or SQL, or whatever, but I don't ask about those things.  I just set up a simple problem and hand them my laptop to see how they solve it.  Like, I don't need to ask you if you know how to do vlookups or index/match or pivot tables or whatever.  I'll just give them a spreadsheet with 50,000 rows of data and ask them stuff like, how many of these sales came from New York?  Which month had the highest revenues?  Etc.  As long as they can get the right answer in an efficient manner I don't particularly care how (edit: that's not entirely true, but you get the idea). 

Honestly....and no offense... as a job candidate, a question like that would annoy the #### out of me and make me think less of you and the company. I shouldn't be expected to know the answer and something like that could easily be looked up.

My answer to you would be something like "let me get you the correct number from Google".

 

[Ignoratio Elenchi]

I shouldn't be expected to know the answer and something like that could easily be looked up.

My answer to you would be something like "let me get you the correct number from Google".

You're not expected to know the answer.  That's entirely missing the point of the question.  

 

[MattFancy]

You're not expected to know the answer.  That's entirely missing the point of the question.  

Exactly. For analytical type positions, it shows the manager how well this person can think on their feet, think outside the box, analyze data, etc. The answer itself is meaningless. It's the thought process that the interviewers are after.

 

[eoMMan]

You're not expected to know the answer.  That's entirely missing the point of the question.  

I know. You want to hear, "Well, first let me look to see what the average historical hot dogs sales are on that day of the week for Fenway. Then I would need to look up the attendance figures...yada yada bs bs bs".

 

[Ignoratio Elenchi]

I know. You want to hear, "Well, first let me look to see what the average historical hot dogs sales are on that day of the week for Fenway."

That's not really what I want to hear either.  

The point is that if I hire you, I'm going to be asking you questions you can't simply google the answer to.  I'm going to need you to make projections with incomplete, messy and potentially misleading data, etc.  I'll need to you sometimes make estimates using something seemingly unrelated as a proxy.  Etc. etc.  I want someone who can do that, and who likes to do that.  

It's fine if you don't like that type of question - in fact, that probably means it's working exactly how it's intended to.  You wouldn't want to work for me, and I wouldn't hire you.  Win win.  All the good hires I've made seem to thoroughly enjoy this type of question.  

 

[dutch]

Guesstimating:

The population of the US is about 310 million. I figure there's roughly 1% population turnover every year (ballparking that you've got a 1% chance of dying in any one year if you've got a 100% chance of dying by 100; but population growth is positive and there are more births than deaths) so maybe 3 to 4 million babies are born each year. I don't have kids, but I'd guess an average baby is in diapers for 2.5 years. So 3.5m babies*2.5 years= 8.75mil children are aged 0-2.5 and are in diapers on any given day. Times 3 diapers a day times 365 days a year, 9.5 billion diapers are sold in one year.

I think about 35,000 people go to an average baseball game. Fenway's old, though, I don't know how many it holds... maybe 30,000 on an average day? I'd guess a third buy hot dogs, but some buy more than one, so I'd figure it at 40%. 40% of 30,000 is 12,000. 12k hot dogs.

See, I went the route you took for the Fenway hot dogs but I guesstimated a 50% buy rate and came out with 15,000.  I looked up the actuals and the avg. attendance is roughly 34k and the hot dogs sold is 16,400 per, roughly 48%.  We were in the ball park.  IE, you lookin' for some new hires??

 

[eoMMan]

That's not really what I want to hear either.  

The point is that if I hire you, I'm going to be asking you questions you can't simply google the answer to.  I'm going to need you to make projections with incomplete, messy and potentially misleading data, etc.  I'll need to you sometimes make estimates using something seemingly unrelated as a proxy.  Etc. etc.  I want someone who can do that, and who likes to do that.  

It's fine if you don't like that type of question - in fact, that probably means it's working exactly how it's intended to.  You wouldn't want to work for me, and I wouldn't hire you.  Win win.  All the good hires I've made seem to thoroughly enjoy this type of question.  

Okay. We'll just have to disagree on this then.

Good luck in your hiring process.

 

[Ignoratio Elenchi]

Okay. We'll just have to disagree on this then.

Good luck in your hiring process.

Not sure what we're in disagreement about, though.  I ask a certain type of question designed to identify the kinds of candidates I'm looking to hire for a particular role.  You're not that kind of candidate, and wouldn't want to work for me.  Seems like we're on the same page.

 

[Binky The Doormat]

Honestly....and no offense... as a job candidate, a question like that would annoy the #### out of me and make me think less of you and the company. I shouldn't be expected to know the answer and something like that could easily be looked up.

My answer to you would be something like "let me get you the correct number from Google".




 

This is a pretty common approach/question type for many job interviews.  Top firms want to know how their candidate deal with ambiguity and how they approach challenges.  

If the question needs to be something you can't look up in Google ...then great.  But otherwise ...then not so great if you want to move up. 

 

[eoMMan]

This is a pretty common approach/question type for many job interviews.  Top firms want to know how their candidate deal with ambiguity and how they approach challenges.  

If the question needs to be something you can't look up in Google ...then great.  But otherwise ...then not so great if you want to move up. 

That's the thing though...the examples given such as how many hot dogs sold at Fenway, how many home Depot stores, etc....all have EXACT answers. There is no need to waste time thinking about how to get the answer when it's readily available. You're not projecting anything with these types of questions.  

Then as a good interviewer, you should make the question where it's impossible to Google or find an exact answer from another readily available source. 

 

[eoMMan]

Not sure what we're in disagreement about, though.  I ask a certain type of question designed to identify the kinds of candidates I'm looking to hire for a particular role.  You're not that kind of candidate, and wouldn't want to work for me.  Seems like we're on the same page.

And you quickly identified the type of inefficient business I wouldn't want to work for.  : )

 

[Abraham]

That's the thing though...the examples given such as how many hot dogs sold at Fenway, how many home Depot stores, etc....all have EXACT answers. There is no need to waste time thinking about how to get the answer when it's readily available. You're not projecting anything with these types of questions.  

Then as a good interviewer, you should make the question where it's impossible to Google or find an exact answer from another readily available source. 

Why? Most of the challenges my people encounter are things other people have already solved. In many cases I would prefer they go quickly find the answer then try to solve it themselves over a longer time period. 

 

[Poke_4_Life]

Guesstimating:

The population of the US is about 310 million. I figure there's roughly 1% population turnover every year (ballparking that you've got a 1% chance of dying in any one year if you've got a 100% chance of dying by 100; but population growth is positive and there are more births than deaths) so maybe 3 to 4 million babies are born each year. I don't have kids, but I'd guess an average baby is in diapers for 2.5 years. So 3.5m babies*2.5 years= 8.75mil children are aged 0-2.5 and are in diapers on any given day. Times 3 diapers a day times 365 days a year, 9.5 billion diapers are sold in one year.

Just googled it and got this answer...  (FYI, this is a question that Microsoft has been rumored to use in the past.)

The U.S. usues 36 billion disposable diapers annually based on the number of babies born each year (~4.2 million), the fact that most kids wear diapers until the age of 3.5 years, starting at 11 per day and winding down to 5 per day, and assuming 10% of the population uses cloth diapers.

 

[Poke_4_Life]

Yeah, I was way off on diapers per day. Not a parent, and I'm proud to have never had changed a diaper in my life. Trying to keep that streak alive.

If I'd figured on 10 diapers per day, my number would have been 32 billion diapers per year. Pretty close.

Yeah, your analysis was solid.  Just one or two variables were off (3.5 years vs. 2.5 years also).  Your approach was sound.

I'm an analytical person and I love questions like this.

Those and puzzle questions.  Got this one time at an interview:  Person gives you 9 identical balls and one ball weighs more or less than the other eight.  You have an old fashioned two sided scale but can only use it twice.  How would you find the ball that weighs less/more.  (I talked my way through it and got it right, got me the job.)

 

[Ignoratio Elenchi]

Then as a good interviewer, you should make the question where it's impossible to Google or find an exact answer from another readily available source. 

I did make the question impossible to Google, because you're sitting in front of me in an interview setting, instead of in front of a computer.  The fact that the answer exists somewhere else is irrelevant.  I'm looking to see how you would think about answering that type of question (not that specific question, which is why I usually make it something fun and/or familiar to the candidate, since it doesn't really matter what the specific question is.)

Edit to add: And the reason I want to see how you would think about answering that type of question is because that's exactly the type of question I'll often be asking.  If I want to launch a new product in a new market that's never been sold there before, I need to estimate demand so I don't make too much or too little of the product.  You can't just go google how much we'll need, so how would you go about constructing an estimate?  It's not all that different than trying to estimate how many hot dogs you'd need to make at Fenway, or how many diapers you'd need for all the babies in America, if the answers to those questions weren't easily googleable (which they're not, since you're in an interview). 

 

[dutch]

And you quickly identified the type of inefficient business I wouldn't want to work for.  : )

I know this wasn't directed to me but I can tell you with certainty that your straight laced Shelodnesque response identified you as someone I definitely would not want to work for under any circumstance.  You are way to literal even in this off hand setting.  Yeesh.

 

[Poke_4_Life]

I can't come up with an answer to the 9 balls problem in 2 weighings if you don't know whether the oddball is lighter or heavier. If you know it's heavier (or lighter), 2 weighings seems pretty straightforward).

I think I said this wrong, the interviewer must have declared the ball heavier or lighter.  He asked me another one about light bulbs that I didn't get.  

 

[eoMMan]

I know this wasn't directed to me but I can tell you with certainty that your straight laced Shelodnesque response identified you as someone I definitely would not want to work for under any circumstance.  You are way to literal even in this off hand setting.  Yeesh.

Shelodnesque? 

 

[dutch]

Shelly Cooper...bazinga!

 

[Binky The Doormat]

That's the thing though...the examples given such as how many hot dogs sold at Fenway, how many home Depot stores, etc....all have EXACT answers. There is no need to waste time thinking about how to get the answer when it's readily available. You're not projecting anything with these types of questions.  

Then as a good interviewer, you should make the question where it's impossible to Google or find an exact answer from another readily available source. 




 




 

What is your education background?

ETA:  I know you aren't operating under the belief that all business situations have a known and exact answer/outcome.  How do you think a question should be asked that provides some insight as to how you work under those circumstances?