Feb 4, 2010

Top 25 Oddball Interview Questions

Posted by Wendy Weber

This is just fun! Glassdoor.com has compiled the Top 25 Oddball Interview Questions.

Questions include:

How would you move Mount Fuji? (Asked at Microsoft)
If I put you in a sealed room with a phone that had no dial tone, how would you fix it? (Asked at Apple)
How many lightbulbs are in this building? (Asked at Monitor Group)
If you saw someone steal a quarter, would you report it? (Asked at Amazon)

Glassdoor.com is a career and workplace community where anyone can find and anonymously share salary details about specific jobs for specific employers or company and interview reviews describing life on the inside of an employer. What sets them apart is that all their information comes from either the employees who work there or the candidates who have interviewed there.

Crandall founder Hal Crandall had an unorthodox but unyielding requirement of any potential hire: they had to wear a wristwatch. (Of course, this was in the days before everyone had a computer screen with the time displayed in front of them). He felt that it was critical to be aware of the time, so that deadlines could be met and appointments could be kept. When interviewing someone who said that they “didn’t like” to wear a watch, and would just ask a co-worker what time it was he became doubly upset…that not only meant that time wasn’t valuable to the interviewee, but that that person would be willing to distract a worker that did wear a watch!

I’m not convinced the 25 interview questions above yield answers that would result in the most enlightened hires. Have you asked, or been asked, any interview questions that might sound oddball but resulted in an intelligent hire?

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