- What’s the riskiest decision you’ve made in your career? …
- If you had an unlimited amount of money, how would you spend it? …
- How can you sell me this pen? …
- What did you have for breakfast? …
- Describe the colour blue to me.
Human resources professionals approach job interviews in a variety of different ways. While most interviews include the standard questions related to your educational background, employment history and areas of expertise, you should also be ready for non-traditional lines of question that delves into your behavior, says the University of Minnesota Career & Internship Services.
Hiring managers try to get a feel for you on a personal level and to gauge your personality, sense of humor, values and other hard-to-measure traits. The Career Center at Berkeley recommends having a few short stories ready to share that demonstrate you have the skills needed to do the job. Use these to ace any give an example of thinking outside the box interview questions.
How to Give an Example of Thinking Outside of a Box During an Interview
Describe the color blue to someone who can’t see
Hiring managers might use this question to assess your communication skills, creativity and vocabulary, particularly if you are interviewing for a communication, marketing or writing job. When answering, use adjectives that describe all the other senses besides sight: sound, smell, taste and touch.
Example answer: “Blue is a serene color, like the sound of water lapping at the shores of an alpine lake. Its cool and silky smooth to the touch and smells like fresh air after rain or a soft breeze rippling through the forest. Seeing blue is like tasting chilled spring water, letting it swirl around your tongue before enjoying its refreshing hydration.”
Sell me this pen
Hiring managers might ask you to try to sell them a common object such as a pen, paperclip or coffee mug to test your ability to think quickly and, if you are applying for a sales job, your marketing skills. When responding, focus on the objects benefits rather than its physical features. Remind yourself that there is no wrong answer to this question, and respond with confidence and creativity.
Example answer: “Youre in luck. This isnt an ordinary pen. While it looks normal, its hiding an incredible secret. With just the click of this button, you can turn on and off the ability to read peoples thoughts. See, you just click it like this (demonstrate the pens clicking action), and youre given the gift of mind-reading. When youre ready to mute it, simply click it back off. How would you like to have your superpower at your literal fingertips?”
What did you eat for breakfast?
Hiring managers might ask a question like this as a way to make the interview more conversational to learn more about you and your personality. Rather than giving a one-word answer, include in your response a detailed description of your meal and explain why you chose it.
Example answer: “For breakfast, I had oatmeal drizzled with honey and topped with berries. This is my favorite weekday breakfast because it gives me the energy to start my day. Also, I try to live a healthy lifestyle, and oatmeal contains high levels of beneficial fiber, vitamins and minerals. The honey gives it sweetness without adding too much sugar, and the berries provide flavor and antioxidants.”
Why hiring managers ask this question
Hiring managers pose this question to find out about your past experiences and to see if you can think on your feet and solve problems. They want to hear if you have pitching skills to sell yourself to them and if you’re innovative enough to think of alternative solutions to a problem.
To help you prepare for your next job interview, here are 15 interview questions focused on your creative thinking and problem-solving skills.
Creative Thinking was written by Rachelle Enns and updated on August 12th, 2018. Learn more here.
Talk to the interviewer about a time you had to solve a problem creatively. Your answer doesnt have to be an invention or a tremendous break-through you made in your previous role. Any unexpected decision you made will most likely count as a creative solution. Pick a scenario where you were pleased with the outcome.
“In my current position we saw a decrease in clients due to a local economic downturn. I recommended to our head office that we begin to generate business outside of our region for the first time in many years. They agreed, and the idea turned things around for us that fiscal year.”
“Last week my computer crashed, and it took IT three hours to recover everything. Feeling lost, I said to myself Well, what did they do before computers? To make the best of my time, I took to the file room and started organizing the physical files.”
Written by Rachelle Enns on August 11th, 2018
“I once had to deal with a space issue in our warehouse. We arranged and re-arranged several times and could not make it work. I thought outside the box and rented some outside pod storage until we were back to normal inventory levels.”
“Recently we needed to create a mentorship program for a client. By my suggestion, we decided to engage local thought leaders as well as aspiring leaders. This approach benefited the community as a whole, and our client was delighted with the result.”
“In retail, a customer will approach you with odd requests from time to time. Recently, I had a customer insist on making a return that wasnt even from our store. They were furious that I would not take the return! It turns out; we were running a promotion where if you spent $50, you received a $25 in-store gift card. I suggested to the customer that they purchase the product, from us, that they initially wanted. They would then receive the $25 in-store gift card, and they could still return the original product to the first store. I turned an angry return to a paying customer!”
Written by Rachelle Enns on August 11th, 2018
“In sales, if you cannot think outside the box, and on the fly, you will not succeed. Recently I had a client who wanted a digital service option thrown in that we did not yet have. It was still in development. To offset his disappointment, I asked him if I could give him three months of the service for free on a trial basis, to help us work out the kinks, would he then be happy. He was thrilled, and we had a real-life test subject.”
“As a teacher, I often have to think of alternate ways to teach a lesson when some kids arent picking up the content. I will always have multi-media resources available for my students to support their learning such as educational computer games and interactive online worksheets.”
“Thinking outside the box is a default in any technology field, and I have had such an opportunity at my last workplace. The organization had limited resources to spend on user tests, so we could not hire a user recruiter agency. My team and I started reaching out to users on LinkedIn and offered our time in exchange for their time for testing a product. It worked so wonderfully that now we have an active user testing community.”
Written by an Anonymous User
Our Professional Interview CoachRachelle Enns Reviewed the Above Answer
This is a fantastic idea, and what a great way to save on resources while also building up a community. Well done.
Clever Ways to Answer “Give Me an Example of When You Thought Outside the Box to Solve a Problem”
Hiring is an organization’s chance to get better. They want to improve their sales team, surround their team with new viewpoints, perspectives, and inject new energy into the team. Sales…
Hiring is an organization’s chance to get better. They want to improve their sales team, surround their team with new viewpoints, perspectives, and inject new energy into the team.
Sales recruiters and managers are looking for candidates who are innovative, have a fresh way of looking at and solving problems. So, it’s no surprise they will ask about how you think outside of the box and solve common problems in unique ways. It’s a question you can expect to be asked, so you should have a strong example prepared.
FAQ
How do you answer thinking outside the box question?
What are some out of the box questions?
How do you think outside the box at work?
- Sell me this pen. …
- Describe the color blue to someone who can’t see. …
- Who would win in combat, Spiderman or Batman? …
- What did you eat for breakfast? …
- If you were the size of an ant and put in a blender, how would you get out?
