Whether you’re a seasoned recruiter or just starting out, you’re likely armed with a list of common interview questions for every candidate. But navigating the art of the interview can be complicated. Questions like “Tell me about yourself” or “Why are you looking for a new role?” can be good conversation starters, but they’re also the kinds of questions that might lead to canned responses.
While the same old list of pre-selected questions can help you learn more about a candidate’s work history and experience, they may not be effective in helping you assess things like behavioral tendencies, problem-solving skills or leadership style. How do you decide which questions are best for the specific role you’re filling? What’s the best way to gauge a candidate’s passion for their work, or assess if they’re a good culture fit?
- What makes you the best candidate for this job?
- Where do you see yourself in five years?
- Why should I hire you over someone with more experience?
A Fantastic Unconventional Interview Question to Ask Millennials
unconventional interview questions
Some of the questions are designed to break the ice, some to bring out interviewees personality, values and aspirations, some to not only see whether she did her homework about your company, but to see if she fits into the companys culture, some to identify if she crumbled under the pressure, and some to uncover both creativity and the leadership traits. None of these questions should throw the right candidate off or confuse him. After all, the right team members will not be afraid of or put off by any challenge in their path. Right?
Unique and Weird Company Culture Questions
Unconventional interview questions can help you identify fit in candidates and make your company a standout opportunity for the people you interview.
For instance, if the team you’re hiring for are all sports fans and always have a game on in the background, asking candidates about their interest in sports can be good for revealing fit. On the other hand, remember that diversity makes strong teams, and you should never pass on great hires just because they don’t like Star Wars (even if the job is at Lucas Films).
Use these questions to help you find culture fit in your candidates or to help you design unique culture questions of your own.
Some jobs require candidates to be creative or quick on their feet, and curveball interview questions are great at revealing these qualities in candidates.
Use these questions to evaluate the creativity of candidates for roles that depend on creativity or general “outside-the-box” thinking.
Unusual logic problems can be fun for analytical jobs, but don’t use an arbitrary logic problem to choose your next hire (unless their job is writing arbitrary logic problems).
Use these questions to test the general reasoning ability of candidates, the way they solve problems and their ability to work through unusual and challenging problems.
