Unique and Weird Interview Questions to Ask Candidates

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?

12 Unconventional Interview Questions That Recruiters Should Ask
  • 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.

  • Do you come to work just to work, or do you like to socialize along the way?
  • What inspires you to work in this industry?
  • Tell me about a time when you felt like a hero at work.
  • Tell me about a time when a job or company felt like a bad fit for your personality and why.
  • Tell me about a time when you were part of a team that was fun to work with. How did you balance productivity and fun with your co-workers?
  • Tell me about the most unique company event or outing you’ve ever participated in. What made it so unique and did you have fun?
  • 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.

  • Name 5 uses for a stapler other than stapling.
  • Do you think zombies should be slow or fast? Why?
  • If you had to organize everyone in the country into a giant game of duck duck goose, how would you do it?
  • How would you transport 10,000 sharks safely across the country in the most efficient, safe and cost effective way possible?
  • If you were given the task of rebranding this company for the _________ industry, what would the headline of the press release be?
  • How would you describe your company’s office building to a blind person?
  • Describe the purpose of this job to someone from another planet.
  • How would you pitch this company to a friend?
  • 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.

  • How many cars are there in Los Angeles?
  • How many sandwiches are eaten in America every year?
  • You have a 3 gallon bucket and a 5 gallon bucket, how do you measure out exactly 4 gallons?
  • If you get a 25% raise at the end of your first year and now make 75,000/year, what was your starting salary?
  • You have a 50 story building and a supply of identical pairs of paper weights. When dropping these paperweights from different stories, how would you find the story from which these paper weights break while breaking the fewest number of paper weights?
  • How many combinations of 2 rolled dice will result in 6?
  • Why are manhole covers round?
  • You encounter 2 doors and 2 guards. One doors leads to doom, the other, to ice cream! One of the guards only tells the truth, the other only lies (and you don’t know who’s who). You have to choose the right door, but you can only ask 1 question of one guard. What do you ask the guard to pick the right door?
  • Do’s for Unique and Weird Interview Questions

  • Always try to have some fun with candidates (levity can relieve interview nerves, helping candidates perform better and reveal more fit factors in interviews).
  • Always have a purpose for the questions you are asking (breaking the ice, testing a candidate’s ability to think on their feet, revealing personal/professional interests, etc.).
  • Always evaluate candidate responses objectively against the intended purpose of the questions you ask.
  • Always tell candidates before you transition from serious interview questions to fun ones, so they can have an enjoyable interview and so you can get the right kind of answers.
  • Related Posts

    Leave a Reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *