Answering Interview Questions

Unemployment is at an all time high, but a glitch in the way the government calculates unemployment does not count those that are unemployed and have run out of unemployment benefits (usually over one year). What that means is there are a ton of highly educated people out there applying for the same job you are!

With so much talent out there, employers need a way to screen applicants. I remember one case where the applicant had an extremely impressive education and seemed like he could handle the network engineer position blindfolded, but failed miserably. Answering interview questions entailed a bit of hands on, and in this case, a network cable was unplugged and the applicant was asked to figure out why the computer couldn’t connect to the network. The applicant froze, gave up and asked to end the interview process.

Not every job can include a hands on test, but they can include some extremely creative and difficult questions. If you’re spending your time preparing for questions like those below, think again:

• Give us an example of the most creative work related project you’ve worked on?
• What steps have you taken towards the improvement of your skills?
• Define Success?
• Describe your most stressful work related situation and explain how you dealt with that situation?
• What are your strong points?
• What areas do you need to work on and what is your plan for improvement?

The questions above are old school and the latest mind probing questions big companies are now giving include questions like “How many golf balls can fit in a school bus?” and “How many piano tuners are there in the entire world?”. Take Google for example, below are example of questions Google asks potential employees during the interview process:

• How many golf balls can fit in a school bus?
• How much should you charge to wash all the windows in Seattle?
• In a country in which people only want boys every family continues to have children until they have a boy. If they have a girl, they have another child. If they have a boy, they stop. What is the proportion of boys to girls in the country?

Regardless of your education, answering interview questions like these correctly can land you the job, it’s just a matter of research and a lot of practice.

By the way, most people only get an average of two in 15 questions, so don’t feel bad if you missed a them all :)