Imagine you’re walking into an interview room for the job of your dreams. The interviewers appear friendly but you’re already nervous. You’ve prepared for the expected questions and wait to be asked: “So tell us about yourself!”
But then comes the bombshell, the jaw-dropper! you’re asked to “Sell an invisible pen”! Company interviews are getting more unpredictable and demanding of originality. One candidate was asked: “Twenty-five racehorses, no stopwatch, five tracks. Figure out the top three fastest horses in the fewest number of races.”
Abhishek Gopal, who graduated from one of the leading management schools in the country, was taken aback when he was asked about politics in his interview. He says, “I had mentioned politics in the ‘other interest’ segment and we went from talking about the infrastructure in the city to how to clean them and what not!”
That was not all. From his friends, he heard he was not the only one. “One of my friends just had a discussion about Harry Potter with the panelists,” he adds.
And what do you say when you are asked about washing machines when interviewing for a bank job? Vivek Shah, who works for an international bank says, “I was asked to draw a flow-chart of washing clothes in a washing machine, incorporating decision points like what to do if the bucket is half full, using incremental amounts of detergent and so on. It was so complicated a grid by the time I got to the pressing the start button, they decided they were satisfied by my detail-oriented skill-set.”
Most candidates are reduced to gaping in disbelief. Some react like Priyanka Sharma did. When she applied for a copy editor’s job with an advertising agency, “They asked me to sell a pen, an invisible pen!” she exclaims, still somewhat shocked, expounding, “No one can see it and I have to sell that! As soon as I heard this question, I blurted out, ‘What kind of a question is that!’ Obviously, I didn’t get the job,” she shrugs.
Mahesh Mishra, a Delhi-based placement trainer says, “Employers want to see how candidates think. Most of the time, it’s not about getting the right answers; it’s about how you tackle a challenging problem. They also try to test your lateral thinking and ability to convince.”
Experts suggest that when questions like these are thrown at you, take a deep breath and think logically. Mahesh adds, “If you feel the question is unrelated to the job, before responding ask the interviewer politely how the problem is relevant. Be careful not to sound defensive. The interviewer must not get the impression that you are trying to duck the question.”
But then comes the bombshell, the jaw-dropper! you’re asked to “Sell an invisible pen”! Company interviews are getting more unpredictable and demanding of originality. One candidate was asked: “Twenty-five racehorses, no stopwatch, five tracks. Figure out the top three fastest horses in the fewest number of races.”
Abhishek Gopal, who graduated from one of the leading management schools in the country, was taken aback when he was asked about politics in his interview. He says, “I had mentioned politics in the ‘other interest’ segment and we went from talking about the infrastructure in the city to how to clean them and what not!”
That was not all. From his friends, he heard he was not the only one. “One of my friends just had a discussion about Harry Potter with the panelists,” he adds.
And what do you say when you are asked about washing machines when interviewing for a bank job? Vivek Shah, who works for an international bank says, “I was asked to draw a flow-chart of washing clothes in a washing machine, incorporating decision points like what to do if the bucket is half full, using incremental amounts of detergent and so on. It was so complicated a grid by the time I got to the pressing the start button, they decided they were satisfied by my detail-oriented skill-set.”
Most candidates are reduced to gaping in disbelief. Some react like Priyanka Sharma did. When she applied for a copy editor’s job with an advertising agency, “They asked me to sell a pen, an invisible pen!” she exclaims, still somewhat shocked, expounding, “No one can see it and I have to sell that! As soon as I heard this question, I blurted out, ‘What kind of a question is that!’ Obviously, I didn’t get the job,” she shrugs.
Mahesh Mishra, a Delhi-based placement trainer says, “Employers want to see how candidates think. Most of the time, it’s not about getting the right answers; it’s about how you tackle a challenging problem. They also try to test your lateral thinking and ability to convince.”
Experts suggest that when questions like these are thrown at you, take a deep breath and think logically. Mahesh adds, “If you feel the question is unrelated to the job, before responding ask the interviewer politely how the problem is relevant. Be careful not to sound defensive. The interviewer must not get the impression that you are trying to duck the question.”
