Unusual Interview Questions: How to Answer

Froggy123

I have an interview coming up for a position i am very interested in, but i'm starting to get nervous about the sort of questions they will after the last interview I had for a similar role.

After a quite technical interview(for a financial role), they asked which country had the highest percentage of Muslims..... I honestly had no clue and guessed (the wrong answer). They asked other questions that threw me off guard as well and i'm just wondering how other people deal with these kinds of questions?

Mrs OBumble

They're usually looking for how you think (can you describe an estimation approach), or how you deal with the unexpected.

Giving the "right" answer is usually about displaying the characteristics they are looking for, rather than the actual answer.

So stay cool, think on your feet, admit if you don't know, suggest how you'd find out.

pow wow

Out of interest, did the role have anything to do with dealing with Muslims or islamic countries? I've been asked some unusual 'think outside the box' questions in my time but one that has a factually correct answer has never been one of them.

wexfordman2

Froggy123 wrote: »

I have an interview coming up for a position i am very interested in, but i'm starting to get nervous about the sort of questions they will after the last interview I had for a similar role.

After a quite technical interview(for a financial role), they asked which country had the highest percentage of Muslims..... I honestly had no clue and guessed (the wrong answer). They asked other questions that threw me off guard as well and i'm just wondering how other people deal with these kinds of questions?

Highest percentage, I suppose they were looking tinsel if you gave most populous or something like that instead?

Kagawa10

They were looking for you to say I have no idea, would have to look it up on the internet. They wanted to see if you would try bull**** an answer

Froggy123

The questions they asked had incredibly specific answers! I just thought I might need to have a more worldly knowledge....
I think i'll just say I don't know the answer unless I can approximate it somehow and potentially state how i got the approximation.

The job had nothing to do with muslims!

Least I know that it's ok not to know all the answers for the next time round....

Thanks

freeze4real

Since there is a thread about unusaul interview questions, I thought I'd ask this usual one.

What if the interviewer asks if you've applied and interviewed with a competitor ?

Whats the best response.

Yes I did I got an offer but turned it to work with your firm.

No I didn't as I only choose to apply to your firm

Froggy123

Tbh if that was me, I would say something along the lines of,

" At the moment, I have only just started applying for different positions, and have a couple of interviews lined up in the near future".

To me this would look like other companies are also impressed by your CV and may also hurry the company your interviewing for to make a potential offer.

But if you have already received an offer from a competitor, i'd say this but say you would much rather work for this company for xyz reasons.

Mr. Loverman

freeze4real wrote: »

What if the interviewer asks if you've applied and interviewed with a competitor ?

"Yes, I actually interviewed with them recently and received an offer a few days ago. Their offer is quite good - I can tell you if you want? Yeah they offered me 72k + VHI + 25 days holidays per year. I haven't accepted yet because I wanted to meet you guys first. Is this similar to an offer your company could make me?"

Now there's all sorts of psychological **** going through their heads and if you're lucky they are emotional people and will rush to make you a better offer to stop their competitor getting you.

donegal11

Mr. Loverman wrote: »

"Yes, I actually interviewed with them recently and received an offer a few days ago. Their offer is quite good - I can tell you if you want? Yeah they offered me 72k + VHI + 25 days holidays per year. I haven't accepted yet because I wanted to meet you guys first. Is this similar to an offer your company could make me?"

Now there's all sorts of psychological **** going through their heads and if you're lucky they are emotional people and will rush to make you a better offer to stop their competitor getting you.

Or tell you good luck with your new job

Reekwind

Froggy123 wrote: »

I think i'll just say I don't know the answer unless I can approximate it somehow and potentially state how i got the approximation

Exactly. I was recently asked in an interview how much paint would it take to repaint the entire BA fleet of planes. Obviously I had no idea of what the figure is but I was able to put together a reasonable chain of logic - with assumptions clearly stated - that produced an answer. Now I don't think anyone outside of BA's procurement department knows for sure what the answer is but it was my ability to build a line of reasoning that the interviewers were interested in

Obviously the role had nothing to do with paint, planes or aviation

freeze4real wrote:

What if the interviewer asks if you've applied and interviewed with a competitor?

"I am quite keen on getting involved in this sector so I am talking to another other companies about a similar position. I'd obviously prefer not to name names"

amtc

Question 1:

Think of it as your Maths LC - you get more marks for the process than for actually getting the right answer.

in 2000, I was asked how to price UMTS (which I hadn't a clue as what it was - it's the techie name for GSM/3G) at a interview.

Waffled on about building and understanding a cost model, and applying a sense check through benchmarking of similar countries - and I got the job.