25 weirdest job interview questions of 2012
(MoneyWatch) To help job-seekers prepare job interviews, career guidance company Glassdoor every year compiles a list of questions that companies ask. They also pick out odd and unexpected questions. Here is what the firm identified as the 25 strangest interview questions of 2012:
1. "If you were to get rid of one state in the U.S., which would it be and why?" - Asked at Forrester Research, research associate candidate.
2. "How many cows are in Canada?" - Asked at Google, local data quality evaluator candidate.
3. "How many quarters would you need to reach the height of the Empire State building?" - Asked at JetBlue, pricing/revenue management analyst candidate.
4. "A penguin walks through that door right now wearing a sombrero. What does he say and why is he here?" - Asked at Clark Construction Group, office engineer candidate.
5. "What songs best describes your work ethic?" - Asked at Dell, consumer sales candidate.
6. "[Amazon CEO] Jeff Bezos walks into your office and says you can have a million dollars to launch your best entrepreneurial idea. What is it?" - Asked at Amazon, product development candidate.
7. "What do you think about when you are alone in your car?" - Asked at Gallup, associate analyst candidate.
8. "How would you rate your memory?" - Asked at Marriott, front desk associate candidate.
9. "Name 3 previous Nobel Prize winners." - Asked at BenefitsCONNECT, office manager candidate.
10. "Can you say: 'Peter Pepper Picked a Pickled Pepper' and cross-sell a washing machine at the same time?" - Asked at MasterCard, call center candidate.
11. "If we came to your house for dinner, what would you prepare for us?" - Asked at Trader Joe's, crew candidate.
12. "How would people communicate in a perfect world?" - Asked at Novell, software engineer candidate.
13. "How do you make a tuna sandwich?" - Asked at Astron Consulting, office manager candidate.
14. "My wife and I are going on vacation -- where would you recommend?" - Asked at PricewaterhouseCoopers, advisory associate candidate.
15. "You are a head chef at a restaurant and your team has been selected to be on [the TV show] 'Iron Chef'. How do you prepare your team for the competition, and how do you leverage the competition for your restaurant?" - Asked at Accenture, business analyst candidate.
16. "Estimate how many windows are in New York." - Asked at Bain & Co., associate consultant candidate.
17. "What's your favorite song? Perform it for us now." - Asked at LivingSocial, Adventures City manager candidate.
18. "Calculate the angle of two clock pointers when the time is 11:50." - Asked at Bank of America, software developer candidate.
19. "Have you ever stolen a pen from work?" - Asked at Jiffy Software, software architect candidate.
20. "Pick two celebrities to be your parents." - Asked at Urban Outfitters, sales associate candidate.
21. "What kitchen utensil would you be?" - Asked at Bandwidth.com, marketer candidate.
22. "If you had turned you cell phone to silent and it rang really loudly despite it being on silent, what would you tell me?" - Asked at Kimberly-Clark, biomedical engineer candidate.
23. "On a scale from 1 to 10, rate me as an interviewer." - Asked at Kraft Foods, general laborer candidate.
24. "If you could be anyone else, who would it be?" - Asked at Salesforce.com, sales representative candidate.
25. "How would you direct someone else on how to cook an omelet?" - Asked at PETCO, analyst candidate.
