Keeping your candidates on their toes: why you should be asking oddball interview questions
To stay competitive in your industry, you need the top engineering and technical talent. However, asking candidates with similar qualifications the same questions can make it near impossible to distinguish the best from the rest. Don’t let your interview process get stale. Roevin is here with some of our favourite oddball questions to ask in a job interview to help you spice up your interview process and identify top talent.
When it comes to preparing questions for interviewing engineers and other technical roles, recruiters are faced with the challenge of distinguishing between candidates with similar education, skills and experience. To find the ideal candidate, recruiters have two goals: to identify the candidate whose skill sets match the position’s requirements and to find the candidate whose personality complements the organization’s corporate culture. Traditional questions such as “what engineering skills have you developed?” and “tell me about your greatest success?” are designed to assess candidate’s technical knowledge and engineering skills.
Similarly, interview questions that throw something new at your candidates can help you learn more about them. Some of the top tech companies use weird interview questions in their hiring practice for this very reason. Here are a few of our favourites:
- How many Big Macs does McDonald’s sell each year in the U.S.? (Facebook)
- If you could be remembered for one sentence, what would it be? (Google)
- How many children are born every day? (Apple)
- If you had a choice between two superpowers — being invisible or flying — which would you choose? (Microsoft)
- Design a spice rack for the blind (Intel)
The purpose of these interview questions is simple. Not only do these questions keep you from receiving the same practiced responses to traditional interview questions, they also examine the critical thinking and creativity the engineering or technical applicant will bring to the role. You can gauge how an applicant truly responds under pressure while getting an off-the-cuff response that reveals their true values, beliefs and logic. Questions can be positioned to identify candidates’ behavioral patterns, logical and critical thinking, beliefs and values.
Getting creative with your interview questions not only helps get honest answers out of unsuspecting candidates, but it also proves to your prospective engineer and technical candidates that the position is with an organization that thinks outside of the box, making you look great while helping to identify the best applicant to join your team.
Need help selecting the best engineers for your open roles? Our experienced recruiters are ready with some interview tricks of our own! To get started, contact your local Roevin branch today.
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