How to address more ‘unusual’ interview questions

The third in the series of how to address interview questions offers a slight change of tack.

The last blog showed how to answer a question on  ‘communication’  using the STAR method.

You can use this method to dissect situations that could answer questions on your own skills such as leadership, problem solving, team work etc. All fairly common place skills many employers look for.

But now we are going to address questions that you can’t predict and can seem a little strange at first glance, often known as curveballs.

So examples of these are :

‘If you were an animal  what would you be?’

‘Give me 5 uses for a drawing pin’ 

‘If someone wrote a news story about you what would be the headline?’

There are other examples of these if you search online.

So 10 top tips for approaching these

1. Breathe and take your time to give a reply.
2. Don’t worry about giving an answer in a certain way.
3. The interviewer won’t expect a quick answer to a question you can’t have prepared for. So forge an answer in your head and then speak.
4. Are they trying to test your lateral thinking?
5. Remember there are no absolute right or wrong answers so answers are based on your opinion and views.
6. Think about the context – so what the company does and the role you will take within it. That may assist in the way you reply.
7. Are they looking for you to demonstrate certain skills such as creativity, mathematical or technical skills?
8. Are they trying to see how you identify yourself  – what traits and qualities  have you got to offer?
9. Keep calm and explain your thoughts rationally – are they are testing how well you can cope under pressure ?
10. Some people thrive on these and others don’t, if you struggle with them  make yourself answer some of these types of questions beforehand , just in case . Limber up your mind!

There’s lots more on interviews on our careers website https://www.brighton.ac.uk/careers/looking-for-a-job/cvs-applications-and-interviews/preparing-for-interviews/index.aspx

akahawkeyefan via Compfight