hey everybody don georgevich here with
job interview tools today i want to talk
to you about
weird interview questions and the reason
this topic even came up is because i had
a subscriber leave a comment on one of
my other videos and he's like hey don
interviewers ask me all these weird kind
of questions and i wonder if you could
help me understand you know what they're
trying to get i mean are they trying to
psychoanalyze my answer you know what do
they mean
and so some of the questions that
they're asking him are you know what was
my favorite movie or you know what movie
scared me as a kid what fictional
character would i be if there was a
zombie apocalypse you know what would
you do so he says he gets hit with all
these weird kinds of questions and he's
like you know what do they mean you know
why are they asking me those i can't
understand the significance and i really
don't know how to answer them so what
i'm going to do in this video is i'm
going to walk through each one of those
questions i'm going to break them down
and let you know why i think the
interviewer is asking them and then how
you can respond to those
to give an answer that you know will
probably satisfy your interviewer so
let's look at the first one here uh
first one is you know what is my
favorite movie now the reason that
they're asking you your favorite movie
could just be a simple ice breaker
because when you go into an interview i
mean your nerves are like up to here and
you're so tense and you're waiting them
for we're waiting for them to ask you
you know you know why should we hire you
or tell me about yourself or what are
your weaknesses
so in this kind of question here what is
your favorite movie what i think they're
trying to do
is help you out i think they're trying
to diffuse the situation and essentially
break your pattern so if you're thinking
and you're waiting for them to
ask you you know you know why should we
hire you or you know what are your
greatest strengths they're coming in
through a different they're coming in
through a side door essentially and
they're saying hey you know what's your
favorite movie
and what that does is
that just totally diffuses you and it
lets you just forgot about all the
questions that you think they're going
to ask you
and it kind of just gives you a chance
to answer something that's easy they're
kind of just essentially throwing a
grapefruit there to you to let you knock
that one out of the park
so it relaxes you because you see
interviewers want you to be relaxed
while they're talking to you
because if you're not relaxed you're
going to give answers that maybe aren't
totally representative of who you are
and maybe you'll give some answers you
know that kind of make you look bad so
they want to they want to put you in an
environment that you're comfortable in
and they want to ask you questions you
know that you can answer they don't
really want to trip you up or stump you
because they know that's going to make
you nervous and then you're just going
to do a bad job but you know deep down
you might be the ideal candidate so
i think that's all that one really is is
you know what's your favorite movie
you know just tell them you know what
your favorite movie is it could be
anything could be superman go on with
the wind could be terminator whatever it
is
pick a good movie i probably wouldn't
pick something
you know maybe you know horror related
or something like that but anyway give
him a nice movie that you're comfortable
watching and that you enjoy all right so
the next question he asks is you know
what movie scared me as a kid and what i
think they're doing by asking that
question is to get you to go back in
your mind to your childhood you may not
know you know what the movie is
but
it'll get you positioned to go back to
your childhood and here's why
interviewers know that your early
childhood i mean those are your
formative years so they want to
understand you know you know how you
became who you are today so by asking
you you know what movie scared you as a
kid
what it's going to do is force you to go
back to your childhood and what i think
they're doing is priming you to answer
more questions about your childhood and
you know what formed you to make you who
you are today so the question itself i
don't think has any real significance
what movie scared you as a kid
but
in your mind it's making you think and
it's taking you back to your childhood
and then once you're there
you'll be primed and prepared to you
know possibly answer other questions
about your early developmental years
that's just my take on it um so let's go
to the next one here
what fictional
character would you be now for me um you
know i'd probably just gravitate towards
superman and then they might ask why and
i'd say well you know because he's
always saving people but the question
itself i don't think has any bearing on
anything i think they're just asking
this question to
find out you know who you like who you
admire and maybe you know who you aspire
to be
and then
maybe that fits into the role somehow i
don't know i don't see it i think it's a
pointless question it's not predictive
of
whether you're going to be successful in
the role or not so the interviewer might
have some odd reason for asking it maybe
they read it in a book or something but
i don't see any significance to this
answer or why they're asking it they
probably
don't know why they're asking it either
because i think that's a foolish
question to ask somebody in a job
interview anyways you know maybe if
we're sitting down you know in a bar or
something and after a couple of beers we
might ask that question but
not in a job interview so let's move on
to the next one here is what would i do
in a zombie apocalypse
now if i were asked that question
i would probably say well
there isn't going to be a zombie
apocalypse that's totally fictional but
the possibility of an apocalypse you
know
now that's real that could happen one
day so let me tell you what i would do
in that situation and what and by doing
that you're essentially reframing the
question and reshaping it into you know
a real life question now what the uh
what the significance is of this i don't
really know but i think a fair answer
could be along the lines of showing them
that you take precautions and planning
so if we actually had an apocalypse the
first thing i would probably do is try
to get my family together then i would
probably find some a safe house or some
safe coverage where we can go and be
protected and then the next thing i
would do is i would look for food and
water and then figure things out but i
wouldn't really know what i'm going to
do in that situation until i'm placed in
it and i would essentially rely on my
survival instincts to kick in and guide
me and tell me what to do
but by giving them a structured answer
like that it shows them that you have
the ability to think through complex
problems that you haven't been presented
yet so it kind of shows um whether
you're capable
of thinking about you know what you
would do in a situation that you know
has yet to happen again does this have
any significance on whether you're going
to get the job or not i don't think so
and i don't know why they would ask this
question but you know maybe maybe they
found a way that they can psychoanalyze
your answer and it's going to tell them
whether you're going to be successful in
the role or not
i don't know
silly question but that's how i would
answer it now next one i have here
um now these are actually
from zappos um tony shea of zappos used
to ask these questions in the interviews
and one of them was
how weird are you on a scale of one to
ten
and then he goes on to explain you know
the types of answers that he's looking
for
so he doesn't want people who are like
really super weird you know like they're
a 10 because you know they probably
won't fit into the culture but then if
they're just a one meaning they're not
really weird at all
they're probably not going to fit in
with his culture either because you know
at this time this is when he's growing
zappos so he's looking for people who
were maybe you know fours fives and
sixes somewhere right in the middle of
the road and it's more of a it's a
culture question so he's trying to find
out whether people he thinks they're
going to be able to fit into the zappos
culture because it's a very unique
culture there's really nothing like it
he created a fantastic culture at zappos
so the next question tony would ask is
on a scale of one to ten how lucky are
you
and he said you know some people will
just come right off with you know eight
nine or ten i am lucky and he's like
those are the kinds of people that we
want
and but if you were to pick you know a
three four or five you know he's not
going to you know throw out your
application or anything but he did say
that if you set a one he's like that
just seems too much like taboo and we
probably wouldn't hire you alone just
for that because you know we don't want
anything bad to happen to us and if
you're on you really feel you're unlucky
and you're working here bad things might
happen
so that's tony's take on weird questions
and then i have just a couple more that
have popped up from time to time one of
them is why are manhole covers round you
may have heard that one before these are
like these brain teaser questions
another one is how many bird houses are
there in san francisco or how many ping
pong balls can fit inside of a jumbo jet
now these brain teaser questions these
actually were created by google
in the early days and they used to ask
these questions in their interviews
because they were hiring developers and
they thought these were some really cool
problem solving questions that didn't
really have answers
and um
how they would approach those but
what google found out was that through
extensive testing and they would ask
people these questions and then they
would map out the role for that person
over the next you know one to two years
and whether they asked these questions
or not it had no bearing on whether that
person was successful in that role or
not so
they abandoned those questions
altogether
but
you still have some employers out there
who didn't hear about this yet they
didn't hear that google abandoned those
questions they only heard that google
was asking those questions because they
were super predictive of success but
google found out that they're not but
there's still people out there who are
asking them so if you run into an
employer who says you know sort of wire
manhole covers around actually that one
actually that actually has an answer
i think it's because so so the manhole
cover doesn't fall into the hole but the
other ones like you know how many
birdhouses are there in san francisco or
new york or how many ping pong balls can
fit in the jumbo jet
ridiculous questions
no significance
or bearing on whether someone is going
to be successful in the role so
i hope you found these weird brain
teaser questions helpful and you know
what your interviewer might be looking
for but i think for the most part if
your interviewer is asking you any of
these questions
more than likely
they're they're rather inexperienced
except except for the two good ones here
i think are you know what is your
favorite movie because i think that
one's more of a pattern interrupt and it
just gets you to not focus on the
interview for a minute because like i
said interviewers want you to do well in
the interview and then the other
question here was um
a good one was you know what movie
scared me as a kid because i think
they're trying to take you back to your
childhood so that you so that you're
conditioned in your mind so that you
might be able to start answering
questions about your formative years but
other than that i think all the other
these all these other questions are just
junk and if they're asking them to you
know don't be smart
you know just give them you know throw
something at them throw them
throw them a bone and you know just
appease them because you know if you
give them smart answers they're probably
you know just gonna think less of you
for doing that because you're in an
interview
and you don't want to do anything to
anger your interviewer or show them that
you know you're
ticked off by the types of questions
that they're asking you so that is all i
have for you today but as always i got
something special for you today
i want to give you
my best answers to the most common
interview questions this is the top 10
guide to the most common questions and
this guide teaches you how to answer
tell me about yourself why do you want
to work here what are your weaknesses
real questions that your interviewer is
going to ask you and this guide is going
to walk you through step by step and
tell you exactly how to give perfect
answers to those questions and the great
thing about that is this guide is free
because you are here today and you are
watching me and you are trying to better
yourself and i want to reward you for
that and give you this guide for free
you can go to job interview
jobinterviewtools.com/top10
you can download this book for free now
actually
i just realized i made a mistake here
this top 10 book is the professional
edition and
quite frankly
this is not available right now so
that's a mistake on my part the book
that is available is this one and really
the only difference is there it doesn't
have that professional edition and what
that professional edition is that is a
special guide that i haven't created yet
i've created the book for it
but what i'm doing is i'm creating a
video training program around it and if
you notice my set is slightly different
than what it normally looks that's
because this is the set that i'm using
to
create this professional edition that
doesn't exist yet just it only exists in
this little book here but the guide that
is free is this one here and this is the
top 10 interview questions and as i'm
making this video here in december i'm
planning to have this professional
edition
ready
possibly in the next month or two so if
you're watching this video in the future
um then then you'll be able to um get
that other program
but this is the book that i want to give
you today for free and it's really the
same
book it's just that this professional
edition has a whole bunch more
behavioral questions in it and we go a
lot deeper than we do in this version
right here and this one is free and you
can get it from jobinterviewtools.com/top10
and is going to get you well
prepared for your next interview well
that is all i have for you today my
friend if you like this channel please
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weird interview questions because we had
a subscriber write in and requested it
and so i do my best to read through a
lot of the comments i get tons of
comments i can't get to them all but
once in a while i go through those and i
find out where someone has
a real need
about a or a good idea for a video and
then i'm happy to make that video for
you and i just happen to be making that
video while i'm creating a training
program and that's why you know
you see me in a different light so to
speak so again that's all i have for you
today please like the video subscribe to
my channel i will see you in the next
video take care bye now