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.

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10 strangest job interview fails

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.

[rsvp0700]

Song: I work hard for the Money!
Coin Count: Yet to be determined!
Angle: 10/12ths, 350/360 degrees, etc
Penguin: 'Holy Mackerel' - On all accounts!
Deleted State: Denial, Confusion and any geopolitical region that meets that criterion!

[RHX100]

I was told by an employment counselor that if you're asked a question like how many windows are there in New York, the purpose of the question isn't to get an actual answer. The question is asked to see if you would say you don't know but you would have to look it up or do research to find that answer. An interviewer is trying to determine if you would show that you have initiative and are willing to make an effort to find the answer. If I wasn't told this by an employment counselor, I would be stumped sitting there as my face turned a dozen shades of red.

[ScarlettMarie]

I guess it's obvious that I am not a math scholar as I wouldn't have gotten those questions right. I can understand why some of the other questions because they need leaders who can lead and give clear directions.
Also looking for team players not rouge individuals. In many ways though, all of them are stupid.

[rms316]

This is how bizarre getting a job has become. And, i would be the interviewer disqualified some candidates based on their answers. i was asked a question once " If you were an arrow and one side was "team" and the other was "individual", what end would you be closer too"? I knew I didn't want that job anyway, so I got up and said " I'm not sure but I do know I'm looking at the backend of a horse". Got up and left.

[ahem-mhmm]

Did you ever think they are looking for creativity, and some sort of answer that sets you apart from others? You are not very intelligent. Plus, who interviews for a job they "didn't want anyway?"

[PepePrawn]

AHEM-MHMM: According to Mitt Romney's son, Mitt didn't really want to be President, which means he spent over 6 years (and probably more) interviewing for a job he didn't want.

[clearyatoff-the-cliff]

My answer to the Amazon interviewer: "Where's the NDA you're going to sign, and I will want $50,000 in my bank account - non-refundable - before I answer. Got a cheaper question you'd like to as me?" If I don't respect myself, I won't be respected - and I might as well start at the time of the interview.

[ScarlettMarie]

Great answer! I love it! Why give someone else an idea that could possibly make them rich and give you no credit?!

[gilbertvelasquez]

Major interview question epic #fail of 2012 though goes to Vikki Loving of Intersource Resource Staffing with her classic (this actually happened) "So, walk me through everything you have done at all jobs since college, and tell me about your awards and accolades." When I had graduated in 2000. When we were finally done covering my three jobs and all my accomplishment history, Ms. Loving said "You know, my client is really looking for someone who can bullet point things, your answers are too long. My advice is that you need to learn to shorten things."

[wcray]

That's hardly a fail (on the part of interviewer at least). She was looking for someone whose instinct was to hit that question from the highlights, and she found out how you approached the question. It appears to have worked perfectly as planned.

[jacksprat777]

ur an idiot

[eurolife-2009]

"What songs best describes your work ethic?" ...

First song that popped into my head: "Dazed and Confused" ... Oops! Um, did I get the job?

Mark Beyer
Author of THE VILLAGE WIT
and WHAT BEAUTY
book culture blog at www.bibliogrind.com

[ScarlettMarie]

I'd have to answer with, "I'm sorry, I have too many favorite songs and it depends on my mood as to which one is preferred at this time." I would also continue on with..."I won't sing for you unless you prove that you have health insurance to cover the damage my singing will do to your hearing."

[jaykay3141]

? "Workin' in a Coal Mine" ??

[mrtoberman100]

interesting. I went on an interview for a particular sales position, and when I arrived, although more than qualified, they tried to 1. get me to acceppt a lower position. Apparently they thought it would be a real feather in their cap if they hired someone at my level for that particular position and 2. asked me to write a sales strategy for their products/services. I told them that although I am more than willing to discuss my achievements and potential there was no way I was going to create a strategy for them without first being hired and I wasn't giving it away for free.

[Roxanasoi]

Oh, the joy of Google questions.
I remember one: "Someone asks how many restaurants are there in your city? Calculate the number of restaurants if you were to give the answer in 4 minutes or in 4 hours."

[JohnnyMoondog]

The clock question is poorly-wooded. Do they want a separate answer for each nand, or the angle between the two? And do they want the acute angle, the obtuse angle, or the angle described in either direction going from the 12? Each has an easily computable answer, but I would shot back the appropriate questions (African swallow or European swallow lol!).

[wcray]

I get the impression that the author of this article doesn't understand what software developers do. The question is simple, and any programmer with half a brain could answer it correctly with perhaps 5 seconds of thought.

[jaykay3141]

Speaking as a software developer with 8 years of college and graduate math, the question _isn't_ quite that simple. The large hand of course is 5/6 of the way around the clock, but the position of the small hand isn't so straightforward:

When it was 11:00 the small hand had swept through 11/12 of the face. Between 11:00 and 11:50 it swept 5/6 of the remaining 1/12. That works out to 11/12 + (5/6)*(1/12) = 71/72 of the circumference.

So at 11:50 the hands' separation is (71/72) - (5/6) = 11/72 of the clock's circumference, or 55 degrees.