May 28, 2014: Outrageous job interview questions!

I think pecans is the ugliest nut I have ever seen in my life - Akemi.

I was, of course, shocked to hear it.  It wasn’t so much the bizarreness of the non-sequiter but the fact that pecan actually vaulted over walnut to take the top prize. Akemi clarified.  Walnuts look like brains whereas pecans look like cockroaches. And then, off my dubious expression: “What if I put pecans on the floor in the basement and you saw them.  What would you think?”

Honestly?  “I’d think why is Akemi putting pecans on the floor in the basement.”

Speaking of, uh, lateral thinking – I was doing a little research for a scene in a pilot-in-progress and came across some online articles on job interviews, specifically the types of questions job applicants get asked.  You’d be surprised.  I remember sitting in on one meeting in which my old friend Andy Mikita was being interviewed for a directing gig.  After all the logical questions pertaining to work experience and creative vision had been asked, someone asked him: “What is your biggest weakness?”  The room fell into an awkward moment of silence, which I finally broke by answering for him: “The fact that he cares too much.”

As far as crazy interview questions go, it was actually fairly mundane compared to the following:

“How would you cure world hunger?” – Amazon.com

“If you were a pizza delivery man, how would you benefit from scissors?” – Apple

“What is your strategy at table tennis?” – Citigroup

““If Germans were the tallest people in the world, how would you prove it?” – Hewlett-Packard

“If you were a box of cereal, what would you be and why?”  Bed Bath & Beyond

“How many cows are in Canada?” – Google

“If you were shrunk to the size of a pencil and put in a blender, how would you get out?” – Goldman-Sachs

“Do you believe in Bigfoot?” — Norwegian Cruise Line

“Rate yourself on a scale of 1 to 10 how weird you are.” – Capitol One

“What do you think of garden gnomes?” – Trader Joe’s

“What songs best describes your work ethic?” – Dell

“What do you think about when you are alone in your car?” – Gallup

“You’re a new addition to the crayon box, what color would you be and why?” – Urban Outfitters

“Say you are dead- what do you think your eulogy would say about you.” – Nationwide

source: http://www.glassdoor.com/blog/

How would you respond to any of the above?  Remember, there’s a lucrative job riding on your answers!