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2Airbnb Wants You to Try (Explaining) Your Luck
3LivingSocial Is Afraid of Cooties, Maybe
A consumer advocate interviewee was asked, “Can you instruct someone how to make an origami ‘cootie catcher’ with just words?” A training and communications specialist interviewee was asked to tell the interviewer a joke, and a marketing consultant prospect was asked a more straightforward question: “We own a cupcake bakeshop that caters to tourists. Why would we use an application that focuses on a local audience?”
4Yahoo Searches for the Perfect Desert Island Question
“If you were on an island and could only bring three things, what would you bring?” is a question asked of a prospective search quality analyst. For software developers, the questions become more analytical, like this one: “What are all the possible ways to reach a floor in a building if you can only take 1, 2 or 5 steps at a time?”
5Zappos Steps Up for a Parade Question
An interviewer for the online site for shoes asked a customer loyalty team member this question: “If you could throw a parade of any caliber through the Zappos office, what type of parade would it be?” The folks at Zappos appear to have parties and parades on their minds; a project manager in Las Vegas was asked if he had to buy the CEO a shot, what kind of shot he would buy.
6Apple Wants to Ask You About Pizza and Scissors
The company known for its stylish, easy-to-use computers seems to have a knack for leftfield questions. “If you were a pizza delivery man, how would you benefit from scissors?” was Glassdoor’s entry for Apple. Sixty-one percent of Glassdoor reviews for Apple found the interview experience a positive one, with 24 percent feeling neutral about the experience and 14 percent describing it negatively.
7Dell Wants to Know About Animals, Vehicles
During an interview at Dell, a prospect applying for the position of account manager was asked, “Are you more of a hunter or a gatherer?” Another potential account manager was asked, “If you were an animal on a merry-go-round, which one would you be and why?” And an applicant in Bangalore was asked to guess the average number of vehicles that pass in front of the Dell building during 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. on a workday.
8Xerox Has a Ball With the Interview Process
9Akamai Wants to Know Nuts and Bolts
“How does the Internet work?” That one is apt to stump (or cause stammering among) a large group of our friends and colleagues. Sure, everyone knows how to use the Web, but could you succinctly put down how the whole thing actually fits together? Meanwhile, a major account executive candidate in San Mateo, Calif., was asked this: “How would you spend your time if you won the lottery and didn’t have to work anymore?”
10Applied Systems Makes Waves in the Interview
Some questions seem random. A graphic design candidate at Applied Systems was asked this: “Have you ever been on a boat?” More commonly, software developers applying for jobs were asked to write a program to shuffle a deck of cards. Whether or not they would be shuffling them on a boat remains unknown.
11SinglePlatform Wonders About Your Name in Lights
“If there was a movie produced about your life, who would play you and why?” was asked of inside sales consultant applicant. The company’s Glassdoor reviews had several other creative examples: “If you could have lunch with one person in history, who would it be and what is one question you would ask them?” and “If a bear and an alligator got in a fight, who would win and why?” But SinglePlatform’s strategy might not be so much fun; 41 percent had a negative impression of the process.