2/27/2014 @ 10:12AM
Susan Adams, Forbes Staff

Most prospective interns head into job interviews prepared to answer basic questions like why they want to work at the company, which classes they like, and why the employer should hire them. But what if the interviewer suddenly wants to know what your guilty pleasure is? Or which browser homepage you favor, what day of the week you prefer, or if your life were a movie, what the trailer would look like? What if they asked you how many skis were sold in Sweden every year?

Crazy as it sounds, those are all real-life interview questions posed to prospective interns within the last year. They were gathered by Glassdoor, a site that describes itself as a kind of TripAdvisor for careers, because users post reviews of the companies where they work, giving Glassdoor a huge repository of information about employers, including salary information and reports about job interviews. Based in Sausalito, CA, Glassdoor is seven years old and at the most recent count, it had 6 million company reports. That’s where it gleaned its list of 10 oddball questions would-be interns have had to field. Check out our slide show above for the complete list.

What should interviewees do when confronted with these out-of-left-field questions?  I talked to Ellis Chase, a New York career coach with 35 years of experience under his belt, and he offered the following advice: Have a sense of humor, don’t worry about taking your time to answre, show your human side, demonstrate the thought process you’d use to unpack the thorniest questions and don’t be afraid to admit that you’re stumped. “You have to give in and be human when confronted with questions like this,” he says. “The answers are not cut and dry.”

I tried a few of the questions out on Chase, and here is what he advises:

To a potential software engineering intern at Yahoo: “What will you do if the Internet is not working?”
Chase’s advice: Say you’d try to figure out the reason, whether the problem was inside the company, or in the region where the company was located. Suggest you could head home and work from there or take your laptop to a local Starbucks or public library. In other words, approach the question practically. There is no genius solution to this one.

To a would-be JPMorgan Chase intern: “How many skis are sold in Sweden every year?”
Chase’s advice: Describe how you’d go about finding an answer. You’d want to know the population of Sweden and the percentage of Swedes who ski. If you’re not a skier yourself, phone a sport shop and ask how often skiers usually replace their equipment. Try a professional skiing association and ask if they keep data on the number of skis sold each year. In other words, gather some common-sense data that can help you reach a conclusion.

To a Morgan Stanley internship applicant: “Tell me about a time when you had to deliver bad news.”
Chase’s advice: Talk about how you rehearsed what you would say over and over again, being careful to deliver your message in the most empathetic possible way.

To an applicant for an internship with Zappos’ market research division: “If your life were a movie, what would the trailer be like?”
Chase’s advice: “First I would laugh and then I would say, ‘I’m hoping my trailer would show a string of successes in my personal and early professional life, and in college, where I’d be walking up to the podium to collect an academic award, or at work collecting an award for making the most sales of the year. I’d like to see a series of scenes like that and few pratfalls.”

To an events coordinator intern applicant at a company called Red Frog Events: “What is your guilty pleasure?”
Chase’s advice: “You can’t be robotic in your answers. Be human. I’d say, ‘I love movies and left to my own devices I could watch four in a row.’”

To a would-be intern at Amazon: “What is your favorite day of the week?”
Chase’s advice: “Amazon is a totally workaholic culture. I would say Wednesday because I like being at the peak of the week and I like looking forward to the weekend.”

I like all of Chase’s answers but I had to ask, what if you just blank out when you get one of these oddball questions?  Chase says it’s actually fine to go silent while you collect your thoughts and it’s even OK to admit that you can’t think of an answer. “When you’re in an interview, what you think of as two minutes is just 10 seconds, tops,” he says. “Then you can say, in a self-assured way, ‘I’m coming up blank on that one.’” I agree with Chase. Interviewers who ask trick questions had better be prepared for blank answers.

More important than preparing for trick questions is getting ready to answer the straightforward ones like the ubiquitous “tell me about yourself” and “what is your greatest weakness.” Chase says you should always go to an interview armed with several anecdotes about how you successfully faced challenges on your last job or on a school project.  The weakness question, though it seems tricky, can be a great place to showcase your accomplishments. For instance, you can talk about how, five years ago, you were hesitant to embrace social media but now you’ve mastered it and it has transformed the way you work.

To help you prepare, aside from the off-the-wall questions, Glassdoor has compiled 10 common interview questions for intern candidates:

1. Why do you want to intern here?

2. Which classes do you like the most and least?

3. What do you expect this position to be like?

4. Why should we hire you?

5. What’s your goal with this internship?

6. Tell me about some of your school involvements and how they relate to this job.

7. What are your salary expectations?

8. What are your plans after graduation?

9. Why did you pick your school/major/minor?

10. What do you know about this specific industry and what are some trends that occurred in the past few years?

Read the article at Forbes online
Find more advice from Ellis in In Search of the Fun-Forever Job: Career Strategies That Work

[Based on the Preface of In Search of the Fun-Forever Job: Career Strategies that Work]

Since my book, In Search of the Fun-Forever Job was published in April, I've received reviews and comments from readers who thought the title meant the book was going to inspire readers to find that elusive “fun-forever job.” Actually, the title was meant to be somewhat ironic. 

Why I Chose that Title
The title came from my daughter who, at age eight, wrote and illustrated a “book” called “When I Am Grownup.” I’m not sure most eight-year-olds would be concerned about professional choices or involved in much self-reflection, but she was the daughter of a career consultant and a psychoanalyst and could hardly avoid this type of thinking. It was genetically predetermined.

In her book, Hannah ruminated about her possibilities. She felt she’d want an “unushowoll” job “that I can do most anything I want in, something like the fun-forever job.” She worried such a job might not be available and considered other options (a headshrinker or a headhunter) but continued to feel concern about even those jobs working out.

The Wish
What was particularly striking to me was that so many of my clients and students have expressed a similar wish for a totally fulfilling career, as if they hoped to discover their perfect, passionate calling out there somewhere.

The concept of a “fun-forever job” seems funny to me because everyone—including, perhaps, Hannah at age eight—knows it’s absurd. This does not appear to prevent people from wanting it anyway.

Of course there are a few lucky people who seem to have found that fun-forever job, but the number of such people is most likely very small. A job means work, meaning on a daily basis, on most days of the week. Seeking consistent passion puts a heavy emphasis on something that is rarely achieved and often leads to disappointment and discontent at work.

The Reality
Of course, it’s possible to love a job or be passionate about a career, but forever? Every day? That’s like looking for a lifetime soul mate who’s great-looking, rich, witty, sexy, and sensitive—someone you’ll feel excited about all the time for the entire relationship. I know too many people who think that way about relationships. Definitely not a fun-forever situation, either.   

To some degree, the search for the fun-forever job has continued for Hannah, as it has for many of my clients, although they refer to it in different terms. Sometimes, it’ll be “something totally exciting,” and other times it’s as basic as “something I won’t dread every day.”

What It Takes to Find a Job that Suits You
I believe career development should be a process that includes figuring out what works and doesn’t work, clarifying personal values, understanding personal style, and leveraging that knowledge moving forward. It doesn’t have to be a lifetime or permanent decision.

Sometimes it may mean that your job only needs to be reasonably good if it supports you and provides you with a salary, security, and benefits, and you can gain the passion part from what you do outside your job. Or you might turn your full-time job into a part-time one and work on several different activities outside of your core job.

There are many other permutations; the key is to not put the pressure of the Big Decision on yourself too early and to realize it may take some time to develop a career that suits you.

My own career path, as I explain early in the book, is a good example of the many twists and turns you may need to take to reach that point where you feel pretty good about your career choices. I’ve written about my own experience in the hope that others who find the career development process complicated or painful may understand better that it often involves a series of realizations and changes—sometimes even circling back to what you knew in the first place.

New book coming soon
I’m pleased to announce I will be publishing a series of very short eBooks--Career Strategies That Work. Each one will address a single topic chosen from the ones I’m asked about most often. The first, Networking: How to Make the Connections You Need will be available in mid-March.


cover by Alan Pranke Amp13

One of the tougher aspects of career transition is explaining any gaps in a work history. Some interviewers, or those on the other side of an informational meeting, will frequently get hung up on gaps in employment, as though you’ve committed some kind of criminal activity. Others will ask, because they simply don’t know how to interview very well, and are focusing on resume issues more than skills or experience. They need something – anything – to talk about. Some may want to find out of if there are any problems in the work history, occasionally a more logical reason for such questioning. 
These gap questions usually fall under the “Why are you looking?” category, and the other person might think that any gap is a problem – just because. Either way, you need to have good responses prepared for all the contingencies. Normally, I think that this is one of those issues that’s better dealt with on a one-on-one advising basis, but here are some general thoughts about possible explanations for gaps: 

Left a Job – Why?

If a potential employer, or anyone else involved in your transition, doesn’t understand today’s work climate well (or, for that matter, the past 30 years or so), they may think that anyone who changes jobs, or who has left a job either voluntarily or involuntarily, is tarnished goods. Unfortunately, there have been way too many bad pieces in the media about this false notion, even in well-reputed media outlets. 

The notion is ridiculous. The facts are that nearly everyone will have made changes in employment during their work lives, and frequently several. Not just career moves, but career changes, too. There is no need to feel defensive, even if you were terminated for poor performance or a bad fit. You’re now in marketing mode, and there’s no room for negatives. There’s always a substantive way to market yourself effectively. It’s important to understand that part of the cultural norm now is to make changes, whether or not the person sitting on the other side of the desk understands that. 

The key is to never be negative about the former employer. By saying that, for instance, the organization was badly run, or that your boss was insane or just garden-variety narcissistic (unfortunately, very common), or that the organization had terrible financial difficulties, the takeaway for the other person, somehow, is that YOU are the negative one, that you are the one who is associated with the negative connotation. That’s not the brand you want. 

You didn’t leave the job for a new challenge; that’s like announcing you’ll leave the next one for the same reason. You didn’t leave for more money or better work conditions (although these may be true). You left for better reasons. 

Your reason for leaving statement should be something along the lines of your having left due to your wanting to more fully utilize what you have learned over the course of your career, and that the opportunity didn’t exist with your former employer. Again, this is something that needs to be crafted on a more personal basis, but I wanted to give just an idea here. There are many variations on this theme.  What you want to accomplish is a positive, logical reason for wanting to make a change. Whether it was your choice or not. You want that reason to make you look good. 

Of course, if an entire division was laid off or there was a restructuring of some sort, or if you worked at Bear Stearns or Lehman Brothers in 2008, then just say it. But also say that it was a huge disappointment because you liked your job a lot, liked the organization, and had the opportunity to . . . (and here’s where you get to pivot into a couple of quick accomplishments). 

Period of Unemployment

“You seem to have been out of work for several months. What’s the problem?” 

Yup, that one gets asked frequently. I don’t think it’s a particularly useful interview question, that it’s designed to put the interviewee on the spot, which is never a great way to conduct an interview, but - it does get asked. Way too often. 

Seriously, is a long period of unemployment indicative of anything other than either a difficult or, even, a bad search? Being bad at search, or being unlucky, or being discouraged, or somewhat stuck in a contracting industry – all of these may be the real reasons. Do these disqualify you from great opportunities? I don’t think so. 

But, since we’re in self-marketing mode, we need to explain this more positively.  How about making it appear that the too-long period of search was somewhat by design? Why not “I am working hard on a daily basis to make sure that I make an intelligent decision for my next move. A great fit is critical to me, and if it takes time, so be it.” That makes you look good, that you’re serious and deliberate about your career plans, and hey, it may even be somewhat true, too.

One more thing – it is NOT a stigma to be unemployed. It’s just part of the work process, and has been so for a long time now. Get over it. Don’t let it effect how people perceive you. 

Consulting

Maybe you’ve been consulting, either by design or as a stop gap during your period of unemployment. While some will say “I’ve been consulting” is somewhat of a cliché, be prepared to back it up with evidence of your building skills during this period. 

If you’ve actually chosen to consult, maybe for years, prospective employers will be suspicious of your wanting to return to a more traditional job.  They may be concerned that you’ve hit a rough time, and are only planning to return to the “job job” for a limited period, just to get back on your feet – and then leave to consult again.

So when you’re asked about why you don’t want to consult anymore, you can state that you’ve had a great experience, had the opportunity to . . . (and here’s yet another opportunity to talk about gained skills and experience). But, you miss the ability to work on a larger team, brainstorm, and have a wider array of resources to be able to do larger scale work. As a consultant, you feel sometimes isolated, and sometimes an outsider, and you miss being part of an ongoing group that sees a strategy through to completion. 

Family Medical/Childcare/Personal/Personal Medical

If you’ve had a family medical situation and needed to take an extended time off, or a personal or medical situation, or took off time to help raise children, none of these should be problems to explain. The only problem is when you feel defensive about it, or are uncomfortable explaining. Have a response prepared, and make sure it’s confident and assertive. You’re in charge of your situation. 

With medical situations, state that there was a personal/medical situation that you needed to deal with, that it’s over and resolved, and that you’re ready to return to work. Period. No details, no emotion, matter of fact. 

The children issue is sometimes trickier. While it’s illegal in the US to ask questions about having children, it does become important to explain a large gap in the work history by discussing having had children. It’s important to pre-empt the possible questions about childcare by offering your plan for childcare, that it’s several layers deep (babysitter/nanny/mother-in-law/sister/husband/cousin) and that there will never be issues about coverage, and will not affect your work in the least. You’re confident about this and you state this with no reservation. Don’t wait for it to be asked. 

Clearly, the gap questions will need to be tailored to each job seeker’s particular story. What I wanted to show here is that they can be addressed. I’ve rarely encountered situations that couldn’t be dealt with effectively. 

To find answers to your questions on job search and career transition, get your copy of In Search of the Fun-Forever Job: Career Strategies that Work

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