Know how many cows are in Canada – and the job is yours

Dan Miller —  February 18, 2013 — 10 Comments

Elections are over, unemployment rates continue to drop and we are at the beginning of a new year.  Those are enough reasons given by more than 1/3 of all employees to look for more exciting career opportunities this year, according to the Silicon Valley Business Journal reports.

The nationwide survey of 2,249 people by career site Glassdoor found that one in three employees plan to degree - worthlesslook for a new job in the coming year.  In terms of what employees may be looking for in a potential new employer, 73 percent ranked salary as priority No. 1, followed by 55 percent who said location and 30 percent most concerned about career growth.

In related news, here are the Top 25 Oddball Interview Questions for 2013.  If you want to be considered a candidate in today’s workplace, be prepared for questions like these:

  • If you were to get rid of one state in the US, which one would it be and why? (asked at Forrester Research)
  • How many cows are in Canada?  (asked at Google)
  • What song best describes your work ethic? (asked at Dell)
  • Jeff Bezos walks in your office and says you can have a million dollars to launch your best entrepreneurial idea.  What is it? (asked at Amazon)
  • What do you think about when you are alone in your car? (asked at Gallup)
  • How would people communicate in a perfect world?  (asked at Novell Software)
  • What’s your favorite song?  Perform it for us now. (asked at Living Social)
  • Pick two celebrities to be your parents.  (asked at Urban Outfitters)

Don’t complain about the seeming irrelevance of these questions.  Just be aware that companies want to know how you think and how creative you are.  What you know is of diminishing importance since we can get any static information instantly.  The fact that you are 45, have a $2500 monthly mortgage and two kids in college and a car that needs to be replaced are not factors in a company deciding how much to pay you.  Their only concern is what value you bring to the table, and that can be provided by a single 25-yr-old gal or a 53-yr-old father of eight. 

Enjoy the process of finding work you love – just be prepared for the changing world of work. 

For the complete list check here – Top 25 Oddball Interview Questions for 2013

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  • http://www.mondayisgood.com/ Tom Dixon

    Best one I’ve heard is “if you could be any kind of fruit, what would it be and why.” I saw this article this morning and was about to write a post on it myself…you have to get up pretty early to beat Dan Miller!

    • Dan Miller

      Tom,
      Hey I’m an old “early bird gets the worm” kind of guy. But there are a lot of worms out there – so go for it anyway.

      • http://www.mondayisgood.com/ Tom Dixon

        Agree, Dan. I’ll still go after my worm. Got my post up – thanks for the encouragement. http://wp.me/p2zoid-sa

      • http://www.pursuitofHisbest.com/ Andrew Allen

        Personally, I don’t think worms would taste very good, Dan. You can have them. ;-)

  • http://www.liveyourwhy.net/ Terry Hadaway

    And we wonder why people are becoming entrepreneurs! If I could rid the US of one state, it would be the state of complacency. That’s the state where people live far below their potential and wait for others to create jobs for them.

  • Matt R

    Something to remember…An interview is where you get the job, not your resume. I just applied for a job and went on the interview. I have 4.5 years of aplicable experience. I was supposed to have a BS and 10 years of experience! I was offered the job at 3 levels higher than my experience, and beat out a guy with at least twice the experience! I’m getting a 30% increase in pay all because of the interview. Personality is the key to getting a job. On paper that other guy should have been given the job hands down, but luckily for me they weren’t just looking at a piece of paper!
    Thanks for the article Dan! I do wish they would have asked me some of these oddball questions, though!!
    Matt R.

  • Ron Peters

    When I was at Intel, there were a few of these types of questions that we used. Why is a manhole cover round and how many barber shops are in the US. The main one was what we called the coconut question.

    You have 12 coconuts and a balance (not a scale). One of the coconuts weighs differently than the other 11. You can’t feel the difference and visibly they’re all identical. You have 3 uses of the balance to determine which one is different.

    There is a correct answer and it is complex. We’d tell the applicant that this wasn’t a trick question and we weren’t expecting the right answer. We wanted to hear their thought processes on how they would solve the problem and what they’d try.

    Some had very good logic and others stared blankly.

  • Here

    Texas, because they could survive alone. But diplomas are not worthless, often they are used to screen out applicants in the initial stages. After tossing 700 non-diploma applicants, the real work of choosing begins.

  • http://www.facebook.com/keith.timmons.33 Keith Timmons

    These type of bizarre and oddball questions only show that sociopaths are in control of too many of our industries. These rank right up there with walking over burning coals barefooted and the ridiculous exercise where someone climbs a pole. Innovation coupled with clear and moral minds has been and always will be the key to success as individuals and as a society.

    • Ralston Vaz

      I think there’s something to be said about the motivation behind questions like these. It’s about crafting an effective team. An individual can be highly trained, skilled and experienced, but if they’re a jerk with whom no one enjoys working, the team’s not going to be able to run at full gallop. I think it’s great that employers are finding creative ways to look up from behind a resume and learn about the person sitting in front of them guaging the mutual benefit of adding them to a well-run team. Also, let’s not kid ourselves thinking these oddball questions are all that’s asked of a candidate at Google, Forrester or anywhere else. Dan isn’t saying this is the entire interview process, just part of the whole.