“Why do you think manhole covers are round?”
This, an actual interview question posed to a would-be Microsoft employee, is just one of myriad impossible job interview questions that are designed to inspire creative thinking – but which are generally more successful at inspiring fear in the hearts of job-seekers.
The only questions more perplexing, it seems, are the problems posed to prospective students at Oxford University.
The prestigious 928-year-old college has released a
list of sample questions in an effort to debunk the myth that their questions are “unanswerable”.
After you’ve read some of the questions, you be the judge…
- Why do many animals have stripes?
- How do pirates divide their treasure?
- Why might it be useful for an English student to read the Twilight series?
- Imagine we had no records about the past at all, except everything to do with sport – how much of the past could we find out about?
- What does it mean for someone to ‘take' another's car?
- Should poetry be difficult to understand?
- If you could invent a new musical instrument, what kind of sound would it make?
- Would it matter if tigers became extinct?
- Should interviews be used for selection?
What’s the most unusual or perplexing interview question you’ve ever asked, or been asked?
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