How to Prepare for a Curveball Question?

So you’ve prepared for your interview and you’ve thought of an answer to every question you could imagine…or so you think!

What are your strengths, what has been your biggest achievement so far, tell us about yourself? All questions that we would expect, but what happens if they ask you a question you hadn’t expected?

Let’s take a curveball question like “If you were a cake what cake would you be?”

Your first reaction is probably uh-oh and the second is probably why are they are asking you me such a silly question?… but stop to think what they are trying to achieve? With a question like this they are probably trying to see if you have a sense of humour and whether you can think on your feet.

How do you deal with a question like this? Our biggest piece of advice would be to take your time and don’t get flustered, because the interviewer won’t expect an immediate answer. They are not testing your speed to answer the question but the actual answer you give.

The one thing to remember is that there are no right or wrong answers. These questions are designed to test your lateral thinking and should be seen as an opportunity to show off your creativity so go ahead and show off! As long as you can justify your answer then you’re well on your way to the next stage!

Here are just some of the other curveball questions we’ve heard in the past:

• If you were an animal what would you be?
• Sell me this pen!
• Can you name five uses of a stapler without staples?
• If you were a Microsoft Office program, which one would you be?

Let us know any strange interview questions you’ve come across!