Page 275 - Marky Stein - Get a Great Job When You Don't Have a Job-McGraw-Hill (2009)

Get a Great Job When You Don’t Have a Job

QUESTION: Why is there fuzz on a tennis ball?

Either of these answers, said with a smile, would be fine:

ANSWER: Good question.
ANSWER: That’s certainly one to think about!

Other, fairly silly questions that are designed to make you think
they are “deep” and to throw you off are:

QUESTION: What’s your favorite color, and why?

QUESTION: If you could have dinner with anyone, who would it be,
and why?

QUESTION: What’s your favorite animal, and why?

My advice is just to answer such questions at face value. You don’t
have to decipher their meaning. Interviewers are not really try-
ing to psychoanalyze you; they just want you to think they are.
Give a straightforward, simple answer to these questions, and
you’ll do fine.
Two more questions that may come up are the following:

QUESTION: Do you object to psychological tests?
QUESTION: Do you object to drug testing?

If the interviewer asks you these questions, you can at least be
assured that he or she is considering you as a serious candidate
for the job. You really can’t win with these questions, other than
to say:

ANSWER: No, I don’t object to testing of any kind.

If you do object to being tested, you might want to look for some
other target companies that do not employ these practices.
In Chapter 10, you’ll be able to read an entire interview,
from start to finish, so you’ll get an excellent idea of how stress
questions (and their answers) fit into the larger scheme of things.

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