The 3 Job Interview Questions You Never Expect

  • 1 min read

Would you be shocked into dumbfounded silence, if a hiring manager asked you these three questions in a job interview?

  1. What have you invented?
  2. What is your greatest achievement in life?
  3. When have you stood up to authority?

What? These are BIG questions, taken from a real interview. They get at the meaning of your life. Your answers define you as a person with – or without – self-knowledge, self-worth, and purpose.

Would you be able to answer them on-the-spot?

Should you be prepared for them or momentous questions like them? After all, most people consider job interview questions a mere formality.

You might be one of these folks. You think the job interview merely gives the recruiter an opportunity to verify some facts on your resume. Or, gives the hiring manager an opportunity to eyeball you. See if you dress for success. See if you cleaned up the clutter on your desk, if you’re on skype.

You don’t understand that today, a job interview is more like the new ABC game show: 500 Questions. That show is about to be another blockbuster hit from Mark Burnett and Mike Darnell who gave us Shark Tank, Survivor, The Voice, and The Bachelor. In that show, each contestant must answer up to 500 difficult general knowledge questions. Get any three wrong in a row and you’re out.

500 Questions is promoted as the ultimate in self-reliance, since there are no lifelines to experts and no audience support. “Intellect, strategy and stamina are all equally essential in order to win,” according to the show’s website.

Wow! That is so unlike life, right? So unlike a job, right? Wrong. Wrong.

I’m sorry if you believe your life is a collaboration. Perhaps you misunderstood what a boss means by that “there’s no I in team” philosophy. FYI it means: you do the work, the team takes the credit. From time to time, it works the other way – but don’t hold your breath.

Can you imagine if it’s just you and those really big job interview questions?

Well, that’s actually what a job interview is meant for, if the company is serious about hiring you.

It’s just you and the questions. You cannot call an expert for help. You cannot poll the audience.

Picture of Nance Rosen

Nance Rosen

Nance Rosen is the author of Speak Up! & Succeed. She speaks to business audiences around the world and is a resource for press, including print, broadcast and online journalists and bloggers covering social media and careers.

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