Unusual Interview Questions

Unusual Interview Question

I ran across a nice blog by someone I am connected with on LinkedIn through the Best Practice Exchange group I host over there. The blog is Fighting the Trillion Dollar Bonfire : joined-up management for a joined-up world ™ by Colin Beveridge.

According to his web bio, Colin is a strategic adviser and troubleshooter who has helped many major undertakings to resolve problems with strategy, business relationships and organization. He has an impressive record of leading and delivering complex change, usually in very challenging and sensitive situations.

Colin shared the following question in his post titled:

THAT WAS EASY : VERY ODD JOB INTERVIEW

A few years ago, I had one of the strangest [but successful] job interviews
ever. No pyschometric testing, no criteria-based formula, there were just
three direct questions put to me by the interviewer.

Question 1: how would you describe your management style?

Question 2: what hours would you like to work?

Question 3: do you drink?

HR departments everywhere would cringe at the prospect of these becoming standard interview questions. But the interviewer knew the basic facts from my CV and just wanted to know if I would fit into a difficult situation.

Have you ever had such an unusual job interview experience?

My question is what do you think of such an interview style when everyone is looking at targeted talented selection, etc.? Do some candidates just have a reputation or demeanor that speaks for itself?

My other question is whether the question about drinking required a positive or negative response to meet the targeted competency?

Leadership Myth #1: we are all leaders