1. Explain me are you a hunter or a gatherer?
This question is dear to me, as I have a background in anthropology and could probably tell you way more information than you'd ever care to hear about early tribal bands. What is the purpose of asking strange job interview questions like this in a job interview? Hunters can be seen as focused short-term thinkers who excel at a single task. Gatherers are multi-taskers who have to focus on the big picture while taking care of a wide variety of tasks. Depending on the type of position you are looking for, you would want to choose one over the other.
2. Explain me why do you want to be a newspaper delivery person?
The candidate should talk about why they are interested in taking a position as a paper delivery person and what skills they have to do the job well. The candidate should reference qualities listed in the job description, including the ability to work flexible hours, their ability to be on time, and their attention to detail.
3. Tell us what is the most important thing for a project manager to do?
It will show you their priorities and whether they have actually thought about what a project manager does. It will also demonstrate whether they are a good cultural fit for your team. If you have a strong focus on process and they think the most important thing is to be flexible and adapt processes as you go, then you probably won't get on.
4. Tell us what criteria are you using to find your next job?
It will show you what's important to them at work: green credentials, career progression, work/life balance, working for a big brand etc. It will also tell you if they are actively job hunting or whether they saw your ad and couldn't resist (either is fine).
5. Explain how do you give a start when a new project comes up?
You'll be asked this to have a better understanding of your work strategy. Tell them how you set priorities for your work, you make schedules to coordinate the tasks, or use real-life examples to better explain how you set priorities. Make sure your strategy makes you look smart to handle projects and use your team's strength for your advantage.
6. Explain me how do you plan an Agile project?
They want to know how you set estimates about the cost of something and about the deliverables. Will you be able to manage the ROI of the products being built by the team. You'll have to maintain the scope, schedule, and budget in the Agile world.
7. Do you know how many square feet of pizza is eaten in the U.S. each year?
I am sure there is a reason that a multinational investment banking firm is wondering about pizza. This is one of the strange job interview questions that would stump most interviewees. This question would be hard to answer for the average person who may not have a grasp on the number of pizzas sold, the sizes, and what was eaten or thrown away, and most importantly, why they are talking about pizza.
8. Tell us did you ever play the popular video game, Paperboy, on Nintendo when you were a kid?
The candidate may use this time to break the ice with the hiring manager to show them part of their personality and what kind of person they are away from their work. The candidate may use their sense of humor to respond to this question, or talk about their other interests outside of work that make them an interesting person for the job.
9. Explain if you had to rate project management as a career, from 1-10 how would you rate it?
This will show you how they value their career and whether they see themselves progressing in a PM role. Ask them why they chose that rating.
10. Tell us what creative problem solving techniques do you use?
It's worth probing the technical skills of candidates. Can they talk knowledgably about fishbone diagrams, De Bono's thinking hats, role play? Branch out to talk about the last project issue they resolved with creative thinking.
11. Explain how do you make sure your team meets all the deadlines?
There is a solid deadline whenever a project comes up. The interviewer would want to know how you will manage your team effectively to make sure it meets all the deadlines. There is always a need for the project manager to communicate each person in the team how they have to hold their weight in completing the project. It is expected from a project manager to work together to finish a project within the designated deadline.
12. Tell us what are the three main agile frameworks?
The three agile frameworks are:-
☛ Kanban
☛ Test-driven development
☛ Feature driven development
13. Tell us do you believe in Bigfoot?
Now this question would really throw me for a loop in a job interview, as it deals with my level of belief or faith. Companies are prevented from asking many personal questions that can reveal information regarding your age, marital status, nationality, political affiliation, religion, physical abilities, residency, legal troubles, and military service. With questions like these, a company can see how much stock you put into faith versus science, and how you justify your answer demonstrates how logically you come to a conclusion about something unknown. This question can be used to gauge critical thinking skills and reactions to unknown or touchy situations. This is one of the strange job interview questions that would be beneficial to think about before the interview.
14. Explain me what was the most difficult ethical decision you have had to make on a project?
It can demonstrate their awareness of PMI Code of Ethics and even if they aren't aware of that, their general approach to work. You can also use it to open up an interesting discussion and allow you to judge how they will fit into your business culture.
15. Basic Delivery Man Job Interview Questions:
☛ Please describe yourself, your background briefly.
☛ What was the biggest or most challenging project you managed?
☛ Do you have budget management experience?
☛ Have you ever failed in a project? Do you have any experience of handling failures?
☛ How do you monitor projects whether it is going on track?
☛ Can you tell me an example of how you communicated a failure to your team, manager and customer?
☛ How do you motivate project team?
☛ Do you have outsource personnel or supplier management experience?
☛ Do you have international project team management experience?
☛ How do you deal with gold plating in your project?
☛ You managed the project work as per requirements. However, customer is not happy with the result and does not accept the project. How would you convince the customer?
☛ How do you deal with underperforming project team members?
☛ How do you resolve conflicts in your projects?
☛ What are the three words that describe you best?
☛ Why should we hire you?
☛ Where do you see yourself in five years?
☛ What is your current salary and compensaion package?
☛ What is your salary expectation?
16. Do you know the difference between Agile and Scrum?
It is helpful to know the difference between Agile and Scrum for an Agile interview. Agile is a broad spectrum, the framework of approaches that encourage “just-in-time” production. It is used in project management while Scrum is just a form of the Agile that describes the process more concisely. Agile is a practice whereas scrum is a procedure to carry on this practice. Agile is the broader umbrella where Scrum falls under.
17. Tell us what are the three key challenges for your industry today and how do you tackle them?
The interviewer expects you to have a knowledge about the project management industry. Start with the challenges and solutions as well. Some can be from your past experience as a project manager like increasing project complexity, continued skilled resource scarcity, increasing pace of change, lack of stakeholder management, meeting the customer's requirements, and so on.
18. Explain me what do you spend the most time doing each day?
This gives you an indication of how they do their job. Someone who spends all day at the PC may suit your environment, or you might be looking for a project manager who gets out and visits clients most days of the week. Remember that they might be prepared to do something other than what they do now, so if you hear something that doesn't fit with the post you are recruiting for, don't rule them out before exploring this further.
19. Explain me if there was a movie produced about your life, who would play you and why?
This question reminds me of those viral Facebook posts where people change their profile picture to the star that most resembles them, but there is more to this question. When you ask someone who they would want to represent their life, the attributes, values, and associations with that actor/actress says volumes. If I were to to say that I wanted Angelina Jolie to play me, there is a certain image that she portrays. I could then explain that I admire her humanitarian work and her adaptable style of acting that involves a portfolio from action movies to cartoon voice acting. She's also a little edgy and very maternal. These are all values that are important to me and come through in my choice of actress to represent my life.
20. Explain me when was the last time you didn't delegate and what happened?
This will help you work out if they are happy to be honest and tell you about a time that something went wrong. This shows their capacity to learn from mistakes and how they deal with information overload. Delegating work packages is key to project work and you'll want to hire someone who understands that.
21. Tell us what project management software do you prefer?
As a project manager, you've to have powerful tools for effective project management. A project manager need tools to plan, collaborate, monitor, and report on the project. This question will show how updated you are with the process used to manage projects and your hands on experience using the software.
22. Explain me how have you improved project management processes at your current firm?
Not everyone has the chance to work on business critical, exciting projects that make for a great CV, but everyone has the chance to offer some suggestions for improvements (even if they aren't taken up). Look for someone who has ideas and who isn't afraid to put them forward.
23. Tell me if you were a pizza delivery man, how would you benefit from scissors?
Pizza, again? Weird. But beyond that, my first thought was of a pizza delivery man snipping my pizza with a pair of scissors, which is probably not what Apple would be hoping for in a response. Apparently, the purpose of this question is to see if you can separate the occupation from the need for scissors. The question does not ask how your job would benefit from having scissors, but instead looks to see if you can pick apart the logic of the question, which is how would you benefit from scissors regardless of the job. These are strange job interview questions indeed!
24. What are your career goals as Delivery Man?
Whether this job will be a side job, a window for a future opportunity, or something else, the candidate should talk about what kinds of skills they hope to gain in the job to make them successful in the future. The candidate should talk about what kinds of skills, like responsibility, learning how to arrive to work on time, being dependable, and more, they will learn to help them reach future goals.
25. Please explain what don't you want to work on?
There are always bits of jobs we don't like, but project managers typically work on the projects that they are assigned. It's fine to have preferences, but you're looking for someone who can respond to business needs even if that isn't their top choice of project.
