It’s an early morning and you’re sitting in an office, ready to interview for a help desk position at an accounting firm. You’ve polished your resume, are wearing your best professional interview outfit and you’ve practiced answers to questions about where you see yourself in five years and your biggest faults as an employee. After pleasant introductions, the first question you are asked is, “If you were shrunk to the size of a pencil and put in a blender, how would you get out?” The follow up queries are not much better, with requests to sell the interviewer a glass of water and being asked how you would design a spice rack for a blind person.
While these questions may lead you to ponder whether your interviewer has a drinking problem or is just off their meds, the reality is that “sometimes” these are great interview questions and can tell prospective employers a lot about you. The question about the great blender escape is a problem solving one. It gives an interviewer insight into both your ability to use logic and how well you can solve off the wall problems, which are actually crucial skills in a help desk role.
Selling your prospective employer on a glass of water deals how good you are at convincing people to do what you ask of them. If you’re working at a help desk role answering calls or responding to emails, you’ll need to be able to get reluctant and techno phobic individuals to do basic troubleshooting steps. When dealing with the man who is afraid he’ll lose all of his data if his computer is ever turned off, you need to get him to restart his workstation without either of you crying.
Designing a spice rack for a blind individual relates to being able to understand the issues that someone with disabilities faces, even if you are fully abled. This is an essential part of being understanding when it comes to dealing with people in a help desk environment, many of whom are a combination of frustrated at and scared of their computer.
If you find yourself in an interview where you are asked an oddball question, instead of slowly backing away, giving the query some thought and trying to figure out why they’re asking the question will help you determine the best response.