Careers advice clinic ABC Recruitment

Careers advice clinic

Jun 30, 2011 Career Tips

What would improve your working life? Photograph: Andrew Winning/REUTERS

Now, unfortunately for job-seekers, unusual or bizarre interview questions are nothing new.

However, I’ve got to share with you the latest crop making the rounds online, as they are particularly good. Yes, even better than Oxford University asking candidates to describe a cactus or asking them to explain what kind of musical instrument they would invent, both examples made the news last year.

You might just find yourself facing similar gruelling questions as many of the latest examples came from popular companies such as Google, Facebook and Goldman Sachs, according to Glassdoor.com, a stateside career community website.

So, if you find interviews stressful at the best of times, it might be the time to start thinking ahead about how you’d react if you were asked to sell an invisible pen (Proctor & Gamble) or explain your strategy at table tennis (Citigroup).

My personal favourite though is from Diageo North America: “If you walk into a liquor store to count the unsold bottles, but the clerk is screaming at you to leave, what would you do?”

Me? I’d probably run away, rather alarmed by the whole situation. But of course, it’s not always about getting the right answers, rather how you tackle a challenging problem, explained Rusty Rueff, Glassdoor.com’s career and workplace expert in a recent CBS Money Watch article.

These are just a couple of the challenges facing job seekers in the current market, so, keen to help with all the careers-related issues you’re facing – from tricky interviews to shaping the perfect CV – we’re running another of our regular careers advice Q&As where we’ll be throwing the floor open to you. Whether you want to change career from accountancy to cosmetics, or you’re musing over how to ask for a pay rise or wondering if you should take a career break, we’re here to help. Regardless of the sector you want to make headway in, join a panel of career coaches and advisers offering their advice on Tuesday 5 July from 1pm until 4pm – advance questions welcome below.

To keep up-to-date with our regular Q&A sessions, you can now sign-up for our newsletter here.

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