If you were a bicycle part, which part of the bicycle would you be?
Alex Ginn, an international recruiter for Nathan Associates, uses this prompt to gauge creativity and quick thinking. For the record — he’d be the chain.
Be more prepared than ever to offer expanded, thoughtful answers to interview questions, even if they aren’t what you expected. This is just one takeaway from several recruiters who shared their go-to questions at Devex’s Career Forum in Washington this year.
Jennifer Vaca, a program development specialist with World Learning, prefers to ask a candidate what his or her management style is. Vaca is trying to discern whether this is something the potential hire has “consciously put time into figuring out and it’s not just something that happens ad hoc.”
But expect the tables to turn if you interview with Jon Herstein, international human resources operations director and HR business partner for RTI International.
“I like to ask people if they were me, if they’d hire me and why,” he said. Getting away from canned questions about biggest strengths and weaknesses allows a candidate to reflect on what a hiring manager’s needs might be, he suggested.
Watch this video to find out what recruiters from World Vision, Crown Agents and The Asia Foundation choose to ask.
Do you like when recruiters ask unique interview questions? Leave your comments below.
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About the author
Kelli Rogers@kellierin
Kelli Rogers is a global development reporter for Devex. Based in Bangkok, she covers disaster and crisis response, innovation, women’s rights, and development trends throughout Asia. Prior to her current post, she covered leadership, careers, and the USAID implementer community from Washington, D.C. Previously, she reported on social and environmental issues from Nairobi, Kenya. Kelli holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri, and has since reported from more than 20 countries.