Unique or Useless: Do “Trick” Job Interview Questions Have Value?

There are literally thousands of job interview books available in bookstores right now, all designed to help you nail that interview and get you the job of your dreams. Within all those pages, helpful authors take you through the tried and true questions that you must master in order to succeed, from the generic “Where do you see yourself in 5 years?” to the practical “Talk to me about some of the projects you worked on while you were at your last job.”

But buried beneath the classics are a few books with titles such as “Are You Smart Enough to Work at Google?” In fact, just memorizing the 25-word subtitle of the book could be its own question: “Trick Questions, Zen-like Riddles, Insanely Difficult Puzzles, and Other Devious Interviewing Techniques You Need to Know to Get a Job Anywhere in the New Economy.”

Most people will see a book or a blog post like that and treat it like a game show. Ha ha! I wonder if I can answer those crazy brain teasers! However, I began to wonder if the effectiveness of these questions was being undervalued — by both the hiring company and the job-seeker.  Continue reading . . .

Article by Jim Hopkinson and courtesy of Salary.com&reg