It seems obvious but interview questions should be relevant to the post and appropriate. HR will tell you best practice is to relate each question to an essential criteria on the Person Specification(PS). The interviewer should be trying to get the best out of a candidate in what is for them a stressful situation. Some interviewers seem to think this is an opportunity to see if a candidate can think on their feet by being asked a question they could not have anticipated. Hence the , If you were a fruit what would you be question . A candidate has the right to expect questions will be about their experience, knowledge and skills relevant to the post. In fact I coach people for interviews by going through the PS for the post and saying ok if you’re asked a question on this criteria what will you answer. I explain you can’t predict the exact wording of an interview question but you should be able to identify the area and have a response worked out.
Some interviewers justify this approach by saying they want to test a candidate ability to think creatively and out of the box if so it would seem fairer to ask for an example ( in or out of work) where they have come up with an unusual or creative solution to a problem. Still in my opinion an unnecessarily difficult question for interview better asked as part of the application form or tested through an assessment centre exercise. More concerning however is how interviewers interpret the responce of a candidate who doesn’t want to play along. Inevitably drawing a negative conclusions.
Where do you see your self in five years? Is this a question about ambition or loyalty? This ambiguity makes it a bad interview question. If about ambition then why not ask something more specific like do you see yourself as a manager/senior manager in the future? But I am not sure what value it has since the candidates views and circumstances are likely to change. If this is about loyalty or concern that the candidates track record is one of frequently changing organisations then better to ask directly why so many moves in the last few years? But better still to think of a question that gets them to talk about their current and previous posts to see if they are positive about the experience.
Asking a candidate to identify their biggest weakness is a frequent question intended to reveal whether the individual has insight into their own skills / behaviour. Rather like the one where you are asked how your staff/ colleagues would describe you. Do we really expect a candidate trying to impress to say something negative about themselves. And if they did would this be interpreted as lacking confidence in their own ability. The typical response is to say something safe like “I am awere I can talk too much so I consciously try and talk less and listen more in meetings”. “ I think my team would say I am fair and supportive as a manager/ my colleagues would say I am a team player willing to help out when and wherever I can”.
If you are asked one of these off the wall questions remember it doesn’t matter which fruit you select what the interviewers are interested in is your reasoning behind it. But even then I suspect it’s more about the interviewers than the candidates.
