Interviews – Expect the unexpected

Be prepared for that unexpected question. The one you haven’t prepped for.

For example,

“How many metro stations are there in Paris?”

I can hear you exclaim “How am I supposed to know the answer to that?” or “That’s an unfair question I can’t possibly know the answer to that.” So, firstly, life isn’t fair and yes, the interviewer could ask a question such as this. Secondly, you’re not supposed to be able to answer the question precisely.  

The point of such an outlandish question, is not to intentionally ask something you don’t know the answer to, but to see how you might respond to a question from a client that you don’t know the answer to. Do you panic? Do you think logically?

It’s fine to reply with what I call a holding response

“That’s a good question, I’ve never been asked something like that before”.

This gives you some extra time to think about the problem. In this example, you might go along the lines of

“My initial answer would be there are perhaps 5 metro lines in Paris with say approx. 20 stops on each so that would be 100 metro stations in all. However, there might be some interchange stations where two lines meet, so I might discount say 10 making approximately 90 stations.”

For the curious amongst you, there are 304 stations, of which 64 have transfers between lines!

Always expect the unexpected.

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