How To Ask Bad Interview Questions

Let us also dedicate a few words to bad interview questions.

Here are some formats to avoid:

1. Yes/No questions. Especially ones where the obvious answer is yes. “Are you good at problem solving?” If anybody answers no let me know, I would like to interview that person for this blog.
2. Trick or silly questions. “If you were a fruit, what fruit would you be?”. There is no real advantage to trying to catch your candidates off guard. This is somebody you will have to live with day in and day out, and who will be responsible for helping you achieve your goals. Use the interview process to figure out if this is the person you want on your team, not to make them squirm.
3. Irrelevant questions. It doesn’t matter what they think of a certain person or current event. And, the question just might be illegal too.
4. “What do you do in your free time?”. This is a difficult question. It risks being labeled illegal, and will also trigger a judgement call that has little to do with the job at hand. I struggle to think of scenarios in which this question is relevant in a job interview.

And, of course, anything about age, ethnicity, place of origin, orientation or marital status. Which is fine, because none of these things has any bearing on their ability to work with you.