Job interview questions differ according to the work structure of a company. But most of the job interview questions asked by the companies are related to the three categories. In the first set, the interview asks about the candidate’s family background, education, and interests. The second set comes with question meant to assess the technical knowledge of the candidate. While the last is to judge the candidate’s personality – his/her nature, decision making capacity, ideology, and ability to solve problems.

But some interview boards also ask a few funny interview questions to the candidate. This is a tricky method to check the candidate’s reaction. Many candidates don’t know how to answer a funny interview question. Hearing a funny interview question some candidates get irritated. What is there in getting irritated hearing a funny interview question? The candidates have to know that these questions are meant to check the psychological structure of the candidate. There is nothing to get panic or irritated hearing funny interview questions. Just answer the funny interview questions as other technical questions in a simply way.

By asking funny interview questions the interviewer is trying to test the nerve of the candidate. Just relax and show enthusiasm to answer the funny interview question as the other interview questions. The interviewer is trying to check what type of person you are. That is whether you have enough humor sense. Funny interview questions are asked to put the candidate at ease. By asking funny interview questions, the interviewer is also trying to make you relaxed and enthusiastic. The interviewer also needs to remove the tension in you and make the interview process very informal. This is done so as to smoothen the interview process. For more just check Interview Questions Killer

1. Don’t be a “smiley face.”

Excessive smiling in a job interview is seen for what it is — nervousness and a lack of confidence. A smiley-face person exudes phoniness, which will quickly be picked up by the interviewer. Instead be thoughtful and pleasant. Smile when there’s something to smile about. Do a practice run in front of a mirror or friend.

2. Don’t be a small-talker.

Your job is to be knowledgeable about the company for which you’re interviewing. Random facts about last night’s episode of “Dancing with the Stars” or your favorite blog will not get you the job. Never feel you have to fill an interview with small talk. Find ways to talk about serious subjects related to the industry or company. Pockets of silence are better than padding an interview with random babble.

3. Don’t sweat.

You can lose a job by wearing an undershirt or simply a little too much clothing. Sweaty palms or beads on your forehead will not impress. You are not applying to be a personal trainer. Sweat will be seen as a sign of weakness and nervousness. Do a practice run with your job interview outfit in front of friends. The job interview is one place you definitely don’t want to be hot.

4. Don’t be a road block.

Interviewers are seeking candidates eager to take on challenging projects and jobs. Hesitance and a nay-saying mentality will be as visible as a red tie — and seen as a negative. Practice saying “yes” to questions about your interest in tasks and work that might normally give you pause.

5. Don’t be petty.

Asking the location of the lunchroom or meeting room will clue the interviewer into your lack of preparation and initiative. Prepare. Don’t ask questions about routine elements or functions of a company: where stuff is, the size of your cube, and company policy on coffee breaks.

6. Don’t be a liar.

Studies show that employees lie frequently in the workplace. Lying won’t get you a job. In a job interview even a slight exaggeration is lying. Don’t. Never stretch your resume or embellish accomplishments. There’s a difference between speaking with a measured confidence and engaging in BS. One lie can ruin your entire interview, and the skilled interviewer will spot the lie and show you the door.

7. Don’t be a bad comedian.

Humor tends to be very subjective, and while it may be tempting to lead your interview with a joke you’ve got to be careful about your material. You probably will know nothing about the sensibilities of your interviewer, let alone what makes them laugh. On the other hand, nothing disarms the tension of a job interview like a little laughter, so you can probably score at least a courtesy chuckle mentioning that it’s “perfect weather for a job interview!”

8. Don’t be high-maintenance.

If you start talking about the ideal office temperature, the perfect chair for your tricky back, and how the water cooler needs to be filled with imported mineral water, chances are you’ll be shown a polite smile and the door, regardless of your qualifications. Nobody hiring today is going to be looking for someone who’s going to be finicky about their workspace.

9. Don’t be a time-waster.

At every job interview, the prospective hire is given the chance to ask questions. Make yours intelligent, to the point, and watch the person across the desk for visual cues whether you’ve asked enough. Ask too many questions about off-target matters and you’ll be thought of as someone destined to waste the company’s resources with insignificant and time-wasting matters.

10. Don’t be a switchblade.

Normally the switchblade is thought of a backstabber, often taking credit for someone else’s work. In an interview setting, the switchblade can’t help but “trash talk” his former employer. If you make it seem like your former workplace was hell on Earth, the person interviewing you might be tempted to call them to find out who was the real devil.

Copyright 2009 Jonathan Littman and Marc Hershon, authors of “I Hate People!: Kick Loose from the Overbearing and Underhanded Jerks at Work and Get What You Want Out of Your Job”

Jonathan Littman is the author of “I Hate People!” and numerous works of nonfiction, including “The Fugitive Game,” “The Watchman,” and “The Beautiful Game.” He is a columnist for Yahoo! Sports.

Marc Hershon is the coauthor of “I Hate People!” and a branding expert who helped to create the names for the BlackBerry, Swiffer, and many other influential products.

Free Job Interview Tips

“Tell Me a Little About Yourself”

This is a peculiar one and may serve a few purposes – the most important of these, I believe, is allowing you to get comfortable in the job interview environment. An interviewer who dives straight in to the interrogation is going to see a lot of anxious candidates. There isn’t a set answer here, because it’s such an open question – just see it as a short speech to promote yourself. Briefly outline your recent work and any significant achievements you’ve earned along the way. It’s essential you don’t go on and on when answering this interview question, babbling about everything from your childhood to your current job – they’re looking for an overview of who you are, and if you ramble, you’ll have defined yourself as a rambler!

“What would you say your strengths are?”

Every interviewer loves this question, because it gives them quick answers. It’s also one of the better ones to be asked in a job interview, because it gives you a free licence to shamelessly self promote! The key concern here is not to go overboard – if you do, you’ll come across as conceited. It’s also wise to tailor your answer to this question to the type of role being advertised. Read the job description carefully, and match your skills to the question – if it’s a role that involved a lot of proofreading, then mention your meticulous attention to detail, if it’s a copywriting position, emphasise how articulate you are – and so on. Don’t lie here, because it’ll be really obvious and embarrassing when you’re found out. If you claim to be articulate, but struggle to put two sentences together without misusing a word, your credibility will be damaged and you won’t be working for the company any time soon.

“What’s your main weakness?”

The flip side to the gift of the ’strengths’ question is this beast. A weakness is undoubtedly a bad thing, so why would you want to bring it up in a situation where your aim is to sell yourself. The best way of answering this interview question, in my experience, is damage limitation. Provide an (honest) weakness, but then point out the steps to limit its hindrance. If you point out your lack of organisation, but then explain this is why you make liberal use of postage notes to counter the problem, it becomes less of a weakness and more of a strength: you recognise your own limits and make amends.

“Why are you looking to leave your current job?”

Now this is a bit of a mean question. Everyone must have a reason for looking to work elsewhere, otherwise they’d be sat at their desk working and not attending a job interview elsewhere. Often this needn’t be a problem, especially if the role you’re applying for is in a different industry (”I’m looking for a change of direction”) or a different part of the country (”I’m looking to relocate”). The trouble comes when you’re looking for work in the same industry and in the same city – the main reasons people looking to move being a low salary, clash of personalities, a dislike of policy or jumping before they’re pushed. Needless to say, none of these will impress your interviewer. The best way of countering this is to state your ambitions and point out that you’re looking to move up the career ladder at a company with more scope for progression. This shows you’re motivated and ambitious, and turns a potential negative into a glowing positive.

“Where do you see yourself in 5 years time?”

I’ve seen variants of this where the question is 3, 5 or 10 years time but the point of it is always the same: to scope out your ambitions. If the role has an expected path of progression, then suggesting that you hope to impress them enough to progress upwards in the company will not only state your ambitions clearly, but will express your loyalty by stating you can see yourself here for the long haul. If the role seems to show less progression and they’re asking the question to ensure you won’t abandon ship after 6 months, then you can play it safe in another way: “Well, in 5 years I’d like to be managing a team, but it’s entirely possible that I will enjoy this role enough to be doing something similar”. Just make sure you mention a career thematically linked – the interviewer doesn’t want to hear “I want to be an astronaut” if they’re hiring for the role of salesman!

“Why do you want to work here?”

Clue: The answer to this one isn’t “I saw an advert and it pays well. What the interviewer is looking for here is evidence you actually give a damn about the company that’s hiring. It’s actually a great opportunity, disguised as a tough interview question: if you’ve read up about the company (the internet is the best source for this) then you should be fine. Just make sure you can find a reason why the company’s philosophy will be good for you. This is usually very easy, as company websites are written to sell them as benevolent employers at the forefront of their industry.

BEST ANSWER: Start with the present and tell why you are well qualified for the position. Remember that the key to all successful interviewing is to match your qualifications to what the interviewer is looking for. In other words you must sell what the buyer is buying. This is the single most important strategy in job hunting.

So, before you answer this or any question it’s imperative that you try to uncover your interviewer’s greatest need, want, problem or goal.

To do so, make you take these two steps:

1. Do all the homework you can before the interview to uncover this person’s wants and needs (not the generalized needs of the industry or company)
2. As early as you can in the interview, ask for a more complete description of what the position entails. You might say: “I have a number of accomplishments I’d like to tell you about, but I want to make the best use of our time together and talk directly to your needs. To help me do, that, could you tell me more about the most important priorities of this position? All I know is what I (heard from the recruiter, read in the classified ad, etc.)”

Then, ALWAYS follow-up with a second and possibly, third question, to draw out his needs even more. Surprisingly, it’s usually this second or third question that unearths what the interviewer is most looking for.

You might ask simply, “And in addition to that?…” or, “Is there anything else you see as essential to success in this position?

This process will not feel easy or natural at first, because it is easier simply to answer questions, but only if you uncover the employer’s wants and needs will your answers make the most sense. Practice asking these key questions before giving your answers, the process will feel more natural and you will be light years ahead of the other job candidates you’re competing with.

After uncovering what the employer is looking for, describe why the needs of this job bear striking parallels to tasks you’ve succeeded at before. Be sure to illustrate with specific examples of your responsibilities and especially your achievements, all of which are geared to present yourself as a perfect match for the needs he has just described.

BEST ANSWER: You know that your key strategy is to first uncover your interviewer’s greatest wants and needs before you answer questions. And from Question 1, you know how to do this.

Prior to any interview, you should have a list mentally prepared of your greatest strengths. You should also have, a specific example or two, which illustrates each strength, an example chosen from your most recent and most impressive achievements.

You should, have this list of your greatest strengths and corresponding examples from your achievements so well committed to memory that you can recite them cold after being shaken awake at 2:30AM.

Then, once you uncover your interviewer’s greatest wants and needs, you can choose those achievements from your list that best match up.

As a general guideline, the 10 most desirable traits that all employers love to see in their employees are:

1. A proven track record as an achiever…especially if your achievements match up with the employer’s greatest wants and needs.
2. Intelligence…management “savvy”.
3. Honesty…integrity…a decent human being.
4. Good fit with corporate culture…someone to feel comfortable with…a team player who meshes well with interviewer’s team.
5. Likeability…positive attitude…sense of humor.
6. Good communication skills.
7. Dedication…willingness to walk the extra mile to achieve excellence.
8. Definiteness of purpose…clear goals.
9. Enthusiasm…high level of motivation.
10. Confident…healthy…a leader.

PASSABLE ANSWER: Disguise a strength as a weakness.

Example: “I sometimes push my people too hard. I like to work with a sense of urgency and everyone is not always on the same wavelength.”

Drawback: This strategy is better than admitting a flaw, but it’s so widely used, it is transparent to any experienced interviewer.

BEST ANSWER: (and another reason it’s so important to get a thorough description of your interviewer’s needs before you answer questions): Assure the interviewer that you can think of nothing that would stand in the way of your performing in this position with excellence. Then, quickly review you strongest qualifications.

Example: “Nobody’s perfect, but based on what you’ve told me about this position, I believe I’ d make an outstanding match. I know that when I hire people, I look for two things most of all. Do they have the qualifications to do the job well, and the motivation to do it well? Everything in my background shows I have both the qualifications and a strong desire to achieve excellence in whatever I take on. So I can say in all honesty that I see nothing that would cause you even a small concern about my ability or my strong desire to perform this job with excellence.”

Alternate strategy (if you don’t yet know enough about the position to talk about such a perfect fit):
Instead of confessing a weakness, describe what you like most and like least, making sure that what you like most matches up with the most important qualification for success in the position, and what you like least is not essential.

Example: Let’s say you’re applying for a teaching position. “If given a choice, I like to spend as much time as possible in front of my prospects selling, as opposed to shuffling paperwork back at the office. Of course, I long ago learned the importance of filing paperwork properly, and I do it conscientiously. But what I really love to do is sell (if your interviewer were a sales manager, this should be music to his ears.)

Some unprepared candidates, flustered by this question, unburden themselves of guilt from their personal life or career, perhaps expressing regrets regarding a parent, spouse, child, etc. All such answers can be disastrous.

BEST ANSWER: As with faults and weaknesses, never confess a regret. But don’t seem as if you’re stonewalling either.

Best strategy: Say you harbor no regrets, then add a principle or habit you practice regularly for healthy human relations.

Example: Pause for reflection, as if the question never occurred to you. Then say, “You know, I really can’t think of anything.” (Pause again, then add): “I would add that as a general management principle, I’ve found that the best way to avoid regrets is to avoid causing them in the first place. I practice one habit that helps me a great deal in this regard. At the end of each day, I mentally review the day’s events and conversations to take a second look at the people and developments I’m involved with and do a doublecheck of what they’re likely to be feeling. Sometimes I’ll see things that do need more follow-up, whether a pat on the back, or maybe a five minute chat in someone’s office to make sure we’re clear on things…whatever.”

“I also like to make each person feel like a member of an elite team, like the Boston Celtics or LA Lakers in their prime. I’ve found that if you let each team member know you expect excellence in their performance…if you work hard to set an example yourself…and if you let people know you appreciate and respect their feelings, you wind up with a highly motivated group, a team that’s having fun at work because they’re striving for excellence rather than brooding over slights or regrets.”

Especially avoid words like “personality clash”, “didn’t get along”, or others which cast a shadow on your competence, integrity, or temperament.

BEST ANSWER:

(If you have a job presently)
If you’re not yet 100% committed to leaving your present post, don’t be afraid to say so. Since you have a job, you are in a stronger position than someone who does not. But don’t be coy either. State honestly what you’d be hoping to find in a new spot. Of course, as stated often before, you answer will all the stronger if you have already uncovered what this position is all about and you match your desires to it.

(If you do not presently have a job.)
Never lie about having been fired. It’s unethical – and too easily checked. But do try to deflect the reason from you personally. If your firing was the result of a takeover, merger, division wide layoff, etc., so much the better.
But you should also do something totally unnatural that will demonstrate consummate professionalism. Even if it hurts , describe your own firing – candidly, succinctly and without a trace of bitterness – from the company’s point-of-view, indicating that you could understand why it happened and you might have made the same decision yourself.

Your stature will rise immensely and, most important of all, you will show you are healed from the wounds inflicted by the firing. You will enhance your image as first-class management material and stand head and shoulders above the legions of firing victims who, at the slightest provocation, zip open their shirts to expose their battle scars and decry the unfairness of it all.

For all prior positions:
Make sure you’ve prepared a brief reason for leaving. Best reasons: more money, opportunity, responsibility or growth.

You answer an interviewer’s question and then, instead of asking another, he just stares at you in a deafening silence.

You wait, growing a bit uneasy, and there he sits, silent as Mt. Rushmore, as if he doesn’t believe what you’ve just said, or perhaps making you feel that you’ve unwittingly violated some cardinal rule of interview etiquette.

When you get this silent treatment after answering a particularly difficult question , such as “tell me about your weaknesses”, its intimidating effect can be most disquieting, even to polished job hunters.

Most unprepared candidates rush in to fill the void of silence, viewing prolonged, uncomfortable silences as an invitation to clear up the previous answer which has obviously caused some problem. And that’s what they do – ramble on, sputtering more and more information, sometimes irrelevant and often damaging, because they are suddenly playing the role of someone who’s goofed and is now trying to recoup. But since the candidate doesn’t know where or how he goofed, he just keeps talking, showing how flustered and confused he is by the interviewer’s unmovable silence.

BEST ANSWER: Like a primitive tribal mask, the Silent Treatment loses all it power to frighten you once you refuse to be intimidated. If your interviewer pulls it, keep quiet yourself for a while and then ask, with sincere politeness and not a trace of sarcasm, “Is there anything else I can fill in on that point?” That’s all there is to it.

Whatever you do, don’t let the Silent Treatment intimidate you into talking a blue streak, because you could easily talk yourself out of the position.

BEST ANSWER: By now you can see how critical it is to apply the overall strategy of uncovering the employer’s needs before you answer questions. If you know the employer’s greatest needs and desires, this question will give you a big leg up over other candidates because you will give him better reasons for hiring you than anyone else is likely to…reasons tied directly to his needs.

Whether your interviewer asks you this question explicitly or not, this is the most important question of your interview because he must answer this question favorably in is own mind before you will be hired. So help him out! Walk through each of the position’s requirements as you understand them, and follow each with a reason why you meet that requirement so well.

Example: “As I understand your needs, you are first and foremost looking for someone who can manage the sales and marketing of your book publishing division. As you’ve said you need someone with a strong background in trade book sales. This is where I’ve spent almost all of my career, so I’ve chalked up 18 years of experience exactly in this area. I believe that I know the right contacts, methods, principles, and successful management techniques as well as any person can in our industry.”

“You also need someone who can expand your book distribution channels. In my prior post, my innovative promotional ideas doubled, then tripled, the number of outlets selling our books. I’m confident I can do the same for you.”

“You need someone to give a new shot in the arm to your mail order sales, someone who knows how to sell in space and direct mail media. Here, too, I believe I have exactly the experience you need. In the last five years, I’ve increased our mail order book sales from $600,000 to $2,800,000, and now we’re the country’s second leading marketer of scientific and medical books by mail.” Etc., etc., etc.,

Every one of these selling “couplets” (his need matched by your qualifications) is a touchdown that runs up your score. IT is your best opportunity to outsell your competition.