Non-traditional Interview Question: Hobbies and Books

These days managers are getting more and more creative about the questions they ask candidates during job interviews.  Don’t be surprised if you get asked “what do you do for fun” or “what’s the last book you read”.

For the most part these questions are easy to answer and work in the favor of the candidate.

The ”what do you do for fun” question: 

The hiring manager is most likely asking this because they may feel that having a hobby makes the candidate well-rounded and interesting.  The hobby itself can also be very telling.  If you have some strange fetish, keep that to yourself!

I’d answer this question by saying that I love to write, I’m obsessed with gardening and I’m a Chicago Bulls season ticket holder.  How does this help me, the candidate?  Well, it tells the manager that I may be able to help craft company documents, I like to be outside and that, during basketball season, I may need to rush out by 5:30 on home game nights.

The book question:

This is fairly straight forward.  Reading is great.  It keeps the mind sharp and exposes the reader to new words and ideas.  And I have no real proof of this but I’m going out on a limb to say that people who read leisurely are probably a little smarter than those who don’t.  It doesn’t matter if you prefer novels, biographies or science fiction – you can’t go wrong with reading.

I’m currently reading Food Not Lawns.  What do you think that book says about me?

Have you been on an interview recently where you were asked a non-traditional question?  How did you answer it?