Interview Questions to Test Creativity and Imagination

We know what you’re thinking, why on earth would a candidate’s imagination matter? Unless of course the job opening is for a children's author or film director?

Well, imagination, we would argue, is a fundamental part of what makes a good employee full of creative ideas. Think about it, when problems arise and no one apparently saw it coming, it’s because no one played the ‘What-If’ game. What if this happens and that leads to this? What if that goes wrong and we aren’t ready for it?

The ability to think on your feet and demonstrate creative solutions are often attributes that come under the umbrella of ‘imagination’. That’s why we feel it’s a good idea to throw in some creative interview questions that are utterly unexpected and test how creative your candidates are.

Interviewing can be a fine art, but, zany interview questions can unlock a candidate's creativity, reveal their problem-solving abilities, and demonstrate how they handle unexpected challenges under pressure. They can also relax the candidate and give you some insights into their personality.

So, go on, throw some freaky questions in there and see what creative approaches you discover. Oh, you don’t have a handy list of creative interview questions to ask someone? Well that dear friends, is where we show you what creative people we are.

Questions To Test Creativity

Here is our little list of zany questions that help to show creativity in an Interview.

• The Zombie Apocalypse happens to hit during a Monday morning and you’re in the office. You can only take three things to use in the new Zombie-ridden world. What do you pick?
• What fictional character do you most relate to and why?
• It turns out you can talk to cats but can’t tell anyone about it. How do you use this newfound skill?
• What’s the best way to cook eggs?
• If you were an animal what would you be and why?
• What songs would you pick for the soundtrack to your life?
• If you had a catchphrase, what would it be and why?
• In a bizarre twist of fate you have to drop everything and set up a farm in two days from now. What’s the first priority?
• You have been entered in the great British Bake-off and have to make a fantastic impression first thing tomorrow, what do you make and why?
• You’ve been given a pub to run, what do you name it?
• It turns out Hogwarts exists and you get to attend. Which house are you hoping for and why would you choose it over the other three?
• It’s an important first meal with your in-laws and you’ve managed to burn the chicken. How do you salvage the situation?
• You can be famous or you can be wealthy, which do you pick?
• You can create a new University Degree, what is it studying and why is there a need for it?
• Black Ink or blue ink?
• Today you are a driving instructor, what is the motto you instil in your students?
• If you had to promote a dish-cloth, what would be the tagline you’d pick?
• Is a spoon really necessary for eating spaghetti?
• What's your strategy when playing Monopoly?

Of course, we don’t suggest conducting the entire interview this way, your poor candidate may wonder what on earth they’ve stumbled into and you won’t learn all the necessary things you need to. Instead, pepper a few creative questions towards the end of the interview so that you can get an idea of how they deal with a curve-ball question and hopefully gain some insight into their character too.

As a last word of warning, almost all types of questions are fine, unless you’re asking about which franchise is better, Star Trek or Star Wars. Never ask that, interviews have been known to overrun by an average of two hours in the past when this has been brought up.

Trust us.