Only 1 hour left until your interview, which you prepared for days, if not weeks, in advance.
The shirt: Carefully chosen according to the company’s brand colours.
The handshake: Been practised countless times with your best friend.
The posture: Down to perfection after spending hours in front of the mirror.
You can recite the company’s history like a poem and answer questions like “Where do you see yourself in 5 years time” in your sleep.
And then, all of the sudden, in the middle of your interview, the hiring manager asks you: “What animal would you like to be and why?” All your preparation seems worthless now and your hands start to become sweaty. The days in which the entire interview consisted of a list of standard questions are over.
More and more companies want to test their applicants and find out what kind of person is really sitting in front of them. With questions like “What animal would you like to be”, candidates are being put in a stressful situation in which they have to put their creativity and spontaneity under the test. Moreover, most animals are assigned specific characteristics, which means your answer says a lot more about you than you might think at first.
The best answers to the “animal question”
Animals, which live in herds, such as horses and fish: Horses live in herds and that’s where they draw their strength from. Hiring managers will therefore conclude that you are able to work in teams and could easily find your place in the company.
Wild animals: If you’ve applied for a managerial position, you should definitely choose a wild animal like the lion. Wild animals represent confidence and strength – 2 characteristics you should have when working in a leading position.
Insects, such a bees for example: Bees are known to be extremely hard working animals. And that’s what this choice of animal would say about yourself. It shows that you don’t shy away from hard work and that you have perseverance.
The dog: Our faithful friend and helper. If loyalty plays an important role in the job you’re applying for, then there’s no better answer than the dog. In addition, it also shows that you wouldn’t have any problems to subordinate to others.
Final advice for applicants
Even more important than your choice of animal is to stay calm and collected when confronted with such bizarre questions and to give a logical explanation for your answer. If you are prepared for the interview and researched the company and the job you’re applying for, you will know which characteristics are important for the role and you can reflect those in your answer.
As long as you keep this in the back of your mind and you stay away from answers such as “ I want to be a sloth” you can remain calm even when such unexpected questions are being asked.
