Interview Questions: Talking about How You Think Outside the Box

Creativity Interview QuestionCreativity, resourcefulness, and originality are particularly important in the workplace. If a person is creative, he or she has the ability to invent and develop original ideas in a way that produces an interesting and unusual result. Resourcefulness, on the other hand, is the ability to find ways of dealing with problems. Likewise, originality is the ability to make something new and imaginative.

 

You might be wondering why these are among the most important elements in the work setting. It’s because through these traits, employees manage to think outside the box and beyond their self-imposed limits. Through creativity, resourcefulness, and originality, workers are able to achieve exceptional and unique outcomes.

Since it’s one of the most essential traits a worker should have, the hiring manager would, of course, be interested in how creative, resourceful, and original your ideas are. He or she wants to know if you can think differently. Employers look for applicants who have experiences that demonstrate creativity and efficiency.

But why is this question asked? Why do they want to know if you’ve already helped your previous employers by simply being creative and inventive?

  • Your interviewer wants you to discuss your abilities further so he or she can understand them clearly.
  • Your interviewer is interested in how creative, resourceful, and inventive are you as a worker.
  • Your interviewer wants to know how far your skills can go.

Now, after knowing the reason why your interviewer is interested in your ability to create and innovate, how are you going to answer the question? Here are some guidelines that you can use to come up with a good answer.

1. Choose a situation in which your skills can be demonstrated clearly. If you had a lot of experience, choose the best one where you were able to wisely implement your skills and creativity. You can do this by including this question on your list of practice questions before the interview.

If this is your first job, relate an instance from your school activities in which you were able to exhibit these kinds of traits. Furthermore, since you are imaginative, try to picture a workplace scenario in which you could successfully leverage your creativity, and describe this scenario to the hiring manager.

2. When responding to questions, provide all of the details that would illustrate your skills. Don’t miss this chance to convey what a good asset you would be to the company. One of the best ways to capture your interviewer’s attention is by being specific in your explanation.

On the other hand, keep your words humble and polite. You don’t want the interviewer to get the wrong impression that you are narcissistic or arrogant.

3. Explain everything well. Be brief yet complete. Nothing’s better than a short but concise answer. As long as you keep everything real yet interesting, you won’t lose his or her attention.

Don’t include unnecessary information, and don’t miss important details. Keep the interviewer interested by providing exciting details on how you were able to think outside the box. Also, don’t forget to include how this situation helped your previous employer.

4. Tell the interviewer that you keep your eyes open all the time so you can see through any fault or error that might occur. Being creative when it comes to thinking of new ideas is not enough; you also have to be creative in identifying solutions when sudden problems arise.

Resourcefulness goes hand in hand with creativity. Your ability to promptly come up with an effective solution to any problem is what will make you a highly attractive job candidate.

5. Tell the interviewer that you’re always open to other people’s opinions. A good employee is one who is able to accept judgments and suggestions from other people without feeling threatened.

There’s no harm in accepting other people’s thoughts and ideas. After all, as they say, two heads are better than one.

Like any other interview question, always to be confident and firm. Choose the best experience you can share, explain everything well (briefly yet completely), and don’t forget the important details. With these things in mind, you just might hit the jackpot and be the one to get that job.

Read 36482 times Last modified on Monday, 07 March 2016 20:25
Alan Carniol

Alan is the creator of Interview Success Formula, a training program that has helped more than 80,000 job seekers to ace their interviews and land the jobs they deserve. Interviewers love asking curveball questions to weed out job seekers. But the truth is, most of these questions are asking about a few key areas. Learn more about how to outsmart tough interviewers by watching this video.