During my tenure as VP of MarCom at ISSA, the staff size almost doubled, which meant I participated in a LOT of candidate interviews. I mean. A LOT. Since there are only so many times you can ask, So, tell me about yourself? I got pretty good at coming up with some gob-stoppers. One of my favorites: What's your super-power?
Believe it or not, I learned a lot from this quirky question, starting with how it was interpreted. Did they jump to a super-hero framework and blurt out “invisibility cloak”? (As an aside, I didn’t consider this a bad thing, after all, I'd be willing to guess lots of creative people have debated this question at some point over a bucket of beer and a Dungeons and Dragons game board.)
Did they take their time and really think it through before answering? Maybe they asked a follow-up question to make sure they were interpreting the way I wanted?
The answers revealed their creativity, ability to think on their feet, sense of humor.
Most of all, it gave me a glimpse into how they saw themselves while avoiding the cliched, What are your strengths?
Why am I rambling on about this? Simply put, it’s a shameless humble-brag excuse to share my superpower with you: I build amazing teams. There I said it.
See? It's a good question. I'll even let you borrow it.