A few weeks back, I asked subscribers to the Bartleby newsletter if they had a favourite question for job candidates in an interview. Among the many answers: “If we gave you a blank cheque and a free weekend, where would you go, what would you do and who would you go with?” 

It’s not surprising that interviewers ask curveball questions like this. Trying to work out whether a stranger will be a good fit for your firm is a hard task. Now that AI is warping recruitment processes, as I discover in the latest season of the Boss Class podcast, it’s tempting to ask anything that might stump a large language model. 

But interviews are most useful if the same question is asked of everyone, and if the answers are scored in a consistent way. By all means, ask candidates about their ideal weekend. Just make sure you know what counts as a good response, and why.