Are you Odysseus or Harry Potter?

Interviewers who have heard hundreds of recent grads reply "I'm a bit of a perfectionist" to the question "What is your biggest weakness?" are finally fighting back. CollegeOTR points out a growing trend in wacky interview questions designed to throw candidates off their pre-scripted answers and test their ability to think on their feet. For example, check out some of these curveballs:

• If you could be any character in fiction, who would you be?
• If Hollywood made a movie about your life, whom would you like to see play the lead role?
• If someone wrote a biography about you, what do you think the title should be?
• If you could compare yourself to any animal, which would it be and why?
• If you were a salad, what dressing would you be?

Feel your palms sweating already? Fortunately, performing well during these interviews doesn’t depend on what your answers are, but more on how you answer the questions. Employers seek candidates who can react well to new situations, so don’t feel like your application will be tossed aside if you answer "vinaigrette" instead of “honey mustard.” Just loosen up and be prepared to roll with the punches if someone tries to trip you up. With any luck, you’ll blow the competition away when you confidently answer, “Well, actually, I believe I’m most like a Caluromys lanatus, or Brown-Eared Woolly Opossum, because they’re smart, determined, and…have really long tails…”

New Interview Trend Shakes Things Up [via CollegeOTR]