The Lighter Side of Life with Kate Mason: Real oddball interviewers - don’t call us, we’ll call you

But it seems the impossible answer to this question may be the difference between getting your dream job or going back to the drawing board. These days it’s not about what you can bring to the company, your previous experience or your over-exaggerated CV, it’s all about key questions like why the earth is round?

Glassdoor, the website for job hunters, has released its annual list of top oddball interview questions and it makes for interesting reading.

I remember the career advisors at school telling me when it came to impressing in a job interview preparation was key.

Researching the company, having a rehearsed response about your strengths and weaknesses and a stock answer about what you like to do in your spare time. But as this list proves there’s certain questions you can never prepare for.

Off-the-wall questions and bizarre tasks are now the norm these days in an interview scenario.

Take Harrods who thought they’d find their dream candidate by asking how someone would sell a fridge to an Eskimo.

I remember one of my friends telling me about an editor who made him draw a picture of a horse as part of the interview process – because horse drawing is such an integral part of a journalist’s daily duties.

One hopeful candidate was asked by Accenture, ‘if you woke up and had 2,000 unread emails and could only answer 300 of them, how would you choose which to read?’

Another was asked by a consulting firm ‘can you calculate how many tennis balls are used during the course of Wimbledon?’

And, the all-important question that any employer would need to know for you to make a difference in their company, if you were a Muppet, which would you be – that’s what TicketNetwork wanted to know.

I get that firms may want to test your problem-solving skills and even have an insight into your personality. But Muppets and superhero brawls? Really!

These firms may end up with a crazy kook who provides great entertainment at the work Christmas party on the back of these colourful questions but not necessarily someone who is going to get the job done.