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If you were animal, which animal would you be?
In terms of interview questions, this is one you will want to prepare for. Not because it really means anything, but it will demonstrate a few things to the hiring manager asking you the question:
1. Have you prepared for the question in advance? (Are you forward thinking?)
2. Given your preparation, did you align the animal and its representative qualities to the open role thoughtfully? (In short, would this metaphorical animal – you – be a fit to satisfy the requirements of the role and effectively support the team and the organization’s goals?)
Depending upon how you view this type of question, it can be considered irrelevant at best. And, to many, this is an annoying and pretentious question. I think I fall on the side of those thinking that this question should be thrown out forever. It does annoy me.
That being said, I think we all know why hiring managers ask it even if we do not appreciate it. So, it is a game you must play so just play it. I do not think it is necessary to run through all the various animal profiles in terms of characteristics here. You can certainly do this on your own and you know where they are headed with the question.
Just give this question at least 10 to 15 minutes of thought and have a strong answer thought through in case you get this. Again, your answer should align to the characteristics they see the person fulfilling the role having.
Your goal here is to not let a silly question like this take you out of the game. The objective is to simply not fumble here. Just have a satisfactory answer prepared and spend more of your valuable time on question preparation for more serious anticipated questions relating to specific skills aligned to the role, software knowledge needed for the role, and experience and educational credentials that are in-keeping with the open role.
In the end, this should be an easy question for you. If you stumble on this one, it means you are not taking your interview preparation seriously – period. This should be an easy question so long as you give it at least some base-level thought. (And, again, I would not spend more than 10 to 15 minutes thinking through this. If you are then you are over thinking this question.)