I agree that those questions are the worst, but you need to look at it differently. You need to realize this is your chance to sell yourselve. I know some people have a hard time saying they are great for whatever reason. But you must stay competitive and the employer needs to know that you will be valuable to them. Hiring someone is a gamble and the employer is going to do their best to find out who you are in a short amount of time.

I just spoke with a canadian nurse who just interviewed for a position in Fresno. In Canada, the state runs every hospital. So the interviewer asked the nurse how she felt about nursing in the private sector. The nurse was stumped. She was caught off guard by the question, and told me after the fact that she kind of fumbled it. She simply said that "she didn't know". And it made the nurse very uncomfortable.

So how would you answer a question like this, if you have no experience in the area. I then probed a little more, and she told me that she wasn't overly concerned about nursing in the private sector. She expected there to be some differences, but she was committed to adapting as quickly as possible to those changes.

I then suggested that what she told me is what she should have told the person who was interviewing her. I think she knew the answer to the question, but being put on the spot like that caught her off guard.

I usually give the nurses that I work with a list of commonly asked questions to read and think of answers to prior to their interview. Sometimes seeing a question before you hear it on an interview makes it a little more expected, and easier to answer.

So I can expand my list, and for the benefit of the other nurses who participate on this forum, what are some unusual interview questions that you have been asked? What was your response to the question? How would you have answered it differenly if you could get a "do-over"?