Creative Thinking Mock Interview

Master 15 Creative Thinking interview questions covering innovation, problem-solving, and originality.

Question 1 of 15

When have you had to think outside of the box to solve a problem?

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Rachelle Enns is an interview coach and job search expert. She works with candidates to perform their best in employment, medical, and post-secondary admission interviews.

"Recently we needed to create a mentorship program for a client. By my suggestion, we decided to engage local thought leaders as well as aspiring leaders. This approach benefited the community as a whole, and our client was delighted with the result."

Rachelle Enns

Rachelle Enns is an interview coach and job search expert. She works with candidates to perform their best in employment, medical, and post-secondary admission interviews.

"I once had to deal with a space issue in our warehouse. We arranged and re-arranged several times and could not make it work. I thought outside the box and rented some outside pod storage until we were back to normal inventory levels."

Rachelle Enns

Rachelle Enns is an interview coach and job search expert. She works with candidates to perform their best in employment, medical, and post-secondary admission interviews.

"In retail, a customer will approach you with odd requests from time to time. Recently, I had a customer insist on making a return that wasn't even from our store. They were furious that I would not take the return! It turns out; we were running a promotion where if you spent 50, you received a 25 in-store gift card. I suggested to the customer that they purchase the product, from us, that they initially wanted. They would then receive the 25 in-store gift card, and they could still return the original product to the first store. I turned an angry return to a paying customer!"

Rachelle Enns

Rachelle Enns is an interview coach and job search expert. She works with candidates to perform their best in employment, medical, and post-secondary admission interviews.

"As a teacher, I often have to think of alternate ways to teach a lesson when some kids aren't picking up the content. I will always have multi-media resources available for my students to support their learning such as educational computer games and interactive online worksheets."

Rachelle Enns

Rachelle Enns is an interview coach and job search expert. She works with candidates to perform their best in employment, medical, and post-secondary admission interviews.

"In sales, if you cannot think outside the box, and on the fly, you will not succeed. Recently I had a client who wanted a digital service option thrown in that we did not yet have. It was still in development. To offset his disappointment, I asked him if I could give him three months of the service for free on a trial basis, to help us work out the kinks, would he then be happy. He was thrilled, and we had a real-life test subject."

Rachelle Enns

Rachelle Enns is an interview coach and job search expert. She works with candidates to perform their best in employment, medical, and post-secondary admission interviews.

"Last week my computer crashed, and it took IT three hours to recover everything. Feeling lost, I said to myself 'Well, what did they do before computers?' To make the best of my time, I took to the file room and started organizing the physical files."

Ryan Brown

Ryan Brown created and launched MockQuestions in 2008.

Talk to the interviewer about a time you had to solve a problem creatively. Your answer doesn't have to be an invention or a tremendous break-through you made in your previous role. Any unexpected decision you made will most likely count as a creative solution. Pick a scenario where you were pleased with the outcome.

Ryan Brown

Ryan Brown created and launched MockQuestions in 2008.

"In my current position we saw a decrease in clients due to a local economic downturn. I recommended to our head office that we begin to generate business outside of our region for the first time in many years. They agreed, and the idea turned things around for us that fiscal year."

Anonymous Answer

Recently the VA in northern Indiana changed the rules on # of shoes to one pair per year. It caused a drop in # of patients in the clinic. I thought it would be beneficial to try to do some marketing to pain doctors, ER doctors, and other clinicians working in CBOCs. And that caused the # of orthotics patients to increase.

Mary's Feedback

This response shows initiative in attracting new customers- something important to businesses. See edits for clarity.

Recently, the VA in northern Indiana saw a drop in the number of clinic patients because of a change in policy that allowed only one pair of shoes to be provided (a decrease from the prior policy). I saw the need to increase marketing, so worked to connect with local pain doctors, ER doctors and other clinicians working in CBOC's. As a result of this marketing, we saw the patient numbers increased.

Anonymous Answer

Thinking outside the box is a default in any technology field, and I have had such an opportunity at my last workplace. The organization had limited resources to spend on user tests, so we could not hire a user recruiter agency. My team and I started reaching out to users on LinkedIn and offered our time in exchange for their time for testing a product. It worked so wonderfully that now we have an active user testing community.

Rachelle's Feedback

This is a fantastic idea, and what a great way to save on resources while also building up a community. Well done.

Anonymous Answer

In my job at ______, one day my computer crashed and it took IT several hours to recover everything. I was frustrated because I needed to work on allocating several project officers expenses. I thought to myself for a minute, what did they do before computers? I then decided it would be wise to and a good use of my time to organize the supply room as well as some filing cabinets to ensure everything was easy to access. My boss certainly appreciated me for doing that and said that was a smart move to make.

Marcie's Feedback

It's great that you were able to come up with a good way to use your time in this situation. (It is always frustrating when you have work to do and your computer won't cooperate!) While you can use this example, your answer will be even stronger if you can think of an example to cite here that focuses on an out-of-the-box solution for perhaps a more pressing problem. For example, you were talking to a customer and they had an issue that you were able to solve creatively or there was a recurring problem when you worked on expenses so you adjusted the process to fix it going forward. Something along those lines would be more impactful. But, otherwise, good job!

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Creative Thinking Mock Interview

When have you had to think outside of the box to solve a problem?

15Creative Thinking Interview Questions & Answers

1.When have you had to think outside of the box to solve a problem?

2.What is the most creative or innovative project you have worked on?

3.When have you taken an existing process and used your own creativity to make it better?

4.Tell me about a time when you created a unique idea or solution, and it was rejected by your colleagues. How were you able to bounce back?

5.Outside of work, what type of creative activities do you like to pursue?

6.When have you created a new product or service?

7.Would you consider yourself a creative person?

8.What ideas have you created in the last year that benefited your current or former employer?

9.Tell me about a project you worked on where a conventional approach was not suitable.

10.How do you like to encourage ideas in others?

11.How often do you discuss work with your colleagues in order to think up new systems and styles of working?

12.When have you used an inventive method to stretch company resources beyond the normal level?

13.When did you come up with an innovative solution to a challenge your company, class, or organization was facing?

14.What does the word 'innovation' mean to you?

15.How can we inspire your creative side?