Dive Brief:

• The feverish recruiting battles among technology employers have spawned a rash of new, unusual interview questions, created to try to uncover both the best, and most innovative talent, according to FastCompany.
• The article cites the efforts of tech companies, including Squarespace and LinkedIn, who hope to ensure closer talent matches by using non-tradtional methods during the recruiting and interviewing process.
• This new approach may someday find its way into more mainstream recruiting efforts, but it won't be easy, according to FastCompany. For example, some people who interviewed for jobs at highly desirable employers had to sign nondisclosure agreements pertaining to interview questions. Apart from keeping those questions in house for competitive reasons, it's also to keep job seekers off guard, so they can't "game" the interview process in advance.

Dive Insight:

Squarespace, asks "strictly work-related questions," but it does try to customize interview questions based on the applicant, Andrew Burke, a six-year Squarespace veteran who has helped build out the web hosting firm's recruiting program told FastCompany.

FastCompany concludes by saying the new and different breed of interview questions are meant to see if a candidate can go beyond job basics, in terms of also determining cultural or "ethos" fit. For non-technology mainstream employers, it may not yet be necessary for that approach. It may begin to happen as the top talent on the supply side continues to become more and more scarce.