The hiring manager can be a horse's a***

Animal-based management training has proven a popular gimmick in recent years - see this article by Sathnam for an explanation of why it's probably best not to take advice from gorillas too literally - but a bunch of horse psychologists have just taken the idea to the next level.

Some Austrian firms are now using candidates' affinity for horses to judge whether or not they are management fodder, reports Personnel Today. The firms sort the sheep from the goats by asking applicants to train ponies to complete a number of tasks, thus demonstrating that they have the leadership skills needed to, say, run a widget-manufacturing firm.

Still, blowing air up a horse's nose doesn't sound any worse than disco dancing for recruiters to win a job at a hardware store.

Have you ever sat through a job interview with a horse? And did you get the position?