I'd heard stories of this but it actually happened to me.

I went on site for an interview, and went through the presentation, and interviews with all the members of the division. And then in personal interviews with future colleagues and direct supervisors, they asked me how to solve ethical dilemmas they were facing, how to better talk to stakeholders they're struggling to groove with, and a better way to organize their design process.

Coming from the Bay Area, I thought great, I can help out, it'll show that I'm more invested. They laughed and said yeah those are all real problems we're facing right now but you're right I'll do that, it makes sense.

Then I ended up not getting a job offer. I've heard senior-level friends complain about this and that you should never provide solutions because you give up your usefulness by just giving all these ideas away for free. This always seemed crabby to me but I guess it's true.

So the question is: how do you answer those types of questions without getting burned in the end?