Posted on 08/05/2011 10:53:16 AM PDT by Slings and Arrows
Nobody has to tell you that it’s a rough job market. So when you do finagle a job interview, you’ll want to shine.
-snip-
Procter & Gamble: Sell me an invisible pen.
Facebook: Twenty five racehorses, no stopwatch, five tracks. Figure out the top three fastest horses in the fewest number of races.
Citigroup: What is your strategy at table tennis?
Google: You are climbing a staircase. Each time you can either take one step or two. The staircase has n steps. In how many distinct ways can you climb the staircase?
Capital One: How do you evaluate Subway’s five-foot long sub policy?
Gryphon Scientific: How many cocktail umbrellas are there in a given time in the United States?
Enterprise Rent-A-Car: Would you be okay hearing “no” from seven out of 10 customers.
Goldman Sachs: Suppose you had eight identical balls. One of them is slightly heavier and you are given a balance scale. What’s the fewest number of times you have to use the scale to find the heavier ball?
Towers Watson: Estimate how many planes are there in the sky.
Lubin Lawrence: If you could describe Hershey, Godiva and Dove chocolate as people, how would you describe them?
Pottery Barn: If I was a genie and could give you your dream job, what and where would it be?
Kiewit Corp.: What did you play with as a child?
VWR International: How would you market a telescope in 1750 when no one knows about orbits, moons etc.
Diageo North America: If you walk into a liquor store to count the unsold bottles, but the clerk is screaming at you to leave, what do you do?
Brown & Brown Insurance: How would you rate your life on a scale of 1 to 10?
(Excerpt) Read more at moneywatch.bnet.com ...
In some cases, I can see the relevance of the question to the job. In other cases, I can see that the interviewer doesn't have a clue.
Reminds me of the famous promotion board question: “Sergeant, how many holes are there in a C-Rat cracker?”
Once.
I'd parlay that either into a circus or film career.
Maybe involving Octomom.
Was the correct answer “Private, count the number of holes in that C-Rat cracker, NOW!”
I think that would be a fine answer to the question.
I was never asked that particular one. I recall I was asked a couple of weird things, but not that one.
No one? Galileo discovered the moons of Jupiter in 1610. Copernicus published "On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres" in the 1540s. Belief in geocentric orbits of the planets went back before Christ. A question that void of basic knowledge might point out that I wouldn't want to work at that company.
Maybe the marketing slogan could be "Find Uranus before William Herschel does."
I see “twice”. How you figure “once”?
Whenever I hear an interviewer ask “What three words would you to describe yourself,” I know I’m wasting my time.
I’ve been asked a couple of questions like this before, and they don’t care what the answer is. They just want to see how creative you are, and how easily flustered you get when dealing with idiots who might ask a question like that. Cops do this also, its not what you answer, but how you answered it that interests them.
Nope, twice.
You could do it in one if you guessed right. But the question says "have to use". I take that to mean the fewest number where you always end up with the right answer.
If that is the case, I would say three. Split the 8 into two groups of 4 and put them on opposite sides of the scale. Take the 4 on the heavier side and split 2 and 2 and do it again. Then split the 2 on the heavier side 1 and 1. Done.
I’m so glad I wasn’t at work when I read that. I’m having trouble breathing.
I made the balls (I was waiting for someone to ask...:))
Once means you grabbed two balls at random, weighed them, and got lucky.
How did you get “twice,” BTW? I thought that the minimum number of weighings guaranteed to find the heavier ball was three.
See my post #15.
Where do you see yourself in 10 years....
My answer: “running this place if that’s the best question you can ask me....”
The correct answer to EVERY above question is.... 42.
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