When I interview a potential employee I always ask the following:
Why are manhole covers round?
Good things I am looking for:
-Someone who doesn’t get flustered.
-Someone who can actually think their way through the question.
-Someone who admits they don’t know the answer, but they will get back to me.
Any of these will score high marks on the question.
Bad responses:
-People who get shaken and start yammering
-Candidates who start blowing smoke, acting authoritative, even when they obviously are tap dancing.
Either one of these two occur and I seriously consider sending their application back to HR with a no thanks.
Then there is the person who obviously saw the question on the internet and blurts out the answer before I can even finish. That gets a neutral mark.
The future of FB? Ha, down the tubes. There’s always something bigger or cooler coming down the road.
Olympic ticket sales? Ha, again. Did you not see all those empty seats that officials were begging people to take?
Would my friends recognize this as my resume? Ha, no. I fudged on it just like every other person who applied for this job.
Build an engine from scratch? First, I’d throw out all the bells, whistles and computer chips and go back with the basics.
How many people watched youtube? I don’t know and don’t care. Those people obviously don’t want or have jobs. I want to work and can promise you I won’t be hanging out watching moronic youtubes while I’m on the clock.
Type of people I dislike? People who enjoy playing mind games on others.
Teach you something? No, sorry, I’m not giving you any new ideas until I’m on the payroll.
Uses for a brick? What type of brick?
I’ve interviewed for engineering positions at three of the companies on this list and can confirm they are some of the most confounding interviews I’ve ever sat in on.
McKinsey, second year in a row at #1.
They should provide full disclosure though. Glassdoor.com is a site where people go specifically to b*tch about their bosses.
Didnt Chelsea Clinton end up with a sweet gig at McKinsey right out of college? I wonder whether she was put through the standard interview process?
(ok, not really wondering, just being rhetorical)
That's sexist, and misogynistic. Women hole covers are round too.
Did I get the job?
5.56mm
That's a fantastic question and I'm stealing it immediately.
(1) Hit the too clever by half interviewer on the head with it!
bkmk
“”A penguin walks through that door right now wearing a sombrero. What does he say and why is he here?”
Nothing! He’s an F’n PENGUIN!
Next thing ya know, you’ll be asking a question starting with: “Two guys are married....”
I was once asked in an interview what Looney Toons character I most closely identified with. Other than Bugs, which is too obvious, there really isn’t a good answer. I think I said Daffy Duck, but only in the role of Duck Dogers. Or that PI character.
Same interview was asked what the airspeed velcity of an unladen swallow was. I knew how to answer that one: “European or African”.
This was a young tech startup in the mid 1990s, and they were looking for a good personality fit. Got the job, but declined in the face of a better offer ..
My last job had an interesting question from the manager. What did I know about ******* ******* System. I told him upfront I had never heard about such a thing. It turned out that it was such a specialized piece of equipment that only two places in the world used it.
I still got the job because I didn’t BS about anything and made a conscientious effort to understand everything that was being asked of me in the interview process.
PS: that was over thirty years ago. My how time flies.
As a hiring manager, I always ask this question at the beginning of the interview:
“Tell me what you did to prepare for this interview”.