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Google admits those infamous brainteasers were completely useless for hiring
Quartz ^ | June 20, 2013 | Adam Pasick

Posted on 06/22/2013 8:31:47 PM PDT by Vince Ferrer

You can stop counting how many golfballs will fit in a schoolbus now.

Google has admitted that the headscratching questions it once used to quiz job applicants (How many piano tuners are there in the entire world? Why are manhole covers round?) were utterly useless as a predictor of who will be a good employee.

“We found that brainteasers are a complete waste of time,” Laszlo Bock, senior vice president of people operations at Google, told the New York Times. “They don’t predict anything. They serve primarily to make the interviewer feel smart.”

A list of Google questions compiled by Seattle job coach Lewis Lin, and then read by approximately everyone on the entire Internet in one form or another, included these humdingers:

•How much should you charge to wash all the windows in Seattle?

•Design an evacuation plan for San Francisco

•How many times a day does a clock’s hands overlap?

•A man pushed his car to a hotel and lost his fortune. What happened?

•You are shrunk to the height of a nickel and your mass is proportionally reduced so as to maintain your original density. You are then thrown into an empty glass blender. The blades will start moving in 60 seconds. What do you do?

Bock says Google now relies on more quotidian means of interviewing prospective employees, such as standardizing interviews so that candidates can be assessed consistently, and “behavioral interviewing,” such as asking people to describe a time they solved a difficult problem. It’s also giving much less weight to college grade point averages and SAT scores.

(PS: The answer is 500,000)


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: benghazi; fastandfurious; impeachnow; irs
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1 posted on 06/22/2013 8:31:47 PM PDT by Vince Ferrer
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To: Vince Ferrer

Not quite as momentous as confirmation that the government is indeed copying all our emails, but it’s always nice to check another thing off the “I knew it all along” list.


2 posted on 06/22/2013 8:41:19 PM PDT by jiggyboy (Ten percent of poll respondents are either lying or insane)
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To: Vince Ferrer
•How much should you charge to wash all the windows in Seattle?

$200 Billion — because I hate Seattle.

•Design an evacuation plan for San Francisco

Free — make sure all the exist are destroyed and nuke the site from orbit: population evacuation complete.

•How many times a day does a clock’s hands overlap?

23 or 24, basically once an hour, it depends on if you're counting 000-2359:59, or 0000-2400.

•A man pushed his car to a hotel and lost his fortune. What happened?

The Federal Reserve inflated money in that time so much it became worthless.

•You are shrunk to the height of a nickel and your mass is proportionally reduced so as to maintain your original density. You are then thrown into an empty glass blender. The blades will start moving in 60 seconds. What do you do?

Use my now proportionally superhuman strength to shatter the blender with a punch — it only said my mass was reduced, not my strength.

3 posted on 06/22/2013 8:41:20 PM PDT by OneWingedShark (Q: Why am I here? A: To do Justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with my God.)
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To: Vince Ferrer

4 posted on 06/22/2013 8:44:18 PM PDT by dfwgator
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To: Vince Ferrer
manhole cover are round because.... unlike a square, they cannot be dropped through their own hole!!!
5 posted on 06/22/2013 8:46:13 PM PDT by Chode (Stand UP and Be Counted, or line up and be numbered - *DTOM* -ww- NO Pity for the LAZY)
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To: Chode

Dang! I knew that one. I should be working at Apple.


6 posted on 06/22/2013 8:49:16 PM PDT by DManA
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To: Chode
manhole cover are round because.... unlike a square, they cannot be dropped through their own hole!!!

i knew that one but obama's head is round and it fits in a round orifice.

7 posted on 06/22/2013 8:52:57 PM PDT by bravo whiskey (We should not fear our government. Our government shoud fear us.)
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To: Vince Ferrer

“ They serve primarily to make the interviewer feel smart.”
***Precisely.


8 posted on 06/22/2013 8:53:21 PM PDT by Kevmo ("A person's a person, no matter how small" ~Horton Hears a Who)
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To: DManA
you and me too...
9 posted on 06/22/2013 8:53:40 PM PDT by Chode (Stand UP and Be Counted, or line up and be numbered - *DTOM* -ww- NO Pity for the LAZY)
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To: bravo whiskey
100%, but i can't tell if it's cause he likes the smell or the view...
10 posted on 06/22/2013 8:55:11 PM PDT by Chode (Stand UP and Be Counted, or line up and be numbered - *DTOM* -ww- NO Pity for the LAZY)
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To: Vince Ferrer

How they go about answering the question, not the particular answer they give, can tell you (possibly) a lot about the interviewees as future employees.....


11 posted on 06/22/2013 8:57:17 PM PDT by Intolerant in NJ
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To: dfwgator


12 posted on 06/22/2013 8:58:24 PM PDT by Chode (Stand UP and Be Counted, or line up and be numbered - *DTOM* -ww- NO Pity for the LAZY)
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To: Vince Ferrer

DOJ probably said brainteasers were discriminatory.


13 posted on 06/22/2013 8:58:34 PM PDT by ltc8k6
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To: Chode
Manager is interviewing a prospect.

Manager: What is your biggest weakness?

Interviewee: My honesty.

Manager: I don't consider honesty a weakness.

Interviewee: I don't give a crap what you think.

14 posted on 06/22/2013 9:03:50 PM PDT by DManA
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To: Chode

That’s not the answer they’ve looking for, even though it’s truer. The manhole cover is round because the manhole is round.


15 posted on 06/22/2013 9:04:28 PM PDT by Cyber Liberty (I am a dissident. Will you join me? My name is John....)
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To: OneWingedShark
"You are shrunk to the height of a nickel and your mass is proportionally reduced so as to maintain your original density. You are then thrown into an empty glass blender. The blades will start moving in 60 seconds. What do you do?"

You could really measure the "height" of a nickle two ways. When you lay a nickel on a table, its thickness is its height, and would be well below the blades of most blenders I've ever seen. You could simply stand there, light up a smoke and enjoy the breeze.

16 posted on 06/22/2013 9:06:22 PM PDT by Joe 6-pack (Qui me amat, amat et canem meum.)
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To: OneWingedShark
"You are shrunk to the height of a nickel and your mass is proportionally reduced so as to maintain your original density. You are then thrown into an empty glass blender. The blades will start moving in 60 seconds. What do you do?"

You could really measure the "height" of a nickle two ways. When you lay a nickel on a table, its thickness is its height, and would be well below the blades of most blenders I've ever seen. You could simply stand there, light up a smoke and enjoy the breeze.

17 posted on 06/22/2013 9:06:27 PM PDT by Joe 6-pack (Qui me amat, amat et canem meum.)
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To: Vince Ferrer; AT7Saluki
(How many piano tuners are there in the entire world? Why are manhole covers round?)

How many tight ends can the Patriots go through in one offseason? (And no, Tebow doesn't count.)

18 posted on 06/22/2013 9:06:32 PM PDT by Libloather (The epitome of civility.)
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To: DManA
LOL!!!
19 posted on 06/22/2013 9:08:10 PM PDT by Chode (Stand UP and Be Counted, or line up and be numbered - *DTOM* -ww- NO Pity for the LAZY)
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To: Cyber Liberty
and the fact that the manhole is round so the cover won't fall through it is lost on them... they didn't want the real answer, they wanted the answer they wanted.
20 posted on 06/22/2013 9:10:32 PM PDT by Chode (Stand UP and Be Counted, or line up and be numbered - *DTOM* -ww- NO Pity for the LAZY)
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