Rules and Guidelines
Want to participate in the discussions? Please read our Community Rules and Guidelines. Need some help? Visit Support and Answers.

  • State Not Answered
  • Locked Locked
  • Replies 43 replies
  • Subscribers 17 subscribers
  • Views 4951 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Options
You may also be interested in
This discussion has been locked.
You can no longer post new replies to this discussion. If you have a question you can start a new discussion

Impossible Interviews

James Shaw
Have you ever been faced with an interview question that seemed impossible to answer?


Mine was delivered on the premises of a 'world class' engineering company. "How would you ensure that a project is completed on time?"


My mind raced from the general to the particular - If I knew the answer to that I would be a billionaire! - Strikes, bad weather, supplier failure, poor specifications etc. Probably no words came out as the interviewer started to drop hints, "It begins with a 'P', it ends in 'N', it has four letters." "Plan?" I say. "Exactly!" says he. 'Idiot' thinks I.


In retrospect perhaps it was a test to see if I was suitable to develop for senior management - the 'big picture' people. "We will deliver better value, we will be smarter!" But how? Engineers, small-minded, always bothered about the details!


Needless to say, I didn't get that job. Perhaps just as well.
Parents
  • 0
    Kathryn,

    I deduced from the way you described the question and answer that neither your interviewer nor yourself had been schooled in the Arithmetic Series and just hoped that I was right!

    Anyone who could come up with that method from scratch under interview conditions would be pretty smart! Actually it is a good example of why the interviewer shouldn't use these 'clever' questions, how does one know if candidate 'A' already knew the smart answer while 'smarter' candidate 'B' had never met that sort of question before?


    What would the reaction of the interviewer have been if you had responded 'instantly' with 55? This candidate is too smart? No-one ever knows if an interview gets the right result, the selection process and subsequent employment 'experiment' can't be run again.


    P.S. The arithmetic series isn't just an 'interesting approach', it is an excellent demonstration of what mathematics can do! Try adding all the number one to a million, it will only take about six days. Now multiply a million by a million and one, then halve it. Ten seconds at the most and the answer will be right. It's a good party trick if nothing else!
Reply
  • 0
    Kathryn,

    I deduced from the way you described the question and answer that neither your interviewer nor yourself had been schooled in the Arithmetic Series and just hoped that I was right!

    Anyone who could come up with that method from scratch under interview conditions would be pretty smart! Actually it is a good example of why the interviewer shouldn't use these 'clever' questions, how does one know if candidate 'A' already knew the smart answer while 'smarter' candidate 'B' had never met that sort of question before?


    What would the reaction of the interviewer have been if you had responded 'instantly' with 55? This candidate is too smart? No-one ever knows if an interview gets the right result, the selection process and subsequent employment 'experiment' can't be run again.


    P.S. The arithmetic series isn't just an 'interesting approach', it is an excellent demonstration of what mathematics can do! Try adding all the number one to a million, it will only take about six days. Now multiply a million by a million and one, then halve it. Ten seconds at the most and the answer will be right. It's a good party trick if nothing else!
Children
No Data

Community Rules & Guidelines