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IF YOU HAVE ever experienced a job interview with Google, or just read about what applicants have to go through, you know it can be gruelling.
Until a few years ago, Google was infamous for asking brainteasers such as, “How much should you charge to wash all the windows in Seattle?” and “Why are manholes round?” It now admits that those questions were useless.
“We found that brainteasers are a complete waste of time,” Laszlo Bock, Google’s Senior Vice President of People Operations, tells The New York Times. “How many golf balls can you fit into an airplane? How many gas stations in Manhattan? A complete waste of time. They don’t predict anything. They serve primarily to make the interviewer feel smart.”
In addition to trashing brainteasers, Google is also moving away from set requirements based on the grades people received in third level education. Bock says there is a correlation between good employees and high GPAs and test scores if you’re just a few years out of school. But for every other candidate, Google no longer asks for that information.
What’s Google’s hiring tactic now? Bock says his team uses behavioral interviews and asks for examples of how a person acted in a particular situation. It no longer asks hypothetical questions. Google also uses structured behavior interviews with a consistent rubric for assessing each person.
“The interesting thing about the behavioral interview is that when you ask somebody to speak to their own experience, and you drill into that, you get two kinds of information,” Bock says. “One is you get to see how they actually interacted in a real-world situation, and the valuable “meta” information you get about the candidate is a sense of what they consider to be difficult.”
Google also looks for leadership examples among candidates.
Here’s some examples of the type of questions Google used to ask
We should ask Google how much Corporation Tax they pay in Ireland. That would stump them.
Or how many people they employ?
Very good!
I told my interviewer I was surprised and I was expecting one… She waved her hand and said that’s google USA and she didn’t bother with that kind of crap
Did u get the job?
Fruitcakes.
Some of them aren’t that mad. Some of them are just logic. That one about the eight balls is straightforward.
Put three balls on each side of the scales. If they balance, then the heavier ball is one of the other two – weigh them and see which is heavier. If they don’t balance, take the three from the heavier side. Put one of each of those on each side (it doesn’t matter which ones) as your second weighing and you’ll find the heavier ball – if they balance, the other ball is the heavier one. Simples.
Could you not just put 4 balls on one side and 4 on the other ?
Interviewer:why does this company need an engineer?
Me:i don’t know,you put the ad in the paper.
Strangely enough i never heard back from them!
4 the answer is always 4
Nah is 5 now. They changed it.
That’s mad ted
The lunatics are running the asylum folks
Id cry!
Got asked the manhole question in an interview for a a job in intel in 1993. Interviewer dint know the answer but I did.
Its so it won’t fall into the hole. Manhole cover if square or rectangular could easily be manipulated to fall into the hole, but if its circular 7t is by definition the same size all around so it won’t fall in……simples!
Got asked the “why are manhole covers round?” question in an interview a few years ago. Said “because the manholes are, they wouldn’t fit if they were square”. Didn’t get the job.
There are multiple answers to that question – because roundness means they can be put in in any direction, increases standardisation and reduces costs, like ships portholes round objects are the most resilient to pressure and won’t bend or break as easily as angled objects. There are a few more but there’s no single right answer as long as you show logic.
Oxbridge use similar method of questioning, although I understand that their questions are actually answerable and test lateral thinking.
One of the best ones I’ve come across is: “What does a perm do?”
They do the same as a temp but with more security..
Triona, with the greatest of respect, what relevance do that have to my comment?
Henry, it makes your hair curly.
Same as a hair do?
Perm/temp!
Geddit?!
She was referring to permanent and temporary employment.
Sorry, I was being a bit dense. I see what Triona was doing now. :P
#TimeToGoHome
Damocles, one could also argue that they provide a social structure to females of a certain age. By getting a perm, they are accepted into their circle of friends, by conforming to the norms expected of them, thereby obtaining a sense of belonging. It could be said that perms fulfil a rung of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs–social acceptance. :)
There was a fad for blokes getting perms too.
Glad I missed that…
Frankly all a perm does is make your hair curly.
Your answer is to the question, “What effect might a perm have?”, You’re over thinking the question.
Well the question was “what does a perm do?” not what are the effects of a perm or why do people get perms. A perm itself doesn’t actually do anything, its just a way of styling your hair.
Damocles – exactly!
I probably am, Damocles, but sure, it makes for an interesting discussion!
John, it depends on how one interprets “do”. ;)
Yeah, one thing I noticed from students at Oxford and Cambridge is that they might be formidable in their fields but ask them to organise a weekend of entertainment and accommodation for 20 to 30 spods from across the country and it all goes to pot.
Lol, Im guessing you didnt make it into Oxbridge then Henry?!
They weren’t on my list, Sarah Sue! :) But who knows, maybe in the future!
I was interviewed for a place in Oxbridge. There were no brainteasers, only questions relevant to the course I was applying to. Didn’t get it though :(
About time!
Surely the smartest thing to do is to whip out the old iPhone and google the answers? I mean do they really want to employ people who will waste time reinventing wheels?
I used to always score top marks in ‘test your IQ’ books because the answers were always in the back and I copped on after the first one.
This is all well and good from google but they should also perhaps think about cutting down the amount of times they interview someone. I mean, what new information are you going to learn from a candidate at interview 6?! It’s a ridiculous policy.
Sounds like they should recruit some “People Operations” staff who have a clue – ex Head of Human Resources.
I think the hands of a clock cross each other 22 times a day.
24 times. Once every hour – 12 o clock, five past one etc. etc.
Isn’t the answer 23? For example, if your first cross over point is 12am, your 24th would be the following 12am, which is technically on a different day.
Round manhole covers cannot fall into the manhole they cover.
Cool is old fashion share it on facenorris.com is the way I say cool
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