Actions
Forum Thread Details
  • Replies 11 replies
  • Subscribers 36 subscribers
  • Views 2191 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Related

Nightmare Interviews

dougw

What is the worst job interview you have ever been in?

Some interviewers like to pose puzzles that can be fairly simple like "How many kings can be placed on a chess board without threatening each other?" or a little more involved like "Given 12 coins, where one has a different weight, and a balance beam, what is the minimum number of  weighings needed to determine which coin is different and if it is lighter or heavier than the rest?"

I have never been in an interview where I was asked such a puzzle. And I have never posed such a question when I was asking the questions.

Have you been in such an interview? What was the purpose of the question? Did the answer achieve the purpose?

Are such questions a good idea?

Do you like such questions?

What do such questions tell the interviewee?

By the way, what are the answers to the 2 puzzles above?

Parents

  • I too have been on both sides of the interview process.   I think that puzzles can have value, but I find having the person explain their process for solving the puzzle is far more valuable that the actual answer.  Work will have many puzzles of its own, and having the tools to creatively solve the puzzles is the important part.

    During the course of being interviewed (and I am quite an expert here, as I have held many jobs throughout my career) I have been asked many puzzles. Some have been tough and others easy.  If I don't know the answer, I admit so, and offer to explain how I would solve it, or suggest an experience in my career where I solved a difficult problem an how I went about it.

Reply

  • I too have been on both sides of the interview process.   I think that puzzles can have value, but I find having the person explain their process for solving the puzzle is far more valuable that the actual answer.  Work will have many puzzles of its own, and having the tools to creatively solve the puzzles is the important part.

    During the course of being interviewed (and I am quite an expert here, as I have held many jobs throughout my career) I have been asked many puzzles. Some have been tough and others easy.  If I don't know the answer, I admit so, and offer to explain how I would solve it, or suggest an experience in my career where I solved a difficult problem an how I went about it.

Children
No Data