Dinosaur interview

paddyrg

I think the original idea behind these questions is to see how you handle the oddities life sometimes throws up (and not just answering stock interview questions with stock answers). For instance 'how would you weigh a jumbo jet?', or 'how many cars are on the road right now?' are designed to see how you *approach* the question (ie do you ask for clarification, question the motive of the questioner, panic, guess, etc). This is because people tend to act consistently, so if they panic/obstruct in an interview, they will likely do the same in their job.

However, they seem to have been adopted by people who don't understand that, and think that kooky questions are just the done thing. Three Lady Gaga hits is just dumb - it tells you nothing about the interviewee except their knowledge of pop culture.

MoneySavingUser

Thanks for your responses - and also interesting how many people have said they wouldn't want to work for a company who asked these/would walk out - unfortunately the number of companies who do ask these types seems to be increasing

[Deleted User]

"With a four-minute hourglass and a seven-minute hourglass, how can you measure exactly nine minutes - without taking longer than nine minutes?'

Simples.
Start both hour glasses. When the 4 min finishes, there will be 3 mins left on the other one. Turn them both over and wait till the big one finishes (7 mins gone so far). There will be 1 min left on the small one.
Turn them both over and wait till the small one finishes (8 mins gone total). Now, finally, turn over the big one and wait until it is finished. 9 minutes will have passed.

Now... it's not so stupid a question if you want to hire an engineer or software developer. It shows you can practically manipulate concepts in your head.

The rest of the questions do look like they're trying to dig for a personality and find out what kind of person they're talking to.

Personally, i'd want to be Barney, because my little boy likes him

wapow

MoneySavingUser wrote: »

Thanks for your responses - and also interesting how many people have said they wouldn't want to work for a company who asked these/would walk out - unfortunately the number of companies who do ask these types seems to be increasing

1. Room, desk and car – which do you clean first
2. What do you think of garden gnomes?
3. Name five uses of a stapler without staples.
4. How would you get an elephant into a refrigerator?
5. How many people are using Facebook in San Francisco at 2:30pm on a Friday?
6. If Germans were the tallest people in the world, how would you prove it?
7. How would you cure world hunger?
8. How many different ways can you get water from a lake at the foot of a mountain, up to the top of the mountain?
9. If you were a Microsoft Office program, which one would you be?
10. Pepsi or Coke?

I can assure you these people saying they would walk out - would not walk out at all. Its all talk.

These questions used to crop up in very high level interviews. Senior Management type interviews.

Only recently are they now being asked at basic level interviews. The idea behind an odd ball question is to see how you handle something totally out of your comfort zone. There is no right or wrong answer, although it will not look good at all if you cannot fathom any response at all.

The idea is to tailor the answers towards the individual you are and the role you are applying for. If you can!

wapow

Simples.
Start both hour glasses. When the 4 min finishes, there will be 3 mins left on the other one. Turn them both over and wait till the big one finishes (7 mins gone so far). There will be 1 min left on the small one.
Turn them both over and wait till the small one finishes (8 mins gone total). Now, finally, turn over the big one and wait until it is finished. 9 minutes will have passed.

Now... it's not so stupid a question if you want to hire an engineer or software developer. It shows you can practically manipulate concepts in your head.

How will there be a minute left on the small one? Because once 3 mins are left, it means 4 have passed. So if you turn them both over then your turning two * 4 mins again? Your turning them together too many times. It doesnt work mate.

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I think what you mean is, when the 4 min finishes, turn THAT one over again, let the 7 min continue. When the 7 min finishes, you will have 1 min left on the small one.

Then turn the big one over as soon as it finishes, the 1 min on small one makes it 8 mins, then turn the big one back over and thats 9 minutes and all hourglass are complete!



Yea they asked this at a Google interview i think.
Its similar thinking to the riddle in DIE HARD 3.

Sambucus_Nigra

ringo_24601 wrote: »

Simples.
Start both hour glasses. When the 4 min finishes, there will be 3 mins left on the other one. Turn them both over and wait till the big one finishes (7 mins gone so far). There will be 1 min left on the small one.
Turn them both over and wait till the small one finishes (8 mins gone total). Now, finally, turn over the big one and wait until it is finished. 9 minutes will have passed.

Now... it's not so stupid a question if you want to hire an engineer or software developer. It shows you can practically manipulate concepts in your head.

The rest of the questions do look like they're trying to dig for a personality and find out what kind of person they're talking to.

Personally, i'd want to be Barney, because my little boy likes him

Even simpler - wait until the person testing you says 'that's it, 9 minutes has passed, you have no more time to experiment' - and that's the time that 9 minutes has gone.

paddyrg

Sambucus_Nigra wrote: »

Even simpler - wait until the person testing you says 'that's it, 9 minutes has passed, you have no more time to experiment' - and that's the time that 9 minutes has gone.

Depending on what role I was interviewing for, you'd either get the job on the spot, or be booted out for being a smart alec ;-)

paulwf

I've actually used similar questions to some of the ones listed when interviewing candidates, mixed with conventional questions of course.

I'm interviewing people for retail positions and qualifications aren't all that important - really bad applications will be screened out before interview of course - and it is all about personality. In sales people need to be friendly, confident and generally chatty. These questions are far better to separate candidates than standard ones where everyone has rehearsed the answers or just reels off whats on their CV.

I try and make interviews fun, there has to be a balance and the candidate absolutely shouldn't be made fun of but a bit of light heartedness stops everyone from falling asleep!

Print_Screen

If the interviewer asked me "If you were and animal what animal would you be?"
I would answer
"Dung beetle so I can deal with this crap your feeding me."

Don't think I would get the job though:eek:

RobTang

ringo_24601 wrote: »

Now... it's not so stupid a question if you want to hire an engineer or software developer. It shows you can practically manipulate concepts in your head.

Its not, it really isn't, its generally accepted in IT these days they are not good indicators... unless you're looking for someone who is good at brain teasers.

Id rather ask them to solve / walkthrough a real problem