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from the boss-wants-to-see-how-you-handle-pressure? dept.
I recently applied for a job in Silicon Valley.
The recruiter had me take a battery of tests that measured my verbal, mathematical and visual aptitude. I'd guess it was a mini-IQ test; it wasn't a mini-MMPI. As a result of the tests I was invited to interview onsite.
At the end of the interview the manager declared that he wanted me to take some tests.
His tests were brain teasers he had downloaded from a random website. The brain teasers had nothing to do with the work I was interviewing for. He seemed to ignore the battery of sophisticated tests I had been subjected to, and to believe that he could do better.
What is the REAL purpose of using brain teasers during an employment interview?
Is it just to make the candidate feel stupid? Are any of these people qualified to interpret the results? Are any of them industrial psychologists? Or is this all about power and control?
Please advise.
(Score: 2) by ilsa on Friday October 05 2018, @05:28PM (2 children)
During an interview, nobody is expecting you to pull an algorithm out of your rear and write it on the white board. Or at least, they shouldn't be, for the exact reasons stated.
But if given a simple, relatively rote problem, if you are unable to at least sketch out a basic workflow of how you would approach/code the solution, maybe you're not as good as you think you are.
Similarly, if you say that you have 10 years of database experience and you can't write a basic or even moderate ANSI SQL statement off the cuff, then GTFO cause you're wasting my time.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 05 2018, @06:00PM
How is it possible that you ever find yourself in the straw man argument you've constructed?
Maybe your company or industry should review the way you cultivate workers; there should be no guessing about total strangers—you've either got a known and objective pedigree, or you don't.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 05 2018, @06:19PM
Along the lines of your database comment, Elon Musk reportedly has said that the most important interview question he asks is something to the effect of "describe the hardest problem you've faced and how you handled it." He says that when you've really banged your head on a problem and gotten through it, that is burned in your head. You can talk in great detail about the problem and your solution. If you can only talk in generalities or at a superficial level, then he figures that maybe you were part of the team working the problem, but you aren't one who really understood and solved it.