I'm sure there have been threads on how to answer interview questions, but now I'm in a position to give interviews, what kinds of things do you guys ask?

Of course there will be general knowledge questions about the job, but I'd really like to ask some questions that reveal things besides book knowledge.

If you've read 'How would you move Mt. Fuji,' those are the sorts of things I'm looking for. Ones that test your problem solving abilities. Any thoughts? (Also, if you don't like those types of questions, let me know why)

5/4/2010 4:51:37 PM

"What's your policy on whores?"

5/4/2010 4:52:33 PM

Thanks, super helpful

5/4/2010 4:55:25 PM

haha multi-tasking fail

and God's response reminds me of a horrible prank that my friend and I would play on his colleagues when they had to give panel interviews.

[Edited on May 4, 2010 at 5:20 PM. Reason : .]

5/4/2010 4:59:19 PM

^ you did not read the first post properly... obviously not getting the job

He's DOING the interviewing and wants to know what to ask the interviewee.

5/4/2010 5:02:21 PM

[Edited on May 4, 2010 at 5:04 PM. Reason : ol broke ass slow ass TWW]

5/4/2010 5:03:27 PM

If you want straightforward questions, ask questions about innovation and failure. Talk about problems you've had that you didn't like the solution for (or you thought the solution could be better). Talk about dealing with people that aren't friendly, or (especially if you're in the tech field) dealing with people with very quirky personalities. Talk about being late to work, ask about general ideas dealing with business with your company.

IF you want strange questions, just to see how they think. Then questions like, "What kind of _____ are you," (tree, for example) are good questions. Also, questions that make people make inferences and decisions "How many piano tuners are there in the United States?" and the like.

If you want to see how they problem solve, ask them to solve problems. "There are three lightbulbs in a closed in room, three switches control them on the outside next to the door. Without being able to see the bulbs, determine which switches control with lights." Or, "It's 3:17, on an analog clock, what's the angle between the minute and hour hands at this time."

"There are two hourglasses that count 3 and 5 minutes. How would you use them to count exactly 17 minutes."

5/4/2010 5:08:45 PM

We use a tag team interview process here to hasten the process and make the interviewee feel more uncomfortable. Typically two or three of us, but sometimes as many as five. We don’t want to get a bunch of canned responses to typical questions that the person has heard a hundred times before, so the structure is more conversational than interrogational. We’ll have a scripted outline of the questions and direction, but we improvise a lot and no interview ends up being like another.

We start with college if they’re a recent graduate, or previous job experience if they’re a bit more seasoned. We avoid the dreaded “biggest weakness”, “accomplishment you’re most proud of” questions like the plague…any answer for these has probably been carefully orchestrated anyway, so it’s not like we’re going to glean anything by asking. We ask some industry-specific questions, but nothing beyond a high level.

We’ll purposefully interrupt each other and raise our voices to see how the candidate reacts. There is one guy here named Eric who has been in some local theater and considers himself a bit of a thespian who has been known to take it a bit far, but for the most part we maintain an amicable environment without letting the candidate get into a comfort zone. We’ll purposefully go off topic to see if the candidate is able to relax and engage in the conversation or is thrown off from his preconceived notion of what a proper interview should be.

We’ve even canceled the interview while the candidate was in the lobby to see how they reacted. While some may see this as sadistic and cruel, we work in what can be a very high stress environment, so one’s ability to deal with unforeseen obstacles is paramount.

I don’t know if any of this will help you at all.

5/4/2010 5:11:00 PM

I have a booklet of sample interview questions at work. I'll try to remember to bring it home tomorrow so I can give it to you.

5/4/2010 5:14:45 PM

^^ Thanks Slave Famous, That's exactly what I'm looking for.

5/4/2010 5:19:57 PM

^^^You bring more people to make it more comfortable for the interviewee, but you try to never let him get into his comfort zone?

[Edited on May 4, 2010 at 5:20 PM. Reason : ]

5/4/2010 5:20:36 PM

UN

5/4/2010 7:20:32 PM

BTW, we're hiring for a entry level statistician/analyst with some database experience. PM me for more details if you want. We're in Salem, OR.

5/4/2010 7:45:26 PM

I'd probably hit them up with Fermi problems if you're trying to test the person's reasoning ability.
BTW, what does an "entry level statistician" job entail?

5/5/2010 1:21:31 AM

Quote :

"There are three lightbulbs in a closed in room, three switches control them on the outside next to the door. Without being able to see the bulbs, determine which switches control with lights."

Not to show my ignorance or anything, but wtf is the answer to that???

5/5/2010 1:43:12 AM

^ Smash a hole through the wall and then try the switches

When I would give interviews, I would ask a lot of questions about how they would handle certain situations. Things like, "If a coworker was making comments that made you uncomfortable, what would you do?" or "Have you ever had a situation at work where a project deadline was moved up and you were not prepared? What did you do?" because even if the person hasn't been in a situation like that, they should then at least tell you hypothetically what they would do. A lot of people though don't seem to be able to move to that step.

5/5/2010 2:01:30 AM

Quote :

"Not to show my ignorance or anything, but wtf is the answer to that??? "

I don't know the "one true answer" but if it were me, assuming it's a standard door with a small gap at the bottom, flip each switch individually and observe light changes coming from under the door.

5/5/2010 7:39:44 AM

Guys.

God damn.

The question is actually a little different from that. It specifies that you can go into the room with the lights, but not while they're on. The answer is you flip one switch, wait a few minutes, flip the switch back off, go into the room, and feel which bulb is warm. Repeat.

5/5/2010 8:40:57 AM

I have to say that I hate questions like the Mt. Fuji thing or the light bulb question presented in here. They always come across as BS questions that interviewers pass try to pass off as a way to test your "problem solving abilities." In my experience as an interviewee these questions seem like time wasters on my end and only show my ability to BS through something or make assumptions that assist me. I guess in some ways I can see how that can be valuable to the interviewer, but there has to be more productive questions relating to your field that can provide the same kind of results to the interviewer.

5/5/2010 8:46:39 AM

^^ heh yeah I was thinking "closed room" meant completely closed off

5/5/2010 9:00:28 AM

FroshKiller is correct.



--

I also agree that those types of questions have dubious value in an interview. They are really just brain teasers and don't really give any indication as to how well an individual might perform in a job, unless the job they are interviewing for is to solve brain teasers.

[Edited on May 5, 2010 at 9:11 AM. Reason : .]

5/5/2010 9:09:28 AM

The purpose of the questions is not to see if they can get the question right, it's to see if they try. It's to see their thought process. It's to see if they can come up with some innovative way to solve problems.

"Damn... I have no idea," is the worst possible answer to receive for questions like this. Even if you don't get "the answer," your thought process while you attempt to think through a solution is important.

Because every job requires solving problems. If you can think on your feet well and solve this problem in a few minutes, then you can generally solve other problems as well

[Edited on May 5, 2010 at 9:34 AM. Reason : I really liked wolpackgrrr's response. It's atypical, but a solution none the less]

5/5/2010 9:33:34 AM

5/5/2010 9:58:20 AM

^^ Not to be mean, but the concept of these kinds of questions is nothing new to me, and I definitely know the same applies to BobbyDigital (who has been out of school longer than I have and is responsible for hiring people at his job). I can assure you we both understand the fact that there is no right answer to these kinds of questions and I understand the reasoning behind why some interviewers feel these kinds of questions are useful in some way since every job requires "problem solving."

But, just because someone can provide a theoretical answer to a theoretical question with no right answer doesn't mean they are suited for the job. If they've made it to the interview process, you would hope they have halfway decent problem solving abilities. Cut to the chase and ask a question where there is not just 1 right answer that actually relates to your industry. Most "Brain teaser" questions seem lazy on the interviews part and are just cliched in interviews to me.

Interestingly enough, thinking back, the job offer I accepted out of school actually happened to be from the 1 company I interviewed with that didn't ask me any sort of questions like that in the interview. That obviously had nothing to do with my decision but was just funny when I was thinking back on it just now. They spoke specifically to the job I would be doing and asked some technical questions/problems that directly related to our industry. Even got out some drawings and stuff to have me look at them and talk about some things. Much harder for the candidate to BS through stuff that is important to the job than stuff that is some general cognitive analysis.

Just my 2 cents though.

Obviously interview styles are all over the board and change by industry so even here there is no true right or wrong way . But these brain teaser questions seem like something people just do because everyone else does them. Whenever you ask someone why thy ask them, you get the same canned response that you ^^ gave. But are they really giving you useful feedback about the candidate? How many people can't think of SOME sort of solution to these problems? I would hope/assume not many, and if they couldn't then they probably would have floundered somewhere else in the interview anyway.

[Edited on May 5, 2010 at 10:42 AM. Reason : ]

5/5/2010 10:37:51 AM

Of course you don't just ask a brain teaser, and if they get it right you say, "YOU'RE HIRED!"

In my field (software engineering) these brain teasers are often programming related, or engineering related. They do give a lot of insight into how people are equipped to handle dealing with problems they've never encountered before.

And you have no idea whether or not someone who has made it to the interview has good problem solving abilities, and if you assume that with everyone you're going to end up with some shit employees. If you can give a hypothetical answer to a hypothetical question relating to a problem you've never thought of before, then it DOES show that you can approach problems with interesting ways of solving them, even if they aren't directly related to your field. I'm sure someone with your work experience can relate to the idea that not every problem you face at work is one that has to do with your field. That's surely been the case in my experience.

I'll concede that you should stay away from the super cliche ones (like the lightbulb question) because those have been asked a million times. But the idea is to ask questions that make the interviewee think on their toes. One question in the interview like this is usually plenty, you don't have to be the riddler or anything.

And some places can't talk about what they do, specifically, so they have to rely on other types of questions to see if people are any good.

5/5/2010 11:46:04 AM

Quote :

"We’ve even canceled the interview while the candidate was in the lobby to see how they reacted. While some may see this as sadistic and cruel, we work in what can be a very high stress environment, so one’s ability to deal with unforeseen obstacles is paramount."

Cancelled or Rescheduled? Even if it is a high stress environment, wasting someone's time who isn't yet being paid by you is simply rude, especially when the job situation is how it is now. Let me just vent:

I was at an interview (had to take a day off of work just to go). there must have been a miscommunication between hr and the people interviewing me (round robin style, so stupid) because apparently they thought I was going in for a director-type position even though they had an opening for an entry-level and that was what was at the top of the schedule (the schedule that EVERYONE got). I was waiting on someone and about 30 minutes had passed, then 45...the door was open and I could hear the person I had last spoken to talking to someone else saying 'i don't know why she's here for the director position, she's not anywhere close to qualified'. I waited 15 more minutes then walked out the door. Is this the kind of thing you're talking about, God?

By the way, that was at Novartis in Holly Springs about 1.5 yrs ago (October 9th, 2008 to be exact), with their Validation Engineering department. Apparently, very shitty work situation anyway, so it was a blessing in disguise!!!

[Edited on May 5, 2010 at 12:29 PM. Reason : ]

5/5/2010 12:28:14 PM

stuff about the interviewee

5/5/2010 12:30:52 PM

"How do you measure success in this position?"

5/8/2010 5:37:04 PM

Quote :

"When I would give interviews, I would ask a lot of questions about how they would handle certain situations. Things like, "If a coworker was making comments that made you uncomfortable, what would you do?" or "Have you ever had a situation at work where a project deadline was moved up and you were not prepared? What did you do?" because even if the person hasn't been in a situation like that, they should then at least tell you hypothetically what they would do. A lot of people though don't seem to be able to move to that step."

I hate those questions.
"Have you ever had a deadline changed on you and how did you react?"
My answer is, "No, I've never had a deadline change."
If you want me to talk in hypotheticals, ask me a fucking hypothetical question. If you want to know about past experience, then be fully prepared to get a bunch of blank stares from young folks who haven't experienced much at work or in school.
What I'm doing when I'm directly answering your question is showing you that I'm very good at following orders and answering questions, even when I know I come out looking like a fool. Everybody needs a good lackey, and I can be that guy for you.

Quote :

""How do you measure success in this position?""

(this thread is about what the boss asks, not what the prospective employee asks)
But I also hate it when a boss asks questions along these lines.
"Where do you see yourself in five years?"
Working for you, following your orders, and kissing your ass if you'd fucking hire me already and quit asking dumb questions.
"What do you hope to get out of this?"
Paid.

[Edited on May 8, 2010 at 5:52 PM. Reason : ]

5/8/2010 5:49:53 PM

Keep in mind that different generations will respond differently.

http://www.amazon.com/When-Generations-Collide-Clash-Generational/dp/0066621070/ref=sr_1_fkmr1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1273359132&sr=8-1-fkmr1

5/8/2010 6:52:57 PM

^^Ever been employed?

If I was an employer and I asked you "Have you ever had a deadline changed on you and how did you react?" and your answer was, "Never happened." I would immediately like you less than your first impression warranted. At the very least, an explanation that in school your entire schedule was pretty mapped out from the get go and you only every had extensions to deadlines and never retractions would be a better answer than, "No, I've never had a deadline change." followed by a blank stare.

Secondly, unless I was hiring you to do typical lackey bullshit like make me coffee or print copies of some document for important people at a meeting, I would expect you to be a person with ambition, because people who want to further their career often work better (often, not always). So when I asked you what you thought you'd be doing in five years, the last thing I'd want to hear is "The same job you're offering to hire me for now."

And, "what do you hope to get out of this," can be followed acceptably with a comment about money being nice. But you can't just want to do it for the money. I took my job as a stepping stone towards the job I want, because contrary to the beliefs of most of you overprivelaged college nerds, you don't just magically get handed your dream job when you step out of college because you kept a GPA over 3.0... But that's a rant for another thread. You could want experience with a new technology, or any experience at all, or to be a part of a company you really like, or any number of things.

These interview questions are not just a game. Where you work and how much money you make depend entirely on how well you answer the questions. There are 100 other people with resumes just like yours that all want the same job you do. The only way to prove that you deserve it more than everyone else, is to be awesome at interviews.

5/8/2010 7:49:25 PM

I had someone ask me why manhole covers are round.

At the time I thought it was really weird, but a random question like that probably would help see how someone reacts to the unexpected.

5/8/2010 9:34:03 PM

Makes it easier to put the manhole cover back on since you don't have to match up corners or anything.

At least that's my guess.

5/8/2010 10:19:47 PM

It's impossible to drop the round manhole cover down the hole because of its diameter. A square manhole cover can be maneuvered to where if you set it down incorrectly it will fall through.

5/8/2010 10:28:51 PM

It can be rolled around, which is a plus because it's heavy as fuck

5/8/2010 10:31:42 PM

I thought trained HR people did this stuff, and then everybody else just interviewed and said whether or not they liked the guy...

I dunno...it just seems weird for a person to be asking problem-solving questions or attempting to understand another person's mind when they don't have any experience in cognition/psychology/etc...themselves.

5/8/2010 10:34:55 PM

^of all the job interviews I went on coming out of college, I barely spent any time with people in HR. At most one per company and they were not the person I spent the most time with. They were usually just the "heres the information on benefits we offer here, this is what you need to do to get reimbursed for expenses for the interview, etc." Mainly big picture stuff about the culture of the company. Spent most my time with managers on the actual technical of stuff. Obviously thats just my experience though. Will vary by field too.

5/8/2010 10:54:43 PM

^Seconded

^^You don't need a pHD in psychology to make logical conclusions based on your interaction with people. We do it all the time in our daily lives, too.

5/8/2010 11:22:07 PM

Man, oh, man, is there a class that the managers can take?

This seems crazy!

5/8/2010 11:28:44 PM

Quote :

"We’ve even canceled the interview while the candidate was in the lobby to see how they reacted. While some may see this as sadistic and cruel, we work in what can be a very high stress environment, so one’s ability to deal with unforeseen obstacles is paramount. "

that's a good sign to the candidate that the company already has enough fuckups employed already, and he'll be dealing with a high stress environment caused by poor management.

5/8/2010 11:38:05 PM

^ Yeah seriously. That would be a big red flag to me that I wouldn't want to work for that company.

Quote :

"of all the job interviews I went on coming out of college, I barely spent any time with people in HR."

Yep same. I think it's really rare for HR to be the people doing the interviews. Which makes sense. You want the person directly involved in the department you'd be working for interviewing you, not someone who has a general idea of what your department is involved in.

Quote :

"If you want to know about past experience, then be fully prepared to get a bunch of blank stares from young folks who haven't experienced much at work or in school."

Well, they wouldn't be getting the job. We all know that interviews are about showing the employer that you are the best possible person for the job. If all you can muster for an answer is blank stares, I'm going to hire the young person who was able to tell me what they would do in a situation if presented with it. Really this is interviewing 101 type stuff.


[Edited on May 9, 2010 at 12:21 AM. Reason : .]

5/9/2010 12:14:31 AM

Quote :

"We use a tag team interview process here to hasten the process and make the interviewee feel more uncomfortable. Typically two or three of us, but sometimes as many as five. We don’t want to get a bunch of canned responses to typical questions that the person has heard a hundred times before, so the structure is more conversational than interrogational. We’ll have a scripted outline of the questions and direction, but we improvise a lot and no interview ends up being like another. We start with college if they’re a recent graduate, or previous job experience if they’re a bit more seasoned. We avoid the dreaded “biggest weakness”, “accomplishment you’re most proud of” questions like the plague…any answer for these has probably been carefully orchestrated anyway, so it’s not like we’re going to glean anything by asking. We ask some industry-specific questions, but nothing beyond a high level. We’ll purposefully interrupt each other and raise our voices to see how the candidate reacts. There is one guy here named Eric who has been in some local theater and considers himself a bit of a thespian who has been known to take it a bit far, but for the most part we maintain an amicable environment without letting the candidate get into a comfort zone. We’ll purposefully go off topic to see if the candidate is able to relax and engage in the conversation or is thrown off from his preconceived notion of what a proper interview should be. We’ve even canceled the interview while the candidate was in the lobby to see how they reacted. While some may see this as sadistic and cruel, we work in what can be a very high stress environment, so one’s ability to deal with unforeseen obstacles is paramount. I don’t know if any of this will help you at all."

Wow. Holy shit. I'm so glad I don't work at your company. I would imagine you're filtering out a lot of the best candidates with those kind of juvenile stunts..... Although, one could also say that you're doing them a favor by showing them how juvenile you are in a day-to-day working environment.

wow. just... wow.

5/9/2010 2:33:25 AM

Quote :

"^^Ever been employed? If I was an employer and I asked you "Have you ever had a deadline changed on you and how did you react?" and your answer was, "Never happened." I would immediately like you less than your first impression warranted. At the very least, an explanation that in school your entire schedule was pretty mapped out from the get go and you only every had extensions to deadlines and never retractions would be a better answer than, "No, I've never had a deadline change." followed by a blank stare."

No, not really. I've just had lots of school where professors don't just change deadlines with no notice.
Of course I don't just say, "uhhhhhhh, nope." I say in as professional a manner as I can, "It's really difficult to say. Most of my experience with this stuff has been in an academic setting. In my experience with professors, their schedules are mapped out from the beginning, and they rarely if ever move deadlines forward."
Then if you still want me to pull some hypothetical BS out of my ass, then be prepared for it to sound like everyone else's answers. If I have an answer to tell, I always tell the truth. If I don't have an answer and am allowed to wander into hypotheticals, then I can spew BS with the best of them.

And I also hate this question because there is only one real answer to it.
The only answer you would ever want to give is, "I busted my ass and did everything possible to get that project in on time." (You get out there and you find that fucking dog!) Is there any other answer? Is the interviewer expecting any other answer?
I suppose you could also say, "I curled up into a ball and cried myself to sleep. Then I got fired." But I don't think anyone wants to give that answer in an interview.

I view it as a waste of a question because you'll get the same answer every time. This question doesn't differentiate the candidates at all except to divide those who have work experience from those who don't (and that division can be seen in their resumes anyway).

Quote :

"Secondly, unless I was hiring you to do typical lackey bullshit like make me coffee or print copies of some document for important people at a meeting, I would expect you to be a person with ambition, because people who want to further their career often work better (often, not always). So when I asked you what you thought you'd be doing in five years, the last thing I'd want to hear is "The same job you're offering to hire me for now." "

So you'd rather have me say that I'm gunning for your job?
I sure as shit don't want to be a manager who has to spend all day interviewing a bunch of cocky, know-nothing college grads like me. I'd rather be sitting at my computer doing some real work.
I say that I'm a fan of stability. In five years I'd like to still be here at this company, doing good work, churning out good products, getting a raise every now and then, etc.

[Edited on May 9, 2010 at 11:49 AM. Reason : ]

5/9/2010 11:39:40 AM

wow there is a lot of anger in this thread

5/9/2010 1:15:15 PM

Quote :

"So when I asked you what you thought you'd be doing in five years, the last thing I'd want to hear is "The same job you're offering to hire me for now." " So you'd rather have me say that I'm gunning for your job? "

I'd much rather a candidate tell me he wants to have my job in 5 years, because I plan to have moved on into another position in 5 years myself.

5/9/2010 2:02:12 PM

^ Precisely

^^^ I figured as much. You really are going to have a hard time finding somewhere to be if you walk into interviews with that attitude. Despite what you think about your abilities to bullshit the responses, you're total negativity towards the process is going to show through.

And you're right, you won't even get to a lot of interviews because you haven't had these experiences to put on your resume.

And the questions are not asked wanting hypothetical bullshit. I said last time that a "it's never happened" is acceptable if you explain. But what people want to hear is not just, "I busted ass and got it done." They want to hear, "I pushed back some of this other stuff that was lower on the priority list, I asked for some help from some members of my team to help with the pieces I felt like I could safely hand off, and I worked a couple long nights in order to deliver a quality product on time."

You really need to go to career services and get a handle on this stuff. It's more important and complicated than your complete lack of experience is giving it credit for. Really dude, figure it out before it's work finding time.

[Edited on May 9, 2010 at 3:01 PM. Reason : not asked, not asked.... not "asked"]

5/9/2010 2:59:00 PM

how about don't be a jackass and leave the bs questions out of the interview.

5/9/2010 3:59:26 PM

The questions aren't bs. They serve purposes, and people ask the ones that give them the insight that they need to make the best decisions they can.

Personally, I think the interesting questions are more interesting than the boring typical ones anyway. It's easy to find out WHAT someone knows, you just ask them. It's not easy to judge how they use what they know in the real world during 30 minutes of interview

5/9/2010 4:08:56 PM

If I were asked about a schedule being pushed up, I wouldn't give the stock, "work as hard as I can" answer.

I'd discuss the differences between management schedules and development schedules and talk about how to resolve the differences between the two... I'd probably mention the importance of a "managers schedule" as a political tool and point out that deviations from the "managers schedule" are usually held close to the vest but that I really appreciate it when my first-line manager is aware if it is unrealistic and that I like to keep him in the loop when it is exposed, but that I don't broadcast that exposure - I let him handle it. It's a manager's job to do the schedule fighting. It is my job to work as hard and as smart as I can and to give my first line an accurate assessment of where the project stands. It is his job to spin the schedule slips up the management chain and I let him do that.

5/9/2010 4:28:12 PM

Quote :

"And the questions are not asked wanting hypothetical bullshit. I said last time that a "it's never happened" is acceptable if you explain. But what people want to hear is not just, "I busted ass and got it done." They want to hear, "I pushed back some of this other stuff that was lower on the priority list, I asked for some help from some members of my team to help with the pieces I felt like I could safely hand off, and I worked a couple long nights in order to deliver a quality product on time.""

Yea, that's what I meant. I just didn't want to type it all out.
"busted my ass" = worked hard and worked late
"did everything possible" = pushed back other projects and roped in co-workers

Again, duh. I don't see how anyone would ever give a different response than that.
(other than Solinari^. But I don't have a clue what he's talking about. When a deadline is pushed up, you blame your manager for having unrealistic expectations of you?)

5/10/2010 9:25:59 AM