Strange or long interviews.

I thought this deserved it's own thread. I'm going to start this out by asking people to share their stories of EXTREMELY long or strange interviews. Have you ever been asked strange questions that made you say "WTF?" Have you ever been asked to perform tasks that you found were strange during an interview?

I'll start out by sharing my story which happened yesterday. I'm sure many of you read in my other thread that I was heading to San Jose to interview for an entry-level permanent network engineer job at a company my buddy works at. Prior to yesterday, I already had two phone interviews with two separate managers with this company that spanned an hour each. Not to toot my own horn, but I felt those interviews went well. I had some warning that my in-person interview would be long because I got an email from one of the hiring managers that said it would be at least 5 hours with 7 different people and my buddy mentioned that his interview was 3 hours long with 3 different people. No problem, right? They're going to ask me the same lines of questions or interview me together, right? Oh.... I was so young and naive prior to yesterday....

I drove up on Friday and arrived in San Jose at 2AM (Thanks 5 North construction!). I had to get up at 5AM to get prepared for the interview and arrived at the company by 8AM. I'm sure being sleep deprived threw me off a little but it was my fault for being cheap and not flying in.

The first interviewer sat me down at his desk and starting to talk to me about my experience, why I want to work in networking, and my school. I see him write a little "Online" note next to my education on my resume which was a little disheartening to me. He then says that he's going to ask me a few questions and I immediately think "YES! Technical questions! This is where I'm going to drive it home." Nope. Thought puzzles. I hate thought puzzles. Ugh.

So the first question:
You have nine coins. O O O O O O O O O
You also have a balanced scale. \_/____________\_/
There is one coin in the nine that is heavier than the rest. Tell me how you can determine which coin is the heaviest by weighing the coins the least amount of times

My answer (which was correct): Split the coins into groups of three and weigh the first two groups. If they are balanced (or not), take the remained group (or heavier group) and weigh one coin on each side. If one coin is heavier, then you have the heavier coin. If balanced, then it's the odd coin of that group.

So he decided to switch the question up: Ok, same coins but now you have a defective coin that's either heavier or lighter. You don't know which and you need to solve it by weighing the coins three rounds or less. I must of been tired because I was sitting there trying to figure it out and when he finally explained it, I felt like an idiot. The answer was: Split the coins into three again. Weigh the first two groups. Note if one group is heavier or lighter or balanced. Then take one of the first groups you weighed and weigh them against the other remaining group. If these two groups are balanced or lighter/heavier, you can determine whether there the defective coin is heavier/lighter. Take the group of coins that was unbalanced from the two weigh-ins and split them one-and-one again. If they balance, you know the third coin is the defective coin. If they don't, based on the information you already concluded from previously, you can determine which of the two is defective.

Second question:
You have four hats. Two are grey and two are black. (B) (B) (G) (G)
Three guys walk in and randomly pick a hat without seeing the color they picked. They then go stand on steps looking out. Guy A on the bottom can't see anyone behind him. Guy B can see Guy A. Guy C can see Guy A and B.

What are the chances that guy A will pick a grey or black had (I said 50%). What are the chances that guy B will pick a hat of the same color as A (33%) or a different color than B (66%)? What are the chances that guy C will know what color hat that he will have? This is where I messed up. I thought "Ok, two scenarios. Guy C will either look out and see guy A and B have different hat colors and then he's got a 50% chance of guessing his hat color. Or he'll look out and see then wearing the same hat color and then he'll have a 100% chance of knowing his hat color. So, on average, he'll have a 75% chance of knowing what his hat color is based on the available scenarios." NOPE. As the interviewer pointed out, I'm assuming that each scenario has an equal chance of happening. This is not the case. When the first guy (A) walks in, he has a 50/50 chance of getting a certain hat color. After he gets his color, the second guy has a higher probability of picking a hat of the opposite color (66%). So there's a higher probability that A and B will be wearing different hat colors so I failed that part.

He then added to the original question. Ok so now the new rules are when A, B, and C sit on their steps, they need to yell out their hat color if they know for sure what color hat they're wearing. Which guy will ALWAYS know his hat color? It took me a little bit to think it out (I got a hint or two as well) but my eventual answer was A and B (the interviewer originally was looking for just B but I explained my answer well enough). The reason it was A and B was because when C walks into the room, if he sees solid hat colors in front of him, he knows he has the opposite hat color and yells it out. This lets A and B both know they must be wearing the opposite color. If C walks in and says nothing, then B knows that he and A are wearing two different colors and since he can see A's color, he can yell out the opposite color. A will be able to conclude based on C's silence and B's response what his hat color is.

Third question:
There's an island with 7 wells on the island and there lives a fox and a raven on this island. Wells number 1-6 are on the flat ground and the fox can only reach these wells. The raven can get to all the wells on the island. The wells are all poisonous and the only cure for the poison is by drinking a higher well number. If you are poison, this magically cures you. If not poisoned, you become poisoned. So the fox and the raven don't like each other and decide to duel. They meet up and exchange water cups. The raven dies and the fox lives. Why?

Answer: The fox drank from well number 1 before the duel so whatever water the raven brought him cured him. The fox brought the raven regular water that wasn't from any of the wells so when the raven drank from the 7th well after drinking fom the cup, he died.

After completing these questions with the interviewer, he looks at me and says "Well, Iris, you're in the 40th percentile. Unfortunately, my standards are slightly higher than that." and passed me onto the next interviewer. I took a break between interviews to excuse myself to the restroom and I just sat in there wondering "WTF continue? If I'm going to get asked these kind of questions all day and not get any technical/troubleshooting, I'm going to get my arse kicked." Now I know these questions can be seen as a way to assess your problem-solving skills but I was tired and I knew that my brain wasn't functioning at tip-top shape. Plus 5 hours+ of problem-solving and riddles is a little intimidating. I didn't want to put my friend to shame so I headed back into the interviews. I'm glad I did.

I didn't get asked one more riddle for the rest of the day. No one else seemed to care where I went to school but seemed impressed that I finished as quickly as I did and while working full-time. Everything was technical and that's where I really shined. I interviewed with the next six people and they asked me a ton of great technical questions/scenarios such as:
1) *Interviewer draws out a simple network with 1 switch, 1 node, 1 DNS server, and one router connected to the internet* I then am instructed to explain how the computer pulls up Yahoo! for the first time (Go through ARP, how the switch behaves when getting a frame from a MAC address it doesn't recognize, what the DNS server does with the query, whether the DNS query is UDP or TCP, what port it uses, once the node constructs the packet list the destination IP and destination MAC address, what does the router do with the packet, if there are two static routes on the table to the same place please say which one the router will choose, etc)
2) List all the layers of the OSI model, include several protocols from each layer and explain how a HTTP packet goes down each layer
3) Explain how an SSL connection is established
4) Draw out a SSL VPN packet and a IPSEC packet. Explain/show the differences
5) *Trainer explains a Slow Lorus attack* Based on what I know of this attack now, how would I mitigate it?
6) How would you mitigate a DDoS attack without a firewall or equipment between the attacker and the node?
7) You have a L2 switch that is malfunctioning. When it receives a broadcast packet, it sends it out all the ports including the one that it came from. Is this bad in a one switch environment? What about a two switch environment? Why did you choose your answer?

What's the difference between STP and RSTP?
9) Here's a switch topology and here are the ports blocked by STP. If node A is experiencing frame loss from node B, how would you troubleshoot it?
10) You have a layer 3 switch and you enable port mirroring of a port. Based on what you know, how would you determine whether the traffic coming through that port was being routed or switched based on the packets themselves (Destination MAC of course but I guess a lot of people fail this one)

Basically, it was a ton of fun. I love answering these kinds of questions. I really shined. I probably answered 80-95% of these questions correctly. My last interview was with what everyone told me was the toughest interviewer (the VP of the company). I actually liked his interview style and thought the interview with him went even better than the rest. He interviewed the same way I imagine Forsaken or NetworkVeteran to interview in my head. No BS, straight questions and straight answers, and he didn't bother to try to be chatty before he assessed whether I was intelligent enough to do the job or not. I got through the technical aspect with flying colors and then he chatted with me for another hour about the company. He asked me about my school because I'm enrolled for my masters and mentioned that he wanted to go for his masters. I casually inquired "Oh? Are you going to go to Stanford for it?" He scoffs at me and says "Who the heck cares about what school I go to? I have over 30 years of IT experience. I just want to have the masters for my pride. I couldn't care how prestigious someone's education is and you shouldn't either. I've met MIT grads were were idiots and CCIE's that used to work for Cisco's Catalyst team who couldn't explain what ARP was." He went on to chat with me longer about the engineering of his product lines and I loved it. When he was walking me out, we passed my friend. My friend was actually visibly worried for me because I guess this VP had a reputation of destroying interviewees but he patted my friend on the back and say "You're the one that referred her? Good candidate. Thank you."

I walked out of that place at 4PM. Yes, 8 hours of interviews that I was SURE I was going to fail after I had interviewed with the first guy. Yes, I think I got the job but I still have to decide on logistics and it really depends what they offer me as far as whether I'll take it or not. As discouraged and upset I was after the first hour, I'm glad I didn't give up or try to throw the interview. Goes to show you that you can turn any crazy interview around.

Anyways, enough with my long story. Share yours

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Comments

drkat

I usually think something is up if I walk in and there is a line of coke on the desk...

Roguetadhg

What the heck. The fox drank before the duel? That's an assumption. Why didn't the Raven drink before the duel?

luberguilarte

Congratulation Iris , hey , I would had fail the logistic test for sure , I hate those stupid IQ test , is just to bore I guess . I hope when I'll be interviewed they ask me the same technical questions , they were not to bad ahh. I wish you the best and I hope it comes with everything you want.

MickQ

Bloody hell. 8 hours is a long interview process. I thought that 2 hours was bad.
Just as well it doesn't necessarily hinge on the first interviewer, right?

Excellent1

Great job keeping your compusure after the first interview. That would have shaken anyone's confidence. After reading through your post, I did begin to think that perhaps that is something they do deliberately to see how potential candidates will fare. Most people go into interviews very well rehearsed for what they think will be talked about. The first interviewer may well have been positioned to push candidates outside of their comfort zones. Either that, or the guy was just a d-bag.

Regardless, nice job handling the situation. I'm also impressed with how much you remember about the specific questions that were asked. That's a good skill to develop / have to improve interview performances.

When I interview candidates for a position, I typically keep it very simple. I tend to focus (primarily) on job knowledge and character. Some of the more abstract interviewing methodologies are more theatrical than practical, in my humble opinion. I'm sure they have their place for certain positions, but I think they are overused in today's market.

YuckTheFankees

oh wow! That is one long interview, the 1st guy probably would of pissed me off lol I hope you get the job!

Mrock4

I went through one like this. Was about 5 hours. Consisted of 4 interviews. The first two went good- they were managers. The third was another CCIE candidate. I immediately thought "I'm screwed", because I knew he'd have some crazy scenarios drawn up......he did

Good luck though. Hopefully it turns out good!

jamesleecoleman

I would have failed all of the logic puzzles and they seem like a waste of time. I understand it's to see how people think but wouldn't you find how someone thought during the troubleshooting questions?

netsysllc

and I thought being asked what animal best represents me was odd

Mrock4

netsysllc wrote: »

and I thought being asked what animal best represents me was odd

Now I have to ask, what did you answer?

paul78

Thank you for sharing the experience. I found their interviewing technique interesting.

Being suspicious and a skeptic by nature, I wonder if the first interviewer is simply a staged attempt to increase pressure and stress to see how you will fare with the rest of the interviewers. Logic questions have their place in an interview but the complexity of those specific questions are out of norm so their seems questionable. Plus those questions are variations of common puzzles so its not a good judge of any candidate's intellect since the answers would be known to anyone that likes to do puzzles. So my theory is that the first interviewer is staged :wink. Hopefully you will get the job so congrats on a great interview. I hope you post back the reasoning for the line of questions.

As for the length, I did not think that 8 hours is a long time. Any company that is looking to invest in a new employee ought to perform their due-diligence. Although 8 hours at a single sitting seems a stretch and on a weekend-they must really thing you are worth the investment.

I am curious how they handled lunch. Did you have an opportunity to meet others informally during lunch. Was it catered?

Usually as you progress through your career, I suspect you will find interviews will get more interesting. I have have been on similar interviews. I actually enjoy them if the company is good and the conversation simulating. I don't interview much but the last interview that I was at took about 6 hours and included dinner at a restaurant.

The most unusual practice I have come across is at a public company where I worked. The final phase of the interview process for certain people start was a dinner meeting with a psychologist. I didn't have to undergo the evaluation but a friend had described it as being quite oddly interesting.

Good luck on getting an offer.

spicy ahi

Good luck Iris! Though by the sounds of it, seems like you killed it. The longest in person interview was about 6 hours, with 4 people. First one was quick, as it was the site lead and he just wanted to get a "feel" for whether or not I would be easy to manage. Lots of background stuff, where'd I go to high school (a big thing in Hawaii), where I grew up, yadda yadda. Second interviewer was the technical lead and it was basically the first interviewers questions plus a little bit of technical background checking (where'd I go to school, when did I get my certs, how did I earn it meaning self study or classes, and what my career goals were) the last two were with guys that were actually on the network team. They both took about 2 1/2 hours and the first one went great. Answered all the questions, got to know the gal, and pretty much hit it off. The last guy must have been having a bad day or something because he had kind of an attitude. I got all of his answers right, but everything was given and taken with a snide comment or remark. It's getting me angry just thinking about it, but he really was getting ready to eat a five knuckle sandwich delivered by yours truly.

I ended up getting the job, but when I went to talk specifics with the tech lead, I asked about the last interviewer and whether or not I would be working with him. The tech lead said I would, and in fact would be my direct supervisor. I explained to him that I would be declining the job and why. He seemed really disappointed but said he understood. Fast forward a year later, I got a call from the same tech lead wanting me to come in for an interview again, this time for el douche's position. I wasn't the first or last person who he'd done that too and they finally had enough complaints against him to let him go. I, unfortunately had to decline because I had just started a new job but recommended a good friend of mine who did get the job and works there today.

Sett

My longest interview was about 5 hours with Juniper. Very tight and technically oriented. I didn't make it but it remains my favorite interview up to this date. I learned a lot from it (mostly how much I still have to learn).

Danielh22185

Sounds a bit exteme for an entry level position. I too would have failed miserably with the logic questions. Even some of those technical questions seem a bit advanced for an entry position. I agree too that it was staged just to rattle you. Great job with the interview.

My longest interview I had was for the job I am with now. Two hours about. The craziest question which doesn't seem too crazy anymore was they asked me to tell them what number they were thinking of. It's between 1-100 and I can ask 3 questions to narrow the number down.

Forsaken_GA

Roguetadhg wrote: »

What the heck. The fox drank before the duel? That's an assumption. Why didn't the Raven drink before the duel?

Because foxes are tricksy bastards!

Forsaken_GA

Iristheangel wrote: »

He asked me about my school because I'm enrolled for my masters and mentioned that he wanted to go for his masters. I casually inquired "Oh? Are you going to go to Stanford for it?" He scoffs at me and says "Who the heck cares about what school I go to? I have over 30 years of IT experience. I just want to have the masters for my pride. I couldn't care how prestigious someone's education is and you shouldn't either. I've met MIT grads were were idiots and CCIE's that used to work for Cisco's Catalyst team who couldn't explain what ARP was." He went on to chat with me longer about the engineering of his product lines and I loved it.

I like this man.

Forsaken_GA

paul78 wrote: »

Thank you for sharing the experience. I found their interviewing technique interesting.

Being suspicious and a skeptic by nature, I wonder if the first interviewer is simply a staged attempt to increase pressure and stress to see how you will fare with the rest of the interviewers.

I was wondering the same thing, especially with him mentioning a percentile and saying it's not up to standards. That seems like a dick move. I'll be perfectly honest, if I was in a position to set up such an interview process, I'd have the first guy out be a red herring just to set the tone and see how the candidate reacts to unexpected situations and dashed expectations.

As for the length, I did not think that 8 hours is a long time. Any company that is looking to invest in a new employee ought to perform their due-diligence. Although 8 hours at a single sitting seems a stretch and on a weekend-they must really thing you are worth the investment. I am curious how they handled lunch. Did you have an opportunity to meet others informally during lunch. Was it catered?

Agree, the biggest mistake that most companies make when hiring is not taking enough time. I think that having that many interviews in a single day is not necessarily a good thing, I'd think it's better to spread them out over several sessions.

The most unusual practice I have come across is at a public company where I worked. The final phase of the interview process for certain people start was a dinner meeting with a psychologist. I didn't have to undergo the evaluation but a friend had described it as being quite oddly interesting.

Good luck on getting an offer.

I actually think Dave Ramsey's suggestion for the 'final' interview is a good one. Dinner between leadership and the candidate with their SO/Spouse. If your candidate is married to crazy, you want to know about it before you pull the trigger.

MiikeB

Never had a crazy interview. I have been hired more than once for highly technical jobs without getting a technical interview at all. In government contracting most of the guys just call around and ask about you it seems so reputation is very important.

Not sure how I would react to the logic puzzles. I just woke up and am drinking some coffee when I was reading your story and they all made my head spin. I don't doubt I could figure it out, but where there long pauses while you thought about it? Could you draw it out?

I just don't like silence during the interview so my gut reaction would be to try to start answering right away.

Iristheangel

@Everyone that suggested it - It might have been a red herring but the one thing that makes me hesitant to believe that was that my friend that works there was interviewed during a job event at his college and his ENTIRE 3 hour interview consisted of those types of questions. To be fair, my friend didn't have ANY networking knowledge at all so they had to ask him something other than networking questions. Between the first and second interview, I worried that all the 7 different interviews were going to consist of those kind of questions. I'm pretty good at keeping my game face though and I didn't let it show that I was visibly shaken. I'm glad. It turned out for the best.

@Excellent, those were only a few of the tech questions I remember. I was quizzed up and down for the remaining 7 hours. I love technical questions so it never worries me when they ask those kind of questions.

@James, they did ask me quite a few "how would you troubleshoot this?" or "What would your steps be if you encountered this?" When in doubt, Keep it simple. Follow the OSI model and explain to the interview each step you would take. From checking the plug all the way up to the OS.

@Paul - It's very possible that those complex kinds of questions are important to that interviewer. All the new hires at that company were UC Irvine or Stanford grads and I was competing against them. To someone who took a few statistics classes recently, I imagine they would have fared better than I on the second question. Question 1 was an interesting puzzle and question 3 could have been completely objective. The first thing that came to mind when I heard question 3 was "Oh, I saw Princess Bride. I know how this goes. The fox switched the cup!"

@Mrock, I interviewed with two CCIE's. They weren't bad at all. They kept their line of questioning in the CCNA-range and it was actually REALLY fun to talk to them. Overall, I can't complain about ANY of the interviewers. I could tell they were all really brilliant people. I may not have done well with the puzzles but I did EXCELLENT on the troubleshooting and technical questions and I walked away learning a few things. They also did offer me lunch before the 6th interviewer since they cater on the weekends but I declined. At that point, I just wanted to truck through without any breaks. I was ready to go.

@Daniel - I didn't think the questions were too technical at all. One thing that really stands out to me in technical interviews (prior to this one) is that the interviewer usually asks a lot of softball questions or questions that are usually one level below what you advertise yourself as. For example, during my network engineer interview a couple of weeks ago I wasn't asked any questions past a CCENT level and they probably only tossed out 5-7 technical questions overall. With the interviews I had yesterday, they actually intellectually engaged me and most of the questions weren't softballs. There were a couple that I couldn't remember off the top of my head (I.e. Drawing out a SSL VPN and a IPSec packet. Obviously, the tunneled IPSec packet and all it's encrypted content was easy, but I couldn't remember off the top of my head if SSL VPN encrypts anything other than the payload). There were questions that I couldn't decide on as well but I was honest in my logic. For example, when discussing TCP, the interviewer asked me if the sequence number started at zero or a random number when a connection was negotiated. The security nerd in me screamed "random number" since that made more sense security-wise but I also remembered that TCP/IP was originally designed *WITHOUT* security in mind. Instead of just randomly guessing, I straight up told the interviewer why I couldn't decide and he seemed to actually respect my answer a lot more because I actually thought about it.
Also, it's San Jose. You can throw a rock there and hit 5 CCIE's. I would assume most companies in the bay area won't waste time on softball questions even with entry-level staff.

@Forsaken - I liked him too. The school thing was just one thing he said that just relieved some of the worry from the first interviewer but I really liked him No-BS interview style. When he sat down for the interview, he didn't crack a smile and asked me if anyone had warned me about him. Then he just went right into the interview. I could see why he would intimidate a lot of people because they would expect their education or initials after their name to break some sort of ice with him. No way. This guy was way too intelligent for that and he let it show. I didn't get intimidated over the idea that he was going to grill me though. If anything, I wanted to impress him MORE with my answers because he was so intelligent.
I can understand the length of the interview. It's also San Jose so technical interviews there and somewhere else are probably different beasts most of the time. I just wasn't used to an interview that long. The first thing I thought when I walked out was "OMG. I don't even think the week-long bootcamp and sitting the actual exam for the CISSP was this physically and mentally taxing." Definitely not a bad thing though. I needed to be pushed out of my comfort zone and in the end, I'm more confident in my abilities.

@MiikeB - There wasn't any long pauses during the puzzles. I did exactly what you would have done: Tried to answer right away. I was allowed a pen and paper to draw it out in front of him. Overall, I did fine on the first half of the logic questions but the second half of them would always prove more difficult.

I'm glad I went up for the interview. I strongly suspect I got the job but I'm not going to knock on wood. Even if I didn't get it, I still got a feel for the types of interviews that happen there. I would love live in San Jose again. My whole family is up there and being away from them has been hard this year. My father had a heart attack earlier this year which he's been recovering from and my 89 year old grandpa had some major healthy issues earlier in the year where he was septic while battling pneumonia. I'm lucky that they are both recovering just fine but It's still scary when you're 400 miles away and getting a call in the middle of the night. On the other hand, even if they offer the job, my SO is down here until April of next year and she may not get a residency up there so we might end up moving somewhere else entirely. I have a lot of decisions to make in the coming week or two. If all else fails, at least I have a new job that I have the option of starting and it seems like an amazing opportunity as well.

Anyways, thanks for listening to my long-winded misadventures, guys! I hope some of my wacky adventures are amusing or can help some of you out.

MentholMoose

I remember the first weird question I had during an interview was, "how many tires are there in the US?" I believe I guessed 1 billion. I didn't get an offer, losing out to an internal candidate, though the hiring manager later contacted me about another position. The longest interview I had was at a company that had three groups looking to fill one similar position, so I interviewed with two people from each group for 45-60 minutes each. It took about 6 hours. I didn't get an offer.

the_Grinch

Longest interview I ever went through was for Google. Three phone interviews, on different days, each lasting 1.5 hours. All were technical interviews and each time before I thought "well there is no way this will be a technical interview." The blessing was all the calls were from California so it was easy to schedule a time after work. The curse? I had to stand outside on my cell phone to do the interviews and trains kept passing by. Got through all those interviews and then came the email to go to the NYC Office for what would be 3 to 5 interviews that were suppose to last all day. Get there and the interviews started immediately. First one was with a person in the Boston office and was through video. He was kind enough to tell me how to turn off the feature that allowed me to see myself as well as him. Second was an in person interview and was pretty standard (again all technical). Third interview was the one that threw me and I ultimately crashed and burned. It was a format I had never experienced and after being told no to every solution I offered I blanked on some simple questions. Ten minutes and I was escorted out.

Danielh22185

@Daniel - I didn't think the questions were too technical at all. One thing that really stands out to me in technical interviews (prior to this one) is that the interviewer usually asks a lot of softball questions or questions that are usually one level below what you advertise yourself as. For example, during my network engineer interview a couple of weeks ago I wasn't asked any questions past a CCENT level and they probably only tossed out 5-7 technical questions overall. With the interviews I had yesterday, they actually intellectually engaged me and most of the questions weren't softballs. There were a couple that I couldn't remember off the top of my head (I.e. Drawing out a SSL VPN and a IPSec packet. Obviously, the tunneled IPSec packet and all it's encrypted content was easy, but I couldn't remember off the top of my head if SSL VPN encrypts anything other than the payload). There were questions that I couldn't decide on as well but I was honest in my logic. For example, when discussing TCP, the interviewer asked me if the sequence number started at zero or a random number when a connection was negotiated. The security nerd in me screamed "random number" since that made more sense security-wise but I also remembered that TCP/IP was originally designed *WITHOUT* security in mind. Instead of just randomly guessing, I straight up told the interviewer why I couldn't decide and he seemed to actually respect my answer a lot more because I actually thought about it.
Also, it's San Jose. You can throw a rock there and hit 5 CCIE's. I would assume most companies in the bay area won't waste time on softball questions even with entry-level staff.

Agreed. I believe too that they saw how strong your integrity was having been through that rigorous interview and I think your personality shined through as one the more important aspects of what these people were looking for. I firmly believe that it not always how technical you are, but more how much of an asset you can become or show that you can become based on what they are looking for. I think it is safe to say too that you may never get an interview of this caliber again...I hope lol! If you do I guess you have seen it all! Just reading this I am very impressed so I can only assume you made that level of impression as well. Good luck I hope to hear more about this soon. I am interested to hear if you get the job if they give you some feedback.

RouteMyPacket

YuckTheFankees wrote: »

oh wow! That is one long interview, the 1st guy probably would of pissed me off lol I hope you get the job!

Which is precisely what it was meant to do I am guessing?

Huge congrats for sticking it out and shining! I honestly have never heard of such an interview process, might I inquire what kind of job this was for? Sr. Network Engineer role making $100k +? I'm guessing you just happened to run into a company that loves to screw with people to weed out the slackers and the first retarded interviewer was meant to piss candidates off or throw them to the point they can't compose themselves for further interviews that day?

So what will your role be?

undomiel

Fortunately I haven't run into one of those weird interviews yet. Most likely I'd answer a few logic questions (because they're fun) but I'd likely find myself eventually asking the interviewer if they're planning to hire me to solve silly riddles or if they're hiring me to do a technical role. I just think it would be a much better use of your time to be going through technical interview questions with a candidate that pertain to the specific job they will be doing. Otherwise you're just wasting your time. Even better is if you can put them through a few scenarios on real equipment, but unfortunately you don't always have that luxury available.

Iristheangel

@RouteMyPacket - This was an interview for an entry-level network engineer for an actual company that creates and sells networking equipment. Also, it's San Jose so the technical interviews there are usually going to be much more technical in nature than the majority of technical interviews you'd probably see elsewhere. I don't think the first interviewer was retarded at all. He seemed like an intelligent man. The only reason it put me off was because he didn't ask me a single technical question and I worried that my entire day was going to be spent on questions like that.

Roguetadhg

I'd rather have to sit through a personality test face to face than having to fill out another wal-mart personality exam.

dave330i

The only problem with logic puzzle is that if you've seen it before or seen something similar, you can solve them quickly.

Roguetadhg

You can answer any question quickly. It's a matter if it's going to be correct that matters.

Legacy User

Idk I would've been aggravated and exhausted from the first interview. Longest I've had was a 4 hour interview started with a logic test but was a on paper thankfully once they reviewed it outside the office then the fun began with the Hr manager, IT manager, and IT director. All the technical questions were multiple choice they gave me took a total of 4 networking tests each increasing in difficulty(all were fairly easy reminded me of the ccent exam). After they've seen the results I spoke with the IT manager then the IT director kept asking me if I knew BGP and MPLS (While I'm thinking aren't I interviewing for a server position non network). I said I know the fundamentals but I do not have the experience working with them. If given the opportunity I would love get the opportunity to learn those protocols. Apparently they were also looking for a senior network engineer with a ccnp. I guess they were into the idea of me helping him out since I had my ccna.

I mentioned I do plan on attaining my ccnp in the near future he said well this isn't a networking position (I'm thinking wtf do these guys want). Regardless, it went great they were nice guys told me as soon the interview was done that they want me to come back for a 2nd interview but at a different location unfortunately with a different bunch of guys. In that interview I was pumped selling myself to the manager very enthused but his manager came in ten minutes after. First manager said ok now tell him everything you just told me that killed my mojo.

But afterwards the Hr manager in that location said next step is to check the references then the head manager will determine if I'm the guy then offer the position to me then they do credit and background check which I had to authorize. The hr manager was awesome we had some small talk then she offered to show me the data center which was behind a huge call center. The next day they called my references everyone said they gave positive feedback.

Idk what went wrong but I wasn't offered the position guess not enough experience maybe, but definitely enjoyed the interview experience it boosted my confidence and my ability. Since their ideal candidate would have a 4 year degree and 2 years of experience as listed in the job post. At the time I had only 30 credits towards my A.A.S and 5 months of experience as a part time field tech.

lantech

All that for an entry level job. My hats off to you for getting through it so well.

Longest interview I had was about 3.5 hours and I had to rack and cable 3 servers in a data center. I think the weirdest question I had was how many gas stations are in the US. I told them I didn't know but I would try and find the answer and get back to them if they really wanted to know.