Strange or long interviews.

Iristheangel

lantech wrote: »

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.

OMG. I got the gas station question too during the interview! They asked it like this: "Without Googling it, how would you find out how many gas stations are in the US. Lay out the steps for how you would compute it." I said that I would research how much of the US is occupied by large cities, small cities, suburban areas, and rural areas. I would then calculate the average amount of gas stations per square mile for each of those types of locations. I would let calculate it using the averages per square mile, locale type, and approx locale size for each type in the US while noting the amount of uninhabited land in the US since there would be no gas stations in those areas. The number I would come up with wouldn't be exact but it would be a good approximate.

sratakhin

Somewhere on I-70 in Utah

Sett

Iristheangel wrote: »

OMG. I got the gas station question too during the interview! They asked it like this: "Without Googling it, how would you find out how many gas stations are in the US. Lay out the steps for how you would compute it." I said that I would research how much of the US is occupied by large cities, small cities, suburban areas, and rural areas. I would then calculate the average amount of gas stations per square mile for each of those types of locations. I would let calculate it using the averages per square mile, locale type, and approx locale size for each type in the US while noting the amount of uninhabited land in the US since there would be no gas stations in those areas. The number I would come up with wouldn't be exact but it would be a good approximate.

I think Google started the whole thing with the unorthodox interview questions. A year ago I saw a few blog posts about that and now every second company is doing it ?? Got to love the HRs...

Roguetadhg

sratakhin wrote: »

Somewhere on I-70 in Utah

Bad time to have a gas guzzler.

demonfurbie

sratakhin wrote: »

Somewhere on I-70 in Utah

knowing my luck id break down 55 miles after

lantech

Roguetadhg wrote: »

Bad time to have a gas guzzler.

Good time to own a gas station though

Iristheangel

My old 1995 Pathfinder would die. It would run 100 miles to a tank.

dave330i

Sett wrote: »

I think Google started the whole thing with the unorthodox interview questions. A year ago I saw a few blog posts about that and now every second company is doing it ?? Got to love the HRs...

Companies have been asking logic questions for a long time.

Roguetadhg

lantech wrote: »

Good time to own a gas station though

Yeah, no kidding. That "All Services" Is probably a pretty good-sized town.

Edit: 47k population.

sratakhin

2,393, to be exact Salina, Utah - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Roguetadhg

Salina, Kansas - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Yeah. In Utah. Not Kansas, like I looked at >.>

RouteThisWay

Iristheangel wrote: »

My old 1995 Pathfinder would die. It would run 100 miles to a tank.

Not to call you out or anything- but I drive a 94 Pathfinder as my beater for moving things around... and it has a 20 gallon tank. Nothing changed in 1995 for the Pathfinder, so.. you were getting 5 miles per gallon on a 3.0 V6?

I get about 12MPG... which, is on the low side for this vehicle because I don't take care of it at all. And that is still about 240 miles.

...maybe it went further than you think?

EDIT: And I will agree with Dave- Google didn't start this trend. These questions are not right/wrong questions. They are determining your thought process when facing logic problems and how you respond to something you are unfamiliar with.

Iristheangel

I don't doubt you, RouteThisWay. My Pathfinder had a LOT mechanically wrong with it. 100 miles MAX was what I got on it and I didn't have the money at the time to fix the huge problems with it.

RouteThisWay

Maybe a fuel leak or a greedy neighbor? I caught someone siphoning gas out of mine once lol. In any case, at least it was your old vehicle ha. And you aren't on that lonely stretch of road lol.

biggene

sratakhin wrote: »

Somewhere on I-70 in Utah

Am I the only self confessed hillbilly in here? No one else noticed that isn't a bull?? LOL, last time I checked bulls don't have udders for milking.

boredgamelad

So you're saying... that's no bull? (Edit: I didn't notice it wasn't a bull but now that I have, I'm pretty sure that's by design)

Cleverclogs

Just back from an interview about 90 minutes ago, and wanted to share this little gem. Was being asked technical questions as I expected, when the interviewer threw this one in:

Have you seen the A-Team movie? Which character in that film do you think best desribes you?

I watch this film semi-regularly at the gym, so I wasn't phased by this question. My reply was this:

"Well, as far as the movie goes I have to go with Face Man. Why? Because he has my favourite scene in the whole movie. When they're in the tank that's free-falling, and he shouts "I gotta pop a window!" and shoots the big .50 cal machine gun" (I even did the "Strafing" actions with my hands). This got a good laugh in the interview from both the people interviewing me, so I decided to elaborate further:

"The strange thing is, I was never a Face Man fan growing up. I was always a BA Baraccus fan. My parents used to think it was funny when I talked like him" (This gets another good laugh). Due to my referring back to the TV series, the interviewer comes out with this:

"So as far as the TV show goes, who best represents you?" I reply with "Hannibal, because I'm always the person doing the planning and preparation in the background. My motto is to plan for the best, but to prepare for the worst and I love it when a plan comes together" (Another laugh).

Having participated in over 2 dozen interviews in the last two years, this was the first time I've ever been thrown a question like this. Having seen some of the things on here (Especially the one about the Raven and the Wolf drinking the water) I think I got off quite lightly.

Iristheangel

Which A-team member? I wouldn't have known how to answer that. I never saw the movie or show. I did have one ex-manager who used to ask "If I wanted you to make a peanut butter sandwich for me, how would you make it?" to every interviewee. If they didn't ask him how he liked his P&B sandwich before they started to describe the steps they took to make the sandwich, they technically "failed" the question because it's supposedly about customer service. Funny enough, I sat in quite a few interviews with that manager and there was only one person who ever answered it "correctly" to which he promptly accused them of hearing the question before. I thought that was pretty stupid. What's the point of asking a question that you're looking for everyone to fail?

I just wanted to update everyone on how everything worked out with the Saturday interview. I got a call last night at 10PM from the first interviewer (Mr Logic Puzzles) and he offered me the job but he wasn't happy about it. I guess he wasn't a red herring. As he put it, he felt that I did poorly with my interview with him and he's looking for the engineer type which is why he asked the questions he did. He said that they only usually hire Stanford, MIT, or UCI CS/EE grads because they teach them how to solve problems in that school and he was looking for someone to roll up their sleeves to answer the questions he presented which he didn't feel he got from me. He definitely wouldn't have picked me but he was outvoted by the remaining 6 managers included the last guy who he even admitted was the toughest interviewer of the bunch and who couldn't stop saying great things about me. He went on to say that it's easy for people to read books to learn topics but that doesn't mean they can solve problems or approach things from an engineer state of mind. I definitely agree with that last statement but the fact that I think he failed to realize or didn't care about was that his other interviewers were asking me scenario-based or troubleshooting questions which did test my problem-solving skills and I answered almost all of them correctly (which is why they were so impressed by me). Anyways, definitely not the warm welcome I was hoping for.

We spoke about logistics as well and they seemed to want to pay me $25K less than what I would be getting at the job down here. I got off the phone with him feeling a little underwhelmed by it all. I really put some thought into it, spoke to the buddy that works there and the SO, and came to the decision that it was better for me to take the job down here. The big thing is that I don't know where I'm going to be in 6-8 months when the SO finds out where her residency will be. I didn't feel it would be fair to the company or my friend to start a job that I might have to leave in less than a year. The last thing I would want to do is have my actions reflect poorly on my friend. Also, I got a text message from the manager from the job down here earlier in the day that said he was counting down the days until I started. It seems like such a small gesture but I was really won over by the fact that his team seems so excited to have me while the guy at the other company seemed almost unhappy about it.

I'm glad I get to walk away with the confidence that I can handle a technical interview like this and that I know I could survive the job market in San Jose since I believe that's where I'll end up one day whether the SO gets her residency up there or after the residency. Plus I get the bragging rights to say that I beat out MIT, Stanford and UCI CS/EE grads for a job.

Legacy User

It would turn me off to the position after the person thats offering me the position is telling me that he doesn't want me to work there but he was outvoted. That guy sounds like a real d*ck and chances are if you chose to work there he'd probably give you a hard time. It's definitely an ego boost that you beat out candidates from top tier schools. I'd be excited to go to the first place after receiving that text. Seems like a happier place to work.

cyberguypr

I'm with dmarcisco. I am delighted to hear that you turned them down.

Iristheangel

I'd probably take this job just to prove the guy wrong but I'm in a unique situation of not knowing where I could be in a year and I don't want the possibility of my leaving early to hurt my friend's reputation with the company. A few weeks ago, I thought things were more certain as far as where we would end up in residency but the SO changed her mind on what kind of specialty she wanted to get into and that narrowed our options a bit.

YuckTheFankees

If that was me speaking to the guy, he would of put a bad taste in my mouth, if I decided to take the job. But anyways, I'm glad you were able to make the best decision for you and your SO, I wish you the best of luck with your new company.

lantech

I hope you told your friend how Mr. Riddles treated you. Certainly not a professional way to act for anyone.

Good luck to you with your new job. Hope it works out for you. Sounds like you made the best decision.

boredgamelad

Iristheangel wrote: »

I thought that was pretty stupid. What's the point of asking a question that you're looking for everyone to fail?

If the question is clearly set up for people to fail, the interviewer is probably (er, hopefully?) looking at the way people answer it and not judging whether they get it right or wrong.

One interviewee might just say "well I'd grab two slices of bread and use a knife to spread peanut butter on one of them, and then stick them together". Another might say "Well, you look like a healthy guy, so you probably like a lot of peanut butter. You're drinking your coffee black so you probably don't have much of a sweet tooth, so no jelly. I can tell that you've lost weight because your suit jacket fits loosely, so chances are you'd prefer wheat bread over white, for the health benefits." At least the second person thought about it and took it seriously as a problem-solving exercise, showing off their analytical and reasoning skills. Whereas the first person just picked the option he thought was best and went with it. Even though both people "failed", the second took an opportunity to show off their skills even on a completely non-technical question. I think just about every interview question can be turned into an opportunity to show off.

Either that, or the interviewer might like to use it to break the ice. I could see being asked that question off the bat, and then upon hearing the answer feel all of the nerves in my body relax. Injecting a little humor at the start of an interview can put candidates at ease.

Iristheangel wrote: »

I'm glad I get to walk away with the confidence that I can handle a technical interview like this

Congrats on getting the offer, but you're right, it seems to me like you made the smart move. The confidence boost you got from hearing that 6 out of 7 managers wanted you to join their company must have been great.

"6 out of 7 managers agree, Iristheangel is right for their team"

Good luck with the new job!

Iristheangel

@Lantech - I did tell my friend about the guy's questions but this is my friend's first job straight out of college will nil experience. He doesn't think that it's out of the ordinary at all and he didn't have any other experiences to compare it to. I generally consider myself a person of above average intelligence. It probably wasn't the best day to through puzzles at me but that's my fault, not his. I did solve the puzzles correctly exception of the second part of the coin question but he just didn't feel that I rolled my sleeves up enough to attack it and that I just moved too quickly through the answers.
Being able to approach a problem and logically take steps to reach a conclusion is an important talent to have. If you gave me a scenario involving a computer or network, I would take the knowledge I've accumulated with the understanding of how the TCP/IP stack, OS, and the rest of the network work together and start to figure out the puzzle. I *LIVE* for challenges like that. After I'm finished solving some major problem on the network, you hand me a crossword puzzle to complete, I probably would lose interest in it and never complete it. Some puzzles tease our brains and drive us to figure them out and others can never hold our mental attention. That interviewer ended the interview without asking me one technical question or giving me one technological scenario-based question to solve.
Interestingly enough, I posed the questions to my father and one of my best physicist friends. My physicist friend got as far as I did on the questions (though he did answer them smoother than I did) and my dad got a bit further than I did but completely answered the hat question differently than the interviewer and I. Does that mean my physicist friend can't problem-solve? Of course not. Does that mean my dad is wrong and isn't up to the standards of that interviewer? Maybe but with over 20 technology patents in his name as well as a BS, MS, and Ph.D from Cal Tech, I think he could run laps without breaking a sweat against their brightest engineers in a lab environment.


I'm not going to speak poorly of the company. They have a great product and there were some awesome people that I interviewed with. I might not agree with the first interviewers methodology but he seemed like an intelligent person. I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to prove him wrong in a work environment.

@Boredgamelad - The ex-manager that asked the P&B question didn't do it for any logical reason. He was the kind of guy that felt the need to sound edgy in his interviews.

boredgamelad

Yeah then I agree, that's just not right. The manager of the auto dealer I worked at (before I got into IT) was one of those guys that wanted to make himself look important in interviews. I swear he almost gave a "coffee is for closers" speech during an interview once.

Krones

Good for you, Iris. You did an excellent job and were sleep deprived on top of that. Even if you nailed all the brain teasers with 100% accuracy you would still have not accepted the job given the logistics and salary. What a great interview experience and thanks for sharing it.

lantech

I wasn't talking about the questions you were asked. I was talking about how he treated you when he was offering you the job. I think he might've actually been trying to get you to reject it on purpose just because he didn't think you were good enough. But the rest certainly know you are. They should be aware of how he acted when he made the offer. That is the unprofessional part.

techdudehere

If someone began asking me silly questions, I'd probably stop the interview and try to schedule a different one somewhere close by so the whole day was not wasted. I try to stick with people who don't have time for stuff like that. Maybe that's why I am poor, though. I've heard the west coast is more laid back though so perhaps it would be more normal there for someone to make idle chat and such? Next to pay, the most important thing I look for is the general workforce happiness and how well people get along. Sadly, that can be very difficult to determine by simple interview and a walk through. One place I worked, everyone looked like they were machines 90% of the time but if you were there the right 10% it was a blast.

biggene

After reading the guys comments and how he conducted himself on the callback, it sounds to me like maybe he had someone in the background whom he had referred who did not get picked for the short list, and it upset his corn flakes.
Oh well, it sounds to me like you had already made the right choice in the back of your mind Iris, and I wish you and your SO the best of luck with her placement. My cousin-in-law is a pediatric anesthesiologist, and his fellowship ended up being in St Joseph, Missouri. Hopefully, you guys don't get stuck someplace like that.

Gene