IT Job. Weird Job Posting

I saw an IT job posting where at the end it asks to:

Tell us in your cover letter who would win in a fight and why: the American Alligator or the Burmese python

It's an IT company providing solutions. Company has nothing to do with animals.

Is this a trick or something?
Should I answer it in my cover letter?

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Comments

apena7

Are they fighting on land or in the water?

laptop

apena7 wrote: »

Are they fighting on land or in the water?

It doesnt specify. All of their job postings ask applicants to answer it in the cover letter. I find this very interesting.

astorrs

laptop wrote: »

Should I answer it in my cover letter?

Yes absolutely. I would answer it for two reasons:

It shows you were thorough in reading the job posting and can follow directions
It could provide an ice breaker for both parties when/if an interview comes up. Especially if you can throw a little humor and maybe a little IT savvy into your response.

P.S. Neither wins: Python explodes after swallowing 6-foot alligator in Florida Everglades

Good luck!

Andrew

apena7

Well, the python can kill the alligator and try to shallow it, but the alligator would be too big to digest and probably cause the python to explode.

Edit: Astorrs beat me to the punch! Now I remember hearing about that on Discovery channel.

Kaminsky

astorrs wrote: »

P.S. Neither wins: Python explodes after swallowing 6-foot alligator in Florida Everglades

There are some TE members that spend waaaay too much time on tinternet and amazingly, seem to remember every single url they go to. There is also one strange one that is physically and mentally wired into the TE database of posts but he has been a bit quiet of late.

mikej412

astorrs wrote: »

It shows you were thorough in reading the job posting and can follow directions

+1

It's a great way to weed out people just randomly shotgunning resumes.

astorrs

Kaminsky wrote: »

There are some TE members that spend waaaay too much time on tinternet and amazingly, seem to remember every single url they go to. There is also one strange one that is physically and mentally wired into the TE database of posts but he has been a bit quiet of late.

LOL, actually I was trying to find the job description online to see if anything else jumped out at me, but then I saw the 2nd link and went in a different direction

bwcarty

astorrs wrote: »

Yes absolutely. I would answer it for two reasons:
It shows you were thorough in reading the job posting and can follow directions

It could provide an ice breaker for both parties when/if an interview comes up. Especially if you can throw a little humor and maybe a little IT savvy into your response.

P.S. Neither wins: Python explodes after swallowing 6-foot alligator in Florida Everglades

Good luck!

Andrew

I'd say that #1 is the primary reason for the request, but it can also demonstrate your ability to provide information about a situation you don't deal with day in and day out. A lot of IT isn't about what you know now - it's how quickly can you find a solution to a problem nobody has planned for.

USGS Release: USGS Maps Show Potential Non-Native Python Habitat Along Three U.S. Coasts (2/20/2008 10:45:00 AM) has an image of such a fight along with additional information. That's just an example of bothing to look up the subject on Google/Wikipedia. If you want to take it a step further, you can add any number of qualifiers. An alligator hatchling would obviously be no match for a full grown python, and an adult alligator could swallow young pythons like spaghetti.

Zartanasaurus

I would love to get this requirement as part of my cover letter.

Zartanasaurus

Who would win in a fight? Dr Doom or Batman?

Nuklear Power Archive Episode 342: Hypothetically Speaking…

unsupported

Sounds like they are trying to think outside the box like those famous Google interview questions (hhttp://digg.com/tech_news/Google_Interview_Questions_2).

Paul Boz

Neither, zombies would win.

Forsaken_GA

Besides weeding out those who don't follow instructions well, it's also a good way to see a candidates methods of reasoning. How a person works out a problem can tell you an awful lot about them. It'll also give them a good idea of how well you can actually write (ie, communicate), determine how well you can research, demonstrate whether or not you have a sense of humor, and see whether or not you can be persuasive when voicing your opinions.

I think it's wonderful, wish more companies did something like that.

jediknight

mikej412 wrote: »

+1

It's a great way to weed out people just randomly shotgunning resumes.

+1

I had this happen to me in a different way. I was doing an online app for a company and the steps were as follows:

1. Fill out online app
2. Upload Resume
3. WATCH COMPANY VIDEO
4. Email Resume to posted email link

Here was the catch, if you skipped watching the video and sent your Resume to the email link, your Resume was immediately trashed! At the end of the video, it had clear instructions to NOT email your Resume to the posted email link and provided another link to send your Resume to. Apparently I was the only one who could follow directions out of many applicants.

Yes, absolutely answer the question in your cover letter! It shows that clearly you can follow directions and pay attention to detail. This will pretty much guarantee you at least a phone interview if you meet the requirements of the position.

gbadman

Paul Boz wrote: »

Neither, zombies would win.

I'm all for lateral thinking and that. But come on now.

It would obviously be the carnivorous earthworms.

RouteThisWay

Paul Boz wrote: »

Neither, zombies would win.

I enjoy zombies as well. I actually went on a zombie kick and watched quite a bit of zombie movies over the long weekend (hurray for having MLK day off in the US).

I just realized, by saying that I enjoy zombies, it has some serious deviant implications.

thomAZ

Buddy here at my work said that down in florida they're having problems with the burmese python 'cause they reproduce very quickly. Ohh and they've been pwning the gators! Are they based in Florida? Maybe they want to see if you know anything about florida or if your from there.