[tpm] Job interview question

[Peter]

On Sun, 15 Jan 2006, Alex Beamish wrote:

>> You are driving along in your car on a wild, stormy night. You pass by a
>> bus stop, and you see three people waiting for the bus:
>>
>> 1. An old lady who looks as if she is about to die.
>> 2. An old friend who once saved your life.
>> 3. The perfect man (or) woman you have been dreaming about.
>>
>> Which one would you choose to offer a ride to, knowing that there could
>> only be one passenger in your car.
>>
>> Think before you continue reading. This is a moral/ethical dilemma that
>> was once actually used as part of a job application.
>
> Interesting question .. obviously, I don't think far enough outside the box.
>
> I imagined stoppping, helping the old lady into the car, saying hello to my
> old friend and asking the young lady for her phone number in case the bus
> has come by the time I come back to pick her up.
>
> That's a cute question, but it's tough to imagine using a brain teaser in an
> interview situation unless you were trying to figure out if the candidate in
> question was really quite smart (but having a bad day) or a dolt (but making
> a lot of good guesses).

The correct answer to such a question in a job interview would be to 
ignore it and take the next one. If pressed, say you do not consider it 
relevant to the job and would handle it when and where encountered, 
should such an unlikely situation occur. The likelihood of such a 
situation occuring is of course about zero, and as such, no matter what 
you answer would not be relevant to anyone. Also as an engineer, you 
could point out that given the very low probability of such a situation 
occuring, it would fit the situation that you would probably be driving 
your regular car which has at least three free seats excepting your own, 
and that your cell phone would be in working order, so you could order a 
taxi or an ambulance if needed, or call the bus dispatcher info number 
and see if the buses are running. Idiotic questions should be reserved 
for IQ tests and the people rating them had better know what they are 
doing.

Peter

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