[tpm] Job interview question

[Peter]

On Tue, 17 Jan 2006, Alex Beamish wrote:

> On 1/16/06, Peter <plp-ysDPMY98cNQDDBjDh4tngg at public.gmane.org> wrote:
>>
>>
>> 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.
>
> Hi Peter,
>
> The problem is that we're not dealing with reality here, but with the
> Reality Distortion Field that is a job interview .. especially when
> conducted by a Human Resources person. ;)

The Distorted Reality Field suggested by such an interview would make me 
think 7 times about working there. Such questions do appear in IQ tests 
and they appear by the dozen for a reason. The answers to the questions 
can only be judged together, as a trend. *One* such answer alone means 
someone did not do his or her homework wrt. testing, or worse, that he 
or she does not know how to do that.

> Sad to say that, ten years ago, my reaction would have been the same -- What
> a stupid question for an interview -- but the reality is that team members
> aren't just walking, talking text books, but personalities that have to work
> together. I'll take a great team with OK skills over a handful of elite lone
> programmers any time -- because even a mediocre team can come up with
> brilliant solutions that a single, really smart developer could not.

The brilliance of management consists in building teams where the 
zealots are balanced by cool people who can maintain the atmosphere 
reasonably workable and idea people with doers who can implement them. 
Unless you know what exactly they want you cannot guess the right answer 
anyway. Since there are three possible answers the chances to get it 
right by guessing are 33% lacking further information. Stalling the 
answer could be construed as an attempt to obtain such helpful 
information ;-)

> 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.
>
> "That'll never happen" -- until it does.
>
> The situation is a parable for the question, "What happens when the
> unexpected happens? How do you deal with that? Can you  give an example?"
> Sounds like a perfect opening to tell a neat story of how you handled an
> unexpected event in your job history and the clever (and cheap!) solution
> that you came up with on the spur of the moment.

Like calling a taxi for the first, and ambulance for the second, and a 
limo car rental for the third, so you can take her/him out in style ?

> The difficulty I used to have with job interviews is that they're basically
> a sales call. The difference is that you're both buying and selling. You're
> selling yourself and your skills, but you're also buying into the company. I
> never thought of myself as a salesman, so had trouble with the interview
> process -- when it dealt with anything outside really technical areas. I'm a
> bit better at it now that I've realigned my thinking towards a sales
> process.

Imho, define what you are selling and what you are buying. Once you know 
that, you can have a relaxed discussion about other things during, 
after, and before the interview. But not instead of it.

Peter
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