Are Brain Teasers Good Hiring Criteria? 672
theodp writes "Your brain teaser prowess may win you a job at Google, but the folks at 37signals don't hire programmers based on puzzles, API quizzes, math riddles, or other parlor tricks. 'The only reliable gauge I've found for future programmer success,' explains 37signals' David Heinemeier Hansson, 'is looking at real code they've written, talking through bigger picture issues, and, if all that is swell, trying them out for size.'"
Those of you who have hired employees: have you seen correlation between interview puzzle success and job competency? How should an interviewee best handle these questions?
Re:Well, they're a good indicator of intelligence (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Test (Score:5, Funny)
Two applicants apply for a job. One loves teasers and would happily work for the company forever for low pay but lies, and the other will flip out and murder you with corporate stationary and always tells the truth.
What do you ask the water cooler that can only glug once for yes and twice for no about the applicants?
I've never liked Brain Teasers (Score:4, Funny)
I've never liked Brain Teasers. Every time I try one I keep thinking about how I would write a program to solve it.
Re:Well, they're a good indicator of intelligence (Score:5, Funny)
God I always hate those fucking questions. "Why did you chose to apply with us?" Because I need a fucking job! Why else do people apply for a job? Why is that not enough? "Where do you see yourself in five years?" Uh, gainfully employed? Do my life goals really matter to whether or not I can fill this position? What if I saw myself working at the fucking circus in five years, would that have a bearing on whether or not I was hired? Why? "What are your goals?" To make enough money to pay my bills with a little left over for fun once in a while? Is that too mundane?
Man, I despise interviews. I fantasize about going all Peter Gibbons in Office Space [youtube.com] every time someone asks me one of these stupid, irrelevant questions, but my sense of self-preservation reigns in those crazy ideas.
Re:Well, they're a good indicator of intelligence (Score:5, Funny)
Go nowhere? You can always get too excited and knock the stool over!
Re:Well, they're a good indicator of intelligence (Score:5, Funny)
I agree. But I would prefer a puzzle to questions like "where do you see yourself in 5 years" and "what are your goals". I want to answer "My goal is to get hired. Why else would I answer such stupid questions?"
I believe Mitch Hedberg said that to "Where do you see yourself in 5 years?" in an interview, he replied, "Celebrating the fifth anniversary of you asking me that question!"
Re:Well, they're a good indicator of intelligence (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Well, they're a good indicator of intelligence (Score:5, Funny)
because 10 x 10 = 300 amirite
Here's a brain teaser. Suppose that you work ten days every month for three months, and every day you produce ten lines of code. How many lines of code will you produce?
Oh, and you can only compile your code on the far side of the river, and the rope bridge will only allow you to bring two members of your development team across at a time, the DBA will kill the programmer if they are left alone together, the programmer will kill the web developer, and the linker is connected to a box with three light bulbs inside of it. And you're writing a program to determine the weight of an airplane which is balanced on top of seven eggs, one of which is hard boiled...
Re:Well, they're a good indicator of intelligence (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Well, they're a good indicator of intelligence (Score:5, Funny)
Or do what other primates do and fling your stool!
That only happens at Microsoft.
Re:Well, they're a good indicator of intelligence (Score:5, Funny)
"Where do you see yourself in five years?"
This is a particularly fun question to answer. My suggestion is that you grab a nearby sheet of paper and start calculating right away, so after weird two minutes during which the interviewer will be pretty confused, you can say something like "well, exactly five years from now will be a saturday, and at precisely this time on saturdays I'm usually at the supermarket. Considering my shopping routine and the time I usually get there, I'll probably be at the frozen foods section. Leap years have already been factored. Now if your question wasn't really that specific and you only wanted a general idea, I can redo the math by adopting a standard year as a sequence of 360 days."
Full disclosure: I'm unemployed.