Google admits "trivia" interview questions were a waste of time

[downtown]

Remember that time when everybody oooohed and aaaaahed over Google because they asked guys questions like "how many golfballs can fit in a school bus?" in job interviews?

Google has admitted that the headscratching questions it once used to quiz job applicants (How many piano tuners are there in the entire world? Why are manhole covers round?) were utterly useless as a predictor of who will be a good employee.

"We found that brainteasers are a complete waste of time," Laszlo Bock, senior vice president of people operations at Google, told the New York Times. "They don't predict anything. They serve primarily to make the interviewer feel smart."

A list of Google questions compiled by Seattle job coach Lewis Lin, and then read by approximately everyone on the entire Internet in one form or another, included these humdingers:

How much should you charge to wash all the windows in Seattle?
Design an evacuation plan for San Francisco
How many times a day does a clock's hands overlap?
A man pushed his car to a hotel and lost his fortune. What happened?
You are shrunk to the height of a nickel and your mass is proportionally reduced so as to maintain your original density. You are then thrown into an empty glass blender. The blades will start moving in 60 seconds. What do you do?

Bock says Google now relies on more quotidian means of interviewing prospective employees, such as standardizing interviews so that candidates can be assessed consistently, and "behavioral interviewing," such as asking people to describe a time they solved a difficult problem. It's also giving much less weight to college grade point averages and SAT scores.

http://www.theatlantic.com/business...rs-were-completely-useless-for-hiring/277053/

I'm not super surprised by this, as I imagine asking questions like that would lead to really uneven interview data, especially by hiring manager, but I recognize that looking for "potential" can be trickier than just looking at accomplishments on a resume or a brief 30 minute interview. I've never asked anybody something like this, and I've only been asked a question like this once.

Also, google cared what you got on the SAT? How many of you have been asked what you got on your ACT/SAT after college? Teach for America asked me (and there are political reasons for that), but I'd be FLOORED if anybody else ever asked about those tests.

What do you think? Do you still think these have value?

 

[Defiant47]

Never had any value, and the same is true of a lot of interview questions (like the "greatest weakness" question). Candidate selection is an imprecise art. The least HR could do is try its best to make their selection process effective.

 

[warpus]

I've been through a lot of interviews because I was enrolled in a co-op/internship program at University. Man oh man, there are so many stupid questions I had to answer.

I find silly HR questions, like "which animal would you be if you could choose one?" way more useless than these trivia questions. At least an out of nowhere question like that will show the interviewer how the potential candidate goes about approaching a random problem thrown at them. Do they panic? Are they systematic in their approach? Does their approach make sense? Do they break it down into smaller problems? Etc.

It sounds like it's not that useful, but I've been asked far more useless questions at interviews

 

[Zelig]

I suspect lots of common interview questions don't have any predictive value for employee quality.

I've never even been asked about my university grades after university.

 

[bhsup]

No, they have no merit, and I'd have probably walked out if asked those questions in an interview. How much to charge to wash all the windows in Seattle? Really? Unless I am applying for a job as a CONTRACT window washer in Seattle, that's utterly irrelevant.

Still, no worse than the stupidasfrak "where do you see yourself in 10 years" question, I suppose, and those are considered legit.

 

[Zelig]

I've found that the majority of the time for wishy-washy questions, you can just ignore what the actual questions are and talk about whatever you want.

 

[Formaldehyde]

The subject bar for this thread should be:

Well-respected company finally realizes the obvious after tormenting thousands of job applicants.

You can put this on the incredibly lengthy list of pissing in a cup, checking the credit and criminal history of people who have the qualifications to apply for most white collar jobs, or just about any question that an HR department person has ever asked any prospective employee.

 

[nc-1701]

Some of those problems can be solved analytically in a reasonable amount of time at an interview, for example "How many times a day does a clock's hands overlap?" is a neat question and I would hope anyone in a technical job to be able to figure it out quickly without any serious stumbling... Others like "How much should you charge to wash all the windows in Seattle?" are just stupid, as they cannot be approached in a reasonable way by the interviewee.

 

[Formaldehyde]

I would probably respond "how many managers in your company does it take to change a light bulb" before walking out.

 

[AlpsStranger]

I think "your mom" is the answer to all such questions ( Okay, maybe not the clock one. )

 

[Mise]

I disagree. It's good practice for when you finally get a job and your boss asks you a bunch of stupid questions every %&$!ing day.

 

[bhsup]

I would probably respond "how many managers in your company does it take to change a light bulb" before walking out.

Good show, old man, good show!

 

[rugbyLEAGUEfan]

"A man pushed his car to a hotel and lost his fortune. What happened?"

He was playing Monopoly.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

"A man pushed his car to a hotel and lost his fortune. What happened?"

He was playing Monopoly.

Damn you're good.

 

[rugbyLEAGUEfan]

Nah, it's an oldie, but thanks anyway.

 

[Arwon]

The ones that ask you to make a quick estimate on the fly (like the window washing one) seem like they'd test useful skills. The obscure riddle ones are silly.

 

[classical_hero]

The only odd question to ask is this: What is the air speed of an unladen swallow?

 

[Yeekim]

The only odd question to ask is this: What is the air speed of an unladen swallow?

European or African?

 

[ParkCungHee]

No, they have no merit, and I'd have probably walked out if asked those questions in an interview.

Haven't had to compete on today's job market I see.

 

[Smellincoffee]

Many entry-level service jobs require online psych tests in which job applicants are asked imbecilic questions ("Have you ever stolen anything from a job?" "Would you say you're more a team player, or more a loner?") that you can usually guess the 'right' answer to. Today, however, I saw one for a gas station franchise ask people what their opinion on modern art was.

Somewhere, someone responsible for making up these tests is putting unearned money in the bank.