“You are shrunk to the height of a nickel and thrown into a blender. Your mass is reduced so that your density is the same as usual. The blades start moving in 60 seconds. What do you do?”
“How would you weigh your head?”
“How many times a day do all three hands on an analog watch match?”
If you think these questions were devised by a diabolical science instructor in one of the lower levels of hell (also known as junior high for most of us), you’d be wrong. These are questions that you’d be asked in a job interview at Google, which author William Poundstone@@http://home.williampoundstone.net/@@ provides a fascinating look into in his new book, “Are You Smart Enough to Work at Google?”
The answer in my case is No. No, I am not.
In the “Googleplex,”@@http://www.google.com/about/corporate/company/culture.html@@ the corporate offices of Google, the corporation offers such remarkable amenities to its employees such as free gourmet lunch, four-figure bonuses for having a child or “getting hitched” and one day a week to work on whatever project you wish and get paid for it. It’s really no wonder that Google is so popular given its success, but getting hired there has never been more competitive. In practice since near the inception of Google, these bizarre interview questions are not only testing the aptitude of the applicant, but also their creativity as well. With innovation leading the way in the tech industry, it’s no surprise that Google and its competitors want an imaginative spark in their employees.
According to Poundstone’s book, one of the most frightening features of this employers’ market that most job seekers find themselves in these days is that Google isn’t the only company that is following suit with this nature of interviewing; so are tech giants Intel and Apple. Not doing an engineering job or something else that doesn’t require such stringent intellectual criteria? Doesn’t matter. Even entry-level corporate jobs at Nordstrom and AT&T are beginning to dance to the Pied Piper’s tune of madness that Google is playing. I wonder if Walmart would ever ask their applicants: “How many lines can be drawn in a plane such that they are equidistant from three non-collinear points?” Perhaps we would have to do a very different kind of deciphering of unintelligible drivel when shopping at 1 a.m.@@i kind of want to put 1 a.m. or 1 p.m. here@@ (By the way, the correct answer on that question is “D: all of the above.”)
Weighing in at 256 pages, the lion’s share of the book comes in the appendix, showing all the answers to the many questions that are given as the examples in the book. Ranging from the obvious to the mathematically arcane, the solutions are always devilishly clever and not at all your knee-jerk reaction to, say, “meeting the Prince of Darkness in an 8-by-8 stone hallway,” as asked by Microsoft’s HR department during one interview. (Did you answer, “kick him in the nuts?” Correct. Moving on.)
If you’re wanting to work in the private tech sector, this book would be a good (if somewhat fluffy) primer into the machinations of the evil geniuses at Google. If you’re not — and don’t take your “high-fallutin’, book-learnin’ smarts” too seriously — it can be a joyous wonder to match your wits against puzzles designed for those of nigh-rocket-scientist intellect.
Grade: A