Comments on: Because manholes are round

By: George

George — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 20:49:56 +0000

“If you needed to know (obscure bit of highly technical info), where would you go to research it?”

“Do you prefer to work alone or as part of a team?”

“Tell me what you liked and did not like about the working conditions at some of your previous positions.”

By: Don

Don — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 21:33:16 +0000

You’re looking at it the wrong way, Rocky. His statement that the website didn’t create any interest in him to try the product was a STATEMENT about how desperately you needed his marketing skills! Sheesh!

It used to be that walking into an interview with some knowledge about the people and the company was a mark that you’d done a little above-and-beyond research. Now - at least for a technology company or one with a decent web presence - it’s just an indicator of the minimal amount of expected effort.

By: Rocky Agrawal

Rocky Agrawal — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 04:04:43 +0000

Sadly, I’ve interviewed people who essentially said that. On a phone screen, I won’t bother to bring them in. If I’m interviewing at someone else’s request, it gets trickier. It’s hard to get up and leave 2 minutes into a 30 minute interview.

My other screener is “Have you had a chance to use our product?” One time I met a candidate at a social event a few weeks before he was going to interview with us. I suggested that he sign up for the product and get a feel for it. When I interviewed him, he said he didn’t sign up because he’d looked at the Web site and decided that he wouldn’t be interested in the product.

He was interviewing to be VP of Marketing.

By: Adam

Adam — Sat, 24 Mar 2007 01:03:31 +0000

Those are great questions, Rocky! They test several things:
- That the interviewer *has* strong opinions and can articulately defend them.
- That they’ve hopefully thought stuff through and are inquisitive rather than passive learners.
- That they can engage in discussions in a collaborative, exploratory way rather than in a defensive or confrontational manner.

And on a very basic, probably obvious level… being asked asked “What’s your favorite Internet product” and responding, “Uh, I don’t really use the Internet much” when you’re interviewing for a Product Manager position for an Internet company… well, that helps the interviewer, uh, streamline the interview pretty efficiently

By: mukesh

mukesh — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 13:09:46 +0000

I’ve never liked the first type of questions either. The problem with them is that they fail unless the interviewee actually finds the question interesting. And since everyone has different interests, the odds of that are pretty low. (There are plenty of things that I find interesting, since I’m curious by nature. But manhole covers aren’t one of them.)

The nice thing about the questions that you use is that they work regardless of what the interviewee finds interesting.

(Incidentally, an interviewer once asked me what I would do if the TV went fuzzy. I answered “go for a walk, or read a book.” Like with the manhole question, they thought their question would get at my problem solving strategies. But given that I’m not as much in love with television as the average guy, the question flopped. IIRC, I actually don’t remember if they offered me the job or not. But I wouldn’t regret my answer in any case.)