Same with the quarters–laid flat on the ground and then stacked until even with the top, or stacked on edge? The top of the actual building, or including antennas? From the sidewalk (and on which street) or from the bottom floor, or the bottom of the foundation pillars?

I think number 6 is a great question, considering the company and position being interviewed for.

What’s the point of number 22? (Cell phone on silent, rings anyway, what do you say?) I would probably say “wow, I have no idea how that happened. My phone is on silent…see?” (It’s an iPhone, with the visible switch.) Of course, for something as critical as a job interview, I would have turned it OFF and left it in the car or something, rather than risk some alarm or another overriding the silent feature, even though I use silent all day at work and it never makes a peep.

Question 23, rate the interviewer is just EVIL. My mind would be racing, wondering whether they just want someone to suck up, whether they would value honesty, and if so, how they rate themselves so you don’t go too far off THAT mark, or whether they want to hear good feedback and not just a number rating, or what.

Ha! Excellent answer.

Exactly and it would relate to the job.

I don’t like tuna fish, and therefore, don’t have an elegant answer for that. Fortunately, no job I would ever apply for would require that skill.

I once got asked, “Are you ever tired?” I mean, duh, everyone is tired sometimes. When I said yes, she said they couldn’t hire me and that was why.

Weird. So, you’ll only hire liars? Awesome.

I agree, they would.

But if you wanted to be able to make tuna sandwiches (using it as a metaphor for some office output), then having someone who can think logically and break down the steps required.

A better question might be – “What would you do to prepare for an all day meeting?” – it would elicit the same thought processes.

He chirped, “I really like Florida! I usually go to Tampa.”

What do you say to that?

I paused, thought carefully, and asked, “Do you like Cuban food? Old town Tampa has good medianoches.”

The McKinsey recruiter asked me what the market size was for windshield wiper blades in the US. I learned after the interview, in which the guy told me that he “loved me to death but I didn’t have enough problem-solving ability” (which isn’t true – I just am not good at BSing, which I think is a key skill for a consultant), that the proper answer to all their questions starts with, “The population of the United States is 380 million.”

Instead, I started with something so stupid that I remember it 20 years later: “If the blades are to be sold at gas stations, and there are three gas stations every square mile in Austin” and I continued to dig the Stupid Hole even deeper.

Oh well. They were right. I would have made a lousy consultant. But put me behind a desk and give me a problem and I will solve it and I will identify new problems you didn’t even know existed and I’ll solve those, too. I just can’t do it with an audience.

I love that you carried the book with you.

I’d answer it, “Well, I can’t really tell how good of an interviewer you are until I see what you have concluded. If you conclude I’m the right person for the job and I conclude that this job is right for me, then I’d say that you are a good interviewer. If, on the other hand, we both come to different conclusions about that, then I’d say you’re pretty lousy.”

It is good that I’m not job hunting right now.