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If Richard Feynman applied for a job at Microsoft (2002)

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Re: If Richard Feynman applied for a job at Microsoft (2002)

#11

Post by dudul »

desireco42 wrote: post #5

This is epic :). I can imagine how interviewer would be pissed off if you come this prepared. They love those koan type questions but don't like when you turn the tables on them.

I'm so pissed at these stupid questions during interviews that now I start doing that.

The last one was "how many tennis balls could you fit in the Empire State Building?". I spent maybe 10 minutes asking idiotic "clarifying" questions before the interviewer realized I was messing with him (e.g. "can I use any color for the balls?" "Do I have a crew to help me?" "Can I try to crush them?" etc). He got pretty upset yeah, saying that I wasn't taking it seriously. I just said "with a question like that I think you're the one not taking it seriously". I didn't get the job.

Re: If Richard Feynman applied for a job at Microsoft (2002)

#12

Post by emerged »

cableshaft wrote: post #3

I was expecting something a little different, where they passed on him because he didn't give the 'right' answer (what the interviewer had preconceived and/or looked up online).

Well yea, that expectation was produced purposefully in order to be subverted for the actual punchline.

Re: If Richard Feynman applied for a job at Microsoft (2002)

#13

Post by JMTQp8lwXL »

thom wrote: post #8
cableshaft wrote: post #3

I was expecting something a little different, where they passed on him because he didn't give the 'right' answer (what the interviewer had preconceived and/or looked up online).

Well, that _is_ the conceit here. The ‘right’ answer is that all manhole covers are round because a round cover can’t fall into the hole.

I'm fairly certain a square manhole cover with a sufficient perimeter would still have no chance of falling into a hole, depending on the diameter of said hole.

Re: If Richard Feynman applied for a job at Microsoft (2002)

#14

Post by 13of40 »

danbrooks wrote: post #2

What an amazing ending! :)

When I worked there in the early 2000's I had a friend of a friend whose fiancée graduated with a bachelor's degree in either CS or EE and applied for a developer position. Somehow, and I struggle to understand the mechanics of this because engineering was highly compartmentalized away from the "business" parts of the business, they managed to turn her down for an engineering role and got her a job in marketing.

Also, the manhole cover question was considered déclassé as early as 1999. One that was still making the rounds was...let's see if I can remember this... You have a soda machine that has three buttons, Coke, Pepsi, and Random (Coke or Pepsi). You know that your trickster coworker has swapped all of the button labels, so none of them are correct. What's the optimal strategy for getting a Coke out of the machine?

Re: If Richard Feynman applied for a job at Microsoft (2002)

#17

Post by [deleted] »

dudul wrote: post #11
desireco42 wrote: post #5

This is epic :). I can imagine how interviewer would be pissed off if you come this prepared. They love those koan type questions but don't like when you turn the tables on them.

I'm so pissed at these stupid questions during interviews that now I start doing that. The last one was "how many tennis balls could you fit in the Empire State Building?". I spent maybe 10 minutes asking idiotic "clarifying" questions before the interviewer realized I was messing with him (e.g. "can I use any color for the balls?" "Do I have a crew to help me?" "Can I try to crush them?" etc). He got pretty upset ye…

[deleted]

Re: If Richard Feynman applied for a job at Microsoft (2002)

#18

Post by zepolen »

dudul wrote: post #11
desireco42 wrote: post #5

This is epic :). I can imagine how interviewer would be pissed off if you come this prepared. They love those koan type questions but don't like when you turn the tables on them.

I'm so pissed at these stupid questions during interviews that now I start doing that. The last one was "how many tennis balls could you fit in the Empire State Building?". I spent maybe 10 minutes asking idiotic "clarifying" questions before the interviewer realized I was messing with him (e.g. "can I use any color for the balls?" "Do I have a crew to help me?" "Can I try to crush them?" etc). He got pretty upset ye…

So what's not serious about that question assuming it was for a programming position?
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