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IBM's Asshole Test

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Re: IBM's Asshole Test

#161

Post by ekanes »

cmckn wrote: post #151
TazeTSchnitzel wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's understandable that people might be stressed or upset, but if they take it out on people they consider beneath them that's not a good sign.

> they consider beneath them It's this kind of inference that doesn't belong on a hiring committee; you likely don't have enough data to support this kind of conclusion about a person. The parent comment made a similar assumption about racial animus. I just don't think spying or eavesdropping is an effective way to evaluate a candidate.

Finding out that someone is toxic only after they've got the job is problematic. The idea here is to evaluate them when they aren't aware and on their best behavior.

Re: IBM's Asshole Test

#162

Post by metadat »

Bahamut wrote: post #120
eej71 wrote: post #67

Decades ago, in the days before uber, my employer would fly in candidates from college campuses as part of an onsite interview. The candidate would fly in the night before and we relied on a taxi service to bring the candidate to the hotel. Then in the morning the same service would bring them to the onsite and of course bring them back to the airport at the end. It was a whole curated process. Little did the candida…

I've heard of airline companies doing similar when interviewing flight attendants - United will fly you to Newark to interview, but often there will be people shadowing candidates to see how they behave during their travels and that feedback is taken into account when evaluating candidates.

It's impressive if they have the resources and sophistication to really execute on this.

Re: IBM's Asshole Test

#163

Post by IggleSniggle »

bloodyplonker22 wrote: post #127
f0e4c2f7 wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This story strikes me as pretty funny. As if he might say "damn, I was hoping you knew. We've been working on this one for weeks!"

I once interviewed a guy who was going to work on a different team than mine who, 20 minutes in, I knew he was going to pass everyone's interview. I then proceeded to give him a "take home test" which was actually my project for the sprint, but framed in a generic manner. He was a much better and faster programmer than I, and he completed it beyond my expectations. I made the modifications to make it work with my pro…

You, sir or madam, are an absolutely asshole. I admire your out-of-the-box thinking and your honesty, but I do not admire your natural proclivity towards exploitation.

Re: IBM's Asshole Test

#164

Post by jameshart »

cmckn wrote: post #93
eej71 wrote: post #67

Decades ago, in the days before uber, my employer would fly in candidates from college campuses as part of an onsite interview. The candidate would fly in the night before and we relied on a taxi service to bring the candidate to the hotel. Then in the morning the same service would bring them to the onsite and of course bring them back to the airport at the end. It was a whole curated process. Little did the candida…

Hm, I don't dig this. I don't think it's ethical to evaluate a candidate's interactions when they weren't informed they were being evaluated. People are stressed heading into an interview, and may be upset afterwards. Unless they're interviewing for a public-facing role, I don't see how this behavior is relevant to the job; and discussing it with a hiring committee invites all sorts of "cultural fit" biases that make…

Asking for character references from someone who has interacted with a candidate is perfectly fine.

I think where this might get dodgy is with the possibility that some of the candidates might have tipped this driver, which puts us in the position of asking for an opinion about several candidates from someone who might have been compensated by some of them.

Re: IBM's Asshole Test

#165

Post by dudeinjapan »

cperciva wrote: post #31

When I interviewed at Google in 2006, one of the interviewers asked me to write code for solving a particular problem. I replied along the lines of "ok I need to think about this, it's not obvious how to solve it" and started thinking. Time ticked away. Five minutes. Ten minutes. Fifteen minutes. The interviewer started reminding me that he needed me to write some code and if there wasn't anything for him to copy dow…

I had something like this too for a quant trading interview. It was one of those problems about flipping a coin, heads doubles your money and tails you lose everything, "how much would you pay to play the game?" If forget the nuance of the question but when I did the math on the whiteboard, the expected value was 1 i.e. the same amount one wagers. At that point I said, "Well, I guess I could pay for the entertainment value... how much do I owe you for this interview?"

Re: IBM's Asshole Test

#166

Post by inopinatus »

When I interviewed with AWS, half the loop interviews were with remote staff. I was shown to a videoconferencing room and asked to wait. There was a pile of VC equipment but it wasn't connected. With five minutes before we were due to start, I decided this was part of the interview and plugged stuff in myself, powered it on, and clicked through some boot-time screens, guessing at the right inputs. A few minutes later a call came in and the interviews themselves proceeded normally.

To this day I still don't know if it was a test.

Re: IBM's Asshole Test

#167

Post by [deleted] »

rrook wrote: post #110
cmckn wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hm, I don't dig this. I don't think it's ethical to evaluate a candidate's interactions when they weren't informed they were being evaluated. People are stressed heading into an interview, and may be upset afterwards. Unless they're interviewing for a public-facing role, I don't see how this behavior is relevant to the job; and discussing it with a hiring committee invites all sorts of "cultural fit" biases that make…

Do you see this as being substantially different to evaluating a candidate's behavior while in a waiting room between interview sessions?

[deleted]

Re: IBM's Asshole Test

#168

Post by metadat »

eropple wrote: post #139
Victerius wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I was offered the job that I was clearly qualified for, but I declined. Out of curiosity, why?

Not the OP, but for my money, a company that does that isn't a company to work for. I don't work for free and you shouldn't either.

Honest question: What difference does it make whether you work on a l33tcode question or a real problem in the interview? At least the real problem has a chance of being interesting.

Sometimes I do give candidates examples of real challenges we're facing. The purpose is not to get anything for free, but rather to see if they're good at coming up with new ideas.

It also gets boring asking the same questions that may or may not have leaked to the Internet over and over.

AITA?

Re: IBM's Asshole Test

#169

Post by tonnydourado »

Something about this doesn't sit right with me, but I'm not sure I can put my finger on it.

When I go to a job interview I expect to be asked honest questions and intend to give honest answers. You want me to do a team activity? Ok, fair. You're giving me and a bunch of people a problem you *know* we can't solve, just to watch us panic? That. That just feels wrong.

I am a strong opponent of the "in this company we're like a family" discourse, but I also like to work for people that I don't dislike. If this is an asshole detection test, I'm afraid I just detected the company.

Re: IBM's Asshole Test

#170

Post by actually_a_dog »

bloodyplonker22 wrote: post #127
f0e4c2f7 wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This story strikes me as pretty funny. As if he might say "damn, I was hoping you knew. We've been working on this one for weeks!"

I once interviewed a guy who was going to work on a different team than mine who, 20 minutes in, I knew he was going to pass everyone's interview. I then proceeded to give him a "take home test" which was actually my project for the sprint, but framed in a generic manner. He was a much better and faster programmer than I, and he completed it beyond my expectations. I made the modifications to make it work with my pro…

I'm surprised you'd admit that kind of dishonesty on a public forum.
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