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IBM's Asshole Test

johnpublic.mataroa.blog

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Re: IBM's Asshole Test

#341

Post by synicalx »

angarg12 wrote: post #235
inopinatus wrote: post #166

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…

No it wasn't. Source: I conducted +400 interviews for Amazon. We don't do weird or obscure tests. Your recruiter will explicitly tell you what to expect. It sounds like a mistake.

> We don't do weird or obscure tests.

I beg to differ. The one and only time I've interviewed for an engineering role at AWS, I was told to be successful I would need to memorise a list of "management principles" handed down by none other than Bezos himself, all of which were meaningless generic platitudes that could have easily been copy pasted from anywhere. And sure enough, they quizzed me on them quite thoroughly during the interview process.

Between that, the "Bar Raiser", the extremely long hiring process, and the people who interviewed me, I'd seen enough red flags to bail out before they'd sent me an offer.

Re: IBM's Asshole Test

#342

Post by more_corn »

We had a candidate once who was super smart, it was a role we really needed filled. His level of knowledge exceeded mine on every area I asked (not a high bar, but it meant he got full marks on every one of my questions). But he was insufferable. (Blamey, exaggerating, interrupting, bitter). In the hiring committee everyone rated his knowledge tops. Everyone also said “but I’d never want to work with him” He had interviewed with our parent company before. He asked why he hadn’t been selected the previous time “was it because I asked about the secret locations of data centers?” I said “I assure you it wasn’t that” we ended up not hiring him and leaving the role unfilled. Some employees are not better than nothing.

Think about that for a second. We chose to have nothing than hire an asshole.

Re: IBM's Asshole Test

#343

Post by moistly »

wfme wrote: post #340
moistly wrote: post #290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Good behavior isn't something that's rewarded outside of childhood Not true! Yesterday I walked out of a Home Depot with an unpaid drill bit in my shirt pocket (my hands were full). I discovered my error when I reached the car. I went back to pay, and got a 20% discount for being honest!

Except that you would have ended up with a much better price ($0) had you not let them know at all. I'm mostly joking, but if you ignore morals I don't think this is the most sound counterpoint.

But I don’t ignore morals, so your counterpoint is moot.

Re: IBM's Asshole Test

#344

Post by zdragnar »

sterlind wrote: post #333
KerrAvon wrote: post #310

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People sometimes have nonstandard needs, or get sick, or need to deal with another passenger's overly aggressive behavior. It's more about how the flight attendants react to those situations than to standard service.

I've started using a wheelchair recently so that's fresh on my mind. I haven't flown with it yet, but I'm nervous at the prospect of my delicate $10K power chair being smashed to bits in the cargo hold, or lost, or the flight attendants losing patience with me getting to my seat.

Are you not able to use it on the plane itself? It's been a long time since I've flown anywhere, but I seem to recall there being quite good accommodations for such things.

Re: IBM's Asshole Test

#345

Post by iancmceachern »

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 worked at a place where my boss told me this story. He was interviewing an engineer, on my bosses way in to the office that morning he was cut off in traffic. He honked, the person who cut him off flippes him the bird. He then followed that car all the way into the company parking lot. He had to interview the guy, but he didn't get the job.

Re: IBM's Asshole Test

#347

Post by fortran77 »

ALittleLight wrote: post #233
JoBrad wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn’t read it as a deliberate test, but that if the driver let them know the candidate was rude, it would be a negative mark.

"The taxi driver would sometimes complain to the people in the hiring loop when a candidate was rude to him." That also seems pretty implausible to me. The taxi driver is going to text or email HR or the hiring manager or someone? How frequently are people so rude to the taxi driver that they are disqualified from consideration? Does the taxi driver get compensated? Why is the taxi driver doing this? Does anybody vet…

And everyone clapped! The taxi driver's name? "Albert Einstein."

Re: IBM's Asshole Test

#348

Post by anitil »

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 don't think I would have the self confidence to sit there quietly thinking.

Re: IBM's Asshole Test

#350

Post by stray »

wumpus wrote: post #335
influx wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seriously, compare the employees of United vs Southwest and there's a huge difference in attitude. Southwest employees seem happy, friendly, helpful, while United... Not.

I've flown United in every status, from nobody to the highest level of their frequent flyer plan. The problem isn't their people: it's that their airline has shitty policies. I switched to Delta, and I'm much happier.

Interesting. Delta is the only airline I absolutely refuse to ever fly again.
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