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IBM's Asshole Test

johnpublic.mataroa.blog

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Re: IBM's Asshole Test

#41

Post by cobaltoxide »

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…

2006 is ancient history.

But also, it's a basic interview technique to explain your thinking out loud.

Re: IBM's Asshole Test

#42

Post by Wohlf »

Karupan wrote: post #9

If only companies had this test for all levels, including middle and upper management, given the larger impact a lead/manager has across the org.

At least at my company this is baked in to the manager review surveys.

Re: IBM's Asshole Test

#43

Post by Closi »

neo_g wrote: post #13

This sounds so weird, people without any expertise in human psychology are in-charge of a behavior detection exercise. The worst part, those who got in were the new experts in 6-months.

You don't require a degree in human psychology to evaluate if someone is a team player in a group assessment.

I've been assessed during a similar group assessment (we had to work together to produce a layout for a shopping centre), and also been an assesser for one of these excercises. All you are really trying to identify are:

1) The people that won't help others, and will intentionally try to throw other candidates under the bus (so you make sure you never hire them).

and

2) The people that do genuinely try to help the other candidates who are struggling (so you can hire them).

It's not exactly some sort of highly-complex psychological evaluation, you are just seeing how people work in a group task.

Re: IBM's Asshole Test

#44

Post by mrmattyboy »

throwanem wrote: post #34
johnpublic wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pity my blog died so quickly! Can anyone recommend a more robust host? Ideally one with low set up effort.

Sticking Cloudflare's free-tier CDN in front of your existing blog will probably help a lot. If nothing else, it'll make a stopgap while you're investigating alternatives.

Agreed!

Though, just a note that if you use them, you need to use them as your nameservers for your domain (the whole domain) (at least for the free tier)

... maybe doesn't matter for most people, but something that's put me off massively :D

Re: IBM's Asshole Test

#45

Post by chrchang523 »

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…

To be fair, engineers didn't all have smartphones that could take great photos in 2006.

Re: IBM's Asshole Test

#46

Post by causality0 »

neo_g wrote: post #13

This sounds so weird, people without any expertise in human psychology are in-charge of a behavior detection exercise. The worst part, those who got in were the new experts in 6-months.

Considering the abysmal state of psychology vis-a-vis the reproducibility crisis, I would trust a random person's instinctive asshole detector more than someone who's been trained not to use it.

Re: IBM's Asshole Test

#47

Post by bumper_crop »

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…

> Why interviewers were all transcribing the whiteboard rather than taking photos I have no clue.

It makes it easier to reason about the code. It's the difference between typing out the answer from Stack Overflow, v.s. copy pasting it. At least for me, writing the code down at the speed the candidate does triggers the error checking part of my brain.

Re: IBM's Asshole Test

#48

Post by nosianu »

Victerius wrote: post #25
neo_g wrote: post #13

This sounds so weird, people without any expertise in human psychology are in-charge of a behavior detection exercise. The worst part, those who got in were the new experts in 6-months.

Take this with a pinch of salt, but I read an anecdote on Reddit a long time ago about a corporation in New York (I think it was a bank) where an executive was looking for a new VP/Director/something. He found a potential candidate and invited him to a one-on-one lunch. When the candidate placed his order, the executive discreetly told the waiter to bring the wrong order for the candidate. The point was to see how th…

No it really does not, or at best barely, if you don't think too much. Brains are highly context dependent in how they work.

I doubt a similar baking mistake would get a similar response than a wrong-order mistake in a restaurant. Maybe it does, or maybe it doesn't, but making a prediction from one to the other based on such little evidence... well, the person who gets tested really is the one doing such a test, and it does not look good. Okay, there's an A for effort, at least he tried it at all.

I'm sure the very-negative case works, if he freaks out or becomes too obsessed over such a mistake that speaks against the person. But the cases you described sound pretty tame, if he merely asks for the mistake to be corrected that in itself isn't noteworthy. I certainly don't see it as being useful for determining what he would do if there was a similar mistake in the bank business. The context is totally different.

Re: IBM's Asshole Test

#49

Post by paxys »

WisNorCan wrote: post #17

I am fairly sure Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos & Elon Musk would have failed this test. Are you better off having them at your company or not?

I can't imagine any of them picking up and implementing boring jira tickets all day, so no they would probably be terrible hires for such a position.

Re: IBM's Asshole Test

#50

Post by tomatowurst »

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…

The two aren't mutually exclusive, you could've easily started out with salary + stock options that would've put you in a better position to start a side gig.

Then you might actually be driving a lambo now too ;)

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