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IBM's Asshole Test

johnpublic.mataroa.blog

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Re: IBM's Asshole Test

#411

Post by chrischen »

allwedoiswin wrote: post #295
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…

Also weeding out people not paranoid enough to think that the taxi driver might be a confederate ;)

If your default state is asshole and have to be paranoid to put up an act of being a "non-asshole" then that's already not a good start.

Re: IBM's Asshole Test

#412

Post by zw123456 »

Dracophoenix wrote: post #374
zw123456 wrote: post #330

OMG, PTSD is kicking in for me here. I was in a similar program way way back in the 1970's early 1980's with Ma Bell. I was working at Bell Labs after getting my Masters in EE and they put me in what they called the JET program (Junior Executive Training). First off, I never wanted to be an Executive, whatever that is. I wanted to do research, but when you are young and right out of school and they hit you with that…

What were the qualities need for an executive then?

Beats the heck out of me. You tell me, Like I said, I am not sure I know what that even is TBH.

Re: IBM's Asshole Test

#413

Post by skissane »

oorza wrote: post #406
skissane wrote: post #395

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think right here, right now, you are engaging in the exact same behaviour you are accusing me of engaging in – where is your "immediate sharing and understanding of emotions in a moment" in the context of this conversation? Are you considering my emotions at all in your interaction with me? Also, you weren't actually there, so you don't know exactly what I said or what she said–I mentioned the gist of the message,…

> I think the way you and I speak is actually quite different, and a lot of the flaws which you are accusing me of having, your own behaviour actually exhibits them much more than my own. > I have the sense things I have said have triggered an emotional reaction on your part, and a lot of what you are saying is really more about your own emotions than about anything I have said. You're so very close to getting it. Th…

> because I engaged in it in bad faith

You claimed before that "She did not consider that you might not follow the same social contract as everyone else" – but isn't your own (self-confessed) bad faith engagement here a violation of most people's social contract, and especially the social contract of this site? (Read the Guidelines.)

> unless you really think a random curse word on the internet is more devastating than being told in as many words, to your face

You are making assumptions. Was the interaction in-person, via email, via phone? I haven't said. You can't really judge an interaction you know nothing about except a very brief description. Our interaction here is as much "to your face" as any email exchange would be–given which, your ideas about what differences exist between the two interactions are very questionable.

> that you're too stupid to do your job

How is it telling someone "you're too stupid to do your job" to point out they've got the facts about something wrong, and that you've got concrete evidence to substantiate that?

I mean, if a colleague tells me I'm wrong about X, and shows me something which proves I'm wrong – I don't interpret that as "you're too stupid to do your job". My response is "thanks for enlightening me". In fact, just a few weeks ago I was telling people "Cassandra can't do X" (I forget exactly what X was now) and one of my colleagues said "no you're wrong" and sent me some blog post pointing out how to do that thing with Cassandra. I was thankful to him for correcting me, I didn't take his correction as having any implication on my own intelligence or ability. Sure, being shown to be wrong feels somewhat uncomfortable, but adults should be able to handle that feeling. And it wouldn't matter if it wasn't a colleague – such as a customer, or a complete random stranger.

> The tables are reversed and you think I'm an asshole.

As I said, I don't like language like "asshole", I generally avoid it. But, what are you doing here? You think I behaved inappropriately in a situation – possibly you are right, possibly you are wrong, you don't really know enough about it to actually judge – and so you think that by behaving inappropriately to me you are going to convince me of something? Whatever you are trying to do, I don't think it is thought through very well, and I'd question its compatibility with this site's Guidelines.

> What do you think that lady thinks about you?

How would you know what she thinks? You've never met her. I've actually spoken to her quite a few times in the years since that event, and (as far as I can tell) the interactions have been positive, and (other than that one occasion) I can't remember her seeming upset about any of them. (None of our subsequent interactions have involved anyone disagreeing with anyone else's facts, for what it's worth.)

Re: IBM's Asshole Test

#414

Post by stephen_g »

ALittleLight wrote: post #325
krisoft wrote: post #299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The taxi driver is going to text or email HR or the hiring manager or someone? That would be indeed implausible. But not every transaction happens between undeferentiated cogs. A specific person organises the interview logistics from the company. Let’s call him Joe. When they agree with a candidate on an interview date Joe picks up the phone and calls the hotel to book a room. After that Joe calls George the truste…

Since you asked, I find a few things implausible about your story. First, taxi drivers typically work with dispatchers. They aren't scheduling their own calls or schedules - because they are busy driving. Second, in the world of "decades ago" we are pre-smartphone. How, exactly, are you going to call up the taxi driver for a chat? And don't you think the taxi driver is going to notice that he has to take a call from…

Definitely was a normal thing in my country (Australia) for many drivers to have a card that you could call them directly. When my father used to commute to another city for a couple of years (mid 2000s), he had happened across a good taxi driver, got his card, and then called him up directly the day before to book the next morning's trip to the airport every week. He knew him by name, and they'd have a chat on the trip. He'd be driving, he'd just take the call on the hands-free.

Even a couple of years ago on a business trip to Spain, the guys at the company there had a taxi driver they knew who they got to take me to their facility. Then I just organised with him to pick me up each day at a certain time when I paid. Beats me having to get the hotel or the company to keep having to call for cabs and beats him having to wait for fares.

Finally, I'm very surprised that you can't imagine somebody being rude to a low-wage worker...

Re: IBM's Asshole Test

#415

Post by deathanatos »

moron4hire wrote: post #377
stray wrote: post #350

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

It's a form of the birthday paradox. In a large enough room, there will be at least one person with a horror story about any airline. All commercial airlines are pretty much awful. I've flown first class on one or two occasions and--while it's relatively more comfortable than flying in the main cabin--on an absolute scale it's still an uncomfortable, terrible experience. Flying sucks and airline management is the rea…

… but I have far more horror stories per mile flown with Delta than with Southwest.

Granted, I've a lot less miles flown with Delta, but that's because every ride has been bad… (also, I ended up flying less miles with Delta on one of the horror shows because it seemed like they weren't actually interested in fulfilling their end of the bargain, and switched to a different airline: Southwest!)

Re: IBM's Asshole Test

#416

Post by deathanatos »

ldoughty wrote: post #304
pmcollins wrote: post #292

Earlier quoted context omitted.

funny because i’ve heard of a very similar anecdote to this one but at southwest airlines.

And I'm sitting here wondering how people have bad interactions with flight attendants? Literally 90% of the words I say to them are: Hello, how are you. Thank you. Yes, water please. Have a good day. I think I asked once for a pillow (usually on Redeyes they hand them out) I've never had a fight attendant decline my request, or complain about it...

I had a flight attendant admonish me for being out of my seat when the fasten seatbelt light was on. But honestly, she was right: it was way too turbulent and my butt ought to have been in a seat. Problem was that nature was calling and the turbulence seemed interminable, and wasn't helping with the nature's call part.

(I ended up taking a seat in the rear for a bit & riding it out until a slightly smoother portion. Still had to bend the rules a bit. I owe you for your patience, flight attendant…)

Although, on one flight, there was a child behind us, real young (not really yet old enough to "know better"), listening to a tablet that was playing the ABCs song. But the tablet had to be stowed for take-off (apparently). She forced the parent to take the tablet from child. Child threw a tantrum. I'm eye'ing the attendant like "you caused this. ABCs > bawling kid, and takeoff with the tablet would have been fine"

Re: IBM's Asshole Test

#417

Post by erikerikson »

I've read a lot of these comments and it honestly seems like many people here have failed the HN version of this test while helping me understand why I've failed so many interviews...

People have written about: * lying to, tricking, and misleading candidates * making problems harder and harder or exerting pressure to observe behavior under duress * forcing people to socialize in a mentally open state with someone that is actively manipulating them and deciding their fate

What kind of work places were they finding candidates for?

Why not simulate the actual position that needs filled? Why not just get to know the candidate and treat them like a pairing partner?

In the job you do the job. In the interview you ask if the candidate can do the job.

You shouldn't set up an adversarial environment unless you want to create one, it's far healthier to see where they shine and discover their passions and interests. Figure out what lights them up about the role because that's what they're going to do best and that's going to be what engages them in the role and helps them contribute to an awesome workplace.

Remember that you may be evaluating candidates but they are evaluating you too.

Re: IBM's Asshole Test

#418

Post by eloisius »

ALittleLight wrote: post #380
smegsicle wrote: post #365

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> actual taxi driver, not a plant from HR sounds like both what do you mean when you say "Maybe the powerless person is a homophobe" ?

Quoted post unavailable.

The candidate would assume the taxi driver was powerless. I really think you’re reading too much into this. Op didn’t say they gave him veto power over their hiring process. It’s a good asshole test. Imagine some asshole was feeling important and powerful after getting flown out for an interview, and then cursed out a taxi driver because he wasn’t careful enough loading the luggage, or because he wasn’t driving aggressively enough. That’s exactly the kind of person I’d want filtered out.

Re: IBM's Asshole Test

#419

Post by ngcc_hk »

No trick it out like some Star Trek captain facing death story I guessed. No one hacked the system.

How to handle failure and group behaviour is one of key … you can see sone very strange bevahiour reported.

Like a professor turned into communist mode and asked why not arrested her senior, when she tried to fake her age. People went crazy under pressure.

Re: IBM's Asshole Test

#420

Post by a1369209993 »

ramraj07 wrote: post #205
metadat wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 o…

Leetcode is fine. Once a dude asked me to write out merge sort. Like, I’m not from a CS bg (I suppose that wouldn’t matter). And I literally did look at merge and other sorts two days back. But that didn’t matter, the only way you can write merge sort is if you memorize it (or spend an inordinate amount of time writing sorting algos). I didn’t get that job, but I’ve been monitoring that company and they’re not doing…

> the only way you can write merge sort is if you memorize it (or spend an inordinate amount of time writing sorting algos)

Umm, what?

  void merge(int* d,int const* a,size_t za,int const* b,size_t zb)
    {
    size_t zd = za+zb,ia=0,ib=0;
    for(size_t i=0; i>1); // round up
    int* x = malloc(h * sizeof *x);
    if(!x) abort(); // out of memory
    msort(x,h,s+(z-h));
    msort(d+h,z-h,s);
    merge(d,d+h,z-h,x,h);
    }
  // not that this is any *good*, but it does *work*
Are you using a absurdly broad definition of what counts as memorizing something or something?
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