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IBM's Asshole Test

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Re: IBM's Asshole Test

#471

Post by rsanek »

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.

It is impossible to know this for sure, especially at such a large company. It doesn't even have to actually be part of the official interview, it could have been something one of the interviewers decided to do unilaterally. OP will never really know.

Re: IBM's Asshole Test

#472

Post by Ekaros »

irrational wrote: post #90
chrchang523 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Did anyone have a smartphone that could take great photos in 2006?

Nokia 7650 was released in 2002 it had camera, though picture quality is not great.

Re: IBM's Asshole Test

#473

Post by dirkt »

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

Nah. You only have to remember the central idea (if you have two sorted "runs", you can merge them into a single sorted run). You draw a quick diagram to explain the idea, you go ahead and write code that does it.

Then you apply recursion, and write down the overall algorithm (subdivide into runs until you can use some other method to sort it, then merge recursively).

Bonus points if you can explain the circumstances when this is useful (when you want to sort data that is a lot larger than your main memory, but you can write it on disk or tape). Which is kind of obsolete today, unless you are again dealing with BIG data (everything old is new again...)

Re: IBM's Asshole Test

#474

Post by wink »

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…

When I was living with my parents in the 90s my elderly neighbors had (the wife's sister I think?) come to visit once or twice a month and it was always the same taxi driver, so I don't see how this would have been a problem.

Re: IBM's Asshole Test

#475

Post by bibinou »

reificator wrote: post #430
Wires77 wrote: post #424

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A lot of the time it'll be "they were OK", but occasionally you'll get[...] Missed this first half of the sentence.

So our range is somewhere around: - They were OK - They treated me like a human being - They were rude There's no room for "We had an interesting conversation" or "They gave me some good advice" or "I think I made a new friend"? Not even "They seemed like a good person"? The maximum is "They treated me like a human being" which is somehow above "They were OK"?

You must be fun in taxis.

Re: IBM's Asshole Test

#476

Post by noduerme »

Sounds more like a way to make sure to hire meek submissives who won't question the way things are normally done. There was a reason Apple's entire marketing strategy in the 80s took aim directly at IBM.

Re: IBM's Asshole Test

#477

Post by sterlind »

zdragnar wrote: post #344
sterlind wrote: post #333

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

sadly no. ostensibly for safety reasons actually, I think, but likely more because airlines would have to sacrifice seats for wheelchair space. instead, you either have to limp (if you're able) or transfer to a transport chair so they can wheel you to your seat. it's a hassle.

it'd be a tight squeeze through the aisle if it were possible, but I could make it work in my chair.

Re: IBM's Asshole Test

#478

Post by noduerme »

gopher_space wrote: post #264
ALittleLight wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have seen several stories like this - the janitor, or secretary, or whoever is actually a trusted individual who is the true judge of character. To me, it seems implausible, more of a "feel good" story, but it also seems ill advised. Does the driver know he's part of the loop? Does the driver attend the debrief? Does the driver distinguish between great, normal, sub-normal, and bad social skills? What portion of je…

One difference you might see is that the stories all have increased rewards for good behavior. Good behavior isn't something that's rewarded outside of childhood, it's just expected to be your default as an adult. The comments above talk about punishment for bad behavior, which happens all day every day. Nobody cares about giving the candidate a 'fair shake' because if you know and trust someone enough to listen to t…

There's tons of rewards for good behavior. Happens all the time. Some customer calls your boss and says "I just want to tell you, so-and-so was great to work with." And you get a raise. If it hasn't happened to you, you might not be very nice or good at your job.

Re: IBM's Asshole Test

#479

Post by gog »

867-5309 wrote: post #81
gog wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty sure that is not true.

it's pretty much step one of signing up with cloudlare - how else are they going to control visitors?

We had one of the subdomains protected with CF DDOS protection and we only had to setup a CNAME record on our own DNS that pointed to their servers.

Re: IBM's Asshole Test

#480

Post by listenallyall »

eloisius wrote: post #418
ALittleLight wrote: post #380

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 aggre…

> cursed out a taxi driver because he wasn’t careful enough loading the luggage

But what if this taxi driver really did toss around the interviewee's expensive luggage, with his best interview clothes and perhaps some materials or documents for an important interview the next day? Does the taxi driver report back, yea he got upset, but it was my fault? What if the interviewee just got off a long flight, wants to rest up for the interview, and isn't really up for chatting with a taxi driver? Does the taxi driver report back that he was rude, wouldn't talk?

I will agree that if the person is a total rageaholic nutcase, passing that info along to the company is valuable information. But reporting on anything else -- asking the driver to keep quiet, requesting he take better care of luggage, asking for a specific route, turning down the radio, whatever -- I'd be more suspicious that the driver is a nuisance than the interviewee has character flaws.

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