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IBM's Asshole Test

johnpublic.mataroa.blog

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Re: IBM's Asshole Test

#51

Post by matthewmacleod »

Our team has done something similar to this for quite a while and I think it's been valuable. About ten minutes to read a page of high-level specifications regarding a general proposed system design, then the rest of the hour at a whiteboard (or remote equivalent) with a couple of other team members to sketch out and discuss what the implementation might look like.

It's not quite an "asshole test" or a Kobayashi Maru or anything like that – but a general "can you communicate and collaborate effectively with others on a technical topic" test. I guess it does highlight "asshole" personalities sometimes, but I'd say rather than offering a negative signal it tends to more effectively highlight good candidates.

Re: IBM's Asshole Test

#52

Post by evolve2k »

jchw wrote: post #30
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.

Fly.io can host instances of whatever (any kind of Docker container, so Ghost and Wordpress aren’t hard) and has a good free tier. You can also use Netlify or GitHub Pages or Cloudflare Pages for free static hosting, if you don’t need anything special. Wordpress.com is pretty low effort. I think all of these can do custom domains in their free tier.

I’m a big fan of Netlify and Gifhub pages, finding 11ty was a huge win: https://www.11ty.dev/

Netlify offer a version of 11ty that includes a hosted CMS editing tool and it’s all hosted for free for basic access.

Use this as the Netlify CMS optimised version of 11ty as your starter: https://www.netlifycms.org/

Re: IBM's Asshole Test

#54

Post by ghaff »

chrisseaton wrote: post #28
Victerius wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The post doesn't go into enough detail to be sure, but I think the "asshole" participants fighting for control of the whiteboard assumed that whoever would successfully lead the group to solve the puzzle would receive good marks and have the highest probability of receiving an offer. Furthermore, some companies, or departments/teams within companies, foster a corporate culture where "assholes" are more likely to be p…

I don't get it - in the recollection, the person leading at the front wasn't getting anywhere, so someone else stepped in to give it a go. Is that supposed to be an asshole thing to do?

I didn't really get from reading that who the asshole was supposed to be.

Nothing's happening and someone steps up. Doesn't inherently seem like an asshole thing to do. Things still not working and someone else steps up and says "Mind if I give this a shot?" Not inherently asshole either.

You can get an everyone tries to take charge situation in these scenarios. But just sitting back and waiting for someone to tell you what to do doesn't seem great either.

Re: IBM's Asshole Test

#55

Post by snissn »

"i suggest we have everyone read their own packet, then slide it to the person to the left. Then we can discuss everything once we circle around"

Re: IBM's Asshole Test

#56

Post by jackblemming »

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?

Shockingly, there's plenty of competent CEOs who aren't assholes, but we don't idolize them because Americans love the idea of the genius asshole.

Re: IBM's Asshole Test

#57

Post by wmf »

mrmattyboy wrote: post #37
wmf wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nothing in job interviews matters.

Next stage of interview: Sign this NDA and fix a couple of issues on our backlog and review a couple of PRs :D

Then people complain about working for free.

Re: IBM's Asshole Test

#58

Post by gog »

mrmattyboy wrote: post #44
throwanem wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Pretty sure that is not true.

Re: IBM's Asshole Test

#59

Post by rzzzt »

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…

OK, what qualities did the choices reveal? I can attribute both desireable and undesireable traits to either branch taken.

Re: IBM's Asshole Test

#60

Post by chrisseaton »

Closi wrote: post #43
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…

Who's not the team player in this story? The person who stands up and tries to provide some leadership in a situation that has stalled?
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