I’ve been asked “What dead person would you like to have dinner with?” at every interview I’ve ever had.
Gross. I don’t want to have dinner with any dead person. Imagine all the flies buzzing around him.
akanska Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I’ve been asked “What dead person would you like > to have dinner with?” at every interview I’ve ever > had. The answer. The Reverand Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
I can never forget this one question: - For everything you’ve accomplished in your life thus far, on a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being hard work and 10 being intelligence, where do you stand? me: ummmmmmmmmm, 9.5 or 10 Never got called back…
hmm, are they insinuating that the 2 are mutually exclusive?? I’ve seen some lazy fools.
Depending on how you want to answer the question they could be mutually exclusive. I however, would provide an answer that saying i don’t view the traits as mutually exclusive - that one can be both hard working and inteligent. And that’s probably the answer they are looking for (another question framed a certain way to make you think a certain way. Although i’m not HR, i bet if you think outside the box on that one they would be impressed).
preetchawla Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I can never forget this one question: - > > For everything you’ve accomplished in your life > thus far, on a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being hard work > and 10 being intelligence, where do you stand? > > me: ummmmmmmmmm, 9.5 or 10 > > Never got called back… Pretty much the dumbest question I’ve ever heard of.
preetchawla Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I can never forget this one question: - > > For everything you’ve accomplished in your life > thus far, on a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being hard work > and 10 being intelligence, where do you stand? > > me: ummmmmmmmmm, 9.5 or 10 > > Never got called back… My answer would be 10.05 which is the vector sum of 1 and 10! 
It was a Goldman question! So I assume it was not dumb by any stretch of imagination… ymc, i like your creativity…haha
Seems loaded to me; 1. Hard work - “Therefore you are not intelligent” 10. Intelligence - “Therefore you do not work hard” This would be one to spin outside the box like YMC.
preetchawla Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I can never forget this one question: - > > For everything you’ve accomplished in your life > thus far, on a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being hard work > and 10 being intelligence, where do you stand? > > me: ummmmmmmmmm, 9.5 or 10 > > Never got called back… If you want to give a straight 1-10 answer, the answer is 1. If you answer 6-10, you admit to relying more on your natural ability to get by in the world (like a beautiful woman marrying her pick simply because she is attractive), but if you answer 1-4 you are not denying that you an an unintelligent person, but that you don’t rest on your laurels. Very few people sound reasonable when they say 10, perhaps the Einstein or Newtons of the world. They know its a loaded question and you are taking a short cut and thus proving you cannot reason well if you admit that they are not mutually exclusive.
mto1985, there is a break in your logic; if you can say: “if you answer 1-4 you are not denying that you an an unintelligent person, but that you don’t rest on your laurels.” you can also say that by answering 6-10 you are not admitting to a poor work ethic, rather that you have the intelligence to tackle tasks that come easier and delegate the others to those with a relative advantage.
preetchawla Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I can never forget this one question: - > > For everything you’ve accomplished in your life > thus far, on a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being hard work > and 10 being intelligence, where do you stand? > > me: ummmmmmmmmm, 9.5 or 10 > > Never got called back… Brings back old memories. I answered 5 in a variant question and was offered the job, after more interviews. If 1 is hardworking but stupid and 10 is genius but lazy, then 5 must surely be an optimal combination - smart and motivated. I just followed Socrates’ “everything in moderation” rule when I answered that. The craziest questions I was asked “what is the excel function that does i)regression and ii) returns the integer without the remainder in a division?” I can do magic with Excel and VBA, but I don’t memorize function names. The most demanding questions I’ve asked “integrate exp(-x^2) dx” Was looking for a smart candiate who would tell me this function is very difficult to integrate and then offers a simple approximation. Instead everyone dived into the integration, which left them cold, and feeling shitty. I drop this question since.
A friend of mine was going for an audit job with a big accounting firm, He never had a background degree in finance, only in a couple of languages. So the partner asked him “why should we give you this job you don’t even have a finance background?” He had been watching jerry macquire the night before and was pumped up. He closed his question book he was holding in his hands and said “if i don’t become a chartered accountant here, I’ll become one somewhere else” They told him to leave the room and wait outside. 5 - 10 minutes later they called him back in and told him he had the job.
akanska Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > mto1985, there is a break in your logic; if you > can say: > > “if you answer 1-4 you are not denying that you an > an unintelligent person, but that you don’t rest > on your laurels.” > > you can also say that by answering 6-10 you are > not admitting to a poor work ethic, rather that > you have the intelligence to tackle tasks that > come easier and delegate the others to those with > a relative advantage. Yea, looking back at the question I think I looked at it wrong. I thought it was something like, “For all of your achievements in life, on a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being hard work, 10 being intelligence, which is more responsible?”
preetchawla Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I can never forget this one question: - > > For everything you’ve accomplished in your life > thus far, on a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being hard work > and 10 being intelligence, where do you stand? > > me: ummmmmmmmmm, 9.5 or 10 > > Never got called back… Good question. Good way to gauge level of humility vs. arrogance in noobs entering the field.
I know I would do well with propanol in an interview, the e^-x^2 dx is like one of the most basic integration questions along with sinx^2…not integrable at first sight…I would answer that question in 11th grade…
The questions I suck at are to do with all the bull shit situational ones, some of them so illogical…but i think they want to test you in unfamiliar waters so fair enough I guess…
A friend of mine had an interview with an asset management firm in 2004 when oil prices hit $50. The interviewer asked my friend where he thought oil would be in 5 years. My friend responded a lot higher than it is now. The interviewer laughed at him and said it will go back to its historical level of around $20.
KJH Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > What is a ‘good’ answer for, “Where do you see > yourself in 5 years?” In the mirror