Interviewing for Google

From Jason Kottke:

in the early days of Google, Sergey Brin ended his job interviews in an unusual manner.

Finally, he leaned forward and fired his best shot, what he came to call "the hard question."

"I'm going to give you five minutes," he told me. "When I come back, I want you to explain to me something complicated that I don't already know." He then rolled out of the room toward the snack area. I looked at Cindy. "He's very curious about everything," she told me. "You can talk about a hobby, something technical, whatever you want. Just make sure it's something you really understand well."

And so I challenged myself to come up with a few of the complicated subjects to which I have expertise that I might have used in an interview with Brin.

They are: 

Successfully attending a woman's college as a man
Scheduling 60-100 employees of varying skill levels, while accounting for specific financial and scheduling needs and language barriers, for a week of work at a 24-hour fast food restaurant, while also being held accountable for labor cost as a percentage of actual sales based upon uncertain and consistently inaccurate sales projections
Planning for and executing 27 different parent-teacher conferences during a 3-5 day period
Playing consistently profitable poker

What would your answer be?

 •  0 comments  •  flag
Share on Twitter
Published on July 29, 2011 01:40
No comments have been added yet.