Google Drops Impossible-To-Answer Interview Questions
By Ian Bush
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - For all of today's meaningless business jargon, leave it to Google to come up with questions for job applicants that were positively unanswerable -- even with the help of the search engine. Now, the company admits it's all baloney.
How many piano tuners are there in the entire world? How much should you charge to wash all the windows in Seattle?
These -- and plenty more -- gems of guff from Google were designed to highlight creative problem-solving on the part of a prospective employee.
They proved much the opposite, says Laszlo Block. Google's senior VP of People Operations tells the New York Times the questions turned out to be a "complete waste," predicting nothing, and serving "primarily to make the interviewer feel smart."
Block says now, instead of made-up management mumbo-jumbo they're asking applicants to explain the choices they made in difficult situations -- actual problems encountered in the real world (imagine that).
To see the questions Google used to ask, click here.
And, to see some answers to the weirdest ones, click here.
