(This is the continuation of an article about the use and abuse of brainteasers in job interviews.)
Here are the five biggest difficulties I've seen with the use of brainteasers in job interviews.
To teach a dog a trick, you first have to know more than the dog.
To teach a dog a trick, you first have to know more than the dog.
It's been said that first rate people hire first rate people, but second rate people hire third rate people. If you are a first rate hiring manager, you are constantly trying to hire people who are your peers or stronger. Therefore, it may be very hard for you to properly frame a problem that will allow you accurately to judge their thinking. This is particularly true because, unless you are Martin Gardner 🔗, the clean design and accurate statement of brainteasers is presumably not your particular area of expertise.
If you are trying to hire someone for a job involving precision of
thought, don't be surprised if they are more inclined to challenge the
terms of the brain teaser than to plunge directly into solving it. I don't
claim to know for sure about anyone else, but I've been trying for the
last
thirty years to get away from giving the quick, glib answers they reward
in high school and to learn instead to step back and actually try to get
context
on a problem. I was better at quickly solving
brainteasers when I was seventeen. I'm a lot better now at taking some
time and seeing where the statement of a problem might actually be
incomplete or inconsistent. And I'm sure I'm a lot better computer
professional for having learned that. If brain teasers feature
prominently in your interview process, unless you wield them with great
subtlety you are liable to develop an aren't we a bunch of clever
lads"
; corporate culture, and actually filter out mature
judgement.
It's a dirty little secret, but a lot of people interviewing for jobs -- especially those currently unemployed or underemployed -- are at least mildly depressed. They are not at their best for the kind of fast thinking that works best for brainteasers. This may not have been much of an issue in the recent Roaring 'Nineties, when your typical candidate certainly had plenty of opportunities and probably was already in a decent job and trying to move up, but in the job market right now (I am writing in June 2002), tough personal circumstances and limited economic opportunity are the rule rather than the exception.
The pressure to perform in an interview is already enormous and (in the case of a mildly depressed person) psychologically difficult. It's hard enough to get a candidate to relax and be open with you even when that is your primary goal. Posing a brainteaser is absolutely counterproductive to that goal.
Further, once you have deliberately created or exacerbated a pressure situation, why shouldn't the candidate question your motives and wonder whether this is all a trick or a trap? This is especially so if (deliberately or accidentally) your problem has no good solution.
Communication proceeds best among equals. Throwing someone a brainteaser in an interview deliberately places yourself in a dominant role. How would you feel if the candidate threw a brainteaser at you? You'd probably feel like you had a pretty arrogant job candidate on your hands. If you are interviewing a peer, why shouldn't he or she feel the same way about you?
I'm told that some hiring managers deliberately give candidates unsolvable brainteasers without setting any context for that possibility. I suppose there is a chance that the manager learns a lot from what follows, and I imagine that there could even be a circumstance where this is a useful technique, but if you then hire the candidate, how will he or she learn to trust you?
The interviewee may already know the problem. If he/she is dishonest, and a moderately good actor, he/she can appear (falsely) brilliant. You've just enhanced your chances of hiring a sociopath.
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