Musings Report #49 12-6-14 How Would You Do on a Google Job Interview?
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How Would You Do on a Google Job Interview?
How well would you do in a Google job interview? You can now find out because I'll share two of the phone interview questions.
I have written extensively about how Google's management discovered there is essentially no connection between academic achievement and the quality of employees' work.
This flies in the face of the conventional wisdom that the better one's grades and the more degrees one has accumulated, the more valuable one's work.
Google's extensive data analysis found little correlation between academic As and being productive in a work environment. This didn't surprise me, as academics aren't designed to help you become productive--they're designed to advance your career via credentialing, not an enhanced ability to get work done.
As a result of this foreknowledge, I wasn't too surprised that Google's job interview (two phone interviews, and a live interview if you ace the phone interviews) was an IQ/creativity test rather than queries about credentials or work experience.
I know the questions because a good friend's son was interviewed for a project manager position with Google. He not only passed the first phone interview; they dispensed with the 2nd phone interview and arranged for a live interview. Naturall,y I hope he gets the job, which for many young techies is the most desirable job on earth.
First question: "In one minute, describe as many uses for a egg carton as you can."
This is a classic IQ-type question, to test the bandwidth of your thinking and creativity.
Second question: "How many wireless routers are needed to cover Brooklyn?"
This question doesn't require knowledge of the size of Brooklyn or the specs of the wireless routers; it is a test of how you approach a problem that requires quantifying the problem-state and engineering a solution.
My friend's son started with the volume that needed to be covered, and quantifying/estimating the presence of obstructing material such as thick walls. I tend to think in terms of 2-dimensional maps and wireless signal radius, so his inclusion of vertical coverage was noteworthy. Dense or metallic materials degrades the range of wireless signals, so this is also a key parameter in the solution.
The questions reflect what Google is seeking as valuable and scarce in the labor market: people who are both creative and able to conjure up an engineering pathway to quantifiable problems. In other words, coming up with a dozen quirky uses for egg cartons is only half of what they seek, as is the ability to quantify and plan solutions.
I think these two faculties are key in the emerging economy, and every enterprise will be seeking these same skills in its workforce if it wants to stay afloat.
(I doubt I would have impressed anyone with my answers, especially with one-minute time limits....)
Summary of the Blog This Past Week
The Only Two Charts You Need to Understand the S&P 500 12/5/14
The Oil-Drenched Black Swan, Part 4: The Head-Fake Disruption Ahead 12/4/14
The Oil-Drenched Black Swan, Part 3: Multiple Risks, Multiple Unknowns 12/3/14
The Oil-Drenched Black Swan, Part 2: The Financialization of Oil 12/2/14
The Oil-Drenched Black Swan, Part 1 12/1/14
My oil-finance series seemed to have been well-received.
Best Thing That Happened To Me This Week
Lunch with my sister: a glass of prosecco and a hefty, well-made burger. It doesn't get much better than that.
Market Musings: The S&P 500 and Energy
At the suggestion of correspondent Chad D., who sent me a ratio chart of SPX and USO (an oil etf), I am considering the astonishing exponential rise in the ratio of stocks (S&P 500) to oil.
The relatively narrow trading range of the ratio during 2012 and 2013 reflected a concurrent rise in oil and stocks--both went up in roughly parallel fashion.
But since oil started falling this summer, the ratio has traced an exponential curve up as stocks have soared and oil has plummeted.
This chart reflects the extraordinary nature of this divergence. It suggests the exponential curve must eventually top out and fall, which means one of two possibilities: either oil climbs back up toward $90/barrel, or stocks decline sharply.
The current consensus is that oil can continue falling and stocks can continue rising. Perhaps, but for how long? The basic divergence is simple: if the economy is growing as robustly as stocks suggest, demand for oil can't be cratering as the price of oil suggests. Both can't be right.
From Left Field
This Teacher Taught His Class A Powerful Lesson About Privilege -- simple but effective....
The Disintegration of Rural China (via Maoxian) worth a read--seems true of more places than just China....
Commuting time in Beijing averages 97 minutes (via Maoxian) Beijing was named the city with the worst commuting conditions in the world. New York, Paris or Los Angeles, didn't even make the top 10.
Economist divides parents as drifters vs planners --the old line between ants and grasshoppers....
Wheat People vs. Rice People: Why Are Some Cultures More Individualistic Than Others? (via Joel M.) -- the need to cooperate on a daily basis seems critical....
Molten Aluminum Lakes Offer Power Storage for German Wind Farms (via Joel M.) -- even ice cubes function as energy storage...
The Real Cause of Heart Disease? (via Lew G.) -- infection and inflammation...
What If We’re Wrong About Depression? (via Lew G.)
"He was intrigued by research showing a connection between depression and inflammation in the body, and he started to think about the known causes of inflammation — among them pathogens like bacteria, viruses and parasites."
Senate Report: Scale of Wall Street Holdings Are “Unprecedented in U.S. History” (via Lew G.) -- it's not "same as it ever was," it's worse.....
China's elite are buying up millions of dollars of glitzy real estate in the Arcadia area of Los Angeles for their children and mistresses -- getting out while the getting's good....
Some striking facts about Japan’s demography -- good chart...
Painless Failures: What do you learn from them? Nothing. You just keep doing what doesn’t work.
The Secret Life of Passwords (via Maoxian) -- what do our passwords say about us? A lot, in some cases (in my case, the important passwords have no personal connection at all--by conscious choice)
"Happiness is neither virtue nor pleasure nor this thing nor that but simply growth, We are happy when we are growing." William Butler Yeats
Thanks for reading--
charles |
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