Praise for How to Ace the Brainteaser Job Interview

WORKPLACE
Truly Puzzling Interview Questions
Welcome to the wacky world of the puzzle question.
By Anne Fisher - FORTUNE

So you're up for a great job, and after the usual chitchat the interviewer asks you a question from far left field. The phrase "just for fun" is sometimes invoked here, but clearly fun isn't the point. For instance, your interlocutor may say, "Let's suppose you have a gold chain with seven links. You need to hire an assistant and pay him one gold link per day for seven days. Each day the assistant needs to be paid for his services without underpayment or overpayment. What is the fewest number of cuts you can make to the chain for this to work out?" Or the interviewer may brandish a wine bottle, a coin, and a cork, and say, "I'm going to put this coin in this bottle and then stop the opening with the cork. How would you get the coin out without breaking the bottle or pulling the cork?" (Answers are below.)

Welcome to the wacky world of the puzzle question, an increasingly popular device for making you even more nervous than you already were—and at least theoretically, gauging your ability to analyze problems and work out creative solutions. John Kador, author of a new book called How to Ace the Brainteaser Interview (McGraw-Hill, $14.95), estimates that brainteasers make up only about 10% of the interview process at companies that use them, but that 10% could make or break you. "Interviewers believe that puzzles help them separate the outstanding candidates from the merely great ones," he says. "It's easy to distinguish between an average performer and a superstar. But how do you select among superstars?" For this as for so much else, we have Microsoft to thank. The software behemoth is notorious for bedeviling candidates with queries like "Why are manhole covers round?" (A couple of answers: (1) So they won't fall through the manhole, and (2) They roll, so they're easier to move.)

Happily, Kador's book not only reveals more than 200 puzzle questions that might pop up in an interview but also tells how to approach answering them ("The more obvious an answer is, the more incorrect it is likely to be")—and, crucially, what to do if you are stumped. "Don't let interviewers see you panic, but do let them see you think out loud," Kador says. He quotes former Microsoft developer Adam Barr: "You have to show them that your mind is cycling. Even if you never get to the right answer, they might be impressed by your strategy." Don't bother objecting that the puzzles are irrelevant to your job skills. If you do, explains Kador, "interviewers will respect your position. They won't hire you, but they will respect your position." Swell.

The answers to the two questions above: For the chain, assume that your assistant is willing to give change. You'll make two cuts—after the first and third links. This gives you a single link, a piece with two links, and a strand with four links. On Day 1, you give your assistant one link. Day 2: two links (getting the first one back as change). Day 3: Give him the single link again. Day 4: Exchange the four-link strand for the other three links. And so on. You get the idea. As for the wine bottle, just push the cork in and extract the coin. But you already figured that out, didn't you?

From the Sep. 20, 2004 Issue of FORTUNE

Darn you, John Kador! Well, there's another 150-odd puzzles I won't be able to use for interviewing. In the arms race between interviewers and interviewees, Kador gleefully furnishes job applicants with more ammunition, and I'm sorry, but it's just not fair.

Joel Spolsky, Founder
Fog Creek Software
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000073.html

As more IT folk compete for fewer jobs, employers feel the need to sprinkle a wide variety of different kinds of questions into their process to help make their decisions. One of the hardest and scariest of these classes of questions is the puzzle, which can be a good way to discover how you, the interview candidate think, if it doesn’t scare the bejesus out of you first. This book, like my site, helps you to grease up your mind a little so that when those questions come at you, you might not know the answer, but at least you won’t throw a rod in your brain.

Chris Sells
http://www.sellsbrothers.com/

Quick: "What weighs more on the moon than on earth?" Kador doesn't just tell us the answer to this brainteaser and many others, he explains how each question can launch an incisive interview conversation.”

Ed Milano, VP of Marketing
Design Continuum, a boutique consulting firm specializing in product and brand development
www.dcontinuum.com/

This is a great opportunity for HR professionals, line managers, recruiters and anyone else involved in the hiring process to take a measured look at brainteasers to determine when (and if) to use them during interviews. It is a must-have book for job seekers so that they will always be prepared for what may seem off-the-wall questions raised by those interviewers who may not have had the chance to read this book before deciding to do so.

Matt De Luca Mjsdl@aol.com
Author, Best Answers to the 201 Most Frequently Asked Interview Questions

John Kador has written the brainteaser masterpiece for anyone getting ready for a job interview. This is not only a fun-filled book, but it actually takes you through the steps of thinking through the teasers—what interviewers are really looking for. Don’t be surprised if one shows up in your next interview. I highly recommend this book to anyone preparing for an interview, or for anyone interested in a “brain-calisthenics” workout.

Carole Martin carole@interviewcoach.com
Author, Boost Your Interview IQ

As a recruiter or hiring manager, you shouldn't be afraid of asking candidates to think. If interviews don't challenge people, how the heck are folks going to ascertain whether someone can handle the heat when the fire gets hot?

Steve Levy otbc@optonline.net
Principal, Outside the Box Consulting