brisebois blog

Each communicative act should have a purpose. In interviews, in meetings or in everyday conversation, what is the purpose of the questions you ask?

Here are some questions and their corresponding purposes:

1. Are you saying…?
Identifies someone’s language patterns.

2. Are you willing to…?
Tests someone’s limits.

3. Can you give me…?
Encourages examples and specifics.

4. Can you remember…?
Taps into someone’s memory.

5. Did you ask…?
Questions someone’s questions.

6. Have you considered…?
Non-threatening proposal of options.

7. Have you given any thought to…?
Suggestive, yet doesn’t sound like advice.

8. Have you thought about…?
Forces someone to think!

9. How are you constantly…?
Promotes consistency of action.

10. How are you creating…?
Proves that someone has a choice.

11. How can you become…?
Future oriented, motivational.

12. How can you make…?
Enlists someone’s creativity.

13. How could you have…?
Focused on past performance improvement.

There are 63 questions and why they work here.

Here are just a few:

• How many golf balls can fit in a school bus?
• You are shrunk to the height of a nickel and your mass is proportionally reduced so as to maintain your original density. You are then thrown into an empty glass blender. The blades will start moving in 60 seconds. What do you do?
• How much should you charge to wash all the windows in Seattle?
• How would you find out if a machine’s stack grows up or down in memory?
• Explain a database in three sentences to your eight-year-old nephew.
• How many times a day does a clock’s hands overlap?

A lot more at Crazy Questions at Google Job Interview.

Related posts:

Interviewing with IBM

70/20/10 - Managing innovation the Google way

How to run a meeting like Google

Passion and preparation please.

 What are you looking for in a candidate?
We want smart people who exude passion, who are willing to take risks and challenge conventional thinking, and who aspire to make a real difference in the company. When somebody walks in the door to interview at IBM, he has to be up to speed on our company and industry. If someone comes in and he is not well informed, he signals that he is not really that interested in the position.

What can a candidate do to impress you?
Clearly, we would expect people to have strong academic achievement. But it’s your delivery and the way that you talk about your aspirations that really make a difference and leave an impression with the interviewer. A candidate who impresses me is someone well spoken, who has a clear idea of what he wants to do. If someone comes in and says, “I want to do interesting, challenging work in this specific area,” it gives me an indication that he or she really is goal-oriented. I also like to hear folks who talk about the fact that they like to collaborate and continuously learn.

What is the biggest mistake MBA applicants make during the job search and how can they avoid that?
A little bit of arrogance or a lack of preparation would be a pretty significant faux pas on the part of an applicant. A person who comes to an interview with a bit of an attitude such as, “I know it all, and I expect to be the CEO in five years,” is making a mistake. The best way for people to leave a good impression is to be well prepared. (BW)

A little comic relief as you prepare for your interview: Monty Python job interview

Silly… but perhaps the comic relief that you need after preparing for job interviews.