How to hire (1)

Matt Weston, 20 Oct

The first in a semi-occasional series on how to hire:
MICROSOFT INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

QUESTIONS THEY ASK:
Why are manhole covers round?
How do they make M&Ms?
How many piano tuners are there in the world?
How would you move Mount Fuji?

QUESTIONS THEY DON’T:
How many times a day does Windows crash?
What is your greatest weakness?*

*As Malcolm Gladwell puts it:
“[By asking the weakness question] all I’d really asked him was whether he could describe a personal strength as if it were a weakness, and, in answering as he did, he had merely demonstrated his knowledge of the unwritten rules of the interview.”

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Reader comments
7 comments so far, add yours below

Andy Bell says:
Matt - do you think those are good interview questions?

Anyone - how do they make M&Ms?
by Andy Bell on 21 Oct

Matt Weston says:
I like them. It’s about the only thing I like about Microsoft - the way it hires. (That’s despite flunking a Microsoft interview moons ago.) The questions they ask have no known right answers* - and, unlike the weakness question, no right way of answering. For me, that works because it sheds a bit of light on how interviewees actually think, rather than how prepared they are. *Except for the manholes question. Answer: Manhole covers are round, because manholes are round.
by Matt Weston on 21 Oct

Julie Stanford says:
This all reminds me of a guy I had the good fortune to be on an interview panel with a number of years ago.

When interviewing people for any post in his organisation, he positively encouraged them to shine. I was with him once as he talked to a number of the people waiting nervously in Reception prior to their interviews. He smiled at them all and said, “We want you to relaxed and forthcoming in this interview, so here is the list of questions we are going to ask you; here is a library of relevant information; you can wander round the building and ask questions of existing staff… anything to help you feel at ease and to show you at your best.”

The look on the interviewees’ faces was priceless. They had been expecting the gladiatorial, palm-sweating type of interview, and here was this generous man (the chief executive of the organisation) doing everything he could to give them their best chance of succeeding in the interview.

I was taken aback too when I first witnessed him doing this. I’d always been on panels where the strategy was to ‘catch out’ the interviewee and highlight their weaknesses. He took the complete opposite stance. It was an unusual move, and a generous one.

I’ve never forgotten it. Or him.
by Julie Stanford on 22 Oct

Iain Row says:
I’d love to know the M&Ms one also, though actually I’m just being lazy - I’m sure Google could tell me.

I don’t think you’re right about the manhole covers one though, Matt. The reason manhole covers are round is because there’s no diagonal on a circle, therefore, there’s no way for it to fall through the hole.

If manhole covers were square, they’d fall through if you lifted them up at one end (so they were vertical) and rotated them so they fitted through the diagonal of the hole.
by Iain Row on 24 Oct

Matt Weston says:
Iain is right. I was wrong.
by Matt Weston on 24 Oct

John Salt says:
Perhaps *that’s* why you flunked the interview with Microsoft Matt
by John Salt on 18 Nov

Reuben Stephen says:
There is another reason why manholes are round - they transport easily. What about moving Mount Fuji though ? - creative answer … by popping aresol container - CFC leading to global warming and moving continents ??? ;)
by Reuben Stephen on 22 Nov