Question this practice
There’s a job interview tactic in vogue at some places that is a menace.
A few weeks ago, one of my students at Cornell was being interviewed for a position. He had a great resume and did well on the various interview rounds, but stumbled on the infamous brain teaser.
Brain teasers ask candidates to explain the internet to someone coming out of a long coma, how many gallons of paint it takes to cover the White House, how to solve a math problem and even how to fight a bear —to name just a few. Some simply are trying to gauge how you think on your feet or how clever you are, because there’s no right answer.
The brain teaser, as an interview tool, is flawed for the following reasons:
1. Brain teasers create stress and harm interview performance: The interview process is overlaid with stress, and candidates are painfully aware that a poor interview performance can have implications for their career.
2. Brain teasers are difficult to prepare for: While a curve-ball question can be used to see how candidates think on their feet, the brain teaser is a whole new ball game. There are thousands of brain teasers that can be culled from the fields of algebra, philosophy and logic. Because of the wide variation of brain teaser questions, the candidate can bone up on the current favorites, but he or she will never be totally prepared for the brainteaser segment of an interview.
3. Scoring of brain teasers often is subjective: Even though the array of brainteasers is nearly endless, they often fall into one of two camps: those that require a precise answer and one where a ballpark guess is appropriate.
The skills being tested are different. The test giver needs to consider if mathematical precision is important or if the ability to make a fair estimate is more valuable. People have different strategies when coming up with an estimate, and while some may not be textbook approved, they still work.
4. Brain teasers are not predictive of candidate intelligence or potential job performance: Brain teasers are not substitutes for experience, education, IQ or any other criteria the employer may deem important. In fact, brain teaser performance predicts neither intelligence nor job performance.
Some leaders at Google, a company notorious for having used brain teasers, have questioned their ability to predict anything. In an interview, Laszlo Bock, a former senior vice president of people operations at Google, said: “How many golf balls can you fit into an airplane? How many gas stations in Manhattan? A complete waste of time. They (brain teasers) don’t predict anything. They serve primarily to make the interviewer feel smart.”