runlegosleeprepeat posted:

I've heard of interviews in technical fields using some oddball questions and/or brain teasers to see how candidates work through problems. For example, "How many barbers are there in Chicago?"

Now, in an engineering firm, these questions would be VERY important and much more revealing than other types of questions. They want to see how you think and work your way through a problem that you don't know the answer to.

You could answer the barber question like this:
1. Find total population in Chicago.
2. Divide in half to get number of men. Women don't go to barbers.
3. Multiply by some percentage to eliminate those men who cut their own hair or don't have any.
4. Figure how many haircuts a barber can give in a day.
5. Figure how often the average man gets a haircut.
6. Describe a rough formula to calculate the required number of barbers.

Or you could answer it like this:
"More than I could count! LOL"

In this case the "oddball" question is really a Competency question in disguise. Would you agree? What do you think of questions like this? With so many jobs being in technical fields, especially jobs that goons are applying for, this could be a common thing.

Thanks, this thread is awesome!

EDIT: VVVV Engineers can be consultants too!