The Mensa-Style
The Mensa-Style questions aid HR managers to gain a subjective
view of the prospects
Mike and Todd have $21 between them. Mike has $ 20 more than
Todd. How much does each of them have? (No fractions
involved) This
question was a part of Steve Dobbs interview at Microsoft
Corporation for the post of a Telecom tech support.
According to Steve Dobbs, this
was the most gruelling interview in his career. Though
initially, he found the question irrelevant, on retrospection
he realised that it helped the organisation understand
his logical and analytical capability. Though Steve
Dobbs gave the correct answer, he did not qualify because
he had used the eliminating process.
The Mensa-style questions are not only used by high tech companies,
but also by financial services and marketing companies.
Financial services use such brainteasers since they
need professionals who can work under pressure, while
Marketing companies use them to find candidates who
can handle tough challenges. Brainteasers test the spontaneity
and readiness of a candidate.
Try some of these questions:
- You are faced with two doors. One door leads to your
job offer, and the other to the exit. In front of
each door is a guard. One guard always tells the
truth while the other always lies. You can ask a
single question to both the guards to help you decide
which door is the correct one. What will you ask? This
is a test for the candidate’s logical deduction
capability.
- How many gallons of white house paint are sold in
the US every year? This helps deduce the guesstimating
capability of the candidate
- You are in solitary confinement. It is a Friday afternoon
and you need a cigarette. The only person who can
give you one is the guard outside your cell. What
do you do? This helps understand the
candidates reasoning capability and his interpersonal
skills
Merely answering these puzzlers right should not be the criteria.
The objective is to gauge the response time and the
ability of the candidate to think under pressure.
This is not a new trend. Late Admiral Hyman G. Rickover, father
of US Navy’s nuclear programme, was known to saw
off several inches of one or two legs of the chair he
offered his interviewee. They had to maintain their
wits while answering questions and sliding off the chair.
The late admiral said, “ ... I was trying to draw
out of them what they had potentially in them."
ZEFER, a Boston based Internet consulting company, gives its
potential candidates a box of Lego. They are given five
minutes to build anything of their choice and then talk
about it. This helps the company understand the dreams
and aspirations of the candidates. It also gives them
an insight into their creative and conceptualising skills.
Games and challenges also can help the interviewers overcome
the tendency to make a snap judgment about candidates.
Most HR managers find these questions irrelevant to
the job. They opine that such metaphysical questions
can irritate the candidate. They fail to understand
that this gives them a subjective insight of the prospect.
A surreptitious assessment of the candidate outside the interview
room is also an effective method. Colleen Aylward, President
of Devon James Associates in Seattle pretends as if
she has forgotten her dry cleaning, asks the candidate
to drive her to the cleaner, and conducts the interview
in the car. Most of these jobs require multi-tasking.
Hence she feels a prospect who does not take his foot
off the gas pedal, to look over, while answering may
be better equipped to perform several important functions
simultaneously.
This mensa-style of questioning also helps the interviewers
assess the candidate’s aggressiveness and his clear
factual foundation.
Interviewers are not psychologist, hence their evaluation process
and deductions may be inaccurate. A gut-level judgement
can be disastrous. Furthermore, if details of the questions
hit the grapevine it might give an undue advantage to
a few candidates. At times candidates might perceive
the recruitment process as frivolous.
These shortcomings have prompted some HR Heads to use “situationals”,
which are real life problems. Developing a creative
and feasible solution is the criteria for selection.
This can help companies find problem solvers.
Both puzzlers and situationals give the interviewer a more
subjective view of the candidate.
Related reading:
1. “The games interviewers play”
HR magazine Feb 2001
2.
“New interview rules” by Frase. Martha SHRM
Dec 2000
