4 Apr
2006
4 Apr
'06
5:25 a.m.
dwight elvey wrote:
I often ask questions I don't expect the person to
be able to answer.
What I want to find out is vary valuable to me. I want to know
how that person thinks about problems. I don't reject them because
they don't get the answer nor does it mean that much if they get
the wrong answer. It is how they approach the problem that
I'm most interested in finding out.
They can always learn what they'll need to know once they start
working. I don't have enough time to teach people how to think.
Best question I was ever asked in an interview (by a VP of one of
the largest hand-tool manufacturers) was how to design a numbering
system for their products (hammers, screwdrivers, tape rules, etc.).
It had to be one of the most enlightening "unexpected" questions
I'd ever heard -- or heard, since!
I think that exchange proved to both of us that we could work
with each other, despite the actual "answer" to the question.
--don