What is my favorite interview question?

I was recently asked what my favorite interview question is. Given the circumstance I really could not tell the person what my favorite questions are, but now that I have had a chance to think about it and I'm encumbered by a strenuous situation, I have the answer.

If you are applying for an engineering position and the people actually do engineering work for an average company, the questions should go something like this:

#1 Can you take a beating? And the interviewer should ask this question as they unload rolls of quarters into a thick wool sock, just to be sure that the person is giving a truthful answer.

#2 The candidate should be taken down to the cafeteria and offered the free beverage of their choice and encouraged to take whatever type and size that they normally prefer. If the candidate walks over and begins to fill up a medium diet soda then they should be promptly escorted back to HR. The correct answer to the question of course is that the candidate should walk over to where the sodas are and grab at least a 32 ounce cup, then they should proceed over to the coffee dispenser where they should consciously seek out the thickest, darkest, hottest coffee available. Once they have filled their monstrous cup they should start to down this steaming cauldron of tar like it was ice water and they had just crossed the Sinai Desert.

That's the guy you want.

When the interview is over you dress his wounds and find him a keyboard to sit in front of.

Too True

For those of you who don't live in the basement clutching your stapler, this strip is too true. I was discussing this very issue with one of our vendors yesterday. His biggest customer is Intel and they recently did a study and found out that it costs them $150 just to come up with a PO (purchase order). So just to be able to purchase something, it costs them $150. That's ridiculous! I know it can't be much cheaper here. The number of people involved in the process is outrageous. At the company I work for it takes no less than FIVE people to make purchases from one of our vendors. Sad. Very sad.

Too far

Your average ordinary mouse or is it? I understand the desire to experiment and improve/change/modify things, I mean come on, I'm an engineer. That's kind of what we do. But messing around with genetics? That's a whole different ball of wax if you ask me. Do I want my children to be tireless amazing athletes? I dont' know. Do I want my grandkids to have superhuman strength and photographic memories? I don't know.

I think it all goes back to something that was pointed out in a great kid movie.

"When everyone is special... no one will be."

Anybody know...

Dilbert.Com

I love this cartoon. If you aren't a cog in the corporate machine, you probably don't get it. However for those of us who are, particularly in the engineering world, Dilbert is a documentary. Painfully accurate, but amusing at the same time. I recently went through this trying to schedule the birth of my son. Try and time that one without a c-section.