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William Poundstone is the author of two previous Hill and Wang books: Fortune's Formula and Gaming the Vote.
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"Serious ammunition to pack for your next job interview." (Kirkus )
"Poundstone offers strategies for making the best of nerve-racking situations, decoding interviewer's hidden agendas, and salvaging a doomed interview, in a solid treatment peppered with mind-bending puzzles. Poundstone's energetic, compelling writing...makes the book fun even for nonjob seekers." (Publishers Weekly )
"A neat little manifesto on interview technique...Touring through a huge number of puzzles, he provides a truly exhaustive account of all the factors you're meant to consider when thinking your way through the solutions. Tackling [them] is incredibly gratifying, when you're not withering under the baleful eye of a potential employer." (New Scientist Culture Lab )
"For those in the job market, Poundstone provides a handy survey of killer questions and how to answer them. For others, he offers the challenge of matching wits with people at America's most innovative companies. As for employers, he presents a timely warning about creative thinking and why job interviews don't work...The format affords Poundstone room to display his scientific knowledge, mathematical fluency and knack for explaining the arcane in playfully precise sentences." (Bloomberg Businessweek )
"Poundstone offers strategies for making the best of nerve-racking situations, decoding interviewer's hidden agendas, and salvaging a doomed interview, in a solid treatment peppered with mind-bending puzzles. Poundstone's energetic, compelling writing...makes the book fun even for nonjob seekers." (Publishers Weekly )
"A neat little manifesto on interview technique...Touring through a huge number of puzzles, he provides a truly exhaustive account of all the factors you're meant to consider when thinking your way through the solutions. Tackling [them] is incredibly gratifying, when you're not withering under the baleful eye of a potential employer." (New Scientist Culture Lab )
"For those in the job market, Poundstone provides a handy survey of killer questions and how to answer them. For others, he offers the challenge of matching wits with people at America's most innovative companies. As for employers, he presents a timely warning about creative thinking and why job interviews don't work...The format affords Poundstone room to display his scientific knowledge, mathematical fluency and knack for explaining the arcane in playfully precise sentences." (Bloomberg Businessweek )
Product Description
You are shrunk to the height of a nickel and thrown in a blender. The blades start moving in 60 seconds. What do you do? If you want to work at Google, or any of America's best companies, you need to have an answer to this and other puzzling questions.
ARE YOU SMART ENOUGH TO WORK AT GOOGLE? guides readers through the surprising solutions to dozens of the most challenging interview questions. The book covers the importance of creative thinking, ways to get a leg up on the competition, what your Facebook page says about you, and much more. ARE YOU SMART ENOUGH TO WORK AT GOOGLE? is a must read for anyone who wants to succeed in today's job market.
ARE YOU SMART ENOUGH TO WORK AT GOOGLE? guides readers through the surprising solutions to dozens of the most challenging interview questions. The book covers the importance of creative thinking, ways to get a leg up on the competition, what your Facebook page says about you, and much more. ARE YOU SMART ENOUGH TO WORK AT GOOGLE? is a must read for anyone who wants to succeed in today's job market.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
142 of 161 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
As someone who did many phone and onsite interviews at Google, served on a Google Hiring Committee for several years, and even developed a general interview style/format for an Engineering subgroup, I have to say that this book would be worse than useless for someone trying to get hired by Google, at least on the Engineering side. This is based on browsing through the available pages online here.
At least since 2003, Google Engineering does not ask puzzle/riddle questions in interviews. In fact, we're specifically told not to ask such questions. And any Hiring Committee worth its salt would, when given feedback from an interviewer indicating they'd asked such questions, at the very least email/talk to the interviewer and tell them not to do it again, and if a substantial part of the interview had been such questions, would throw out the interview feedback.
Heck, the author didn't even fact check the list of Google perks given early on; the hybrid car rebate was eliminated several years ago, and the mass ski trips came to an end when the company got too big.
If you're smart enough to work at Google, ignore this book completely and search the web or your professional network for accounts of the interview process by people who've actually worked at and done interviews for Google.
At least since 2003, Google Engineering does not ask puzzle/riddle questions in interviews. In fact, we're specifically told not to ask such questions. And any Hiring Committee worth its salt would, when given feedback from an interviewer indicating they'd asked such questions, at the very least email/talk to the interviewer and tell them not to do it again, and if a substantial part of the interview had been such questions, would throw out the interview feedback.
Heck, the author didn't even fact check the list of Google perks given early on; the hybrid car rebate was eliminated several years ago, and the mass ski trips came to an end when the company got too big.
If you're smart enough to work at Google, ignore this book completely and search the web or your professional network for accounts of the interview process by people who've actually worked at and done interviews for Google.
13 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I was interviewing at an investment bank and the second question was how many people are using an ATM in New York City? I *now* know this is a standard category of estimation question. I didn't know it at the time and it threw me off for the other questions. I like Poundstone's writing, and this book is avery fast read. I completed it in one weekend. It won't tell you what you need to know in any *specific* industry but it will prepare you for those unexpected questions. Highly recommended, as long as you understand that.
7 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I loved this book! It was funny and informative. Poundstone presents some of the toughest interview questions that are actually being asked by companies today. In addition to the answers, he delves into the histories of the questions themselves. Who thought them up, how they relate to the job at hand, and how some don't have any relevance to the job at all, but why the interviewer is asking them anyway. I found the background on some of the questions almost as interesting as some of the questions themselves. It was also quite fun trying to figure out the answers. I read with two bookmarks. One keeping my place in beginning of the book, and one in the back were Poundstone had listed each questions answer in order that they had appeared in the book itself. I'm not going to even try to pretend that I have the genius to work at google, or some of the other companies that these questions were gleaned from, so it shouldn't be a surprise when I say that more often then not the answers I came up with were no where near correct. I still had fun though.
The author also gave quite a few tips on what to do if you're hit with questions you don't quite know how to answer. How to brainstorm on the fly, ways to question you interviewer to buy time and get extra hints to help solve the problem. Also ways to phrase your answers so that even if they are wrong you don't look like a complete idiot. Plus other interview tips, such as making sure you research the company you are applying at and making sure you clean up your public sites, such as facebook or myspace, before applying. After all if you are googling them, then they definitely are googling you. Especially if the company you are applying for is GOOGLE!. Whether you have interviews looming in the near future, or if you just want to give your brain a good work out this book is definitely gonna help either way. Even if you plan on being the interviewer instead of the interviewee it might help. After all, according to the data the author presents, interviews really are no true reflection on how the applicant is actually going to perform on the job. But maybe if you use some of these more interesting questions, or versions of them, you can at least see who REALLY wants the job. (if they are going to put up with some of the crazier questions and actually try to answer them, then obviously they want it right?)
In compliance with FTC guidelines, I'm disclosing that I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads.
The author also gave quite a few tips on what to do if you're hit with questions you don't quite know how to answer. How to brainstorm on the fly, ways to question you interviewer to buy time and get extra hints to help solve the problem. Also ways to phrase your answers so that even if they are wrong you don't look like a complete idiot. Plus other interview tips, such as making sure you research the company you are applying at and making sure you clean up your public sites, such as facebook or myspace, before applying. After all if you are googling them, then they definitely are googling you. Especially if the company you are applying for is GOOGLE!. Whether you have interviews looming in the near future, or if you just want to give your brain a good work out this book is definitely gonna help either way. Even if you plan on being the interviewer instead of the interviewee it might help. After all, according to the data the author presents, interviews really are no true reflection on how the applicant is actually going to perform on the job. But maybe if you use some of these more interesting questions, or versions of them, you can at least see who REALLY wants the job. (if they are going to put up with some of the crazier questions and actually try to answer them, then obviously they want it right?)
In compliance with FTC guidelines, I'm disclosing that I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Great book to prepare you for any interview
This book helped prepare me for the Google interview. Although I did not get an offer, I learned a lot, and did much better than I would have done without this book. Read more
Published 1 month ago by R. Garcia
Even if you do not look for a job, this book is great
I do not know why the title involves Google, or I should say I understand why on a comercial point of view, but only on a comercial point of view. Read more
Published 1 month ago by P. Sebastien
I am NOT smart enough to work at Google
This was a very interesting book. I am a fan of puzzles and open ended questions and this book was loaded with them. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Yvonne Teach
whats not to like?
what's up with all these negativity towards the book? Given how successful Google is and its dominant brand name, there are obviously countless articles/blogs/forums and various... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Ah Pui
Level-Headed Guide to Unsettling Interview Questions
This book covers a topic that falls between the cracks of other interview preparation guides, the purposely unusual questions that asked to throw off the interviewee and test his... Read more
Published 3 months ago by P.L. Sherman
Jump start for those entering job market
I requested to review this book as I expect to reenter the job market next year after a 15 year absence. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Kim Adams
A Good Follow-Up to Mount Fuji
I was given Poundstones' How Would You Move Mount Fuji? as a graduation gift and liked it. This is a new collection of questions showing how interviews have changed since the early... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Ethan Cameron
Good, decent book
A good book for programmers and engineers looking for good tips on how to handle interview questions. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Andreas
Disappointing puzzlers
I bought this book because I thought the puzzles in it would be fun. Early on, I found a major error when the author talked about the Monty Hall problem. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Sandra Wilde
Quick and Helpful
This is a quick read about the more unusual job interview questions and tactics. It gives a good sense of how job interviews have evolved over the years. Read more
Published 4 months ago by RW Williams
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making guesses and formulating hypotheses about these deficiencies; evaluating and testing these guesses and hypotheses; possibly revising and retesting them; and finally, communicating the results.
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the threshold hypothesis. This says that you have to be intelligent in order to be creativebut the opposite isnt the case.
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