Care about small thinks as well during interview

14^th August, 2010

Don’t do it! J

I come across interesting interview story on the web. It goes as following…

Courtesy: http://niniane.org/interview_howto.html

A final story

I'd like to leave you with a story of an unfortunate interview. Draw hope that no matter how your interview goes, you will likely be more lucky than this candidate.

At Microsoft, we always offered drinks to our candidates, and one candidate "Jeff" took a pepsi. We got into my office, and he set it down on the desk. We started discussing his experiences and then launched into the whiteboard coding question, and he didn't get around to opening his pepsi.

We stood at the whiteboard, and Jeff started to write a line of code. He stopped to think about the overall algorithm, and absentmindedly took a step back in order to see the entire whiteboard. In doing so, he inadvertently knocked against the desk, and the pepsi fell off the edge.

This pepsi was still unopened. Thus, when it hit the ground, it exploded on impact.

Pepsi sprayed in foamy gusts in all directions from the can. It was a slow-motion moment as beige spots of soda splashed onto my white walls, my bookshelf, my keyboard. We both stood there frozen, our hands halfway out (too slow to catch the pepsi), looking at the dripping liquid coating the entire inside of my office.

We took a 5-minute break to get paper towels and mop up the mess. (Though my books always stuck together after that day, and my walls were never the same again.)

We then returned to the whiteboard question. Jeff was nervous by this time (understandably). He wrote some code, erased it, wrote more. He erased using his fingers against the board instead of using the eraser. Then sweat formed on his forehead, and he wiped it off using the same hand. By the end of the interview, his face was covered in streaks of red, green, and blue whiteboard marker.

I said, "I think you have some marker on your hands. I'll show you the restroom." and let the bathroom mirror show him the problem.

Moral: Caring small things value lot.