On Monday of last week, I interviewed this really hot Asian chick named Molly that I met a couple of weeks ago at a career fair. The HR people asked if I would interview her (and some other candidates) to see if their interests are compatible with those of my company.

Anyways, I met this Asian girl in the lobby of the building, and gave her a quick tour of the facility, including the giant control center which monitors the power system of a large portion of the state of Georgia. When I met her in the lobby, she said in this real thick over-exaggerated accent, "Herro Joe, my name is Morry, preased to see you again," and started busting out laughing saying in a normal American accent, "Haha, I'm just kidding, how are you doing today?"

I wanted to laugh, because it was pretty fucking funny the way she said it, but knew that it wasn't very appropriate for her to do what she did, or for me to laugh at it. Anyways, I just smiled and continued on with the tour, and ended up in a conference room with my stuff in there to start the interview.

I asked her some of the generic, boring interview questions about what she wants to do when she finished in December, what her goals are, and what she is looking for in a job. She basically just laughed the whole time and used "umm," "so like," "I don't know," etc. in most of her responses. She sounded like she had nothing but air in that skull of hers, despite an OK GPA of 3.4. My final non-technical question was about how she thinks the company could benefit from her being an employee, and her response was just as bad as the rest, something along the lines of "Well, I'm an EE major, and you are an electrical company, and I think I can, like, learn whatever kinds of stuff you want me to do, and I am really good at like, getting along with people."

Oh boy.

We then proceeded into the technical side of the interview (and she had prior knowledge that I would be asking her questions), and she said "oh no, I hope you don't ask me any math questions or circuits, because I'm not that good at them!" as she chuckled and looked somewhat concerned. I hadn't planned on asking any math questions, but circuits are a fair game, and I told her on the phone last week that I would be asking questions involving circuits.

The first question I asked was a simple voltage division, which to any EE, shouldn't be any major problem. I said if I have a 20V DC source, how can I get 5V on the outputs? She looked stunned, and started laughing and said "ummm" over and over. I told her as she was working through the problem to describe her thoughts out loud as she solved the problem. The poor girl didn't have a clue. I gave her a hint and said to use resistors. Again, a blank. I finally ended up drawing the circuit for her and asked her what the two resistor values should be. Again, nothing!

     -----o              o
     |                      +
     |
     +  20V
     -                      5V
     |
     |
     -----o              o  -

10/1/2006 9:58:37 PM

Maybe you talked too much.

[Edited on October 1, 2006 at 9:59 PM. Reason : o]

10/1/2006 9:59:21 PM

of course, why didn't i think of that?

10/1/2006 10:00:24 PM

>.<

10/1/2006 10:01:53 PM

So was she hot enough to still get the job???

10/1/2006 10:04:19 PM

sounds like you did fine - she sounds like one of those engineering girls who suckered nerdy guys to do all their homework

10/1/2006 10:04:45 PM

i think in this situation, you gave her ample time to show her knowledge. perhaps you did a little bit too much, but she cant say that you didnt give her the chance or that the question was ambiguous.

i wouldnt have worked with her through the second one, particularly if it was her specialization. id have cut her short, asked some wrap up questions and put a big stamp that said [NO] on the paper.

10/1/2006 10:05:57 PM

ohms law is powerfully hard.

10/1/2006 10:06:07 PM

i sure as hell wouldn't be able to answer the second question - i'm horrible bad at solving analog problems and even worse at working with diodes and shit

10/1/2006 10:09:11 PM

I might've given her a more informal technical question that could be answered verbally, but other than that, I think any EE should know the basics you wanted her to know.

And a 3.4 can be deceptive. I have a 3.4 overall, but my engineering GPA is lower.

10/1/2006 10:09:21 PM

i bet if she wasnt smoken' you wouldnt of worried about it being your fault. By your admission she is a ditz... didnt sound like you did that bad of a job. unless you were uptight and pressuring, you dont seem like it, and even still its an interview not social hour. if she couldnt adapt, then you rate your self not one person but on overall reaction, no matter if there HOT or not. you made it a point to say that many times, your being biased and this could reflect poorly on you if you hire her and she sucks.

10/1/2006 10:09:55 PM

a better question for her would have been asking her how to "fix" an existing circuit diagram, maybe some obvious no-no's that any EE should know. (im not an EE, so i have no idea how you could ask this type of question)

giving her math problems to do, like that first problem wasnt cool. even if it was a simple problem, some people get too nervous to answer these types of questions when under pressure. granted you might not want to hire a person that struggles with the elementary stuff, but an interview setting can freeze some people.

V

Quote :

"bullshit - there's no excuse for an EE not knowing how to do voltage division."

im not an EE, how the hell should i know how to solve that crap

[Edited on October 1, 2006 at 10:18 PM. Reason : .]

10/1/2006 10:11:41 PM

Sounds like she didn't know her shit. That's not your fault.

10/1/2006 10:13:37 PM

^^ bullshit - there's no excuse for an EE not knowing how to do voltage division. it would be like a physics major claiming that F=ma is too "mathy hard"

r2/(r1+r2)

its pounded into your brain every week of every semester you take.

in fact, i would have been insulted if someone asked me to solve that problem

[Edited on October 1, 2006 at 10:18 PM. Reason : s]

10/1/2006 10:14:58 PM

Quote :

" even if it was a simple problem, some people get too nervous to answer these types of questions when under pressure."

exactly. And I noticed that things sorta clicked in for her on the 1st problem after we took a breather and talked about non-interview stuff for a few minutes. I have terrible anxiety, and I could totally understand where she was coming from.

I also thought that she was just thinking too hard about the simple problem, expecting for someone like me to put some sort of a twist in there, or be more difficult than it really was.

But when I asked her about the second problem, even if she weren't able to build it (which I didn't really have high hopes for anyone being able to do so), she should at least be able to explain how it worked and what was going on.

10/1/2006 10:15:08 PM

where did she go to school?

nevermind saw it now.

[Edited on October 1, 2006 at 10:21 PM. Reason : a]

10/1/2006 10:20:23 PM

Quote :

"where did she go to school? "

I'm sure she's just an outlier, but this girl doesn't speak well for Georgia Tech

10/1/2006 10:24:03 PM

hot girls get through EE b/c they are hot and have a bunch of nerdy EE guys that study with her

Quote :

""Well, I'm an EE major,"

There is absolutely no excuse for not knowing simple voltage division. GT's ratio of 70% guys must be really fun if you are a girl

[Edited on October 1, 2006 at 10:28 PM. Reason : .]

10/1/2006 10:24:08 PM

the stump threw her off i bet. that said, in a one-on-one interview, you'd be better off asking open ended technical questions as someone else said. let her show you what she knows. if you want to really test her you can ask followup questions.

this wont stump her or scare her into doing poorly, but allows her to showcase what she is best at (and thus can bring to the firm).

10/1/2006 10:25:12 PM

i didn't say all girls did that, but there are definitely some that do and she seems to have been one of them

^ I agree, engineering is about problem solving - find a unique problem that might even be unsolvable and watch how she approaches it, i.e.

1. does she probe you for more information? (she should, you've got to make sure you know as much as possible about a problem before solving it)
2. what kind of assumptions does she make for information which she can not get? does she state what could go wrong if her assumptions turn out to be incorrect?
3. does she try to anticipate future corner cases




[Edited on October 1, 2006 at 10:29 PM. Reason : s]

[Edited on October 1, 2006 at 10:29 PM. Reason : s]

10/1/2006 10:25:53 PM

yeah, high school physics should be enough to answer that first question

but it sounds like you knew what you were doing (calming her down, trying to point her in the right direction, etc...) perhaps your execution of these things wasnt on point but you will only get better

10/1/2006 10:27:57 PM

Quote :

"The HR folks who are professionals at conducting interviews didn't really give me any pointers at how I should conduct myself. "

My experience with many, many interviews is that HR folks are actually the lamest interviewers of all when it comes to hiring technical people.

It sounds like you did a good job. My only comment would be that you will find many people struggle with seemingly simple technical questions, and some of it has to do with the fact that we NEVER practice taking tests verbally in school. I'm not excusing her ignorance, I'm just saying that it's easier for the people sitting reading this thread to think straight than it would be if any of us were in a room thinking out loud to an interviewer with a job on the line. I had a guy ask me 5 technical questions verbally at a co-op job interview a very long time ago, and I struggled mainly because I was used to reading written questions and writing down my work, not thinking out loud with no where to write. He offered me the job, but the interview had not excited me about working there so I went to another company.

Asking a question that you don't EXPECT people to be able to solve the problem is really creating an awkward moment for everyone.

For this reason, I usually used to ask job candidates to explain a technical project that they've worked on and encourage them to write things down or use the white board. I interupt and ask technical questions related to the project the whole time. If they can explain a complicated project really well and answer related questions, then they're probably technically sound.

[Edited on October 1, 2006 at 10:32 PM. Reason : .]

10/1/2006 10:30:06 PM

voltage division is

Quote :

"high school physics"

I don't understand why people think that voltage division would be a hard question for a girl that graduated with an EE degree and a 3.4 GPA


If you are interviewing for an EE job, you should know basic EE stuff. Hell I am surprised you didn't ask her more "involved" questions. For a CoOp job we got asked more interesting stuff than that crap.

[Edited on October 1, 2006 at 10:34 PM. Reason : .]

10/1/2006 10:31:16 PM

ive never really been asked a computer science weighted question before in my interviews. i did have a presentation where they grilled me on the subject matter, but it wasnt anything i could formally answer (considering they gave me an ambiguous outline to work from).

10/1/2006 10:35:55 PM

her lack of professionalism sucks

dont let her ride on her looks

10/1/2006 10:36:35 PM

yea, i agree that racism jokes are the worst first-impression ever, particularly given the PC climate of today's world

she shouldn't joke like that because whether or not she gets a free-pass on it for being asian, it still puts everyone else in a very precarious position

and thats downright rude

10/1/2006 10:38:35 PM

she shoulda just said, WHATS UP MY NIGGA....OOOOH SNAP WHATS UP WID JO EYE

10/1/2006 10:45:49 PM

You can let her ride on your looks.

aw-right.

10/1/2006 10:50:43 PM

I interview people at my job and I've realized there are quite a few people that just make up all sorts of shit on their resume and just bank on a some company they interview with not asking any technical questions and getting hired anyway. You can really tell people that know what they are talking about vs. the people that just put down a bunch of keywords they saw on a powerpoint presentation once.

10/1/2006 10:51:41 PM

I think the interview was fair.. Im an EE/cpe grad and havent solved any circuits in years, but I remember ohms law.

You probably should have asked her what ohms law was after you helped her solve the first problem. I think its kind of important to ask technical questions that can be answered without any math or drawing anything on the board mixed in with questions that need to be written. I think it gets people's minds warmed up with conversational techincal questions.

10/1/2006 11:01:54 PM

Quote :

"I finally ended up drawing the circuit for her and asked her what the two resistor values should be. Again, nothing!"

2 ohms each?

10/1/2006 11:07:25 PM

Joe, it doesn't sound like it was your fault. The girl just didn't know what she was talking about.

I don't know much about EE, but the other responses have made it clear that those problems are elementary. Even if she was nervous, she still should've been able to talk about her goals with more specific words than "stuff."

And the joke was in very bad taste.

10/1/2006 11:13:42 PM

im still trying to figure out what class introduced a zener diode because i must have missed it.

10/1/2006 11:27:21 PM

^302 dude.....Barlage rules!!!!!!

10/1/2006 11:29:54 PM

did he teach you about the amplifying diode as well?

10/1/2006 11:37:35 PM

I think you did a good job..... all of those questions were very easy and you shouldnt worry about it... I am an EE and if you asked me those questions I would be happy that it was actually something that was easy enough to do. My least fav part of technical interviews is when they just keep probing random areas until they find 1 thing your unsure of... and then just drop everything else and only ask u stuff about that to see how u react....

10/1/2006 11:40:59 PM

don't probe her ability to solve meaningless circuit diagrams - find out if she can solve problems

computers are gonna do all that solving shit anyway - if she doesn't have the ability to understand the assumptions those programs are using, and their consequences, as well as the critical thinking needed to evaluate the results, it won't matter shit if she knows where to place a zener diode.

10/2/2006 12:39:42 AM

I'm not an EE, but from the sounds of it she wasn't showing up for the interview with professionalism in mind in the first place (HERRO JOE... good god). I know that circuit question is easy, though I can't answer it (sorry, buried my head too far into my major ). That second question does look kind of advanced, but you did research it ahead of time since she said it was her specialty (if I understood you correctly). If it's her specialty, I don't see why she couldn't go farther with it (at least explain some relation between the parts of the problem even if she hasn't solved it, because otherwise I don't see how you can specialize in something you don't have even a general concept of).

Otherwise, I agree that the open-ended questions would be more helpful. I would be way happier to get a question where there is no real correct answer. I mean if someone asked me what basic concepts might be involved with designing a roadway or something, I could give them some simple answers (slight camber to provide drainage, plan to allow for expected traffic capacity in 10 years, plus allow room/right-of-way for expansion if growth is expected in the area, perhaps plan on expanding nearby roads traffic capacity if this traffic is going to cause a problem in other areas during the years of construction (assuming this is a project that will close/widen a road or maybe upgrade a bridge or what have you), etc), but if they asked me about something that I had forgotten about, even something simple, I would feel that the interview was a bit unfair (like column buckling, I forgot the equations for that since last semester, but if I knew that this was something I'd have to deal with in a problem I am more than technically capable of solving said problem).

I'd say that if you ever have an interview go like that where they don't appear to know that much, try one of those open-ended questions to see if they're technically oriented at all (and maybe just having a rough day/afraid of you and blanking out on everything) or if they're just completely stupid (and they had somebody do all their homework in college like somebody suggested).

You also might not want to worry about solving the problem for them beyond the first one (like you said she had something click in her head and remembered something, but after that she couldn't give you much of an answer on the next problem). If you throw four problems at them dealing with separate, simple things that any EE should know, and they don't get one of them (even an idea or an equation from the back of their head), it's a good chance that no amount of work on your part is necessary to prove their technical capacity by checking their responses when you solve the problem. They may also just be having a bad interview, but again that's not always your problem (just try both styles of questioning and see if you can get anything out of them, if you get nothing they might have issues you don't want to deal with as an employer).

[Edited on October 2, 2006 at 12:48 AM. Reason : V you didn't read it did you. ]

10/2/2006 12:41:18 AM

^ yep

How about this:

If you have a rotating disk with a small colored wedge painted onto it, how can you tell if it is rotating clockwise or counter-clockwise?

[Edited on October 2, 2006 at 12:48 AM. Reason : s]

10/2/2006 12:43:47 AM

^ That's a very ambiguous question.

10/2/2006 12:59:28 AM

yes, open-ended

[Edited on October 2, 2006 at 1:01 AM. Reason : s]

10/2/2006 1:00:36 AM

You should have sexually harassed her. it's good to have some eye candy around the office.

10/2/2006 1:18:33 AM

Have you ever trained somebody at a job before? You can usually tell from the start whether they are competent or not, regardless of whatever background they put down on their application/resume. I'm guessing you've been through a number of interviews yourself. Sounds like you did fine but just got hit with a nervous/poor job candidate.

(Note, don't let your HR people see this ... they won't take kindly to the ... extraneous comments )

[Edited on October 2, 2006 at 7:53 AM. Reason : .]

10/2/2006 7:52:54 AM

I wouldn't sweat it. One of the main interviewers at my last job had to go through this shit all the time. He would get candidates with 5 page resumes who didn't know anything. Sometimes they would bold important key terms on their resume that they were clueless about. One guy even came in with notes. My background is CSC and the guy interviewed me on all the basic principles I should know from intro to csc and a few ones from my 200 level class plus I had to write a small method on the board. There were plenty of questions I didn't know. This was actually my first technical interview. However I did know enough for someone fresh out of school and the concepts that I was familiar with, I knew inside and out.

10/2/2006 8:02:00 AM

shit, i'm not even an engineer and i was able to figure these out....

another case of someone who studies for the test, does well on them may or may not do homework, but does not seemingly absorb any useful level of knowledge and is unable to make the 'connections' between things (not that any of your q's involved that) that could be related to come to an efficient conclusion.... thus she has a good gpa and seems smart but in reality, is a moron.

hmmm, i wonder if you could get her hired as your personal 'assistant' you know, since you may need 'help' with things that need 'two hands' wink wink nudge nudge knowwhatimean knowwhatimean


only thing I would add or change is alter a question or two that perhaps would allow you to see if she can make those connections in a problem solving situation.... '


the questions weren't meaningless, they were very basic... like asking a bio grad. if they know what PCR is.... they dont have go into detail but understanding what it does is kinda important....

[Edited on October 2, 2006 at 8:25 AM. Reason : s]

10/2/2006 8:20:27 AM

I call BS on her having an EE degree

Not knowing voltage division is the same as not knowing what a "for" loop does in CSC

10/2/2006 8:25:37 AM

It obviously sounds like she got her degree by being booksmart and using notes, not on on hand knowledge without studying. It doesn't necessarily mean she's a bad EE but it sounds to me like she would not be someone to use on the fly.

I think you conducted the interview very well. You test their working knowledge. Do you want someone who has to go to a book everytime you ask a question or someone who has the answer already in their noggin.

What level of basic knowledge do you want an applicant to have? You obviously stated this that she needed to know circuits. She didn't. This is knowledge she must have daily for her job correct?

She definitely has a good personality but I think that might be what got her so far without a lot of working knowledge.

When I interview someone I let them know before hand that I will test their knowledge for the job. I write down how fast they are to respond, how accurate their response is and how clearly they explained it. She failed in all 3. I would not hire her.

10/2/2006 8:54:48 AM

Coming from someone who does a lot of interviewing, don't sweat the structure of the interview. The only things you need to know are what questions are not legal to ask (this is all HR is good for).

Other than that, your job as the interviewer is to find out if the interviewee is a good fit for the position he or she is interviewing for. However you choose to do that is entirely up to you, as long as you are able to glean from their answers that they possess the requisite knowledge to succeed in the job.

I personally don't like to ask straight up questions and answers. Anyone can memorize, but knowing how to apply concepts to a scenario requires a more comprehensive understanding of a topic in addition to problem solving skills. This way, whether I'm interviewing a college grad with little experience or an industry veteran, I can, with one line of questioning, know the breadth and depth of technical knowledge, how they approach a problem, and how they do under pressure.

Also, I try to keep things very informal because I want to see their real personality, not their fake interview personality. I would argue that how an individual fits into a team dynamic is as important as their technical skill set. We've turned down candidates who nailed the technical interview, but had poor people skills.

Bottom line is that the interview is mostly up to the candidate to prove themselves. All you need to do is ensure that you find out whether or not the candidate meets the specific needs of the position you are interviewing for. are

10/2/2006 9:07:08 AM

i agree with with ^ - i think you did a good job interviewing her - and her inability to perform simple tasks and answer simple questions probably just scared you a little bit - i don't think that should reflect on you

10/2/2006 9:18:23 AM

Umm, don't you have the second diagram wrong?

Shouldn't the anode of the non-zener diode be connected to the anode of the zener, then the cathode to ground? The zener sets the voltage at the output of the resistor to 4.3 then you need the + .7 of the non-zener to add up for your 5v needed for the output. As you have it drawn, the zener sets the voltage at 4.3, then you have a .7 drop across the the non-zener to the output, which would give you 3.6V

10/2/2006 9:30:52 AM