Recent college graduates should pay attention to this
November 29, 2010
The business world, at least for the moment, respects Google's dominance and success. Businesses tend to imitate the practices of successful businesses. It's a pretty good bet, therefore, that other businesses will try to hire people the way Google hires.
So, if you are now, or expect to be soon, looking for a job, I think you should prepare to answer the types of questions Google asks. One place to start is here: "My Nightmare Interviews With Google". In particular, prepare to do, under some stress, simple arithmetic:
"Say an advertiser makes $0.10 every time someone clicks on their ad. Only 20% of people who visit the site click on their ad. How many people need to visit the site for the advertiser to make $20?” I froze. The problem sounded easy but I didn’t want to cause an awkward silence trying to solve it.
(Here's another suggestion: an "awkward silence" followed by a correct answer is usually far better than a quick but wrong answer.)
With some hesitation--a positive frame of mind is important for job interviews--I also recommend this: "14 Job Interview Disasters".