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Title: How Would You Move Mount Fuji?: Microsoft's Cult of the Puzzle -- How the World's Smartest Companies Select the Most Creative Thinkers
ISBN: 0316778494
Author:
William Poundstone
Publicate Date: 2004-04-02
Publish: 2004-04-02
List Price: $14.99
Average Customer Rating: 3.5
Format: Paperback
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $3.99
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $4.00
Amazon Merchant Price: $10.19
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| Customer Review: |
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1: Not Practical
This book does not give you any answers or even how to answer such questions. It is quite long winded and is more of a how to handle questions like this.
From a book that has the title, "how would you move mount fuji", I expect to be given the answer to this question or at least one answer to such a question.
This is some guy rambling on about how to be smart, and the types of interview questions and how to deal with such an interview.
But no answers here at all, all I want to hear is how you'd answer such a question. Here's a good example of an answer and use this technique to answer questions like these. NONE OF THIS KIND OF ADVISE IS HERE!
This is just some guy capitalizing on Microsoft interview questions and concepts. I was very disappointed.
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2: I gave a lecture about this book at GE!
A week before his senseless bicycling death in June 2004 at the hands of a speeding 18-year old motorist, a good friend and colleague of mine from GE Global Research showed me a book that he claimed I would love. We spent the evening competing over the great variety of "interview puzzles" that the book offers, and he was right. Dave had a Ph.D. in Physics from Oxford and I earned mine in Chemistry from the University of British Columbia, and we were both eager to learn if Microsoft would hire us, had we ever knocked on its door.
I was intrigued by the rather inhumane but clever hiring methodology that, according to Mr. Poundstone, Microsoft applies, which led me to give a lecture about the book in Dave's honor at GE's Scientific American Seminar Series two months later (I don't recall how I justified the book's connection to Scientific American...). In the process, I learned what approximate fraction of GE's R&D staff would stand to "pass the test" at Microsoft, which surprised me...
If you love to think in a variety of dimensions, get this book. In spite of its flaws, which have been well documented by the other reviewers, it's a gem, as is almost every book produced by Mr. Poundstone's ample and wide-ranging intellect.
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3: Not good for interviewing
This book is definitely entertaining, interesting, and well-researched. However, the premise is a little misleading. I bought this as I was finishing grad school and interviewing with tech companies. It really did not help at all. Maybe companies used to use these logic puzzles, but regardless, I can tell you for sure they don't anymore. I interviewed with companies including Google, Apple, Amazon, and Adobe, and none of them asked me any logic puzzles. I don't think it's common practice anymore. Don't buy this if you're looking to get ahead for tech interviews. Your time would be better spent studying programming problems.
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4: Should have read it twice....
This books is filled with all those puzzle questions that *used* to come up at interviews at Microsoft and Google... I interviewed at both companies none of these came up, in fact thay are now frowned upon...as fate would have it I interviewd at a third company and they asked the one about the boat and the suitcase, which I couldn't remember.. aaaaarrrg
Bill
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5: It's not about finding a job, but having an open mind.
Too simple to think of this as getting a job at Microsoft of job interviews in general. It's about having an open mind. Clearly the "problems" can distinguish between those who say "I can't do it" and give up and those who find every problem, even the impossible, an opportunity to succeed, and are not crushed be failure. And the problems are fun.
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