Mentoring

We are the answer

I drift back to the early 60s to a small boy and his father on a shopping trip to Charpiot’s Hardware store in West Unity. My father, as he was checking out, realizes he had forgotten to get a new set of pliers and tells me to go get one. I go to the pliers and bring back the cheapest pair. I was being taught to shop with price in mind to make my allowance (which I earned) last longer. Upon my return to the counter my father looked to see where the pliers were made. He immediately returned them to their place and brought back a pair that was slightly more expensive, which he paid for with the other item we had.

Once outside in the car he could tell that I was confused as to why he bought the more expensive pliers. He asked me if I liked getting my allowance. I said yes. He then said that in order for him to be able to pay me an allowance he had to work and that some where in this country another boy’s father had the job of making the pliers he bought so that he could afford to pay his son an allowance. He then explained that the pliers I picked were made overseas and the ones he bought were made in the USA and were worth more because they keep our nation strong. A simple lesson as valuable today as it was back then!

Michael Frybarger

West Unity, Oh 

How would you fair in a job interview?


Over the past year, interview candidates just about everywhere shared some of the most difficult, or unexpected interview questions on Glassdoor, a jobs and career community. We’ve looked back on thousands of these questions, across a range of jobs, companies and industries. Here’s our take on the top 25 oddball interview questions of 2011:



1. “How many people are using Facebook in San Francisco at 2:30pm on a Friday?” – view answersAsked at Google. More Google interview questions.



2. “Just entertain me for five minutes, I’m not going to talk.” – view answersAsked at Acosta. More Acosta interview questions.



3. “If Germans were the tallest people in the world, how would you prove it?” – view answersAsked at Hewlett-Packard. More Hewlett-Packard interview questions.




4. “What do you think of garden gnomes?” – view answersAsked at Trader Joe’s. More Trader Joe’s interview questions.



5. “Is your college GPA reflective of your potential?” – view answersAsked at the Advisory Board. More Advisory Board interview questions.



6. “Would Mahatma Gandhi have made a good software engineer?” –view answersAsked at Deloitte. More Deloitte interview questions.



7. “If you could be #1 employee but have all your coworkers dislike you or you could be #15 employee and have all your coworkers like you, which would you choose?” – view answersAsked at ADP. More ADP interview questions.



8. “How would you cure world hunger?” – view answersAsked at Amazon.com. More Amazon.com interview questions.



9. “Room, desk and car – which do you clean first?” – view answersAsked at Pinkberry. More Pinkberry interview questions.



10. “Does life fascinate you?” – view answersAsked at Ernst & Young. More Ernst & Young interview questions.



11. “Given 20 ‘destructible’ light bulbs (which breaks at certain height), and a building with 100 floors, how do you determine the height that the light bulb breaks?” – view answersAsked at QUALCOMM. More QUALCOMM interview questions.



12. “Please spell ‘diverticulitis’.” – view answersAsked at EMSI Engineering. More EMSI Engineering interview questions.



13. “Name 5 uses of a stapler without staple pins.” – view answersAsked at EvaluServe. More EvaluServe interview questions



14. “How much money did residents of Dallas/Ft. Worth spend on gasoline in 2008?” – view answersAsked at American Airlines. More American Airlines interview questions.



15. “How would you get an elephant into a refrigerator?” – view answersAsked at Horizon Group Properties. More Horizon Group Properties interview questions.



16. “You have a bouquet of flowers. All but two are roses, all but two are daisies, and all but two are tulips. How many flowers do you have?” – view answersAsked at Epic Systems. More Epic Systems interview questions.



17. “How many planes are currently flying over Kansas?” – view answersAsked at Best Buy. More Best Buy interview questions.



18. “How many different ways can you get water from a lake at the foot of a mountain, up to the top of the mountain?” – view answersAsked at Disney Parks & Resorts. More Disney Parks & Resorts interview questions.



19. “What is 37 times 37?” –view answersAsked at Jane Street Capital. More Jane Street Capital interview questions.



20. “If you could be a superhero, what power would you possess?” – view answersAsked at Rain and Hail Insurance. More Rain and Hail Insurance interview questions.



21. “If you were a Microsoft Office program, which one would you be?” –view answersAsked at Summit Racing Equipment. More Summit Racing Equipment interview questions.



22. “Pepsi or Coke?” – view answersAsked at United Health Group. More United Health Group interview questions.



23. “Are you exhaling warm air?” – view answersAsked at Walker Marketing. More Walker Marketing interview questions.



24. “You’re in a row boat, which is in a large tank filled with water. You have an anchor on board, which you throw overboard (the chain is long enough so the anchor rests completely on the bottom of the tank). Does the water level in the tank rise or fall?” – view answersAsked at Tesla Motors. More Tesla Motors interview questions.



25. “How do you feel about those jokers at Congress?” – view answersAsked at Consolidated Electrical. More Consolidated Electrical interview questions.


These are just a handful of the 150,000+ interview questions Glassdoor has collected from job interview candidates through our Interview Reviews. Got a good response to any of these questions? Make sure to leave your attempt at the answers through the above links. Interviewed lately? We hope you’ll tell us about it!