Are You Smart Enough to Work at Google?

November 14, 2011
Google conducts some of the toughest job interviews: since its first recruiting campaign in 2004, the company has been using brainteasers and other open-ended mental challenges along with the standard behavioral questions to identify the candidates most capable of iconoclastic, creative problem solving—and to find out, as a former Google employee describes, “where the candidates run out of ideas.” Today, alongside passing social network checks and displaying far above average intelligence, candidates must sit through more interviews than ever before and pass questions that try to screen for a particular personality—and offbeat interview questions have become de rigueur at other companies. Poundstone (Priceless) offers strategies for making the best of these nerve-racking situations, decoding interviewer’s hidden agendas, and salvaging a doomed interview, in a solid treatment peppered with mind-bending puzzles. The creativity of these puzzles, along with Poundstone’s energetic, compelling writing, makes the book fun even for nonjob seekers.