Do You Have Any Questions?

[msconduct]

The ghastly interview question used to be "See this pen? Sell it to me?", but that's now out of fashion. The hot new torture is apparently to ask interviewees why manhole covers are round.

Lucky I'm self-employed, because I'd never get the job. The answer they're looking for is that with a square cover there's a risk of it falling through and crushing a hapless sewer worker (and their lives are bad enough already).

I would have said "Because manholes are round".

Comments

[badasstronaut.livejournal.com]

You could always inform them they're not called "manholes" anymore.

[msconduct.livejournal.com]

What are they now?

[badasstronaut.livejournal.com]

Well, still manhole probably. But it's one of those funny words that's had a whole lot discussion about it, and some people would prefer to call it utility access hole. But all that's irrelevant - the point was that you could fail to answer the question and instead raise a whole nother issue about the concept of manholiness.

[msconduct.livejournal.com]

Sure - I just wondered what the official term now was. There doesn't seem to be be one, probably because everyone still says manhole.

[badasstronaut.livejournal.com]

Utility access hole. But I think there's generally apathy about it as no one's feeling all that keen on going down one anyway.

[frowningman.livejournal.com]

You'd have got that double-wrong because most manholes in NZ aren't round, nor are their covers.

I'm still not forgiving anybody for "you've tried everything you can think of to solve a problem, what do you do next?". I know the expected answer, now, but that answer fits into the "everything I can think of" category, so it's already been ruled out in the question. There is no answer to that question. Even "give up" is something I might have thought of, and if it wasn't then I couldn't even do that.

[msconduct.livejournal.com]

You'd have got that double-wrong because most manholes in NZ aren't round, nor are their covers.

NZ's sewers must be full of crushed corpses. (I always had the vague notion they were squareish, but I bet that wouldn't stop a NZ interviewer asking the question.)

I'm still not forgiving anybody for "you've tried everything you can think of to solve a problem, what do you do next?". I know the expected answer, now, but that answer fits into the "everything I can think of" category, so it's already been ruled out in the question. There is no answer to that question. Even "give up" is something I might have thought of, and if it wasn't then I couldn't even do that.

You could always point out the logical paradox and watch them start bleeding through the ears, but it wouldn't really be fair. It'd be like poking a puppy with a stick.

[isaacfreeman.livejournal.com]

The answer they're looking for is that with a square cover there's a risk of it falling through and crushing a hapless sewer worker (and their lives are bad enough already).

Also, they're heavy, and making them round means you can roll them to where you need them.