Microsofts interview process: How Would You Move Mount Fuji

Synopsis
Microsoft's interview process is a notoriously gruelling sequence of brain-busting questions that separate the most creative thinkers from the merely brilliant. So effective is their technique that other leading corporations - from the high-tech industry to consulting and financial services - are modelling their own hiring practices on Bill Gates' unique approach. HOW WOULD YOU MOVE MOUNT FUJI? reveals for the first time more than 35 of Microsoft's puzzles and riddles, such as: Why does a mirror reverse right and left but not up and down? If you could eliminate one U.S. state, which would it be? How many piano tuners are there in the world? And for the first time, this book supplies answers and approaches using creative analytical thinking that works. Anyone in business, and everyone who wants to be, will find this book a valuable new approach to hiring, identifying talent in an organization, and getting the job of a lifetime.

Review
We recommend this book to people trying to get hired at Microsoft or companies influenced by its hiring practices; people who want to think critically about how hiring practices work; and people who want to see how smart they are. The last group includes those who enjoy puzzles, and will relish the fun, challenging questions presented here. The book's core is a collection of entertaining brainteasers from job interviews. Given the high level of competition, most people who are trying to get hired at Microsoft probably need the edge it provides. Readers can work methodically through the questions, and the reasons behind them, to build a general approach for dealing with most puzzles. Readers who want to reflect on hiring practices - such as human resources personnel or scholars of corporate culture - will find the book intriguing but incomplete. Author William Poundstone is incredibly useful when discussing the gaps between what these questions do and what they are intended to do, but he delivers only quick sketches of explanations about how corporate culture retains these approaches despite their relative lack of function. His suggestions for alternative approaches are equally brief. Even after reading this entertaining book, readers are likely to find that perfecting their companies' interviewing processes will continue to be something of a puzzle.

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