How Do You Fight a Horse-Sized Duck?

May 31, 2021
Journalist Poundstone (The Doomsday Calculation) offers an astute primer on common interviewing tactics and tackling tough questions. “Both employees and employers are more selective than ever,” Poundstone writes, and with many job-seekers facing student loan debt and wanting high-paying jobs, the competition is stiff. But recruiters only spend an average of six seconds looking at each résumé, and many require applicants who make it to the interview stage to complete a series of games as a way to further cull the herd. Poundstone takes an informative look at the history of the interviewing process, explores some common mind games (including memory games and math questions), and describes how to improve one’s odds of doing well by offering a tutorial on creative problem-solving. He details ways these confounding puzzles can trip up people, and advises such tactics as paying attention to unexpected words, using the process of elimination, and working backward to help boost one’s chances of success. Full of valuable insight on effectively navigating the interviewing process, this is a must-read for those looking to nail their next interview. Agent: John Brockman, Brockman Inc.