I love brainteasers! They sharpen your mind and some firms still employ them as a way of screaming people out. Today show offers up the classic one,”Not One Single Person Gets Off.” I hope you enjoy it.
Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter is a career and leadership coach who worked as a recruiter for more than 40 years. He is the host of “No BS Job Search Advice Radio,” the #1 podcast in iTunes for job search with more than 1200 episodes, “Job Search Radio,” “and his newest show, “No BS Coaching Advice” and is a member of The Forbes Coaches Council.
Are you interested in 1:1 coaching, interview coaching, advice about networking more effectively, how to negotiate your offer or leadership coaching? Connect with me on LinkedIn. Then message me to schedule an initial complimentary session.
JobSearchCoachingHQ.com offers great advice for job hunters—videos, my books and guides to job hunting, podcasts, articles, PLUS a community for you to ask questions of PLUS the ability to ask me questions where I function as your ally with no conflict of interest answering your questions.
If you want to know how to win more interviews, order “Winning Interviews.” You’ll learn how to win phone interviews, in-person interviews, the best question to ask on any interview and more.
Would you like to talk through a salary negotiation or potential negotiation you’re involved with? Order and schedule time with me.
Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter explains how to answer every hedge fund brain teaser job interview question you are ever asked using the example of “how much money do I have to my pocket?”
Today, I want to teach you the trick to answering every hedge fund question that you are ever asked, every Wall Street brainteaser question that you ever asked. It's really very simple.
It goes back to the idea of Capt. Kirk, The Starfleet Academy and the Kobayashi Maru question. If you are not a Star Trek flat fan, let me explain the scenario. There is no win question that Capt. Kirk is asked. Every potential captain of the Starfleet ship is required to be placed in the position where they face death. What Capt. Kirk does is reprogram the computers in a particular way so that he is exempt from all the worst-case scenarios. He is able to defeat the systems by reprogramming the systems.
How does this deal with hedge fund questions?
What they are really looking for are a few things. (1) You want to watch a reaction to the question. So let me give you a classic question: how much money do I have in my pocket? How could you possibly know the answer that? Let's concede, you really don't know. What can you do?
You can pause, hesitate for a 2nd and say whatever it is that comes to mind. 9 times out of 10, through that they will ask a follow-up question. They may respond by saying, "That's right.." Or they may ask, "How did you come up with that? "
Then, you can follow up by saying a few different things. For example, "I doubt if you carry $20 in your pocket; I doubt if you carry $5 in your pocket. I doubt if you carry $5000 in your pocket. It seemed like a reasonable amount."
Whatever it is, in the case of a hedge fund, you don't necessarily want to shoot low because it may be insulting to the interviewer and you would necessarily want to shoot too high because why wouldn't they just have a credit card? Using that particular example,, what you want to do is very calmly and very simply respond, and then if they say,, "that's not right," you can answer by saying, "Are you sure? When was the last time you check what was in your pocket?"
Understand what they are looking for is creativity and creative thought, a degree of self confidence. They want to watch her reactions to see what your reactions are the situations, they want to see if you are flustered or not, whether you have reasonable explanations or not, and whether you have the confidence, self-confidence to respond firmly and with confidence to what they pose... That doesn't come from whether or not you have reasonable explanations and whether you have the confidence/self-confidence to respond firmly and with confidence to what they pose...And that doesn't come from the behavior.
That's the simplest way to respond to hedge fund brainteasers. Understand what they are really looking for ( in the case of how much money do you have an your pocket, some really do require some thought.) and take the time to think it through.
You can always say, "Do you mind if I have a piece of paper and a pen to work it through? They are not expecting that.. They're expecting someone who will reason it through in their head... Again, you are reprogramming the problems work for you. He said with a degree of self confidence and certainty, they can always respond by saying, "No,, you can always figure it out you had."
Again, it is your manner that they are really looking at. It is your self-confidence, it is your certainty that they are really looking at.. If for some reason this is a firm that is out of control, that really wants a lunatic, so be it. Maybe it is not for you.
ABOUT JEFF ALTMAN, THE BIG GAME HUNTER
Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter is a career and leadership coach who worked as a recruiter for what more than 40 years. He is the host of “No BS Job Search Advice Radio,” the #1 podcast in iTunes for job search with more than 1100 episodes, “Job Search Radio,” “and his newest show, “No BS Coaching Advice” and is a member of The Forbes Coaches Council.
Are you interested in 1:1 coaching, interview coaching, advice about networking more effectively, how to negotiate your offer or leadership coaching? Connect with me on LinkedIn. Then message me to schedule an initial complimentary session.
JobSearchCoachingHQ.com offers great advice for job hunters—videos, my books and guides to job hunting, podcasts, articles, PLUS a community for you to ask questions of PLUS the ability to ask me questions where I function as your ally with no conflict of interest answering your questions.
If you want to know how to win more interviews, order “Winning Interviews.” You’ll learn how to win phone interviews, in-person interviews, the best question to ask on any interview and more.
Would you like to talk through a salary negotiation or potential negotiation you’re involved with? Order and schedule time with me.
I have another 1 of those fun hedge fund questions that I think you will really enjoy. "You're driving a bus and tracking the number of passengers on the bus. At the 1st stop, the bus picks up 26 people. At the 2nd stop, 15 of those people get off the bus and 8 new passengers get on. At the 3rd stop, to passengers get off and 11 new passengers get on. At the 4th stop, 3 passengers get off at 4 passengers get on. What is the color of the bus driver's eyes?"
This is a hysterical question because it is an example of 1 of those questions used to deflect you. Do you happen to know the answer by the way? You should because it really starts off at the beginning of the question.
The beginning of the question starts off by saying, "You're driving a bus." So the answer is YOUR eye color that is the factor here. Understand, there are some questions you are going to be asked that are designed to deflect your attention.
Here is another example. Tracy's mom has 4 children. April, May and June. What is the 4th child's name?
Do you know that one? If you're like most people you think the answer is July. In point of fact, you are told at the beginning that it is "TRACY's mother." So the answer is Tracy. But there is a deflection there with April, May and June to make you think that there is a pattern.
Always try to recognize the question clearly. Always try to spot the deflection from the very beginning of the question to see whether or not it is designed to throw you.
ABOUT JEFF ALTMAN, THE BIG GAME HUNTER
Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter is a career and leadership coach who worked as a recruiter for more than 40 years. He is the host of “No BS Job Search Advice Radio,” the #1 podcast in iTunes for job search with more than 1200 episodes, “Job Search Radio,” “and his newest show, “No BS Coaching Advice” and is a member of The Forbes Coaches Council.
Are you interested in 1:1 coaching, interview coaching, advice about networking more effectively, how to negotiate your offer or leadership coaching? Connect with me on LinkedIn. Then message me to schedule an initial complimentary session.
JobSearchCoachingHQ.com offers great advice for job hunters—videos, my books and guides to job hunting, podcasts, articles, PLUS a community for you to ask questions of PLUS the ability to ask me questions where I function as your ally with no conflict of interest answering your questions.
If you want to know how to win more interviews, order “Winning Interviews.” You’ll learn how to win phone interviews, in-person interviews, the best question to ask on any interview and more.
Would you like to talk through a salary negotiation or potential negotiation you’re involved with? Order and schedule time with me.
Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter is a career and leadership coach who worked as a recruiter for more than 40 years. He is the host of “No BS Job Search Advice Radio,” the #1 podcast in iTunes for job search with more than 1200 episodes, “Job Search Radio,” “and his newest show, “No BS Coaching Advice” and is a member of The Forbes Coaches Council.
Are you interested in 1:1 coaching, interview coaching, advice about networking more effectively, how to negotiate your offer or leadership coaching? Connect with me on LinkedIn. Then message me to schedule an initial complimentary session.
JobSearchCoachingHQ.com offers great advice for job hunters—videos, my books and guides to job hunting, podcasts, articles, PLUS a community for you to ask questions of PLUS the ability to ask me questions where I function as your ally with no conflict of interest answering your questions.
If you want to know how to win more interviews, order “Winning Interviews.” You’ll learn how to win phone interviews, in-person interviews, the best question to ask on any interview and more.
Would you like to talk through a salary negotiation or potential negotiation you’re involved with? Order and schedule time with me.
In this video, Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter explains how to answer another of those tricky brainteaser questions that hedge funds use — this one has two guards, One lies and one tells the truth and one question that you can ask. What is that question? Yep it makes a lot more than I do
Today I want to offer up another 1 of those "wonderful" hedge fund questions. There are different nicknames for this one, but I'm going to call it, "the truth teller and the liar."
Here's the scenario. You walking down the hallway and see 2 doors with one guard in front of each door. The they both know the correct answer, but one always gives the correct answer and the other one always lies. You only have one question that you can ask. Who do you ask and how do you choose?
Remember, only one question.
Here's how to answer the question. The short version is, whatever answer you get, choose the opposite one. The reason for it is simple.
Here's the answer the question one. Again, you choosing the opposite of what you were told. The question that you have to ask is, "if I ask the other guard which door to open, what would he tell me?" That's the question you want to pose in order to figure out the answer.
If you ask the honest guard about what the other one would say, he knows that the guy is going to lie. The liar would tell you to go to the wrong door. Right? If you ask the longer the question, he is going to lie to you.. He is going to tell you the wrong answer.
No matter what, you have to go to the opposite door of what you are told.
ABOUT JEFF ALTMAN, THE BIG GAME HUNTER
Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter is a career and leadership coach who worked as a recruiter for what more than 40 years. He is the host of “No BS Job Search Advice Radio,” the #1 podcast in iTunes for job search with more than 1100 episodes, “Job Search Radio,” “and his newest show, “No BS Coaching Advice” and is a member of The Forbes Coaches Council.
Are you interested in 1:1 coaching, interview coaching, advice about networking more effectively, how to negotiate your offer or leadership coaching? Connect with me on LinkedIn. Then message me to schedule an initial complimentary session.
JobSearchCoachingHQ.com offers great advice for job hunters—videos, my books and guides to job hunting, podcasts, articles, PLUS a community for you to ask questions of PLUS the ability to ask me questions where I function as your ally with no conflict of interest answering your questions.
If you want to know how to win more interviews, order “Winning Interviews.” You’ll learn how to win phone interviews, in-person interviews, the best question to ask on any interview and more.
Would you like to talk through a salary negotiation or potential negotiation you’re involved with? Order and schedule time with me.
Here's another 1 of those tough interview questions that is actually a classic deflection question. It's really not hard period. I'm going to pause after I pose the question in order to give you time to answer. I'm going to do Jeopardy music in the middle.
So ready? Here's the question.
If having only one match on the freezing winter day, you enter the room which contained a lamp, a kerosene heater and a wood burning stove, which is you like 1st?
I'm going to repeat that.
You have only one match. It's a freezing winter day. You enter a room containing a lamp, a kerosene heater and a wood burning stove, which should you like 1st?
I gave you a clue before when I talked about this being a deflection question.
Ready?
The correct answer is . . You light the match 1st.
See some questions are designed to deflect you away from the correct answer. It's kind of like when I was growing up, there was a question that the kids would ask, "If a rooster laid an egg on the top of a pointed building, which way where the egg fall? And you kind of make the gesture of the steeple and while speaking and the hand gesture would deflect the audience from thinking about rooster? Roosters don't lay eggs. Chickens do.
So, the correct answer to that one is roosters don't lay eggs. Chickens do. It's 1 of those tricky questions. So back to this, you would you like the match 1st
ABOUT JEFF ALTMAN, THE BIG GAME HUNTER
Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter is a career and leadership coach who worked as a recruiter for what more than 40 years. He is the host of “No BS Job Search Advice Radio,” the #1 podcast in iTunes for job search with more than 1000 episodes,“ Job Search Radio,” “and his newest show, “No BS Coaching Advice” and is a member of The Forbes Coaches Council.
Are you interested in 1:1 coaching, interview coaching, advice about networking more effectively, how to negotiate your offer or leadership coaching? Visit www.TheBigGameHunter.us and click the relevant tab on the top of the page.
JobSearchCoachingHQ.com offers great advice for job hunters—videos, my books and guides to job hunting, podcasts, articles, PLUS a community for you to ask questions of PLUS the ability to ask me questions where I function as your ally with no conflict of interest answering your questions.
If you want to know how to win more interviews, order “Winning Interviews.” You’ll learn how to win phone interviews, in-person interviews, the best question to ask on any interview and more.
Would you like to talk through a salary negotiation or potential negotiation you’re involved with? Order and schedule time with me.
You wake up early one morning and find the light in your bedroom is broken. You have one like in there. You get dressed in the dark. Your sock drawer has socks of three different colors – – red, yellow and blue. How many socks do you have to take out to be certain of having a matching pair?
To me, it implies that you never know when you put the socks away you put them in a ball that so that are all separate and thrown in there and that you only have three pairs of socks so it's a ridiculous question. But go with it, okay?
So, let's say the first one you pull out his red and, in theory, the second one can be red but it also be yellow, for example. So, a red and a yellow. Remember, you don't have to just match the red; you can match the yellow, too. So let's say, you pulled out the next sock and it was blue. So now you have red, yellow, blue. Automatically, the next one’s the one that creates a match for one of them because out of these three we have already picked, one the six socks very in your drawer are going to wind up matching.
So, the correct answer to the question is four.
You can have fun with the interviewer throughout this and say, “So, you assume I don't take care my socks before I put them away. You only work with the assumption that I own six socks in the world and they have to be three different colors.”
So, you can have some fun with the interviewer along these lines, teasing them kind of makes it seem like a ridiculous question. Then, you go through the format with them. Part of what firms that ask questions like this like is the arrogance that comes with knowing. So you can smile. You can tease. It's like playing with them like they were trying to play with you and matches their arrogance, which is as important as actually having the methodology answer the question.
ABOUT JEFF ALTMAN, THE BIG GAME HUNTER
Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter is a career and leadership coach who worked as a recruiter for what more than 40 years. He is the host of “No BS Job Search Advice Radio,” the #1 podcast in iTunes for job search with more than 1200 episodes, “Job Search Radio,” “and his newest show, “No BS Coaching Advice” and is a member of The Forbes Coaches Council.
Are you interested in 1:1 coaching, interview coaching, advice about networking more effectively, how to negotiate your offer or leadership coaching? Connect with me on LinkedIn. Then message me to schedule an initial complimentary session.
JobSearchCoachingHQ.com offers great advice for job hunters—videos, my books and guides to job hunting, podcasts, articles, PLUS a community for you to ask questions of PLUS the ability to ask me questions where I function as your ally with no conflict of interest answering your questions.
If you want to know how to win more interviews, order “Winning Interviews.” You’ll learn how to win phone interviews, in-person interviews, the best question to ask on any interview and more.
Would you like to talk through a salary negotiation or potential negotiation you’re involved with? Order and schedule time with me.
Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter explains how to answer every hedge fund brain teaser job interview question you are ever asked using the example of “how much money do I have to my pocket?”
Today, I want to teach you the trick to answering every hedge fund question that you are ever asked, every Wall Street brainteaser question that you ever asked. It's really very simple.
It goes back to the idea of Capt. Kirk, The Starfleet Academy and the Kobayashi Maru question. If you are not a Star Trek flat fan, let me explain the scenario. There is no win question that Capt. Kirk is asked. Every potential captain of the Starfleet ship is required to be placed in the position where they face death. What Capt. Kirk does is reprogram the computers in a particular way so that he is exempt from all the worst-case scenarios. He is able to defeat the systems by reprogramming the systems.
How does this deal with hedge fund questions?
What they are really looking for are a few things. (1) You want to watch a reaction to the question. So let me give you a classic question: how much money do I have in my pocket? How could you possibly know the answer that? Let's concede, you really don't know. What can you do?
You can pause, hesitate for a 2nd and say whatever it is that comes to mind. 9 times out of 10, through that they will ask a follow-up question. They may respond by saying, "That's right.." Or they may ask, "How did you come up with that? "
Then, you can follow up by saying a few different things. For example, "I doubt if you carry $20 in your pocket; I doubt if you carry $5 in your pocket. I doubt if you carry $5000 in your pocket. It seemed like a reasonable amount."
Whatever it is, in the case of a hedge fund, you don't necessarily want to shoot low because it may be insulting to the interviewer and you would necessarily want to shoot too high because why wouldn't they just have a credit card? Using that particular example,, what you want to do is very calmly and very simply respond, and then if they say,, "that's not right," you can answer by saying, "Are you sure? When was the last time you check what was in your pocket?"
Understand what they are looking for is creativity and creative thought, a degree of self confidence. They want to watch her reactions to see what your reactions are the situations, they want to see if you are flustered or not, whether you have reasonable explanations or not, and whether you have the confidence, self-confidence to respond firmly and with confidence to what they pose... That doesn't come from whether or not you have reasonable explanations and whether you have the confidence/self-confidence to respond firmly and with confidence to what they pose...And that doesn't come from the behavior.
That's the simplest way to respond to hedge fund brainteasers. Understand what they are really looking for ( in the case of how much money do you have an your pocket, some really do require some thought.) and take the time to think it through.
You can always say, "Do you mind if I have a piece of paper and a pen to work it through? They are not expecting that.. They're expecting someone who will reason it through in their head... Again, you are reprogramming the problems work for you. He said with a degree of self confidence and certainty, they can always respond by saying, "No,, you can always figure it out you had."
Again, it is your manner that they are really looking at. It is your self-confidence, it is your certainty that they are really looking at.. If for some reason this is a firm that is out of control, that really wants a lunatic, so be it. Maybe it is not for you.
ABOUT JEFF ALTMAN, THE BIG GAME HUNTER
Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter is a career and leadership coach who worked as a recruiter for what more than 40 years. He is the host of “No BS Job Search Advice Radio,” the #1 podcast in iTunes for job search with more than 1100 episodes, “Job Search Radio,” “and his newest show, “No BS Coaching Advice” and is a member of The Forbes Coaches Council.
Are you interested in 1:1 coaching, interview coaching, advice about networking more effectively, how to negotiate your offer or leadership coaching? Connect with me on LinkedIn. Then message me to schedule an initial complimentary session.
JobSearchCoachingHQ.com offers great advice for job hunters—videos, my books and guides to job hunting, podcasts, articles, PLUS a community for you to ask questions of PLUS the ability to ask me questions where I function as your ally with no conflict of interest answering your questions.
If you want to know how to win more interviews, order “Winning Interviews.” You’ll learn how to win phone interviews, in-person interviews, the best question to ask on any interview and more.
Would you like to talk through a salary negotiation or potential negotiation you’re involved with? Order and schedule time with me.
Hedge Fund Brainteasers: The Truth Teller & The Liar| JobSearchRadio.com
In this video, Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter explains how to answer another of those tricky brainteaser questions that hedge funds use — this one has two guards, one lies and one tells the truth. There is only one question that you can ask. What is that question?
Today I want to offer up another 1 of those "wonderful" hedge fund questions. There are different nicknames for this one, but I'm going to call it, "the truth teller and the liar."
Here's the scenario. You walking down the hallway and see 2 doors with one guard in front of each door. The they both know the correct answer, but one always gives the correct answer and the other one always lies. You only have one question that you can ask. Who do you ask and how do you choose?
Remember, only one question.
Here's how to answer the question. The short version is, whatever answer you get, choose the opposite one. The reason for it is simple.
Here's the answer the question one. Again, you choosing the opposite of what you were told. The question that you have to ask is, "if I ask the other guard which door to open, what would he tell me?" That's the question you want to pose in order to figure out the answer.
If you ask the honest guard about what the other one would say, he knows that the guy is going to lie. The liar would tell you to go to the wrong door. Right? If you ask the longer the question, he is going to lie to you.. He is going to tell you the wrong answer.
No matter what, you have to go to the opposite door of what you are told.
ABOUT JEFF ALTMAN, THE BIG GAME HUNTER
Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter is a career and leadership coach who worked as a recruiter for what more than 40 years. He is the host of “No BS Job Search Advice Radio,” the #1 podcast in iTunes for job search with more than 1100 episodes, “Job Search Radio,” “and his newest show, “No BS Coaching Advice” and is a member of The Forbes Coaches Council.
Are you interested in 1:1 coaching, interview coaching, advice about networking more effectively, how to negotiate your offer or leadership coaching? Connect with me on LinkedIn. Then message me to schedule an initial complimentary session.
JobSearchCoachingHQ.com offers great advice for job hunters—videos, my books and guides to job hunting, podcasts, articles, PLUS a community for you to ask questions of PLUS the ability to ask me questions where I function as your ally with no conflict of interest answering your questions.
If you want to know how to win more interviews, order “Winning Interviews.” You’ll learn how to win phone interviews, in-person interviews, the best question to ask on any interview and more.
Would you like to talk through a salary negotiation or potential negotiation you’re involved with? Order and schedule time with me.
In this video, Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter explains how to answer this hedge fund brainteaser, “how many golf balls would fit into a standard school bus?”
I've got another 1 of those tough interview questions. Now, I confess, neither the question nor the answer is one that I would've found without Google. The question is, "How many golf balls it a Standard school bus?"
I stumbled into this question on quora.com from someone who answered in this way:You make an assumption that the size of the bus is 35' x 7.5' x 6.5'. The volume of the bus equals 1706.25 cubic feet. One cubic foot equals 1728 Cubic inches. Therefore, 1706.2 5×1728 = 2948400 Cubic inches. Again, it is about the process. You can change the numbers anyway that you want.
The radius of a golf ball is .85 inches. Thus, the volume of a golf ball is for over 3 times pie times the radius of 3 equals 2.5 cubic inches.. The number of golf balls that could be accumulated in the bus is 2948400 divided by 2.5 Equals 1,179,360. However, assuming 25% of the space is occupied by seats in the bus, that really leaves about 75% of the space to accommodate balls. As such, 75% of 2,948,400 is 2211300. Thus, the number 2 million to thus, the number of golf balls that can be accommodated is 884, 520.
Notice that it all works with assumptions. That, at the end of the day, you are walking through a process starting off the size of the bus, determining the volume of the bus, translating cubic feet into cubic inches and, from there, progressing into the size of the golf ball, the volume of the golf ball, the number of golf balls that to be a common it bus and then noticing that there are Seats in there and making an assumption about them.
That's the process in; you can make up the numbers as you go along.
ABOUT JEFF ALTMAN, THE BIG GAME HUNTER
Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter is a career and leadership coach who worked as a recruiter for what more than 40 years. He is the host of “No BS Job Search Advice Radio,” the #1 podcast in iTunes for job search with more than 1100 episodes, “Job Search Radio,” “and his newest show, “No BS Coaching Advice” and is a member of The Forbes Coaches Council.
Are you interested in 1:1 coaching, interview coaching, advice about networking more effectively, how to negotiate your offer or leadership coaching? Connect with me on LinkedIn. Then message me to schedule an initial complementary session.
JobSearchCoachingHQ.com offers great advice for job hunters—videos, my books and guides to job hunting, podcasts, articles, PLUS a community for you to ask questions of PLUS the ability to ask me questions where I function as your ally with no conflict of interest answering your questions.
If you want to know how to win more interviews, order “Winning Interviews.” You’ll learn how to win phone interviews, in-person interviews, the best question to ask on any interview and more.
Would you like to talk through a salary negotiation or potential negotiation you’re involved with? Order and schedule time with me.
