How Would You Move Mount Fuji?

I read the book How Would You Move Mount Fuji? and I thought it was pretty interesting. It mainly focuses on how Microsoft interviews and why they ask the questions they do. It also gives you reasoning and logic behind some of the questions with right answers (or more correct answers).

I am always a fan of books about interviewing because they are usually so wrong. As I have never been interviewed (or interviewed for) Microsoft, I can’t tell you whether this book is good preparation for a Microsoft interview, I can tell you that it attempts to make a case for puzzle based questions.

Obviously puzzle based questions don’t work for everyone. Some positions do not require out of the box thinking. But for those in the company that do require that out of the box thinking, I could see it being useful (at least at a company the size of Microsoft). As the book points out though, this interview technique can leave people on the outside who can perform the job up to standards or even better than the person hired. And while leaving people on the table that could be hired might work for some positions at Microsoft, it might not work everywhere. As labor shortages increase, I wonder if this will change that technique some?

Bill Gates is going to be testifying in front of a Congressional committee this week on the need for more visas for highly skilled workers. One might wonder if the labor shortage could be averted by a simple change in interviewing technique?