Comments on: Hedge Fund Jobs Interview Question: Lighting the Fuses http://hedgefundblog.jobsearchdigest.com/166/hedge-fund-jobs-interview-question-fuses/ Career Insights from the Hedge Fund Industry Sat, 10 Jul 2010 09:41:07 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 hourly 1 By: Ortwin Klose http://hedgefundblog.jobsearchdigest.com/166/hedge-fund-jobs-interview-question-fuses/comment-page-1/#comment-586 Ortwin Klose Thu, 28 Jan 2010 15:18:00 +0000 http://hedgefundblog.jobsearchdigest.com/?p=166#comment-586 This interview question is a great example of a clever problem designed to test a hapless, captive job applicant's 'critical thinking' skills. Unfortunately, this type of problem only demonstrates one's ability to 'solve' hypothetical/philosophical puzzles which wouldn't exist in real life...any number of which could be memorized by job applicants who know how the game is played. Explanation: In real life, you could never light 2 fuses in 3 places simultaneously with one match...or even 2 matches. Thus ensuring that the 'exactly 45 second' goal is unattainable. The best you could do would probably be 46 - 47 seconds with one match. Further, someone with pyrotechnics experience would never buy a fuse from a manufacturer that burns inconsistently - too dangerous. They are typically rated in x-seconds per foot, for example, and are designed to burn evenly. In the end, I hope I could answer the question above, in an interview setting, to get the job at which I knew I could excel. However, it wouldn't make me feel bad if I didn't get it right. I have years of successful real-world problem-solving under my belt. Another interview approach is to have an applicant brainstorm about a real problem currently facing the firm. This way, the interviewer has real context against which to gauge the answers, and, the firm may get a great, new solution from an applicant which is just what they need...in which case that applicant should be hired immediately! Maybe I would agree to solve the puzzle, if the interviewer would agree to solve one of mine! By the way, I'd feel a little sheepish asking this type of question if I were an interviewer. This interview question is a great example of a clever problem designed to test a hapless, captive job applicant’s ‘critical thinking’ skills. Unfortunately, this type of problem only demonstrates one’s ability to ’solve’ hypothetical/philosophical puzzles which wouldn’t exist in real life…any number of which could be memorized by job applicants who know how the game is played.

Explanation: In real life, you could never light 2 fuses in 3 places simultaneously with one match…or even 2 matches. Thus ensuring that the ‘exactly 45 second’ goal is unattainable. The best you could do would probably be 46 – 47 seconds with one match. Further, someone with pyrotechnics experience would never buy a fuse from a manufacturer that burns inconsistently – too dangerous. They are typically rated in x-seconds per foot, for example, and are designed to burn evenly.

In the end, I hope I could answer the question above, in an interview setting, to get the job at which I knew I could excel. However, it wouldn’t make me feel bad if I didn’t get it right. I have years of successful real-world problem-solving under my belt. Another interview approach is to have an applicant brainstorm about a real problem currently facing the firm. This way, the interviewer has real context against which to gauge the answers, and, the firm may get a great, new solution from an applicant which is just what they need…in which case that applicant should be hired immediately!

Maybe I would agree to solve the puzzle, if the interviewer would agree to solve one of mine! By the way, I’d feel a little sheepish asking this type of question if I were an interviewer.

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