FROM THE PUBLISHER

For years, Microsoft and other high-tech companies have been posing riddles and logic puzzles like these in their notoriously grueling job interviews. Now "puzzle interviews" have become a hot new trend in hiring. From Wall Street to Silicon Valley, employers are using tough and tricky questions to gauge job candidates' intelligence, imagination, and problem-solving ability -- qualities needed to survive in today's hypercompetitive global marketplace. For the first time, William Poundstone reveals the toughest questions used at Microsoft and other Fortune 500 companies -- and supplies the answers. He traces the rise and controversial fall of employer-mandated IQ tests, the peculiar obsessions of Bill Gates (who plays jigsaw puzzles as a competitive sport), the sadistic mind games of Wall Street (which reportedly led one job seeker to smash a forty-third-story window), and the bizarre excesses of today's hiring managers (who may start off an interview with a box of Legos or a game of virtual Russian roulette). How Would You Move Mount Fuji? is an indispensable book for anyone in business. Managers seeking the most talented employees will learn to incorporate puzzle interviews in their search for the top candidates. Job seekers will discover how to tackle even the most brain-busting questions and gain the advantage that could win the job of a lifetime. And anyone who has ever dreamed of going up against the best minds in business may discover that these puzzles are simply a lot of fun. Why are beer cans tapered at the top and bottom, anyway?

SYNOPSIS

Microsoft's interview process is a notoriously grueling sequence of brain-busting questions that separate the most creative thinkers from the merely brilliant.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Anyone who's interviewed for a job at Microsoft is intimately familiar with questions like the one in this book's title. They've probably also pondered such problems as why are manhole covers round? how do they make M&Ms? what does all the ice in a hockey rink weigh? how many piano tuners are there in the world? Questions like these, which test problem-solving abilities, not specific competencies, are de rigueur at job interviews at Microsoft, other tech firms and on Wall Street. In this hybrid book-it's at once a study of corporate hiring, an assessment of IQ testing's value, a history of interviewing and a puzzle book-science writer Poundstone (Carl Sagan: A Life in the Cosmos) explains the thinking behind this kind of interviewing. In straightforward prose, Poundstone describes the roots of logic questions in interviews (the approach appears to have had its modern beginnings at Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory in 1957), drawing on the history of IQ testing in hiring interviews, psychological studies and interviews with Microsoft ex-interviewers and interviewees, makes a strong case for eliminating standard questions like "What are your strengths and weaknesses?" and replacing them with logic puzzles. Almost half of the book is devoted to an "answer" section, where Poundstone gives possible solutions to the brainteasers. Although it lacks a specific focus, this is a fun, revealing take on an unusual subject. (May 1) Forecast: Puzzle enthusiasts, human resources managers and job seekers are a natural fit for this. Ads in Business 2.0, Fortune and Time will target business readers, and an author tour to Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle should attract tech-minded buyers. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

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