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Rope Burning Riddle

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Genre and Sub Genre: Verbal Folklore, Riddle/Brainteaser

Language: English

Country where Item is from: United States

Informant Data: Brendan Krimsky is a Dartmouth ’17 majoring in Computer Science. He grew up in Florida and is a member of the Kappa Kappa Kappa fraternity. Brendan participated in the Summer and Fall 2015 corporate recruiting cycles. After college, he is looking to work in a tech company, possibly as a software engineer.

Social Context: This folklore was collected during an in-person interview in Baker-Berry library. Brendan participated in two recruiting cycles, but did not end up finding his internship on campus. He interviewed for technology firms, and this riddle is from an interview he had for Magic Leap.

Cultural Context: During in-person interviews, students will often be asked non-traditional questions such as riddles or brain teasers. Though this may seem off-topic and irrelevant, these questions are often seen as true tests of a candidate’s intellect. They also serve as stress tests for students to see how they handle questions they aren’t prepared for as opposed to the usual technical questions that everyone prepares for. Getting the correct answer isn’t necessarily the point, though; more so these questions are used to see how an applicant thinks through problems.

Item: During Brendan’s Magic Leap interview, he was asked to try to solve a brain teaser about measuring time with burning ropes. After answering several technical questions correctly, the interviewer told him that this would be his last question and asked him to think through the problem out loud. Brendan was given a minute to come up with his response, and though his answer was not the “right” answer, the interviewer said he was more interested in seeing how he logically broke down a problem.

Associated file (a video, audio, or image file): Interview audio was not recorded.

Transcript of Interview: “I flew down to Florida where Magic Leap is for my second round interview. The interview went well at first, we started off with the usual technical questions about some of the languages I know and concepts like greedy algorithms and dynamic programming. After that, the interviewer paused, grabbed a cup of coffee and when he came back he said he was done asking me technical questions because it seemed like I knew my stuff. His last question was a riddle – he asked me ‘You have two ropes that each burn for 60 minutes, and a lighter. How do you measure out 90 minutes using just the ropes and a lighter?’
I didn’t know how to respond so I made something up about folding the second rope in half to burn it twice as fast. He said the right answer was to burn the first rope from one side and the second one from both sides, but he didn’t end up caring whether I got it right or not. He just wanted to see how I thought through the riddle.”

Informant’s Comments: N/A

Collector’s Comments: N/A

Collector’s Name: Sachin Vadodaria

Tags/Keywords: Verbal Folklore, Corporate Recruiting, Riddles and Brainteasers

Phone Interview Mishap

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Genre and Sub Genre: Verbal Folklore, Horror Stories

Language: English

Country where Item is from: United States

Informant Data: This informant is a Dartmouth ’18 from Boston, Massachusetts majoring in Economics. On campus, he is a member of the Dartmouth Investment and Philanthropy Program. After college, the informant is mainly interested in investment banking at a bulge bracket bank or boutique firm. The informant wished to remain anonymous due to the sensitive nature of the folklore being shared, so his name has been redacted.

Social Context: This folklore was collected during an in-person interview in Baker-Berry library. The informant participated in the Summer 2016 corporate recruiting cycle.

Cultural Context: Phone interviews are commonly used as a screening or personality interview that precedes an in-person, more technical round. Most firms operate this way and so most students expect this format. However, some firms do ask technical questions during the first round phone interview. If not prepared to answer technical questions, students can get flustered and nervous during an interview, and try to seek a peer’s help. In this particular instance, the informant was asked to walk the interviewer through a discounted cash flow (DCF) analysis. This is a common investment banking technical interview question.

Item: During a phone interview, a recruiter asked the informant a technical question about how to conduct a DCF. The informant was surprised that he was asked this and was unsure what the correct answer was. Still keen on that particular internship, the student decided to ask a friend to tell him the answer while he was on the phone. However, the interviewer overheard the informant’s friend giving the applicant answers. The interviewer asked the informant who was speaking in the background, and the informant got flustered and ended the phone call prematurely.

Associated file (a video, audio, or image file): Interview audio was not recorded.

Transcript of Interview: “I was interviewing for a small i-banking firm, and it was just a phone interview so I wasn’t expecting any technical questions. Usually they reserve those for the second round when they interview you in-person. Every phone interview I’ve had other than this one was just general about my resume and background, but this guy decided to ask me to walk him through a DCF. It was an earlier interview in the term, so I hadn’t already prepared solid answers to the technical questions. I happened to be sitting near a friend who was also recruiting for i-banking, so I asked him to tell me the answer. Unfortunately, the interviewer heard him speaking and asked me who was talking; I didn’t know what to say, I got super nervous and just abruptly hung up after saying I had another urgent call I had to take.”

Informant’s Comments: N/A

Collector’s Comments: N/A

Collector’s Name: Sachin Vadodaria

Tags/Keywords: Verbal Folklore, Corporate Recruiting, Horror Stories

Exaggeration on Resumes

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Genre and Sub Genre: Verbal Folklore, Horror Stories

Language: English

Country where Item is from: United States

Informant Data: Matthew Kang is a Dartmouth ’18 double majoring in Economics and Math. He’s from Tallahassee, Florida where his father is a chemist and his mother is a computer scientist; they both work for the Department of Environmental Protection. On campus, he is a staff writer and editor for the Dartmouth Business Journal, a member of Dartmouth Model United Nations, and a member of the Zeta Psi fraternity. After college, Matthew is interested in finance or potentially working for a startup.

Social Context: Matthew was interviewed one-on-one in a study room in McLaughlin. He participated in corporate recruiting during the Summer and Fall 2016 terms.

Cultural Context: Resume drops are a vital aspect of the corporate recruiting process and are standard for every job or internship. When submitting resumes, students implicitly agree to represent themselves fairly and accurately, but occasionally students exaggerate certain experiences or skills they have.

Item: Matthew recounted a story he heard regarding a fellow Dartmouth student’s on-campus interview. The student had taken some French courses at Dartmouth and on his resume had stated that he was fluent in French. During one of his interviews, the student got an interviewer who happened to be a native French speaker. The interviewer ended up asking him some of the interview questions in French and unfortunately his French wasn’t as good as he thought it was. He was unable to properly respond and ultimately did not get that internship offer.

Associated file (a video, audio, or image file):

Transcript of Associated File: “One of my friends actually put that they were proficient in French on their resume. And it turns out that the interviewer was a native French speaker, so they conducted some of the interview in French. It turned out that my friend’s French wasn’t as good as he thought it was, so it went south pretty fast.”

Informant’s Comments: N/A

Collector’s Comments: N/A

Collector’s Name: Sachin Vadodaria

Tags/Keywords: Verbal Lore, Horror Stories, Corporate Recruiting