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Location: Blogs Simon and Melody's Blog |
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| Posted by: supersi |
Tuesday, March 28, 2006 |
That's what the recruiter said my interview at a certain investment bank would be like. All I knew was that it was a highly respected team of people who work directly with the trading floor (ie., high stress and get yelled at a lot). I figured I was okay with the technical and math components, so my preparation the night before involved reviewing all the business material related to the job.
I walked in there more nervous than usual, not exactly sure what "a serious grilling" would entail. Are they going to do something weird like accuse me of being late just to see how I react under pressure? Are they going to fire off 10 questions and see if I remember them? Will they ask the beloved, "Give me an example of a situation *when*..."?
So I enter the boardroom and the first question they ask is: "Do you know how to play Russian Roulette?" Gulp. But instead of handing me a gun, they handed me a piece of paper and a pen. "Two men play Russian Roulette," the first interviewer says. "They are using a revolver that has two bullets side-by-side with the four remaining chambers empty. The first man pulls the trigger and gets a blank. Does the second man stand a better chance of survival if he pulls the trigger right away, or if he spins the cylinder first?" Nice one, yeah? I actually did get it right, after a hint.
Next they gave me a piece of paper and said, "Plot for us x(1/x)." So I leans forward with an elbow on the table, looks the fella square in the eye, and says, "Look mate, you know as well as I do that x(1/x) is undefined at the origin, approaches e where x=1, then tends toward y=1 at infinity." Then I stopped day dreaming and wondered if I really did do a Math degree at uni, or if that five years was a figment of my imagination!
This continued for two hours, and I conclude that a "serious grilling" is about as fun as it sounds.
Now, what do you think the second guy should do? Spin the cylinder, or not? Tick, tick, tick...
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Re: A Serious Grilling |
By Anonymous on
Wednesday, March 29, 2006 |
statistically 1:3 for spinning, 1:4 for not, seems better to fire away
Physically, The unbalanced weight from two bullets side by side will tend to cause those chambers to stop in a lower position, holding the gun upright when spinning will leave them away from the firing position. |
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Re: A Serious Grilling |
By supersi on
Thursday, March 30, 2006 |
| Not bad, not bad. Now plot x(1/x) for me, smarty pants. No you can't use that 5lb brick of an engineering calculator ;-) |
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Re: A Serious Grilling |
By Anonymous on
Wednesday, March 29, 2006 |
| I believe the words "Shoot first ask questions later" would have come to mind had I been asked that first question. (Not a very mathematical approach but not without merit none the less) |
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Re: A Serious Grilling |
By Anonymous on
Wednesday, March 29, 2006 |
1.4|.
1.3| \
1.2| \
1.1| \
1.0| `-____________
0.0|___________________
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 -> oo |
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Re: A Serious Grilling |
By supersi on
Thursday, March 30, 2006 |
| No, that is 1/x, not x(1/x). Please play again. |
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Re: A Serious Grilling |
By Anonymous on
Thursday, March 30, 2006 |
| All right mister, pay attention here, 1/x goes from 1 at x=1 towards 0 as x approaches infinity. In the graph above you will not that as x approaches infinity y moves towards 1. What a way to waste 5 years worth of imatination... |
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Re: A Serious Grilling |
By supersi on
Thursday, March 30, 2006 |
| I suppose I could give part marks. Although it's undefined at (0,0), it does approach the origin. Eg., for x=1, x(1/x)=1; and for x=0.1, x(1/x)=something very small. So it passes through (1,1) and begins somewhere near the origin, max's at e and then tends to 1 at infinity (as you said). Cool graph tho. I'm glad to know I'm not the only math geek... actually I likely don't qualify as one. |
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Re: A Serious Grilling |
By Anonymous on
Thursday, March 30, 2006 |
| There is only so much you can do using only punctuation, The excel cut and paste method didn't work.... |
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Re: A Serious Grilling |
By Anonymous on
Thursday, March 30, 2006 |
This is the BEST blog post ever! It's got intrigue, it's got controversy, it's got comments. Excellent job, keep up the good work fellas.
-Jason |
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Re: A Serious Grilling |
By Anonymous on
Friday, April 07, 2006 |
| So Simon, Did you get the job? |
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Re: A Serious Grilling |
By supersi on
Saturday, April 08, 2006 |
| Did I get the job? Let's see... do you expect Canada to win the FIFA World Cup this summer?? |
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Re: A Serious Grilling |
By Anonymous on
Wednesday, April 19, 2006 |
I am so-o-o glad you inherited my mathematical ability - NOT !!!
Anonymous/a.k.a. Simon's Mum |
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Re: A Serious Grilling |
By Anonymous on
Wednesday, June 21, 2006 |
| I agree... This is by far the best blog entry.... Going through 5 years of university majoring in Math made me realize that I am not a mathematician. Asking someone to plot x^(1/x) in an interview is acutally quite a waste of time. I believe in hiring based on personality. Skills can be trained, but not personality. Is that employer expecting the employees to graph with pen and paper? |
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