Qualifying Candidates by Rubik’s Cube?
The new Rubik’s Cube World Record has been set, and it reminded me of a candidate I interviewed some time ago.
Joseph was a C++ programmer with a clearance and some impressive experience. When he arrived at my office for an interview, I noticed that he had some odd mannerisms and speech patterns, but since that’s not at all odd in programmers, I didn’t think anything of it.
Until he got out the Rubik’s Cube.
He asked my coworker to mix up the colors for him for a while so he could solve it later. When my coworker finished, he set the cube on the table between the Joseph and me.
Big mistake. For the entire interview, Joseph had trouble looking me in the eye. He always answered my questions, but he kept fixating on the cube on the table, like he was mentally figuring it out.
When asked why he had left his previous position, Joseph became a little agitated and said it was due to a personality conflict with a coworker- he was being threatened. And when I asked him if there were any work environments or tasks that he had a specific preference for or against, he said, “Not really. I just want to program in C++. As long as I get to program in C++.” I see…
I concluded the interview, and he looked up at us and said, “Wanna see me solve it now?”
Amused, we agreed, and he solved the thing in what must have been less than 30 seconds. We were impressed, but it was a very strange thing to do in an interview situation.
In thinking about it later, I came to the conclusion (in my extremely uneducated opinion) that Joseph probably had something like Asperger’s syndrome- people with that disorder tend to be drawn toward fields like programming where their hyperfocus and laser-sharp attention to detail gives them an edge, and where lower social skills tend to be less of an obstacle. Also, they tend not to pick up on the subtle social mores that would indicate that bringing your Rubik’s cube to the interview might not be the most appropriate thing.
I was telling this story to a friend later, who said half-jokingly, “Oh, so you’re going to exploit his disability?”
Let me set that one straight. Finding someone a job doing something he clearly enjoys and feels strongly about at a fair salary ($70K-$80K!) is not exploitation. It’s good recruiting- the candidate is happy in a job that’s a good fit for his strengths and weaknesses, the client is happy with a talented employee, and I’m happy with the fee I get for a job well done. Whether the person has a disability or not is completely immaterial.
Maybe I should call him and tell him about this Rubik’s competition.