Wednesday, Nov 23, 2005, 9:43 AM in Interview
Wasting the Prince of Darkness
From "Pete" (not his real name):
I walked into my first technical interview at Microsoft, and before I could say anything, the woman says, Youre in an 8x8 stone corridor. I blink and sit down.
Interviewer: The prince of darkness appears before you.
Me: You mean, like, the devil?
Interviewer: Any prince of darkness will do.
Me: Ok.
Interviewer: What do you do?
Me: <pause> Can I run?
Interviewer: Do you want to run?
Me: Hmm I guess not Do I have a weapon?
Interviewer: What kind of weapon do you want?
Me: Um something with range?
Interviewer: Like what?
Me: Uh a crossbow?
Interviewer: What kind of ammo do you have?
Me: <long pause> Ice arrows?
Interviewer: Why?
Me: <floundering> Because the prince of darkness is a creature made of fire???
Interviewer: Fine so what do you do next?
Me: I shoot him?
Interviewer: No what do you do?
Me: <blank stare>
Interviewer: You WASTE him! You *WASTE* the prince of darkness!!
Me: <completely freaked out and off my game> Holy crap what have I gotten myself into.
She then tells me that she asks that question for two reasons. 1) Because she wants to know if the candidate is a gamer (which is apparently really important please note: Im not a gamer) and 2) because she wants her question to show up on some website. I hate to accommodate her, but this is definitely the weirdest interview question Ive ever heard of.
Well, here you go, weird-prince-of-darkness-wasting-lady...