Essence

Jimmy the engineer

Jimmy is a brilliant computer science graduate. He never failed a class and he never missed any assignment from his professors. Jimmy has a strong work ethics and he spends most of his free time in studying advanced programming techniques and software by himself.

Soon after his graduation, he lands his first ever interview with a large multinational corporation. The recruitment process includes three interviews: (1) a telephone interview, (2) case scenario, (3) an incognito test.

Jimmy passes brilliantly the first two steps, then he is told to come back in a week with no further details on what is going to happen that day…

A week passes by and Jimmy walks into the office to prepare himself for what he thought was going to be another interview with a senior engineer. To his great surprise, Jimmy finds out that 4 other people are waiting with him and none of them has a clue on what is going on.

Suddenly a senior engineer walks in. He/she introduces him/herself, she/he congratulates Jimmy and the others for their excellent performance so far, and announces that today they will make their final decision on who gets the job.

It turns out the incognito test is actually another data breach simulation and they will all work on it, not individually, but as a team. They have 3 hours to complete the challenge, 2 other senior staff members will be in the room with them but they’re not allowed to disclose any sort of information, they cannot be asked for any clarifications and they cannot talk with candidates.

There is only one office laptop that they can use and they need to gather themselves all the information they need to understand and solve the challenge.

After wishing them good luck, the senior engineers take a seat and start taking note.

Jimmy knows nothing about these people or the challenge they are faced with, he’s out of his comfort zone…overall, he’s very unsettled but the clock doesn’t care about his feelings and it is time to get the work done.

The assignment is clear and there is a shared sense of urgency to take care of the challenge first: the computer is already on, time to solve the problem…

Jimmy the engineer

Jimmy passes brilliantly the first two steps, then he is told to come back in a week with no further details on what is going to happen that day…

There is only one office laptop that they can use and they need to gather themselves all the information they need to understand and solve the challenge.

After wishing them good luck, the senior engineers take a seat and start taking note.

The assignment is clear and there is a shared sense of urgency to take care of the challenge first: the computer is already on, time to solve the problem…

What should Jimmy do in this situation?

Approach the challenge as a lone-wolf. Collaboration with people you know nothing about is too risky – what if they are not good enough?
Introduce himself very briefly and volunteer to read the problem details for the others.
Wait for other people’s move…you don’t want to risk to expose yourself from the get-go

After a quick round of review and analysis, Jimmy realises that this problem is much more challenging than expected, what should he do next?

He can ask for feedback and inputs from others while taking note of their comments.
He can go deeper into the problem and start listing a series of tasks that he expects from others.
He can remain silent and wait for others’ first move.

People start opening up about possible alternatives and methodologies to the challenge, on the other hand, Jimmy should…

Discourage ideas that do not seem to be consistent or relevant. There is no time to waste on unfeasible options
Look sneakily at the senior staff for any reaction that might give him an insight on their approach
Listen carefully their perspectives and offer to conduct a sum-up session.

After this brief brainstorming session, the group is making progress: they understand what kind of breach they are dealing with, the origin, nature and source of the problem. A member proposes an action plan to design, test and validate an effective countermeasure, which is different from what Jimmy was thinking to. At this point, Jimmy should…

…be worried: if it works he’s going to be overshadowed by another candidate, if it doesn’t they wasted precious time
…manifest enthusiasm: if it works, they have a breakthrough , if it doesn’t, they know how “not to do” things
…remain impartial and step back so that the other candidate can run his/her test

The test runs well and Jimmy gets immediately the final solution to the challenge. He recognises the same pattern from a previous problem that his/her professor had assigned him with a month before. However, the other recruits seem to have no clue on how to proceed from there. What now?

Jimmy has the occasion of the final blow: he gave enough space to others and now it is his time to shine. He turns to senior engineers and exclaims “I have the solution”
Jimmy raise his hand and says with confidence “I got it! Here’s what we can do…”
Jimmy shouldn’t take such a huge risk at this moment of the process. He waits for others to come to his same conclusions and confess “I was thinking the same”

Emotional intelligence