Recently I was in an interview and the very first thing I was asked to do was "write something on the board" and I wrote "something" which they said they found rude. They also said "are you a robot to follow orders blindly?". I didn't have anything else on my mind so I wrote that.
And it was followed by other questions related to the job.
The interview was for Business Analyst position at a Fintech Company.
Was there a better way to handle this?
Don't be a smart alec in interviews. You want to present the most professional and friendliest version of yourself.
If there's an unclear question (and if the question actually was just "write something on the board" then that's about as unclear as it gets) you should behave as you would if something unclear came up during your actual job as a business analyst, and ask questions of your own to clarify their expectations.
If you can't get any further details out of them then go with something neutral, such as your name. And frankly at that point I'd mark the job as one to decline any offers from, unless there's something amazing about it, as the interviewers are the ones being rude and unprofessional.
I suspect the point was to see how prospective business analysts would turn something unclear into something clear though. And if that wasn't the point then it was a great opportunity to make it the point.
Is there a better way to handle this?
You could have asked them a question or two regarding what they would like you to write.
Asking questions to better understand the requirements is something Business Analysts do a lot.
Perhaps that's what the interviewers were hoping for.
Given this fact
Interview was for Business Analyst position at a Fintech Company.
The question "write something on the board" was definitely a test, which you failed. A BA's entire job is talking to the product owner and trying to determine what the product requirements and specifications are.
From this university's site (first result for the search "what does a business analyst do") :
The analyst interacts with the business stakeholders and subject matter experts in order to understand their problems and needs
The analyst gathers, documents, and analyzes business needs and requirements
You were expected to talk to the interviewers to try to decipher what their true requirements were. In your normal day to day, you will frequently be asked to do vague and/or unclear things, which you need to "translate" into product requirements.
Was it a bad, and intentionally confusing, question? Probably. But that really isn't the point of this question.
I would say this is a relevant question for a business analyst.
Customers/Users will quite often (sic. always) define their requirements incredibly vaguely and it is the job of an analyst to figure out what they actually want from what they said.
You should have asked follow up questions such as, write what? How big? In what colour? To show that you have skills in extracting information from people...
Is there a better way to handle this?
While the question was vague and weird, writing "something" on the board was certainly not the way to handle it. It is a good prank/joke with your friends but not for an interview. There could be several ways you could have handled it
Ask the interviewer politely, what do they want you to write?
Write something about the position you were being interviewed for. May be "teach" them a fundamental concept related to FinTech.
Write your name/education/experience on the board.
Having said this, I do think it is extremely unusual to ask a candidate to do this without giving more context on why do they want them to do this.
As a business analyst, one of my biggest jobs is separating the core business need from the person's request. As an example:
Sometimes they're absolutely positive that I need to contract out for ketchup that's sticky enough to adhere to the underside of a hamburger patty, when in fact, I just need to change the burger-creation order so that the bun is added before the condiments, and thus provides a surface for said condiments.
So when they told you to write something on the board, you were given a test by a clueless user, and you needed to patiently and diplomatically lead them through the steps to determine what the real problem was so that you could solve it. Your immediate solution told them that you either are so literal that you can only follow direct orders (and thus a job like business analyst isn't for you mentally), or that you're a smartass, thus making the user feel stupid and causing them to communicate their issue way less effectively (and thus a job like business analyst isn't for you socially).
You weren't hearing really hearing the intent of question.
Given that the job interview was for a Business Analyst position, I'm assuming that the purpose of asking such an obviously unclear question was to see how you'd handle unclear requests from clients or end users. Given that end users make unclear requests all the time, being able to handle this well is an essential job skill for business analysts.
Presumably, they wanted to see how you would do with pushing back on the request and asking for clarification; however, you didn't push back at all, you got annoyed and just blindly followed the instruction literally.
Think about it from their perspective: is that how you're going to interact with clients and end users? Would you hire someone who might handle clients that way? That’s probably why they were annoyed by your response.
That being said, the correct thing to do would have been to ask a clarifying question. If they respond with another vague answer, try going at it from a different angle - e.g. "what problem are you trying to solve?" or "what are you trying to achieve?" or something like that. When - and only when - you thoroughly understand the interviewer's problem should you proceed to write on the board.
Recently I was in an interview and the very first thing I was asked to do was "write something on the board" and I wrote "something" which they said they found rude.
If in doubt in an interview setting, clarify requirements. Always.
What would you like me to write? My name? "Something" as a literal word? An interesting fact about myself?
I'd imagine at this point they'll clarify.
If they still say "whatever you want", then at that point write "something", a dash, the letter "p", or whatever. If they don't like what you've written at that point, then you're likely better off not working for a company that insists on giving vague requirements while wanting something specific.
Recently I was in an interview and the very first thing I was asked to do was "write something on the board" and I wrote "something" which they said they found rude.
I hate these questions which either fall into the category of "do you have an open mind" (too open and the brain falls off), "think out of the box" (no comments) or "let's stress them with a questions somehow related to their job - in that case unclear requirements".
The people who ask these questions like to think of themselves as smart-asses, they lack the smart part.
So. If you are interested in the job, you can give the company some credit and assume that the interviewer is not good. Otherwise just discard the company.
Is there a better way to handle this?
As for your answer, it was really poor. I am not sure what you wanted to achieve beside trying a kindergarten joke.
I would have asked
I do not think I would like to work with them anyway.
Unless the interviewer has a really dry sense of humor, they probably won't appreciate this response as they are taking time out of their day to ask you questions to see if you are a good fit for this role. As Business Analyst, your job (and this is my personal opinion about the role) is to take non-technical requirements from users who don't understand the nuances of software development and feature implementation, and turn them into technical specs that can then be implemented by the developers into a product the company can then sell back to the client or other prospective consumers.
To be a bit more clear, let's take a look at what I think is a great software developer question and how it should be answered. "Why are manhole covers circular?" I've discussed this question with a guy who does interviews almost daily and he says he asks that question for two reasons. 1) Given a seemingly trivial or odd question, can you come up with something of substance? 2) What's your problem solving process?
He mentioned that good candidates started immediately throwing out ideas, no matter how silly they may be, and the best candidates would start to think technically about the problem, things like structural integrity of a circle vs a square, cost of material to produce, etc..
If we apply this logic to the statement you were given, I would imagine they wanted you to take an idea and start rolling with it to see where you go. Maybe you have an idea for a silly invention or website you've been thinking of creating. I would say it would benefit you greatly to sketch a quick design of that product and start working through the logistics of making it, marketing it, thinking of pitfalls, listing requirements, things like that.
All of this being said, I think asking someone right from the start "Write something on the board" is a bit silly to ask (personal opinion on this, might be a common question in Business Analyst roles). You'll find there are some interviews where the interviewer simply doesn't do a good job or the company is not a good company to work for and you dodge a bullet by being asked questions like that. In the future, if you are asked a question like that, just ask for some clarification or start writing stuff on the board that a Business Analyst might record and you should be in the clear.
Some answers have already alluded to the fact that this is likely a specific culture/position test that may indicate the nature of the expected response. That said, I wanted to give an opinion that veers away somewhat.
As a software engineer, instructions should be followed. If there is room for clarification then it should be asked, but when you have an explicit instruction typically you follow it. In your case, I don't see "write 'something' on the board" any different than "show up at 9am for a meeting in room 402". Both have a defined goal that can be met - writing, "something" on the board met the requirements. If they wanted something specific, or more general then they should have asked for it. If you want to avoid it in the future, you can always be asking clarification questions but I think this may reflect negatively on your interview if you constantly ask 'obvious' questions.
That said, the moment they followed that up with "are you a robot to follow orders blindly?" I would have said I don't waste my time with rude interviewers and walk out. Also in my field, I expect that response to the question would likely be a positive moment rather than a negative (most programmers would get a laugh out of that).
When they ask these strangely vague questions it means one of two things:
Personally I think you should have asked for clarification. I'm assuming there's no prior comment that you might have missed and they are asking this out of the blue. I would have tried to figure out if it's more of #1 or #2 of the above mentioned items.
There really is no right or wrong answer unless you are trying to blindly get hired at a company which may not be a good fit for you.
It is pretty clear that the company is trying to cultivate a culture of certain personalities.
You could have chosen to write "grass is purple" and if they disagreed then tell them to prove it.
In regards to "are you a robot to follow orders blindly?" you could have suspiciously raised one eyebrow and said:
Only when I suspect that robot interviewers are asking blind questions.
You could have also chosen to question why are they asking this of you but that could have opened up to other rude questions from the interviewer.
The only person that knows the "correct" response is the interviewer but it's highly unlikely that there is a "correct" response.
“write something on the board”?
Was this the first question asked to you during the interview? It's an open-ended question, and it could be argued at length if was a good question for an interview.
Disregarding whether the question was bad (or not), writing something literally isn't a good idea. At best you can handle such a situation by highlighting any of your skill, accomplishment or knowledge area.
Use it as a starting point for a conversation which you can use to your benefit. Maybe discuss a topic in your domain, a problem area and your take on how it can be better approached.
It's possible to handle such a bad question to play to your benefit.
I am taking the positive stand on this and assuming that your interviewer isn't being a jerk, and is just testing how do you handle a situation which you are unprepared for.
I think you should have answered by writing your name and your short job description. Maybe some words, why you want to work there, too. Then you should have presented it.
I once had a group interview where we - the interviewed group - were left alone after just a few seconds. We were given a task: after 10 minutes we should present each other. We had boards, cards,.... Therefore I think this was what they would have liked to see. At least we were told the intention.
As it was an interview for training I found this process acceptable. For an experienced worker, IMO, it is childish and therefore rude. It´s some type of an "out of the box" question. IMHO: Some interviewers cover up technical/functional/subject-specific desinformation with such questions.
The boss I left my last job for asked my successor why manhole covers are round. I never found out any other rational intention. And I would´ve left such an interview, be it rude or not. BTW: I didn´t like to work for that boss.
As you say you are applied for the post of Business Analyst. Obviously,you go through company's profile and the work they are doing. so in my opinion you have to write something wise that matches to companies expectation for your post according to their business. Ex, If company is working in Material Science Firm then you can write 'graphene' as it is future of Materials as per current research. These type of answer shows both your analysis/research power and company's profitability. I hope this will help you.
