面试最严格的25家公司

    最具挑战性的求职面试大多数都来自咨询公司，这一点并不奇怪。毕竟，咨询公司唯一的产品就是智慧。所以，他们的面试官偏爱提出各种棘手的问题，比如“多少人会使用防脱发的药物？”（BCG），或者“在飞机上提供无线互联网服务有多大的盈利潜力？”（奥纬咨询公司）。在麦肯锡，求职者还必须接受书面测试，试题中有大量的图表和数字，一位立志成为一名咨询师的求职者对Glassdoor表示，求职者需要“凭借对数字的敏锐感知，迅速对试题中的图表和数字进行分析。”

    想到Facebook工作吗？一位最近刚刚获聘的软件工程师建议：“准备好回答‘为什么选择Facebook？’七位面试官都问了我这个问题，看了这一点对他们确实非常重要。”

    很有道理，不过，有的面试官朝求职者扔一个曲棍球，只是想看看他们如何反应。一位去波士顿咨询集团（Boston Consulting Group）面试过的求职者说，第二轮面试的时候，面试官“一上来就把脚翘在桌子上（而且没穿袜子），然后一边喝汤，一边说话。这种开场方式太古怪了。”确实如此。

    Glassdoor最有意思的发现是：在这25家公司经历过严格面试的大部分职场老兵都认为这种经历具有积极意义。更令人吃惊的是，求职困难评级最高的公司，员工满意度同样得到了最高分。

    Glassdoor董事会成员兼网站常驻职业专家、曾在百事公司（PepsiCo）担任国际人力资源副总裁的拉斯蒂•吕埃夫认为，这其实很有道理。他说：“一家执行严格绩效标准的公司才能够真正在面试中对求职者的能力进行测试，因为这是公司文化最真实的反映。因而，他们选中的人都是能在逆境中成长的人，而对于无法承受这种压力的求职者，严格的筛选过程也给了他们主动退出的机会。他补充道，任何一家公司，“需要将面试过程作为展示公司的窗口，让求职者预先了解未来的工作环境大概是个什么样子。否则，如果公司聘用了不适合公司文化的员工，一旦他们离职，公司就得再去寻找新人来代替。”

    译者：刘进龙/汪皓

    It's no surprise that so many of the most challenging job interviews take place at consulting firms. After all, these companies' only product is brainpower. So their interviewers are partial to posing knotty questions like "How many people would use a drug that prevents baldness?" (BCG) or "What is the profit potential of offering wireless Internet service on airplanes?" (Oliver Wyman). At McKinsey, candidates must also take a written quiz loaded with charts and figures that has to be "analyzed swiftly with an acute sense of numbers," one aspiring consultant told Glassdoor.

    Want a job at Facebook (FB)? "Be ready to give great answers to 'Why Facebook?'" advises a recently hired software engineer. "All seven interviewers asked me this, and it's really important to them."

    Fair enough, but some interviewers throw candidates a curve ball, apparently just to see how they'll react. One applicant at Boston Consulting Group reports that, in his second interview, his interlocutor "started by putting his feet on the desk (with no socks) and eating out of a bowl of soup, talking simultaneously. Odd start." Indeed.

    Among the most intriguing of Glassdoor's findings: Most veterans of tough interviews at these 25 companies rated the experience a positive one. More striking still, the companies with the highest difficulty ratings also score highest in employee satisfaction.

    That makes sense, says Rusty Rueff, a member of Glassdoor's board of directors and the site's resident career expert. "A company that has stringent standards for performance will really put you through your paces [in interviews] because that is an honest and true reflection of their culture," says Rueff, a former vice president of international human resources at PepsiCo (PEP). "So the people they select are the ones who thrive on difficulty -- and, for people who don't, a tough screening process gives them the chance to opt out."

    At any company, he adds, "you really need job interviews to be the best possible window into what the company is about, and what it will really be like to work there. Otherwise, you end up hiring people who won't fit in, and you'll end up having to replace them when they quit."