Over the years, several bizarre interview tactics have developed. Microsoft occasionally asks interviewers to calculate the area of a triangle that does not exist. “How much should you charge to wash all the windows in Seattle?” to “explain the importance of ‘dead beef,'” Google used to ask. One of the strangest we have come across is Thomas Edison’s rumored method of screening out candidates: forcing them to eat soup in front of him.
The soup test, supposedly including feeding potential research assistants a bowl of soup, was possibly his worst invention. It was effectively a trap, as wonderful as handed a big bowl of soup during an interview sounded. According to the numerous publications throughout the years, Edison was interested in seeing how the candidates approached the soup, particularly whether they salted and peppered it before tasting it.
According to the folklore, he would reject anyone who added flavor to his soup before tasting it, claiming that they were making assumptions before gathering data (in this case: how delicious is this lovely big bowl of soup).
It is almost definitely not true, as amusing as it seems. According to Snopes, the myth dates back to 1973 and is credited to IBM, Ford, J.C. Penney, and General Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Allied Commander of the Southwest Pacific Theater during WWII. In actuality, Edison is more likely to have weeded out prospective candidates during a soupless interview with no crouton insight.
When I interviewed with a reasonably major corporation in 1996, I told: The interviewer told me that I was fortunate to be interviewing with them rather than IBM. He informed me that IBM had some unusual interview exams for potential employees. One of the tests, for example, was that the candidate was closely monitored while being brought to lunch. It did not matter how well the candidate fared in the rest of the interview if they salted or peppered their meal before tasting it for the first time. They were not going to receive the job.
