helg wrote:
Ok, my Wharton interviewer asked me to solve the following problem:
You are on a wilderness retreat with your team. It’s getting dark, you are returning to the big camp with your team and looks like you are lost. For a split of second you spot the campfires among the trees, but however hard you try to see it again, you cannot. Yet, you are absolutely positive about the general direction of the camp.
However another team member who boasts vast experience of surviving in the wild, insist that the camp is in the opposite direction. The rest of the team have no opinion. What do you do?I think I botched that one. I would not reproduce the whole answer and follow up questions (oh, he was persistent) but I ended up saying that we would spend the whole night there on the spot… waiting for the dawn… sharing each other bodywarmth…
Guess that explains why I was dinged at Wharton
Great question. It actually reflects on your decision making abilities. Especially split second decision making abilities. It questions you as to how can you choose between your gut feeling and a 'well tested external input'. Frankly, like an behavioral questions there's no right answer. However, because you said that you would not take either of those decisions and choose a relatively easier alternative, that might have cast a negative impression. Just my thought.