500 Creative Classroom Techniques for Teachers and Trainers
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9.
U
se job applications as an example.
Life is filled with examples of the need to compete, but let’s restrict the competition to the
process of trying to land a job. Sooner or later, everyone will have to go through the interview
process. Even if your participants already have a job, chances are that before they retire, they
will seek a promotion or perhaps a job in a different company, or look for a part-time job.
More people are now competing for a given job than ever before—thanks, in part, to the advent
of the Internet. To help narrow the field to find the ideal candidate, organizations are asking
very difficult interview questions. Here’s a question that has been used by companies like
Microsoft:
“How many barbers are there in Chicago?”
I’ve heard some clever responses when I’ve shared this question with my own students in Career
Development or thinking-on-your-feet classes. To illustrate: “None—they’re all hair stylists.”
I’ve also heard students say that if they were asked the question, they would get the Chicago
phone book and count, or look the information up on the Internet. Alas, during the real
interview situation, there are no phone books or computers available. One has to think through
the answer and reach an approximate number. (1,700 is the correct answer.)
To reach the answer, you’d have to know the population of Chicago (2.7 million—but not
everyone walks around with such statistics in his head. There would be nothing wrong, though,
with asking the interviewer for that one number.) Calculate from there. Assume that half the
residents in the city are men. Subtract a small number for the hairless (including babies). Then
calculate how often a man gets his hair cut. (“Even if you are not a man,” I say to my female
students, “you know men—fathers, husbands, boyfriends. You have some sense of how often
they get their hair cut.”) Continue with your calculations, and you’ll be able to come up with a
number close enough to the correct number to impress your interviewer.
Yes, your students can avoid competition in a classroom, but they can’t avoid it in real life. The
more opportunities they have to work under pressure, the better equipped they will be to handle
pressure when they most need to.
Brainteaser:
Can you think of a possible reason why the hair on a man’s head gets gray
before the hair on his moustache does?
Answer: The hair on his head is 20 years older.
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