How do you fight a horse-sized duck? Secrets to succeeding at interview mind games and getting the job you want

As if job interviews aren't already daunting enough, an interviewee might feel things are rolling along, and even start to feel confident, only to suddenly face a stumper of a question. Poundstone (Are You Smart Enough to Work at Google?, 2012) provides hope for future interviewees as he shares the difficult questions asked by certain companies along with logical ways to solve the quandaries. Thomas Edison provided a standard in job hiring, designing a probing questionnaire to assess prospective employees' knowledge. This became the new standard, as companies followed Edison's lead and viewed the résumé as only part of what makes a future hire. Certain tests were flawed, though, as they did not take cultural differences into account. Personality tests measuring open-mindedness and extroversion next emerged as predominant in interviews. But with the birth of Amazon and Google, psychometric games have become the interview standard. Positing that employers seek quick solutions without dwelling or over-contemplating in problem solving, Poundstone here breaks down potentially puzzling questions and provides teachable lessons from a sympathetic viewpoint.

Journalist Poundstone (The Doomsday Calculation) offers an astute primer on common interviewing tactics and tackling tough questions. "Both employees and employers are more selective than ever," Poundstone writes, and with many job-seekers facing student loan debt and wanting high-paying jobs, the competition is stiff. But recruiters only spend an average of six seconds looking at each résumé, and many require applicants who make it to the interview stage to complete a series of games as a way to further cull the herd. Poundstone takes an informative look at the history of the interviewing process, explores some common mind games (including memory games and math questions), and describes how to improve one's odds of doing well by offering a tutorial on creative problem-solving. He details ways these confounding puzzles can trip up people, and advises such tactics as paying attention to unexpected words, using the process of elimination, and working backward to help boost one's chances of success. Full of valuable insight on effectively navigating the interviewing process, this is a must-read for those looking to nail their next interview. Agent: John Brockman, Brockman Inc. (June)