I was listening to Steve Wright on Radio 2 this afternoon, and he was talking about the problem of finding a job in Japan at the moment. Apparently they have an unemployment problem over there, and are thinking of clever ways in which to narrow the number of applicants for each vacancy.
One company erected a table with 2 interviewers and an oxygen bottle at the top of Mount Fuji, and told the applicants that they have to climb the mountain in order to get to the interview. 11 out of 20 applicants made it to the top of the mountain, for 4 jobs. A story on a business web site about this here.
I doubt if many of my students will be subjected to such bizarre practices, but they may be asked some of the so called “Impossible Questions” – we present some of these at the Gregynog careers weekend, but I ran into a good chapter of a book online which offers some advice here.