“When you set out to do something, how do you know when you’re done?”
I went to a job interview, and that was one of the questions I was asked. It confuses me. If you know what you are trying to do, don’t you know when you’ve done it?
I answered that once I have accomplished whatever it was I wanted to do, I know that I am done. He said, “Yes, but how do you know when you’re done?” I am sure my perplexity showed. (I thought, “Maybe he’s looking for problem-solving skills, and/or ability to prioritize. Ok, I’ll fluff it a little.”) I responded, “Depending on how great a task I was trying to achieve, I would work out the logical steps in order to get it done. I would finish them in the necessary order, and once I had reached my goal, I would know I was done.” Again, he asked, “Yes, but how do you know?” I asked for an example of a goal. His reply, “Well, anything, really.” I hated to say it, but I finally told him that I must not understand the question.
What was he looking for? My “real life” friends don’t get it, either. Does it seem a really simple question? When you’re done, you’re done!
The correct answer is “I know I’m done because I suffer from no mental illness that would prevent such an obvious thing being apparent to me. This is a basic function of human activity, and comes naturally and intuitively to me. In fact, I believe that even animals comprehend the concept. What confuses me is why you feel it needs explaining?”
He was probably looking for something about knowing it was done when the person (or persons) who asked you to do it were satisfied with the results. Customer (internal and external) focussed and all.
What job were you applying for? Unless it’s some industry where goals are so poorly defined that realizing that you’ve achieved it is a crapshoot, I don’t understand the question either.
I’m guessing he was looking for an answer like, “I know I’m done with the project when the customer for the project has approved it.”
If you’re doing work for someone, then you’re not done until they approve your deliverable. For example, if you’re asked create a website, the goal is not “create a website” You don’t get to create a website, toss it over the wall, and move onto the next thing. The real goal is “work on the website until the customer agrees it meets their needs.” Basically, you know you’re done when your customer says you’re done.
Off the top of my head, they were probably looking for a combination of Quality Management jargon and Project Management jargon. Something like:
"Before I commence a task I determine the metrics which give objective evidence as to the success or otherwise of the outcome. I also set checkpoints along the way to monitor progress. Periodic reviews have tolerances which, if exceeded, will trigger a review to determine the best way to bring the task back within the required performance criteria. Each checkpoint and review will result in a report to management, with an executive summary using a traffic light system.
“The task is a success when the original success criteria have been met. These criteria will almost always including a customer satisfaction metric.”
It’s nonsense of course, but that’s interviewing for you.
This is easy. There is no reason to start a job without a clear objective. Once you have accomplished that objective, you are done. The objective probably includes passing tests, or meeting some level of quality, or profit, or customer satisfaction.
In other words, if you don’t know where you are going, you will never get there.
I like that question myself. I may use it some day.
So when I read this I thought of the project I’m working on right now. I’m developing an algorithm that… um, let’s say, finds the location of widgets. I keep saying things to the program manager like, “But the algorithm only works if we know this information about how widgets are distributed. What if the widgets are distributed in a different way?” and “The code I’m writing only gives information about the widgets that can be processed to find the actual location; I haven’t written code to do that processing.”
At some point you just have to say enough! I’ve done enough to show that we can find the location of the widgets, and although the more we could do the more the customer would be impressed, it also has to do with the constraints of money and how it’s overall going to help the corporate team I’m on.
So even though Mondegreen’s thing above is a bit of gibberish, there is a grain of truth to it. You really do want objective tasks and metrics that tell you when you’ve succeeded, and bring that in line with practical considerations (budget, schedule).
Maybe he was looking for something complex or jargon, we’ll never know unless we ask him.
I’d have said something along the lines of “When I set out to accomplish a project, I want that project to do something. I know I’m done with the project when it does it.”
Yes, this does leave the possibility of an infinite regression problem. Still, the means is different from the end. If I set out to clean my eyeglasses, I know I’m done when I can see through them clearly. When I set out to do legal research on a particular point, I know I’m done when I can say if a particular element is legal or illegal.
That is, a process is completed when it has produced the desired output or something close enough to it.
Maybe this is a trivial point and not even worth mentioning, but already one can see a distinction with Why child’s way of doing things: My way determines if the process is done according to an external output. Why chid’s way does it by referencing the process itself according to preset steps. You can sometimes go through the preset steps without getting the output you want and you can sometimes get the output you want without going through the preset steps.
It’s actually a decent question. My students will say “but I studied so much for this test” when they do poorly and I will ask them how they know they studied enough, or how they know when the paper is ready to be turned it etc. It often stumps them- they’ve thought to have a way, beyond hours spent on task, to know when the project is done.
For an employee, well you’re not a student, but it’s still a good question. If you have 20 different things going on, how will know when you’re done and you can work on something else. Or if your work product is going on to another group to use, how will you know that it is ready for them?
The answer can be really easy, depending on the project, but sometimes it’s harder than you think.
How about, “the completion criteria, including tests, should have been set at the beginning of the project. When the project successfully passes all of the completion tests, the project is done.”
I probably would had said that I would have looked at the outcomes of the project and ensured it met all the requirements and would have considered what the next step was for what I worked on to see if it was in an appropriate form to move on. Or something.
Of course, not know what type of work was being done makes it hard to be anything but vague. Editing copy vs. doing finish work in a manufacturing plant or whatever will have really different answers.
