公司不大。上周寄了简历后，HR 就让我今天去面试。 我的简历很简单。 2003-2005 两年 半的工作经历 (technical support)， 2005-2008 读书 (online英文硕士)。 1966-2003 (BA in English, 6 months of math, assistant supervisor) 经理不错。 也是英文硕士毕业。 和我谈的很投机。他问我online英文硕士都学什么课程。 我对他讲我学 english literature, american writers, poetry, writing, fiction, non-fiction etc. 他看起来挺高兴。 但到了第二个人时， 完了。 这个人问了三道智力测试题。 其中一个是: two cows ran in a 1000-meter race. when cow A reached the finish line, cow B was 50 meters behind (lost). then they ran again. this time, cow A started 50 meters behind the start line. the question is this: if both cows ran at the same speeds as in the first race, who won the race? 当时脑子有点乱， 没答对。 第三个人的问题更难。 又问了三道。 一个是这样： ‘calls to the tech support center arrive in a poisson process with a rate of 20 per hour. the time for a tech support person to serve one customer is exponentially distributed with an average of 3 mins. there are 3 people in the tech support center to answer the calls. what is the probability that a customer gets delayed service?’ I copied everything down. then only heaven saw the anguish in me for the next 20 mins. i tried and tried and tried. after running out of paper, i said: 'sir, the probability is 1'. 'one?' he was surprised. then i was trying to explain it to him: ' when i was working as a tech support, i always kept people waiting'. 'why so?' he wondered eagerly. 'because there is no water for drinking when there are 3 monks around'. 'what are you talking about?' he became a little hysterical. 'sir, have you worked as a tech support before?' i then left.