Run for the exit! The company expects that you will unquestioningly accept and attempt to handle massive burdens that you never signed up for!
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The correct answer is, you turn the person who gave you the Elephant over to federal authorities for trafficking an endangered species.
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Is it bad that that was literally my first instinct?
Of course, if I were a millennial I would work on a branding strategy for the elephant. A Twitter account called Devin Nunes’ Elephant which is just videos of the elephant pooping. Then I’d sell the poop as ethically sourced fertilizer. Also several Instagram accounts that create an intricate backstory and also hawk dubious products (often laxatives). Also I’d start an Only Fans for people with a scat fetish and/or a fetish for prehensile penes.
EtA:
My real response indicates that I’d sweep the extra work under the rug. My millennial response (aspirational, not instinctual but what I’d consider to be the “right” response) is to delegate. Both accurately reflect what I’d do.
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I wish that was Grogu in the helmet, I’d get that tattooed, have to find some spare real estate though…
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I suppose the test author thought they were being especially clever posing the question of what to do with a “white elephant” in modern times. But unless the gift is from a monarch you can’t refuse, the question is nonsensical because you’d refuse to accept such a gift under such burdensome conditions.
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These kinds of stunt questions on interviews are common in software engineering (but with a technical angle, rather than a business one). They are stupid and only prove how many technical interview prep books you’ve read. Google is notorious for these and their interviews are terrible.
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I would use that information to demand they pay me 10x as much. “Do you know how much elephants eat? Well, I do!”
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What would you do with the elephant?
I’d paint it all the colors of the rainbow, hide it in a crayon box and drop the crayon box around the back of the main stage at CPAC. In the middle of Ted Cruz’s speech, the elephant would jump out of the crayon box and dance the mazurka, causing a rash of heart attacks and strokes in the doddering throng of know-nothing bigots. There’s nothing fascists hate more than a Pride Elephant.
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Yeah, I think “eat it” would pop out of my mouth before I knew what I was saying.
My brother, a computer programmer, was often asked to estimate how many stoplights were in a given city, and then explain how he arrived at that estimate.
I once asked a candidate “do you have any questions for me” and he picked up the Magic 8-Ball from my desk and ask “Will I get this job” then said “Signs point to yes” and then said “Nope, no other questions.” It was a pretty good interview until that point.
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Employers don’t care about your expenses. Salary and compensation is about the value you bring to the company, not your costs.
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What a goddam gem that show was. I need to watch it again. It just gets better every time, especially knowing the big twist.
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[cut to training montage set to “You’re the Best Around” as I’m teaching the elephant to fight crime]
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Four words:
“Elephant. Burgers. Food. Truck.”
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i don’t really believe in a hell but secretly hope there’s an exception for people who kill, maim, or exploit elephants for fun or profit.
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does the elephant pull the food truck behind it?
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I see a total lack of empathy for interviewers. Most interviewees walk in a total cipher, and it is almost impossible in 60 minutes or so to feel truly comfortable making a multi-month/year investment in a stranger.
If I can get any sort of signal at all from that time, it’s a (hard-fought) win.
Projecting traits or ideologies on interviewers based on the question is asinine. I asked the question to learn something about you that I didn’t know before - nothing more, nothing less.
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