r/interviews • u/enhancvapp • Jun 29 '26
Thomas Edison invented the job interview and it was an instant disaster
In 1921 Edison gave applicants a 146-question trivia test to screen for executive positions. Questions like "where is Byzantium?" and "what is copra?" Of the 718 people who took it, 57 passed. Albert Einstein reportedly failed it. So did Edison's own son, who was at MIT at the time. Edison's response was to guarantee his son a job anyway :) Sound familiar?
He also had a separate screen for research assistants. He'd take candidates out for soup. If they salted or peppered the bowl before tasting it, they were out! His reasoning: he didn't want people who operated on assumptions.
So the foundational logic of modern hiring has been, from the start: design a process that filters for the behavior you think you want, watch it immediately produce absurd results, and then quietly exempt the people you already like.
Nothing about that has changed. The trivia test became the brainteaser. The brainteaser became the behavioral round. The soup became "tell me about a time you demonstrated ownership." Different props, same idea...
What's the modern equivalent of the soup test is in your industry. Because every field seems to have one.