This was also the time when the legendary "Microsoft interview" started coming together. I.e., you'd have an all-day interview with everyone on your prospectiv

This was also the time when the legendary "Microsoft interview" started coming together. I.e., you'd have an all-day interview with everyone on your prospective team (if you were targeting a particular position), and each interviewer would have one or two IQ-test questions and at least one whiteboard coding exercise. People really went after the lateral-thinking questions and the estimation questions to find "smart" people. "How would you calculate how much rain falls in Washington in a day,"[1] "How many gas stations are there in (IYFStateOrCity)," and "How would you make a desk calendar with two cubes,"[2] were all fun ones. Now, by making your questions similar to those on IQ tests, you select people who tend to do well on IQ tests. Funny, that. [1] I got a boost on this one by spitting out,"weigh the clouds on their way in and out of the state," right away before building a slightly more feasible estimate. :-) [2] The trick is just like the Jimi Hendrix song, if six was nine.