The application for the 2010 Innovation Boot Camp was as rigorous as the program itself. Below you’ll find a few of the questions as well as some of the answers (applicants’ names have been withheld to protect their identity).
Completed applications had to be folded into a paper airplane and delivered to the camouflaged office file box.
Question 1: Art
The drawing below has been partially erased. Complete the drawing in the space provided by incorporating the shapes and lines that remain.
Question 2: Math
Nine employees working at the same rate require 15 days to complete a task. Which formula indicates how long it would take to do the same work if there were 3 additional employees each capable of working twice as fast as each of the original 9 employees?
a) 9 × 12 / 15
b) 15 – (15 / 9)
c) 9 + 3 / (15 ÷ 9)
d) (9 × 15) / [9 + (3 × 2)]
e) [15 / (9 + 3)] × [15 / (9 × 3)]
“None of these: you can’t calculate how much effect adding 3 people working twice as fast will change the process. They could, in fact, decrease overall efficiency. Plus, I hate math”
“[I'm an] English major – you do the math!”
“But why should 3 people do double the work of 9 slow people?”
“Chuck Norris.”
Question 3: English
Why would you make a good recruit? Answer the question in the [very small] space provided.
“[I am] open-minded and willing to fail in public!”
“I’m feeling kind of flat – boot camp would get me ‘pumped’”
“[I'll bring] muffins.”
“I want to hang my bicycle from the ceiling.”
“I know stuff.”
“I am tall. I have noticed that people think that tall people are smart and possess leadership abilities.”
View the full application (PDF).
