Another addition to the killer interview questions collection: what would you do with $10 million right now?.
Image: Ben Hosking
Definitely Incorrect answers:
- “Hookers and blow” (unless you’re applying for a job with a drug baron)
- “Naked snow angels”
- “Get myself the hell away from your ugly face”
- “Invest in some non-loser company, unlike this one”
But how do you face this particular question, which is apparently a favourite of Google?
There’s obvious context to take into consideration, but the key would seem to be to relating it to the job at hand in a sensible way. As such, asking whether you’re getting notes or a digital deposit could show attention to detail, as even in $100 bills, $10 million is going to weigh a lot. Equally, you could ask in which currency, or then move onto the specifics of spending or allocating those funds.
How would you answer the question?
21 of the trickiest questions Google will ask you in a job interview [Business Insider]
Comments
27 responses to “Killer Interview Question: What Would You Do With $10 Million Right Now?”
Pretty boring i know but id buy a new car or two, buy a house, allocate a few hundred thousand for parents, donate a million to some charities, invest the rest.
Buy mum a house, invest the rest and allocate a percentage of profits to charity.
I’d put it all on 23 Red.
I’ll Fedex you the cheque with your winnings
I see what you did there.
I would buy a new house. With cash.
It’s on my bucket list. Settling by bank cheque is cheating. I want to turn up to the settlement meeting with a briefcase full of $100 notes, and watch the lawyers sign the forms then hand over the briefcase to the seller’s lawyer, and watch them count it.
After that… well, unfortunately the answer to that question will cost you $10 Million.
I’d love to be a fly on the wall when you go to the teller and say, “I’d live to withdrawy [amount] please”.
One word.
Retire.
Pay off house, look to upgrade – starting to outgrow this one. Don’t have any other debts. I’d invest at least half. Take Fridays off work. Help out family and friends, donate a bit, splurge a bit.
I would buy a house. Nothing too big. On a nice size block of land. I’ll then buy a nice car or two. I’ll invest some in the stock market and then I’ll help family out. But a large amount of it I would put in an interest account and live of the interest.
Put all the money into a savings account so I can earn interest and pay my self a wage to keep spending under control.
Buy my self a home and a car.
Either buy or create my own business maybe run a computer support company or a game design company or my own internet service provider.
Invest in real estate/stock market.
Donate to charity.
$10M, at 5% interest, gives you $500K a year.
Lose about half in tax, leaves you $250K a year.
So, assuming you have a significant other, that gives you $10K a month each, after tax.
With that kind of money, you don’t NEED to work – you find a job you actively ENJOY, to stimulate the brain and avoid boredom. Which brings the conversation back to the job being offered…
thats the way.
but im pretty sure with the 250k that you would normally lose to tax, you could probably invest into some shitty failing business that earns a loss and probably be able to take home more then the other 250k.
to be honest, i dont actually know how it works, but i know people do it to use a loophole in the tax system.
Tax duductions for donations to charity (for example) don’t really give you more money. They DO, however, give you a say in where your tax money goes. Red Cross, UNICEF, Salvation army… if government gives less to foreign aid BUT gives you a rebate for foreign aid donations, the money still goes overseas.
Feel free to give me the ten million, and I’ll do my best to make that $250k per year go to worthwile charities.
Invest immediately. Work for a year. See how much money my money made, then ramp down my work activities accordingly.
When I have a confirmed critical cashmass that will support my luxurious lifestyle, that’s when I can start thinking about charities.
(Or at least buying a tract of a West African country and raising my own private army. I’m talking RPGs, Technicals, Child Soldiers. Gonna be sweet.)
Call an early end to the interview?
Quit my job,
Pursue my own startup/s
pay of debts
live free.
I’d invest the money into a trust fund where the interest is then divided out into various education scholarship schemes, namely in the sciences. I’m very much of the ideology of “Give the man a fish and he’ll eat for a day, teach him to fish and he’ll eat for a lifetime”. Better to have the money continue to add to something worthwhile to society long after I’ve gone.
Besides I’d only up spending it on hookers and blow.
I would buy a house, car, help my parent’s out with any of their immediate bills. Then I would put 8Million into an account earning high interest, likely via term deposit. Quit my job after 6 months, collect the money from the term deposit as my wage, pay a financial planner and possibly set it up into a trust fund, or rinse and repeat by putting it back into a high interest account for my wages.
The last million goes to an emergency account. Every year I would maximize super contributions to ensure I pay the least amount of tax (No point dumping it all in at once and losing a few hundred thousand, when you can spread it out over a few years).
Lots of money on speakers and I’d get my skydiving licence and jump out of as many planes as possible.
It is a “Killer Interview Question”. I would thank them and walk out. Then spend.
Reply “For what purpose and reason would I have 10 million dollars ?”
I would ask them where the origin of the money was from? and why would I have it?
Every answer above is about personal spending… unless that is what the company is paying me as a salary? and wants to see if I am finacially responsible (ie a football player who just got a 10 million dollar contract).
I would assume it would be a test of either company spending where your given 10 million of the companies money for a particular project (like a new data centre or a new fleet of equipment) or as a financial advisor.
Or its a test of how corruptable you could be 😛 What would you do with 10 million dollars, Police Cadet ? That 10 million dollars in that drug dealers car.
Go to the cinema and buy my snacks at the door
Hookers and bl—– oh, right.
Pay off all my debts first. HECS, my parents’ mortgage and car loans. Probably fix up my car.
Invest majority of it in term deposits then keep doing what I’m currently doing – studying and freelancing.
After settling my debts? Hire an accountant to make sure I don’t do anything stupid with it, and have a discussion about property ownership since I plan to buy a house in Sydney. Get recommendations on how to turn that money into a sustainable income and growth so I can live a good lifestyle over the long term, accounting for inflation. Put some money into risky stocks. Invest in interesting emerging technologies. Travel. Probably still work for another decade to avoid boredom, taking comfort in the fact I could stop whenever I wanted. Maybe after I run out the clock on that decade, think about starting my own business. In what? I don’t know. A hobby store of some kind, or maybe I’ll take up carpentry like my grandfather and make nice furniture for rich people.
I’d start a boutique software company and work like crazy until it was all gone.
I’d give it all to Tony Abbott to retire.
I reckon I’ll be in front in the long run.