The One Interview Question I Ask Every Potential Hire
This post is part of a series,“The One Thing,”where I ask today’s successful leaders to identify the single most important lesson they’ve learned on a given topic.
Recruiting the best talent is critical to the lifeblood of any organization but identifying whether a potential new hire will flourish versus flounder within a career opportunity is always challenging. Whether you’re looking to pinpoint sought-after skills or to tap into intangibles such as ambition, creativity, or vision, asking the right questions in an interview can reveal ifa candidate’s going to bea valuable contributor and a fit with company culture.In this high stakes process, how do you avoid eliciting the same canned responses and what are the best ways to spot major red flags before making the final offer? We asked fivepower women to weigh in with their must-ask question inevery job interview and what they hope to hear.
What’s “The One Thing” You Ask Every Potential Employee?
Describe Your Best Day At Work
Think back to your very best day at work – that day you went home thinking, “I have the best job in the world. I love what I do.” What did you do that day? That’s the question I ask candidates. AtFacebook, we knowwhen you’re doing work you enjoy, you’ll be happier and more engaged – and will perform at the top of your game.We are a strengths-based company: we want every person to thrive in their role. So before you even join, we try to discover your true strengths – and how you play to them. Which activities help you achieve a state of “flow?” If you think about your very best day, you’ll know the answer. Lori Goler is the Vice President of People atFacebook. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images) What’s The Scariest Thing You’ve Ever Done?
In any creative business (like mine) you’re taking risk every day. Thevery nature of creativity is coming up with things that have never been tried before.To succeed, you need to believe that risk-taking is exciting — you have to want torun into it, not away from it.
So I look for light in the eyes when people to talk about the scary things they’ve done.When someone can’t even answer this question (which happens often) I think, “This is not the right business for you!”
Shelly Lazarus serves as the Chairman Emeritus at Olgivy & Mather.
Tell Me About the Last Customer Experience You Loved and Why
It can be anything: an advertisement, product packaging, an interaction with a retail associate, a great web experience. We are looking for people who have great intuition and obsess over the details, but who also have an opinion and a point of view. In my view, one of the few things you cannot teach is creative judgment. You can teach just about anything else, but the folks who have great creative judgment—and you really know it when you see it—are few and far between.For all the principles and guidebooks and frameworks in the world, none of it is worth anything without gut instinctand an absolute unwillingness to settle for “good enough.” Lorraine Twohill is the Senior Vice President of Global Marketing atGoogle.