Interviews are a lot like a puzzle you’re trying to solve. In front of you are a candidate and a CV, you need to figure out fact from fiction! Any candidate should be prepared to discuss what’s on their CV so you need to delve deeper to determine whether they have a good understanding or their knowledge is purely theoretical.
In the short video clip below Elon Musk shares how he asks candidates to explain their thought process in solving problems. As Elon says:
ask them to tell you about the problems they are working on and how they solved them
This can really show you if the person has actually worked on the area their describing.
In most cases ‘problems’ are not covered on CVs so it will mean asking them to think about recent issues they’ve had and how they solved them. We all face problems in our work so you’ll be able to learn a lot about them from the answers they give. If you’re not getting a response to the detail you would have liked probe further or ask for another example. This can be a straight forward way to decide if they are right for your role.
The video can be seen on Business Insider’s blog – How Elon Musk Can Tell If Job Applicants Are Lying About Their Experience.
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