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Hiring

When you came into Willis I assume you had to do a pretty quick assessment of the talent here, and decide who was going to stay and who wasn't?

Answered by Joseph Plumeri, Willis Group

There's a presumption that the new CEO comes into a bad company and gets rid of everybody. And I don't necessarily believe that, because I believe that you could actually get people to do things that they never believed they could do. I believe you can do that with the right motivation. For the first five years I didn't replace a person. I kept all the same people at the executive level, about 10 to 15 people. And it worked. Once I got them over the hill, I really had some converts. When you see them go over the hill, they're maniacal. And so you start to build on the theme that underlines everything, which is that there's nothing we can't do. And it starts to feed on itself.

This answer originally appeared in On Passion and Playing in Traffic »

What questions do you ask job candidates?


What I really want to know is what kind of person I'm dealing with. So I only ask one question. I say, "Tell me what you're passionate about." That's it. Tell me what you're passionate about.


Do they ask if you mean at work or outside of work?


Whatever you want to talk about. Tell me what you're passionate about. Digging holes. Riding bikes. I'm looking to see if they've got a passion. I'm looking to see if there's anything inside,

other than what they do. And how passionate could they be, therefore, about being here? And how excited and involved could they be? I'm not looking for a mirror image of me. I'm just looking for somebody who gets turned on about something. If you find that kind of person, then these are the people you want to climb hills with and climb mountains with.


How do you interview dancers, and others who work for Ailey?

Answered by Judith Jamison, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater

When they come to my office, I say: “Hi, how are you? What do you want this job for? Why are you here? Do you know how hard this is?”’ And half the time I’m just trying to get an expression out of their faces. I ask everybody why they’re here, especially dancers. And the people who give the greatest answers are the ones who understand that this is not just some dance school or some big organization that was founded 51 years ago. There’s a sense that you’re entering another world. You’re going to have your vulnerability tapped into, and nobody’s going to laugh at you. You will be honored for being who you are.

This answer originally appeared in Don’t Ask ‘How Are You?’ Unless You Mean It »

That’s what it comes down to?

Answered by William D. Green, Accenture

If you get down to it, it’s what have you learned, what have you demonstrated, what behaviors do you have? Have you shown intuition? Have you shown the ability to synthesize and act? Have you shown the ability to step up and make a choice? How have you dealt with the hand in front of you, played it out? I was recruiting at Babson College. This was in 1991. The last recruit of the day — I get this résumé. I get the blue sheet attached to it, which is the form I’m supposed to fill out with all this stuff and his résumé attached to the top. His résumé is very light — no clubs, no sports, no nothing. Babson, 3.2. Studied finance. Work experience: Sam’s Diner, references on request. It’s the last one of the day, and I’ve seen all these people come through strutting their stuff and they’ve got their portfolios and semester studying abroad. Here comes this guy. He sits. His name is Sam, and I say: "Sam, let me just ask you. What else were you doing while you were here?" He says: "Well, Sam’s Diner. That’s our family business, and I leave on Friday after classes, and I go and work till closing. I work all day Saturday till closing, and then I work Sunday until I close, and then I drive back to

Babson." I wrote, "Hire him," on the blue sheet. He’s still with us, because he had character. He faced a set of challenges. He figured out how to do both.

This answer originally appeared in 68 Rules? No, Just 3 Are Enough »

So what’s that quality you just described?


It’s work ethic. You could see the guy had charted a path for himself to make it work with the situation he had. He didn’t ask for any help. He wasn’t victimized by the thing. He just said, "That’s my dad’s business, and I work there." Confident. Proud. What critical behavior interviewing does is get at people’s character, and you get to see where work fits in their value system, where pride fits in their value system, where making hard decisions or sacrificing fits in their value system. I mean, you sacrifice and you’re a victim, or you sacrifice because it’s the right thing to do and you have pride in it. Huge difference. Simple thing. Huge difference.


Let’s talk about hiring. How do you do it?


It’s one of our core competencies at Accenture. We get two million C.V.’s a year and ultimately we hire between 40,000 and 60,000 people. I always say, in simple terms, we need people who are analytical, and have common sense, good judgment and the ability to get along with other people, because we’re in a people business. We’re taking a more scientific approach to how we recruit. We do something called "critical behavior interviewing." It’s based on the premise that past behavior is the best indicator of future behavior. Essentially what we’re looking for is, have you faced any adversity and what did you do about it? We also know the profile of successful Accenture people, and how do we learn from the people we have who have stayed, learned, grown and become great leaders, and how do we push that back into the recruiting process to find the best matches for Accenture?


You had a clear idea of how you wanted to run HSN when you came in.

Answered by Mindy Grossman, HSN Inc.

I’ve worked for some amazing leaders and I’ve worked for the opposite, and that gave me the perspective of what I knew I never wanted to be, and the perspective of what had lasting, sustainable impact. But this was truly the first time where, at the end of the day, I had to own it. I knew coming in that I had a window of time to create change and inspire the organization to all go in the same direction. You know that you need evangelists to be able to do that, who share your passion and your vision for where you want to go. So I had to do a very quick assessment of how many of those existed, and who I had to recruit, and then I had to decide who were the "blockers,’’ as I call them, or the toxic personalities who needed to go.

This answer originally appeared in Are You a Tigger, or an Eeyore? »

How long did it take you to size people up?


I would say pretty quickly. After an initial conversation, you can get a real sense of a person’s quantitative and qualitative skills. One of the first questions I would ask is, "What’s HSN?" Anyone who said, "Oh, it’s just a television shopping network," was not going to get where we were going. I asked what they thought of our customers, and anybody who talked down was never going to get it. I asked what drove them, what they were passionate about. You wanted to hear, from someone inside, why they were here, why they came and why they stayed. I still ask that question. I have lunch every month with people who have celebrated 5-, 10-, 15- and 25-year anniversaries. It’s one of my favorite things to do. I ask the same questions: "Why are you here, and why are you staying?"


Let’s talk about hiring.


There are a number of things that are really important to me. One — and people laugh that I have this philosophy — is that you only hire Tiggers. You don’t hire Eeyores. It doesn’t mean they have to be loud, but I need energy-givers and I have to get a feeling that this person is going to be able to inspire people. Are they going to be optimistic about where they’re going? Are they going to attract people who are like that? No.. 2 is, will they be able to stand up to me when they believe in something? I’m very passionate. I need people who are going to be able to make me look at things in a different way. So, I have to ask those questions, like, "Give me an instance where you really believed in something and you were able to change the course and it was successful, whatever that was." That’s really important, because you don’t want people telling you what you already know, or not telling you what you need to know.


What else?


Quality of values is really important to me — what people believe. I ask people what they abhor most in companies or people. On the flip side, what are they most passionate about outside of work? What lessons have they learned about right and wrong in cultures? I look for successes that people have had. The other thing that’s really important to me is people who have taken risks. They’ve had to put themselves in a situation, whether they took a lateral move to get to the next step or they went to a company that wasn’t performing, and it was their first opportunity to manage a team that had to do a turnaround. Specifically, in this culture, I have to have people who not only can manage change, but have an appetite for it. I love asking people how they made their career decisions, why they made those decisions. What I find is that a lot of people I relate to or even work with have taken segues like that. They tend to be more intellectually curious, that they don’t just have vertical climbs. I ask for those stories. I love hearing them and it gives me a real sense of the person.


Any other qualities?

Answered by Jeffrey Katzenberg, DreamWorks Animation SKG

I would say the single most important quality is somebody who believes in themselves. What I mean by that is, if you don't have a very strong sense of who you are and what you have to offer, and a strong conviction about that, then you cannot expect somebody else to have that for you. You first must have it for yourself.

This answer originally appeared in A Boost From a Boot Out the Door »

But what about somebody who's a lot of sizzle, no steak?


You want to know what my profession is? I'm a student of human nature. That's my profession. I'm not a manager. I'm a student of human nature, and that's what experience teaches you. And by the way, I'm not always right.


How do you hire?


When people come to talk to me in job interviews, I always ask them what are they best at and what are they worst at. For anybody to try to articulate the things they're good at and are bad at, to be reflective in that way, to really think about that, is usually very revealing if they're honest.


What other questions do you ask?


What's your favorite thing to do on your free time? That's often a very revealing question for what is of value to people.


How do you hire?

Answered by Drew Gilpin Faust, Harvard University

Well, one of the major jobs of the Harvard president is to choose the deans. I’ve had the opportunity to choose a considerable number of deans already, so I’ve learned a lot in the process in doing it. I think, for me, the most important quality as it emerges in conversation is somebody who is about the institution and understands how his or her personal ambition can be marshaled in service of something that’s bigger than that person’s purposes. Loving the institution and understanding organizations are two key aspects I look for.

This answer originally appeared in Leadership Without a Secret Code »

And are there phrases that you’re listening for?

Answered by Drew Gilpin Faust, Harvard University

I like "we" instead of "I." I like people who get excited when they’re telling me how they see the future.

This answer originally appeared in Leadership Without a Secret Code »

What else are you looking for when you hire?

Answered by Tim Brown, IDEO

There’s this idea that McKinsey first articulated many years ago of the T-shaped person, which is somebody who’s got some deep craft — a great writer or a great designer or a great architect, engineer or whatever they might be — and that’s the vertical stroke of their T. But then the horizontal is that they’ve got clear empathy and interest in engaging with other disciplines and doing other pieces of the process or playing other roles.

This answer originally appeared in He Prizes Questions More Than Answers »

What’s your best interview question for job candidates?

Answered by Tim Brown, IDEO

One question I always find helpful is to ask who they’ve done things with. And if they can very quickly give you lots of examples of what other people did, then you’ve got some hint about how collaborative they are. If, however, the answer is, “I did this and I did that and I was responsible for that,” and you get no sense of who they worked with and how they worked with them, then I worry. Because then I see somebody who probably isn’t very collaborative, probably isn’t very good at promoting the ideas of others and probably isn’t going to bring talent out very effectively. They may be very inspirational, they may do brilliant work, but they’re probably not going to actually result in a more capable organization, which is what I’m looking for.

This answer originally appeared in He Prizes Questions More Than Answers »

So what are the red flags?

Answered by Carol Bartz, Yahoo

Boring. Too buttoned up. It’s like you’re saying, "O.K., who is under there? How long is it going to take me to find out who you are?’’ I’m a good listener. I’m good at asking questions.

This answer originally appeared in Imagining a World of No Annual Reviews »

How do you hire?

Answered by Carol Bartz, Yahoo

I’m assuming that the people that get to me know their business. But what kind of person are you? Can I stand to have dinner with you? How did you tackle your problems? How does the person think? How do they act? Will they take a little humor? I’m looking for a personality fit. I use humor in my management. I can’t take a person who gets offended by every little thing I say. I always have dinner with them because I want to find out if I’m thinking, after that first glass of wine, how can I get out of here? I have to be able to make it through a dinner.

This answer originally appeared in Imagining a World of No Annual Reviews »

How do you hire? What key questions do you ask job candidates?

Answered by James E. Rogers, Duke Energy

I try to get them to talk generally about some of their toughest challenges. I ask them to talk about their failures, how they dealt with it, how it made them feel, the point when they knew they were failing. I ask them to talk about things they've taken on that they weren't so sure of, but went at it step by step. The way they describe how they embrace a new idea, or how they've redirected their career in some way, gives me a sense of who they are.

This answer originally appeared in The C.E.O. as General (and Scout) »

Let's talk about hiring.

Answered by Susan Lyne, Gilt Groupe

I do think that the key role for a C.E.O. is recruiting. I mean, you can be the smartest person in your industry, and if you can't attract talent, you're never going to succeed. Something that I have learned over time -- and that I think not enough people recognize -- is that when you are trying to recruit somebody, the first thing they are going to do is call someone you've worked with before, usually multiple people. And if they say it was a great experience, then half the job is done. If they say it wasn't a great experience, you've lost them. So making sure that you do take care of the people who work with you along the way is such a great investment.

This answer originally appeared in Want to Talk to the Chief? Book Your Half-Hour »

So once they're in your office, how do you interview job candidates?


I usually try to get someone to talk specifically about how they handle different challenges. So, depending on what the role is, I want to understand what their work style is, and I want to understand how they deal with a crisis, a challenge. Because everyone's going to tell you about what they've accomplished, right? That's just part of the interview. They'll tell you about all the successes, but I want to know what happened when something went badly, and what they would say were the most significant mistakes they've made along the way and what they've done along the way to correct them: What did you learn from it? How would you do it differently, or what would you say was the best thing you did in that moment of crisis? I ask them how they build their team. What kind of team do you think you're going to need under you? Where are you going to look for those people? That gives you a good sense of whether they really understand where the talent is for that job. And I like to find out what gets them excited about work. Why do you like to do this? You're a C.M.O., you're a C.F.O., you're a -- whatever it might be. What do you love about it?


Anything you have a particularly low tolerance for?


Anyone who always talks about "me" instead of "we." That's not a good signal. Also, people who are trying to sell me on why they're good. There are a lot of people who come in with what is clearly a canned speech about their careers. And after a while it's like Muzak. So that's why I like to break through and really get them to talk about something specific. It's usually the people who have a very well-formed speech they give when they go to a job interview who are incapable of really getting away from that. They've practiced the questions that they think they're going to be asked, and that is a disaster. I actually think that a lot of coaches do a disservice in this area because they get you to over-prep and get you to think about what are generic questions. That's really not what someone's looking for most of the time when you're recruiting for a senior job.


Over time, have you changed what you look for in job candidates?


I think that now I have a very strong antenna for someone who is going to be poison within a company. I think that early on, I was wowed by talent, and I was willing to set aside the idea that this person might not be a team player. Now, somebody needs to be able to work with people -- that's No. 1 on the list. I need people who are going to be able to build a team, manage a team, recruit well and work well with their peers. And that's another thing that you learn over time. Somebody may be a great manager of a team, but incapable of working across the company to get things done because they're competitive, or because of any number of reasons. But can they manage down? Can they work across the company and get people to want to work with them and to help them succeed? And are they someone who is going to keep you well informed of everything that's going on?


How do you hire?

Answered by Lawrence W. Kellner, Continental Airlines

I don't believe -- and I probably learned this through experience -- that any one-hour or two-hour interview can let me figure out, "Yeah, that person is going to be really successful." What I've found is that step one is, "O.K., have I worked with somebody who could fill this job who's really good?" Because I've found my success rate is dramatically higher going that route. If not, the second step is to widen the net to people who I trust, and look for people they've worked with. Our third net is we try to find somebody we know and trust who knows the person we're thinking of hiring. The best possible interview is minuscule in value compared to somebody who's got even a couple of months of work experience with somebody, who's actually watched how they work.

This answer originally appeared in Bad News or Good, Tell Me Now »

Are there questions you typically ask?

Answered by Lawrence W. Kellner, Continental Airlines

My general goal is, how do I get them talking, to see what they talk about? And I really watch myself when I'm interviewing to talk as little as possible. I don't have any piercing questions. It's much more about seeing where they want to go, seeing what they find interesting.

This answer originally appeared in Bad News or Good, Tell Me Now »

Let's talk about hiring. What do you look for in job candidates when you're interviewing people for senior levels?

Answered by Linda Hudson, BAE Systems

Usually by the time I get in an interview process, I'm rarely there to question their professional credentials or that sort of thing. What I'm looking for when I interview somebody is passion and excitement about what they're doing in both their professional and their personal lives. I approach interviews a little differently. The first thing I always ask someone is: "O.K., I've got your résumé. I've been over all the details. Just tell me about your life. Start wherever you want to, from the beginning or the end, but talk to me about you, what you've done, and then walk me through what you've done with your career." And I find that the way people talk about what matters to them tells me an awful lot about how engaging they are, how committed they are, their energy level, their passion. And that's the sort of thing I'm looking for. I'm looking for the chemistry that would fit well in our environment and how articulate they are. Can they communicate effectively, which I think is extremely important? And it's more of a subjective assessment of, do they have the people-skill part of what we need in the job. There are a lot of people who have the professional credentials, but do they have that extra something and the passion and people connection that sets them apart from others? What gets you excited? What do you look forward to? Those are the kinds of questions I ask.

This answer originally appeared in Fitting In, and Rising to the Top »

Have the last couple of years changed, even in a small way, the kind of people you hire?

Answered by Lloyd C. Blankfein, Goldman Sachs

I don't think so. We want people who are institutional people, people who view their responsibilities broadly. A person who wants to live or die from his or her own performance,

regardless of what anyone else in the organization could do, can have a great career. It just won't be a great career here. We want people to respond to the overall needs of the firm. And that screens out a lot of people.

This answer originally appeared in Lessons Learned at Goldman »

What other qualities are you looking for?

Answered by Lloyd C. Blankfein, Goldman Sachs

Well, I look for two things that may sound a bit inconsistent, but they're reconcilable. I look for people who are willing and able to get very deeply involved in something. And at the same time I like people with broad interests, so that they're well-rounded and interesting people, and are interested in a lot of different things. On the issue of depth, we're looking for somebody who has the experience of digging in and mastering a topic. If you can master a topic, you can master another topic. On the other hand, if all you're good at is survey courses, it's not that useful to us. I'd give a job sooner to somebody who'd shown that he or she could really dig down deep in something -- and give that person a job in an area of totally different content -- than take somebody who had superficial experience across a broad swath and no deep experience in anything.

This answer originally appeared in Lessons Learned at Goldman »

Let's talk about hiring. I've just walked into your office. How would you interview me as a job candidate?

Answered by Alan R. Mulally, Ford Motor

Your résumé tells a lot about what you've done. I would want to know what you've enjoyed about what you've done, what areas you feel comfortable in making a contribution right away, what areas have you struggled with, what do you really want to do, and, especially, what are your strengths? And between what you've done and the way you communicate, I can just look in your eyes and tell a lot.

This answer originally appeared in Planes, Cars and Cathedrals »

How do you hire?

Answered by Deborah Dunsire, M.D., Millennium

The first thing, obviously, is that you review a résumé and look for the quality of the experience and the track record. And has this person demonstrated an ability to step out of their initial area of mastery, and add other experiences and skills? Have they done things that are a little bit out of the norm? I really like international experience. I like evidence of people who are broad, and not just deep. Ideally you have both in a senior leader. I look for evidence of balance as well. Do they think about things beyond work? Then, in the interviewing process, I want to get to the issues of the real fundamentals of the person, their integrity, judgment and management of other people. Tell me about a time when you felt the organization needed to go in a different direction: How did you handle that? How did you approach it and how did you resolve it? If you had a do-over, what would it be? I ask them about people they've developed successfully, and then ask them to tell me about their worst hiring decision and why they think it worked out that way and what they learned from it.

This answer originally appeared in Stepping Out of the Sandbox »

Are there any small things that you have a particularly low tolerance for in job candidates?

Answered by Deborah Dunsire, M.D., Millennium

I'm all about substance. If I get the feeling there's more sizzle than steak, it's very off-putting. Arrogance is another major one -- often they go together. Sometimes I've had people sit before me who I know couldn't have had the influence they say they had. But I've also had people sit before me who would always, in spite of considerable achievement, talk about how others had a big role to play and not focus as much on their own role. I gravitate very strongly toward that kind of person.

This answer originally appeared in Stepping Out of the Sandbox »

Let's talk about hiring. Walk me through what you're looking for in the interview process, your key questions.

Answered by Brian Dunn, Best Buy

By the time these individuals get to me, we've had a thorough sort of scan of their technical capabilities and all that. So my discussion with them is very little about technical capability and competence and very much about cultural fit. And the thing I really focus in on is: "What are you passionate about? What do you really care about and what do you do with that?" And I don't care if it's coaching a basketball team or something else. I want to understand how they think about their passion.

This answer originally appeared in You Want Insights? Go to the Front Lines »

How do you hire?

Answered by Gary E. McCullough, Career Education Corporation

When I'm hiring, particularly at the senior levels, I'm looking for a couple of things. One is demonstrated leadership -- has somebody shown that they have mastered the work, that they can lead people and lead organizations? I look for intelligence -- business intelligence -- and I'm not talking book intelligence. I'm rarely swayed by people who were 4.0 students at the best colleges and universities. I'm just talking about basic smarts. You do recruit for raw intelligence because if you don't have it, you don't have it. You either do or you don't. But I'm also looking for some street savviness. I'm looking for the ability to work with other people. Teamwork's important to me. I grew up playing on teams. I'm not a fan of people who are "lone wolves" at the tops of organizations, because they don't do a good job of working with me and with the organization in many cases. So I ask them to tell me about a time when they were in, say, a leadership situation where something simply would not have happened had they not been there, and what they did to influence the action. Questions like that tend to be pretty open-ended.

This answer originally appeared in The Lesson of the 38 Candy Bars »

It's hard to test for those intangibles up front.

Answered by Gary E. McCullough, Career Education Corporation

Yes it is, which is why I want to spend time with people. At the levels I'm hiring for, I want to have a meal with you. I want to meet your spouse. They should want to do the same thing

with me and with my spouse, because you get a sense for who people are when you get them out of the business environment. I'll tell you another quick story. There was a woman named Rosemary who long ago retired from Procter & Gamble. Rosemary was a cafeteria worker, and at the time at P. & G., we actually had a cart that would come around at 7, 7:30 in the morning. They would ring a bell and you'd go get a cup of coffee and a doughnut or a bagel or something to start off your day. And Rosemary had an uncanny ability to discern who was going to make it and who wasn't going to make it. And I remember, when I was probably almost a year into the organization, she told me I was going to be O.K. But she also told me some of my classmates who were with the company weren't going to make it. And she was more accurate than the H.R. organization was. When I talked to her, I said, "How'd you know?" She could tell just by the way they treated people. In her mind, everybody was going to drop the ball at some point, and then she said: "You know you're going to drop the ball at some point, and I see that you're good with people and people like you and you treat them right. They're going to pick up the ball for you, and they're going to run and they're going to score a touchdown for you. But if they don't like you, they're going to let that ball lie there and you're going to get in trouble." Again, I think it's those intangible things. I had taken the time to get to know Rosemary and know that her husband's name was Floyd and know the thing that they did in their off-time was bowling. So, it is all those little intangible things that you see, not when you're sitting around a table in a conference room, but what you see in other ways.

This answer originally appeared in The Lesson of the 38 Candy Bars »

How do you hire?

Answered by John T. Chambers, Cisco Systems

First thing I want to ask you about: tell me about your results. I never get hard work confused with success. So I'd walk you through the successes, and what did you do right. I'd also ask you to tell me about your failures. And that's something people make a tremendous mistake on. First, all of us have had mistakes and failures. And it's surprising how many people say, "Well, I can't think of one." That immediately loses credibility. It's the ability to be very candid on what mistakes they've made, and then the question is, what would you do differently this time? Then I ask them who are the best people you recruited and developed, and where are they today? Third, I try to figure out if they're really oriented around the customer. Are they driven by the customer, or is the customer just somebody who gets in the way? And I look at their communication skills, and one of the largest parts of communications is ... what?

This answer originally appeared in In a Near-Death Event, a Corporate Rite of Passage »

Let's talk about hiring.

Answered by Carol Smith, Elle Group

I am living by something I read in Cathie Black's book ["Basic Black: The Essential Guide for Getting Ahead at Work (and in Life)"] which I sort of instinctively knew -- that you've got to meet someone three times, and one of them better be over a meal. You learn so much in a meal. It's like a little microcosm of life. How they order, what they order. How are they going to give instructions to a waiter? Are they sending back the meal eight times? Can they keep the conversation going, especially if you're hiring someone who is in sales? Are they asking smart questions? Throughout a meal, the personality comes out, I think. Are you going to connect with us? Are you going to be part of the team, or are you going to be one of these independent players who wants to take all the credit? Are you good with assistants? Those are things you can find out in some subtle ways when you eat with someone.

This answer originally appeared in No Doubts: Women Are Better Managers »

Any other tips on hiring?

Answered by Carol Smith, Elle Group

Don't hire somebody you don't like. There is always a strong internal pressure to give a job to a person who has all the right credentials and says all the right things, even if something about her sends up little signals of alarm. They may be slight, but in my experience it is a great mistake to ignore them. Every time I went against my instincts and gave a job to someone who, though clearly capable, made me feel uneasy during the interview, it has ended badly.

This answer originally appeared in No Doubts: Women Are Better Managers »

Do you have favorite interview questions?

Answered by Shantanu Narayen, Adobe Systems

Well, my first question is always, "Tell me what you think this job is all about." And I think just allowing them to speak about what they want to do, and what they think the job is about, is actually very useful, because it sheds light on what they think they want to do in the company. I

typically also end an interview with asking them how they can make a difference. And when I'm interviewing somebody who I plan to hire, I spend at least three or four sessions with them because you want them to also get a good sense of what the company is about.

This answer originally appeared in Connecting the Dots Isn't Enough »

Talk about how you build a team.


My big belief in management is that people don't change. You know, I'm highly unlikely at this age to fundamentally change what I am as a human being, and so my management philosophy also tends to be that if I can complement people's strengths by surrounding them with people who can complement their areas of weakness, that's probably a better recipe for success than trying to say, "O.K., you need to change." If somebody is really all about creative ideas and driving the vision, then expecting them to be very organized and compulsive is probably not a winning proposition.


What are you looking for when you hire?


For me, the biggest predictors of success are raw intelligence and a passion for what you do. And I try to look for people who are going to have tremendous passion for being here, as opposed to this being just another job. As I'm looking for people at very senior levels, I also look for whether they share the fundamental values of the company. Unless people really internalize and believe in the core values of the company, they're highly unlikely to be successful.


What's your best interview question?

Answered by David C. Novak, Yum Brands

"How do you stay on top of your game?"

This answer originally appeared in At Yum Brands, Rewards for Good Work »

Let's talk a bit about hiring. How do you do it?

Answered by David C. Novak, Yum Brands

Everybody is looking for ambition, passion, the ability to inspire. I think the thing that I have found in the highest-potential people, and the people who can have the most impact in your organization, is that they're avid learners. Are they continually trying to better themselves? Are they continuing to look outside for ideas that will help them grow the business? The other question I ask myself is, would I want my daughter to work for this person? If I couldn't convince myself that I could learn from this person or be inspired by them, then I won't hire them.

This answer originally appeared in At Yum Brands, Rewards for Good Work »

What are you looking for in teachers you recruit?

Answered by Wendy Kopp, Teach for America

We've done a lot of research on the characteristics of our teachers who are the most successful. The most predictive trait is still past demonstrated achievement, and all selection research basically points to that. But then there is a set of personal characteristics. And the No. 1 most predictive trait is perseverance, or what we would call internal locus of control. People who in the context of a challenge -- you can't see it unless you're in the context of a challenge -- have the instinct to figure out what they can control, and to own it, rather than to blame everyone else in the system. In this case, there are so many people who could be blamed -- kids, kids' families, the system. And yet you'll go into schools and you'll see people teaching in the same hallway, and some have that mentality of, "It's not possible to succeed here," and others who are just prevailing against it all. And it's so much about that mind-set and the instinct to remain optimistic in the face of a challenge.

This answer originally appeared in Charisma? To Her, It's Overrated »

What else?


The ability to influence and motivate others in a sophisticated way -- but not necessarily charisma. And that's an interesting one, right? Because people think of teachers who are born to teach, and you think of all these charismatic folks. Some of the most successful teachers are some of the least charismatic, interestingly. But they have a gift of figuring out what motivates people.


Tell me about the first time you started hiring and managing people.


I was dismal at it. Some people seem to sort of have a gut for hiring. I literally had a gut that was exactly the opposite. So whenever I thought someone would be great, it was sort of the opposite. You meet people and they seem nice and charismatic and they seem to have presence. And at that time, I was looking for people who could, in fact, build a movement on campuses. So maybe I was going on that, versus diving into people's past experiences and figuring out how they actually operated. But I have since become obsessed with building the right team.


So how do you hire people now for staff positions?


I start with someone's experience, just to try to understand how they've operated in past environments and challenges, to see if they have demonstrated what we would think of as the core values for Teach for America. Are these people who operate with a relentless pursuit of results, and with a sense of possibility and disciplined thought and respect and humility and integrity? I'll just dive into people's pasts and try to look for evidence of that. And then if it seems like someone would

be a fit here, based on that, then we'll actually try to simulate the job. I used to hire people and then realize within two days whether someone was going to thrive or not. So I said, "Let's actually find out what we're going to know two days in, before someone starts." We just send them a bunch of stuff that they would get otherwise on their first day and say, "Here are the challenges of the day." And we ask them to write up their answers, and then actually engage with them deeply so that we understand whether they have the skills that a particular role is going to require. For most of the leadership roles around here, we desperately need people who are going to be visionary thinkers, set big goals and own the responsibility for meeting them.


How do you hire?

Answered by Daniel P. Amos, Aflac

At my level, I'm looking for, as a general rule, people who are more Type A personalities -- they are driven, they know what to do, they know how to do it and they can get it done. But I also look for people who generally are strategists and can look at issues at a higher level, who have a vision for understanding what we do and how we do it. I also notice little things -- are you nice to people who will not have an impact on your career? I know they're going to be nice to me, but I pay attention to whether they speak to the lowest-level person on the elevator. Don't get me wrong. I can get so preoccupied that I don't see anybody. I can absolutely walk through a room and never see anybody because my mind is so focused. But if you don't have pretty good people skills, you're not going to be head of a department.

This answer originally appeared in Stumping for Votes, Every Day »

Let's talk about hiring. How do you do it?

Answered by Jacqueline Kosecoff, UnitedHealth Group

By the time a candidate comes to me they've been heavily vetted, and you can pretty much count on the fact that they've got the skill set that you need and they have the experience you need. So basically what I do is I try and explore the person. One of the things I explore is whether they like our company, and that's important because so often people will come in, particularly from the outside, and their modus operandi is: Everything you do is wrong. It was done better at -- fill in the blank, from wherever they left -- and so we need to adopt their methods. It may be that they're

bringing great best practices to the company, but they have to do it in an environment that's respectful of both companies. So I look for people who are going to be able to bring new ideas into the organization in a way that will be quickly absorbed into the organization, rather than in an off-putting way. I look for people with a lot of energy. I think in almost every environment you can think of, energy's a very good thing. Passion's a good thing, and I look for that as well. And I look for people that have integrity.

This answer originally appeared in The Divine, Too, Is in the Details »

And how do you get a sense of all that?


I usually ask: What was the thing that you're most proud of in your professional career? And what was the thing that you're most proud of in your personal career? And I listen very carefully to those answers. And finally, I ask them at the very end: O.K., you're now sitting with the C.E.O. and you've been through all these interviews. What would you like to ask me about the company that you couldn't have asked these other people? Are there any questions you have?


And what are you listening for?


If they have no questions, then I worry that they're not going to be able to speak up in a meeting. If their question is all about: "Well, is the 401(k) funded?" I realize that perhaps that's not the right question to ask the C.E.O. If they sit down and they ask me something that's hard for me to answer, I like it.


You are in the business of creating games that probably sound close to impossible when you first explain your ideas. How do you get your team on board?

Answered by Will Wright, Stupid Fun Club

A lot of it comes down to picking the right people. Because, when you come in with an idea like that, that sounds impossible, some people will be very excited, while others might say: "Oh no, we're doomed. I want a different project. I want a transfer." So, that's part of how I filter prospective employees -- when they are faced with the impossible, do they get excited or do they get depressed?

This answer originally appeared in On Will Wright's Team, Would You Be a Solvent, or the Glue? »

How do you make sure you have the right people?


When you are building a team, there is a balance issue. There are seasoned veterans I've worked with 10 or 15 years. And then you have these young kids coming out of graduate courses who are very motivated and they're not set in their ways. And they actually work very well together. And we'll have another third that is kind of an eclectic mixture. I think there is a lot of value in diversity. Some of the early games we did tended to appeal a little bit more to women than most other games. So we started getting the highest-qualified women in the game industry coming to us first. So there's a gender diversity and there's an age diversity. If you look at a lot of game companies, it's primarily 25-year-old guys working in them.


And when you are interviewing an intern, what are you asking?


Interns always have some vision that they want to fulfill, and it really gives you an insight into what their passions are. Sometimes it will be a very unformulated idea; other times it's something that they have really spent a lot of time and effort developing. That's a little bit different than their qualifications and their competencies. The next step is, do they have the ability to get there, and, also, how open are they to understanding the things they don't know and wanting to learn about that.


What about interviewing industry veterans?


For somebody like that, it's more a matter of getting a sense of how clear are they on where they want to go relative to where they've been. And there is the matter of, how good is this person, times their teamwork factor. You can have a great person who doesn't really work well on the team, and they're a net loss. You can have somebody who is not that great, but they are really very good glue, so that could be a net gain. A lot of team members I consider glue within the team in that they disseminate things effectively, they motivate and improve the morale of people around them. They basically bring the team tighter and tighter. Other ones are solvents and, it's just their kind of personal nature that they might be disagreeable. They rub people the wrong way. They're always caught in conflicts. But, for the most part, that is as least as important as their competence in their role. Occasionally I will get somebody who is more of a prima donna, who is just incredibly good, but not great on the team and so, in some ways you can find a role where you can kind of isolate and quarantine them and allow them to go off and do their great work without having to interact with the rest of the team a lot. Those people are fairly few and far between.


How do you glean that from an interview?


That part is very hard to get from an interview. A lot of times you can subtly kind of push back on things they are saying and find out if they are argumentative, or do they tend to take the conversation in a constructive direction. Their self-image relative to what other people have said about them is really interesting to me. When you call their references, if there is a very big discrepancy between their self-image and what other people are saying about them, that is usually indicative of some underlying kind of social issue you are going to be facing down the road. On the other hand, you know, if they come and they are underselling themselves and you talk to everybody they worked with and they are telling you they're a superstar, then unusually that indicates that they are going to an added benefit in the team setting.


Do you find yourself focusing on certain things more in prospective hires for your team than you did, say, 10 years ago?


I would say I'm looking more and more for autonomy in my hires. I look continually for more and more points of leverage where I can manage creative staff without a huge amount of bandwidth required. One of the things that I have done with people that I work with is, they will always come to me for a decision: "Do, you think we should do A or B?" More and more I will ask them to guess which one we would pick. They'll say, "Well, you know, we were thinking you would pick A." And then you give them feedback. "Hey, you're right: I would have picked A," or "No, you're wrong: I would have picked B, and this is why." And the point of that really is to get them to develop an internal model of you. Over time you basically want them to come to you with fewer and fewer of those decisions. And this is how you push them out of the nest.


How do you hire people?

Answered by Clarence Otis Jr., Darden Restaurants

The most important thing to me is, you want to see someone who has passion, who really gets excited about the world around them and has drive. I like people who are energized by what they're working on. I'm comfortable with people who are passionate, comfortable with people who are ambitious for the organizations they work in, ambitious for the function that they are building a career in, and want to make a contribution. Being comfortable with ambiguity and uncertainty is a trait I look for, because those folks are pretty comfortable with diversity, and not knowing how people who have differences might react in a situation doesn't unmoor them. They're comfortable with it and may even like that. Those kinds of folks also, when they're faced with ambiguity and uncertainty, they've got their wits about them, so they're looking as much for the opportunity that's inherent in that as they are for the risk.

This answer originally appeared in Ensemble Acting, in Business »

How do you find out if somebody is like that?

Answered by Clarence Otis Jr., Darden Restaurants

You ask them about the various experiences they have had, and you try to probe, "where were those circumstances where there wasn't good direction, when it wasn't clear how things would break?" How do they respond to those questions? What's the narrative around how they thought and behaved in those environments?

This answer originally appeared in Ensemble Acting, in Business »

What are you looking for when you hire?

Answered by Dany Levy, DailyCandy.com

What I call the figure-it-the-hell-out gene.You know, it's like Occam's Razor ñ the simplest answer is usually the best, and don't overcomplicate things. It's that kind of mentality that I look for. Also, I have a sensitive radar for cattiness. I have zero tolerance for that.We've got our work to do. This isn't rocket science. As far as I'm concerned, we should all have each other's backs, which is what we've done.I also like people who have a little bit of an off-sense; they are often more creative and can come up with the unexpected.

This answer originally appeared in In Praise of All That Grunt Work »

Anything else?

Answered by Dany Levy, DailyCandy.com

The ability to prioritize, which I think is more and more important these days, because there's just so much stimuli out there with everything coming at you on your Blackberry and Twitter and what-have you.The last quality is someone who's just a good egg. That says a lot -- ultimately someone who is going to make the right call, because there are a million decisions to be made every day and it's just important that they have a strong sense of right and wrong and good and bad.

This answer originally appeared in In Praise of All That Grunt Work »

What do you look for in job candidates?

Answered by Eduardo Castro-Wright, Wal-Mart Stores

People I interview today are most likely going to be in a senior leadership role. And leadership roles in business require enormous energy -- both physical and, very importantly, emotional energy. And so I try to find out whether they have the enormous amount of energy it takes to lead and manage. You're exposed so often to decisions that are emotionally charged; you have to have the balance and the energy, the emotional strength to actually do it.

This answer originally appeared in In a Word, He Wants Simplicity »

What kind of questions do you ask to get at that?

Answered by Eduardo Castro-Wright, Wal-Mart Stores

I ask them to share how they have dealt in the past with major issues, like a reduction in force, and major changes in the business environment. An interview is not a perfect process, right? You can't learn about people in one hour, but it is helpful.

This answer originally appeared in In a Word, He Wants Simplicity »

How do you assess job candidates?

Answered by Steven A. Ballmer, Microsoft

If they come from inside the business, the best predictor of future success is past success. It's not 100 percent, but it's a reasonable predictor. For an external candidate, what I've found is that reference checks are super-important. I didn't used to believe so much in reference checks. You can always get somebody to say something nice about you. But the truth is, if you ask enough questions and you ask around, you can really get a profile of who's accomplished various things and who hasn't. And I try to figure out sort of a combination of I.Q. and passion. I just ask somebody to tell me what they've done that they are really proud of and tell me about it. And if it's something you are proud of, you should be able to answer any question I can come up with, at least at

a level that would satisfy my interest. I ought to be able to see your passion. It might be quiet passion; it might be bubbly passion. But I should be able to sense that you are one of those people who just sort of throws themselves into things.

This answer originally appeared in Meetings, Version 2.0, at Microsoft »

Is there a skill or qualification or trait that you're looking for in prospective hires that didn't matter as much 10 years ago?

Answered by Steven A. Ballmer, Microsoft

Mostly, I'm still looking for what I've always looked for: extremely smart and talented people who love to work hard, who are passionate about technology and who have a great foundation in math and science. But compared to 10 years ago, technology is more complex, products and services span people's lives in new ways, and our business is much more global. So it's more important that people can think outside the confines of their individual expertise and their product group and connect the dots between technologies, customer needs and markets in new ways.

This answer originally appeared in Meetings, Version 2.0, at Microsoft »


Answered by Robert A. Iger, Disney

Carefully. I try to get to know someone, and I obviously use references as an important guide as well. Warren Buffett, who was the largest shareholder of Capital Cities/ABC and someone I am fortunate to have both known and learned from, is fond of saying, "When you hire someone, you look for brains, energy and integrity, and if they don't have the third, integrity, you better watch out, because the first two will kill you." And so you obviously want to hire someone who's smart and you want to hire someone who has energy, because that's required in many of these jobs. But integrity is the most important factor. So getting to know them, getting under their skin to the extent possible, becomes important. And I also look for qualities in people beyond that. I love curiosity, particularly in our business -- being curious about the world, but also being curious about your business, new business models, new technology.

This answer originally appeared in He Was Promotable, After All »

Give me some examples of questions that you would ask to get to know somebody?

Answered by Robert A. Iger, Disney

I don't have any tricks. I try to learn more about a person, what he does outside of work, his family, what their interests are -- someone with too many interests is usually faking it. But you can quickly determine whether they've got a couple of interests, or one in particular that they're really passionate about. Passion suggests some level of curiosity, by the way, too. I try to determine whether someone is interested in new technology, because technology is changing our businesses right before our eyes, particularly consumer behavior. And if you're not curious about technology and its potential impact on your life, then you'll have no clue what its impact might be on someone else's life. I don't discount nervousness, because everyone should be a little nervous when they're interviewed, particularly if a job is important. But I like someone who's got an ability to look me in the eye and communicate effectively, even if they don't know me.

This answer originally appeared in He Was Promotable, After All »

Let's talk about hiring. What are you looking for in job candidates?

Answered by Richard Anderson, Delta Air Lines

Typically, when you're hiring a vice president of a company, they already have the résumé and they already have the experience base. And so what you're trying to find out about are the intangibles of leadership, communication style and the ability to, today, really adapt to change. And there are a lot of ways to go at that. I like to ask people what they've read, what are the last three or four books they've read, and what did they enjoy about those. And to really understand them as individuals because, you know, the résumés you get are wonderful résumés. Wonderful education, great work history. So you have to probe a little bit deeper into the human intangibles, because we've all seen many instances where people had perfect résumés, but weren't effective in an organization. So it's not just education and experience. It's education, experience and the human factor. The situational awareness that a person has and their ability to fit into an organization and then be successful in the organization. It's a whole series of intangibles that are almost gut instincts about people.

This answer originally appeared in He Wants Subjects, Verbs and Objects »

What other questions do you ask?


You want to know about their family. Where they grew up. What their parents did. Where they went to high school. What their avocations were. How many kids they had in their family. You know, what their whole background and history is. I learned that from a C.E.O. I worked for. The C.E.O. wouldn't really spend that much time on the résumé, but spent most of the time wanting to know everything about the person's life, family, what they liked, where they liked to go on vacation, what their kids were like. And it gave you a really good perspective about who they were as people. You spend more of your waking time with your colleagues at the office than you do with your family and when you bring someone into that family -- we have 50 senior leaders at our company and 70,000 employees -- you need to make sure that they're a fit to the culture. And that they're going to be part of that group of people in a healthy functioning way.


What are you listening for as somebody describes their family, where they're from, etc.?


You're looking for a really strong set of values. You're looking for a really good work ethic. Really good communication skills. More and more, the ability to speak well and write is important. You know, writing is not something that is taught as strongly as it should be in the educational curriculum. So you're looking for communication skills. You're looking for adaptability to change. You're looking at, do you get along well with people? And are you the sort of person that can be a part of a team and motivate people? You know, do you have the emotional I.Q.? It's not just enough to be able to just do a nice PowerPoint presentation. You've got to have the ability to pick people. You've got to have the ability to communicate. When you find really capable people, it's amazing how they proliferate capable people all through your organization. So that's what you're hunting for.



Answered by Nell Minow, Corporate Library

I really look for a kind of a passionate curiosity. I think that is indispensable, no matter what the job is. You want somebody who is just alert and very awake and engaged with the world and wanting to know more. I once hired somebody who wasn't looking for a job. A guy called me to ask me some questions about some corporate governance issue and I just thought he was so bright. I said, "I'll put some materials together for you, and put them in the mail." And he said, "Can I come over and pick them up right now?" And I said, "Wow, are you looking for a job?" And he said, "Well, I'm in an internship right now." And I said, "If you are looking for a job when the internship ends I'm going to hire you." And I did. I just like that kind of initiative. That's really important to me. Another thing that's important to me in hiring somebody is the ability to become very fully engaged with the company, and that is a real challenge when you get past a certain number of people. The fourth person you hire is just a different kind of person than the 25th person you hire. The kind of person who comes into a brand-new, make-it-up-as-you-go-along enterprise is very different from the 50th person who says, "Is there a credit union?" And this is where it starts sounding like I'm looking for someone to date, but I also look for a sense of humor, because that's really the best indicator of some kind of perspective about the world. And ultimately I won't hire anybody who can't write.

This answer originally appeared in Think 'We' for Best Results »

Do you glean that from their cover letter or ...?

Answered by Nell Minow, Corporate Library

I ask for a writing sample, the best example of your writing. And they'll say, "Well, do you want a paper I wrote in school, or do you want a memo?" I tell them to give me what they think is the best example of their ability to communicate. It's just tremendously important, their precision, their vocabulary, their sense of appropriateness of communication. If they're using texting language in a memo, that's a bad sign.

This answer originally appeared in Think 'We' for Best Results »

What questions do you ask of job candidates?

Answered by John Donahoe, eBay

A good question is always: "When have you failed and what did you learn from it?" A second question I always ask is, "If I were to talk to your boss, your work colleagues, people who work for you, what would they say about you?"' And the quicker I can get them to give adjectives, the more I get to know them. And then I'd say, "If I were to ask those same people what are your priorities? Where do you need to learn, grow, develop?"

This answer originally appeared in There's No Need to Bat .900 »

Let's talk about hiring. What do you look for?

Answered by Kevin Sharer, Amgen

I value a sense of humor. I value intelligence. I value a track record. I value energy. I value the ability to grow and learn. I value somebody who doesn't violate what I call Rule 6.

This answer originally appeared in Feedback in Heaping Helpings »

Rule 6?

Answered by Kevin Sharer, Amgen

Rule 6 is, you don't take yourself too seriously. Rule 5 is, refer to 6. And there is no Rule 1 through 4. I really, really have a hard time getting along with Rule 6 felons. We're all human and so we're going to be misdemeanor violators once in a while. But I look for people who are not Rule 6 felons, because they just don't work out.

This answer originally appeared in Feedback in Heaping Helpings »

And how do you get a sense of whether a person has that quality?

Answered by Anne M. Mulcahy, Xerox Corporation

Part of it's from their experience. I think seeing how much breadth someone's had, and their appetite for not just vertical career ladders, but their appetite for what I call the horizontal experiences, where it wasn't always just about a title or the next layer up. And that there was this desire to learn new things, to kind of grab onto things that were maybe even somewhat nontraditional. Those kinds of experiences I think bode well for someone who's going to be open and adaptive in this job environment.

This answer originally appeared in The Keeper of That Tapping Pen »

When you're assessing a job candidate, do you have one or two acid-test questions?


They have more to do with behavior and culture than they do with competence and expertise. Generally speaking, the people you talk to have the competence and expertise. That's how they got to the interview. So then the most important aspect is whether it's a good fit. And so I always ask the question, why are they choosing us, not so much why we should choose them. I really want to hear about what they could do for the company and why they think it would be a place they could be successful. It's a little bit of a test. Have they done their homework? Do they understand the place? Do they aspire to the kind of value system and culture we have here? I've learned that it's probably the biggest success or failure indication, as well, about whether people are a good fit with the culture.


Do you find yourself looking for certain qualities in a candidate more than you did several years ago?


Adaptability and flexibility. One of the things that is mind-boggling right now is how much we have to change all the time. For anybody who's into comfort and structure, it gets harder and harder to feel satisfied in the company. It's almost like you have to embrace a lot of ambiguity and be adaptable and not get into the rigidness or expectation-setting that I think there used to be 10 years ago, when you could kind of plot it out and define where you were going to go. I think it's a lot

more fluid right now. It has to be. The people who really do the best are those who actually sense it, enjoy it almost, that lack of definition around their roles and what they can contribute.


When you are hiring, or evaluating a management team, do you have one or two or three acid-test questions?

Answered by Greg Brenneman, CCMP Capital

Yes, and I'll phrase it in terms of what I look for and then maybe we can go to questions. Right now, CCMP has about 50 portfolio companies. Fifteen companies make up about 80 percent of our economics, and I'm actually mentoring C.E.O.'s of some of those companies. My job now, which I love, is a little different than running a company because I interact with so many C.E.O.'s. And I really test for two things. One is, are they smart enough to do the job? Do they have enough capability to find those two or three levers that really make a difference in a business? And I call that the I.Q.-dipstick test; if you stick the I.Q. dipstick in and it comes out two quarts empty, there's nothing else we can do. Thankfully, the vast majority of CCMP C.E.O.'s I have met pass the I.Q. test.

This answer originally appeared in Can You Pass a C.E.O. Test? »

And how do you ...

Answered by Greg Brenneman, CCMP Capital

I'll start asking questions. What really drives this business? If I told you I'd love to see earnings up 20 percent, what would be the levers we could pull to do that? Right now, it's actually a different question, which is, how is your revenue forecast coming out? And then you just listen. Some C.E.O.'s will say, 'I'm gonna do one, two, three, four, five.' And you sit there and listen and you say, 'Yeah, that makes sense. I got it.' But then you have some that look at you like you came from Mars -- and I worry about those guys. Or you have some that will just filibuster you for 30 minutes with stuff you just don't understand -- this buzzword, that buzzword. I worry about those guys even more than the guys that just give you a blank stare. The second thing I look for is if I were to get on an airplane with this guy or gal, would I want to fly across the Atlantic with them? Are they nice people to be with? Do you want to be with them? Because I find that people that don't relate well to anybody, from owners or board members to peers to direct reports to folks that actually work for a living in the trenches, they don't succeed very well. You can usually tell that by asking, "What do you enjoy doing?

What do you do as a hobby?" And ask a few questions to the people that work around them, and you get a pretty good sense pretty quickly.

This answer originally appeared in Can You Pass a C.E.O. Test? »

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