7 Creative Interview Questions One CEO Asks Every Job Candidate
Jan 26, 2015, 23:42 IST
Mitch Rothschild says everyone has an "interview face." His goal: get candidates to "drop it" when they're in the hot seat.
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Rothschild, the CEO of Vitals, a website that connects doctors and patients, recently told Adam Bryant of The New York Times that he does this by asking a specific set of questions.
He says he usually starts by asking candidates, "Can you give me a tour of your life?"
"I'll also ask, 'Tell me three things about how you define yourself,' and, 'When you're not at work, what do you do two standard deviations better than anybody else?'" he tells Bryant. "I want to know what they're good at, what they love about it, and get them talking about their passion." Next, to get a sense of whether they're comfortable with change, Rothschild asks: "What am I not going to like about you in 90 days?" and "What do you think you're not going to like about me?" "I want to know what makes people crazy at work," he says. Then, he tells Bryant, to help him understand the candidate's aspirations for the job, Rothschild asks: "If this interview were reversed and I was coming to your house and you were interviewing me because you had 16 different job offers to choose from, what would you be looking for from me?" Finally, he says, he likes to ask: "What percentage of your life do you control?" "[This] is always a winner," he tells Bryant. "It helps me understand how they feel about the world out there. Can you force change to happen, or will change happen to you? As a small company, we have to change the environment, so I want people to say a high number." Click here to read the full New York Times interview. Want your business advice featured in Instant MBA? Submit your tips to tipoftheday@businessinsider.com. Be sure to include your name, your job title, and a photo of yourself in your email.