What's Your Greatest Fear?

Yesterday, a nice person I was interviewing asked me a remarkable question..."what's your greatest fear?"

This reminded me that much of my impression about someone, especially a job candidate, is formed by their questions...not answers.

My answer...being insignificant.

What's your greatest fear?

Understanding the People You Lean On

What makes a person tick? What makes their needle spin? What dreams can you help them achieve?

These are the most important questions you can ask someone in an interview (both ways). Without knowing the answer you can’t make the employment relationship anything more than just a job...a transaction, you give me eight hours and I’ll give you $$. And, if it’s just a job, nothing remarkable is going to happen...and eventually you’ll be replaced, out of business, or at best be in a constant struggle to survive.

Recruiting Changes When...

you have a compelling story and a loyal tribe of raving fans. At this stage, you don t post ads on HCareers and hope for a good bite. Instead, you do what Sasha does at Acumen. You let your audience spread the word and impose a deadline taking advantage of the principle of excess demand over limited supply.

Your goal is to go from push to pull.

Resumes are dead...

at least the traditional, one dimensional Word doc is. If you're still using this approach...shame, shame. Try something like this instead...you'll have a much better chance to get noticed.

My Short List.. of Interview Questions

There are a lot of experts that can tell you how to interview people. There are seemingly countless methods, techniques, tests and scenarios to sort talent into the right groups...or to vote them off the island. Over the years I have tried many of these with varying degrees of success. But, my short list...the questions that get me the information I absolutely, unequivocally must know...

1. What do you want to do with your life (what are your dreams)?
2. How can we help you get there?
3. What do you like to do for fun?

If people can't answer these with some degree of certainty, they're likely just looking for a job. You want someone with dreams and a reasonably thought out idea of how to achieve them. You don't want someone who hasn't given this an ounce of thought or wants to do just enought to get by.