Daniel Gross: recommendation

Transcript context

…One of the interview questions I’ve used quite successfully as of late — it’s a very simple one. It comes from Peter Thiel, I believe. It’s simply to ask the person, “How ambitious are you?” A yes-or-no answer, actually, is fine. If they say no because they think you mean something bland and a little mainstream — they say, “No, I’m not ambitious, but I want to do this.” They say it with great passion and charisma — that’s excellent. If they’re just stumped by the question, they have no idea what they actually want to do — that, to me, is a negative. They might do fine in some jobs where they don’t have much responsibility, but they’re not going to build something for you. But if they can articulate some ambition and simply know what you mean when you ask them, I find it’s a very hard question for people to fake: that if they don’t actually have the ambition, their ability to articulate it with the requisite energy and detail and focus just isn’t there. Of course, the great problem one faces in an interview is that people can fake their answers to questions. If you ask them, “Are you conscientious?” Well, you probably care about that, but they’re just going to say yes. Who would say no? Does it mean they’re conscientious? Of course not. Another idea, I think, that we discuss in the book that works pretty well is repeating questions, which is a bit uncomfortable to do, but can work, especially if you’re asking something that the person may not have an answer for, because they’re thinking about it for the first time. That can be a way to get something out of the are-you-conscientious question, which I agree is tough. Here’s a very tough question for you. Let’s say you’re trying to hire not just a talent, but a talent identifier. What do you look for in a person to judge if they’re a good talent identifier?…

Stored transcript either side of the excerpt. The highlighted words are the published quote; the surrounding text is unedited source, never generated.