- Certainly’s CEO Chris Hyams has requested over 3,000 job candidates the identical query for the previous 15 years: Apple or Android? It’s a deceptively easy query, with no proper reply, however the job platform’s boss says it flags their decision-making course of. And he’s not the one CEO who resorts to uncommon interviewing ways. The leaders of TripAdvisor, StockX, and CTA ask about hardship, beginning dates, and clocks to choose their new hires.
Job-seekers have to leap by means of 1,000,000 hoops to land a possibility in 2025—and generally, all of it hinges on one nerve-wracking query. Certainly CEO Chris Hyams says he has a deceptively easy take a look at that he’s used with over 3,000 candidates over the previous 15 years.
“It might sound unusual, however I ask everybody, ‘Do you will have an iPhone or an Android, and why?’” Hyams tells Fortune.
It would look like a trick query, however the job platform chief says it’s extra of an icebreaker that may reveal lots about an applicant. There isn’t one “fallacious reply” that would price them the job.
“I’m principally interested in how folks make selections,” Hyams explains. “And it’s truly an extended 15-minute sequence of back-and-forth on this, the place I get to study a little bit bit in regards to the human being, and about how they make selections.”
Most individuals reply iPhone, with typical reasoning being they’ve caught with the model since being placed on their household plan in highschool. Others open up in regards to the apps they take pleasure in utilizing on their telephone, typically, giving Hyams a peek into their passions. When that occurs, he additionally asks what they might change in regards to the platforms.
“You may even have a very attention-grabbing set of conversations round how vital it’s if you select a product, you can get caught with that factor for a really, very very long time,” Hyams says. “I ask folks what apps they use, and that’s a option to study a little bit bit about them.”
CEOs have trick questions up their sleeves to area expertise
Hyams isn’t the one CEO with a make-or-break interview query. Stephen Kaufer, the co-founder and former CEO of TripAdvisor, asks candidates one factor to see if their work ethic and persona would mesh effectively with the corporate’s tradition: “Inform me a few actually onerous mission, and why was it onerous?”
“That may typically inform me: Are they a staff participant, are they ever taking accountability for why one thing turned troublesome? It could actually inform me their definition of ‘onerous,’” Kaufer mentioned in a 2024 interview with The Logan Bartlett Present.
Kaufer’s query is echoed by Wisp CEO Monica Cepak. The chief of the reproductive telehealth firm says she at all times asks: “What’s the toughest downside you’ve ever solved at work, and the way did you attain an answer?”
She seems to be for staff gamers who work throughout completely different departments—if a candidate solely boasts about doing issues by themself, they get the boot.
In the meantime Gary Shapiro, CEO of $115 million Shopper Know-how Affiliation, brings lots of weight to an interview commonplace. He asks “How quickly are you able to begin?,” however how a candidate responds says extra than simply scheduling. If the interviewee solutions they will begin in lower than two weeks—and so they’re at present employed—they don’t get the job. Shapiro says it indicators that the applicant isn’t loyal to their employer, and he’d doubtless get the identical remedy.
Different CEOs ask some fairly uncommon inquiries to maintain candidates on their toes. StockX CEO Scott Cutler asks, “What number of levels separate the minute and hour arms of a clock at 3:15?” He desires to see how candidates suppose underneath strain; it’s not about getting the reply proper, however extra about how they reply to problem-solving on the spot.
5 make-or-break interview questions job seekers can prep for
- Do you will have an iPhone or an Android, and why?
- Inform me a few actually onerous mission, and why was it onerous?
- What’s the toughest downside you’ve ever solved at work, and the way did you attain an answer?
- How quickly are you able to begin?
- What number of levels separate the minute and hour arms of a clock at 3:15?
This story was initially featured on Fortune.com