Britt Jones
If you’ve been to one job interview, you’d probably think you’ve been to them all, right? Until you’re up against Elon Musk.
The billionaire and CEO of electric car brand, Tesla, has revealed that he has some tricks up his sleeve when it comes to hiring candidates for his company.
However, if you thought he was going to grill you about your education, don’t be fooled.
The entrepreneur admitted that he doesn’t care too much about where you went and what level you achieved.
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Musk's more interested in business brainstorming.
The Space X mogul previously admitted that his business ideas stem from one question he always asks any interview candidate to make sure they’re not lying to him.
He explained in 2014 when speaking to Auto Bild: “There’s no need even to have a college degree at all, or even high school.”
Instead of fawning over the best educated person, he instead looks for ‘evidence of exceptional ability’ when hiring a newcomer as he believes this is an indicator of how they’ll work.
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He said: "If there’s a track record of exceptional achievement, then it’s likely that that will continue into the future.”
Musk added that his question aimed to make sure they were taking responsibility for something correct or not.
But anyone can say they saved a building of children from a deadly fire without the evidence to back it up, which is why he asks one question to cut the crap.
In 2017 when he was speaking at the World Government Summit, Musk said that he asks the same question to find out who’s a liar and who had achieved greatness.
The question?
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"Tell me about some of the most difficult problems you worked on and how you solved them."
He explained: "And of course you want to make sure if there was some significant accomplishment, were they really responsible, or was someone else more responsible?
"Usually, someone who really had to struggle with a problem, they really understand, and they don’t forget."
Now, you might think it’s just a random question set out to trip a candidate up, but a study published in the Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition found that Musk’s theory is backed up.
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The Asymmetric Information Management method is something which especially proves that he is asking the right question.
This method aims allow candidates to display their innocence or guilt by giving the interviewer detailed information.
Cody Porter, one of the study’s authors wrote an article for The Conversation about it and explained: "Small details are the lifeblood of forensic investigations and can provide investigators with facts to check and witnesses to question."
She said: "If they provide longer, more detailed statements about the event of interest, then the investigator will be better able to detect if they are telling the truth or lying’, whereas liars will ‘strategically withhold information in response to the AIM method."
The study found that using the AIM method is 70 per cent effective.
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So, he’s not wrong for doing it.