- 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 select their new hires.
Job-seekers have to leap by way of 1,000,000 hoops to land a chance in 2025—and typically, all of it hinges on one nerve-wracking query. Certainly CEO Chris Hyams says he has a deceptively easy check that he’s used with over 3,000 candidates over the previous 15 years.
“It might sound unusual, however I ask everybody, ‘Do you’ve got an iPhone or an Android, and why?’” Hyams tells Fortune.
It’d seem to be a trick query, however the job platform chief says it’s extra of an icebreaker that may reveal so much about an applicant. There isn’t one “fallacious reply” that might price them the job.
“I’m largely interested in how folks make choices,” Hyams explains. “And it’s truly a protracted 15-minute collection of back-and-forth on this, the place I get to study a bit bit concerning the human being, and about how they make choices.”
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 concerning 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 concerning the platforms.
“You possibly can even have a extremely attention-grabbing set of conversations round how necessary it’s if you select a product, you could 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 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 character would mesh nicely with the corporate’s tradition: “Inform me a couple of actually arduous venture, and why was it arduous?”
“That may usually inform me: Are they a group participant, are they ever taking duty for why one thing turned troublesome? It will probably inform me their definition of ‘arduous,’” 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 all the time asks: “What’s the toughest downside you’ve ever solved at work, and the way did you attain an answer?”
She appears for group 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 Expertise Affiliation, brings a number of weight to an interview normal. He asks “How quickly are you able to begin?,” however how a candidate responds says extra than simply scheduling. If the interviewee solutions they’ll begin in lower than two weeks—and so they’re at present employed—they don’t get the job. Shapiro says it alerts that the applicant isn’t loyal to their employer, and he’d doubtless get the identical therapy.
Different CEOs ask some fairly uncommon inquiries to preserve candidates on their toes. StockX CEO Scott Cutler asks, “What number of levels separate the minute and hour palms of a clock at 3:15?” He desires to see how candidates suppose beneath 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’ve got an iPhone or an Android, and why?
- Inform me a couple of actually arduous venture, and why was it arduous?
- 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 palms of a clock at 3:15?
This story was initially featured on Fortune.com
