The legendary founder of Apple, Steve Jobs, had a secret method for selecting people for interviews.
Steve Jobs continues to be an icon for many people.
Both for ordinary users who love Apple products for their unique magic, and for business users who continue to learn from Jobs the art of management.
The second will be especially interested to know how Jobs, who was famous for his unconventional approaches to company management and personnel, recruited people.
Of course, Jobs, being a top manager at Apple, was personally involved only in the selection of people for key positions in the company. But in a huge company there are always a lot of managers. Therefore, Jobs developed his own unique method of conducting interviews over the years.
How Steve Jobs Conducted Interviews
First of all, during interviews, Jobs wanted to break the trend when candidates give ready-made answers, notes Charlie Herbert, a columnist for the British publication JOE.
Studying the biography of Jobs and stories about him, he highlighted some interesting points.
Jobs apparently developed a kind of “beer test” that he used during interviews with potential employees.
Going against the idea that interviews should be fairly formal, the late Apple CEO wanted to avoid the common scenario where people come to interviews with pre-prepared answers to typical questions.
Jobs’ key interview question was: “Would I drink beer with this person? Would I talk to him or her in a relaxed atmosphere during a walk?
That is exactly what he did.
And this is an absolutely unheard-of practice in Silicon Valley.
Jobs often took the interviewee out of the office, walked with him and took him with him for drinks to see if he could work with this person.
According to Jobs’ logic, this helped the potential employee to open up and relax, relieving him of the harsh atmosphere of an office interview.
Jobs also had traditional questions like “When was the last time you achieved something?”. But he focused on simple and more casual: “What did you do last summer?”.
There are no right or wrong answers to such questions, Jobs stated, but they help to get to know the interlocutor better and decide whether he will be a good person for work.
The main principle of selection
Jobs always looked for the best of the best.
The head of Apple has never hidden that he was looking for “class A players” for his roles, “creme de la creme.” So he called those who, in his opinion, are the highest class in their game.
In one of his interviews, Jobs explained that “when you get enough A-players together, they really enjoy working with each other.”
“Because they didn’t have that opportunity before,” Jobs sneered.
Considering Apple’s place in the world and our lives today, it’s safe to assume that the interview process and the “beer test” were quite successful, Herbert states.
2023-08-12 05:09:50
#Killingly #simple #Steve #Jobs #genius #trick #Apple #job #interviews
