Former CEO reveals one job interview question that instantly shows red flag traits
Kit Roberts
Featured Image Credit: Getty stock images
The former CEO of a well-known company has shared one thing that candidates do in a job interview which he considers to be a red flag.
Steve Kaufer is a co-founder of popular site TripAdvisor, and revealed to YouTuber Logan Bartlett that when hiring people, there were some things which would instantly put him off.
Back in 2000, Kaufer worked with colleagues Langley Steinert, Nick Shanny, and Thomas Palka in Needham, Massachusetts to found TripAdvisor, where people can rate restaurants, bars, hotels, and other hospitality businesses to give would-be visitors an idea of what it's like there.
Kaufer said that he came up with the idea while trying to plan a family vacation, but couldn't figure out where the best places to go were - cue the advent of TripAdvisor.
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Of course, in order to plan a vacation, you need disposable income, and to get that, most people need to find a job of some sort, so what is the thing that Kaufer says can see people turned away from working for him?
It all comes down to one question in particular that Kaufer asks prospective candidates - what's the hardest project you've ever worked on?
And how someone answers that question, more specifically if they're able to show that they're a team player, determines whether they've made the correct answer in Kaufer's view, or are sent on their way.
"It can tell me, are they ever taking responsibility for why something became difficult?" he explained to The Logan Bartlett Show.
And of course there's also whether someone is willing to go above and beyond, with Kaufer sharing that if someone said something was hard because they had to work on a Saturday that would be 'kind of a red flag'.
The former CEO also shared that we will ask people how they would improve their most successful project, saying: "That'll sometimes catch people off guard. And I can see kind of by the pause - they've never thought about it."
There's also one other factor as well, and that's what someone thinks of AI.
The short version is if you're someone who is sceptical about the rise of AI, then Kaufer is unlikely to want to hire you as a software engineer.
"I just don't understand it," Kaufer said. "And I probably don't want to work with that individual."
Of course, AI has been met with several criticisms and concerns, such as claims by critics that it steals the work of human artists, previously healthy people having severe mental health episodes after prolonged exposure to AI chatbots, and the devastating environmental impact.
So, nothing to worry about.