The Single Best Interview Question... And The Best Answer

Memo From: Nick Corcodilos
To: Hiring managers everywhere
Re: Reinventing the job interview

The purpose of any interview is simple: to determine whether the candidate can do the job profitably. A smart interview is not an interrogation. It's not a series of canned questions or a set of scripted tests that have been ginned up by HR. An interview should be a roll-up-your-sleeves, hands-on meeting between you and the candidate, where all of the focus is on the job.

Think of the interview as the candidate's first day at work, with the only question that matters being this:

"What's your business plan for doing this job?"

To successfully answer that, the candidate must first demonstrate an understanding of the company's problems, challenges, and goals -- not an easy thing to do. But since you desperately want to make a great hire and get back to work, why don't you help the best candidate succeed? Two weeks before the interview, call up the candidate and say the following:

"We want you to show us how you're going to do this job. That's going to take a lot of homework. I suggest that you read through these 10 pages on our Web site, review these publications from our marketing and investor-relations departments, and speak with these three people on my team. When you're done, you should have something useful to tell us."

This will eliminate 9 out of 10 candidates. Only those who really want the job will put in the effort to research the job.

At the interview, you should expect (or hope) to hear the most compelling question that any candidate can ask:

"Would you like me to show how your company will profit from hiring me?"

The candidate should be prepared to do the job in the interview. That means walking up to the whiteboard and outlining the steps that he or she would take to solve your company's problems. The numbers don't have to be right, but the candidate should be able to defend them intelligently. If the candidate demonstrates an understanding of your culture and competitors -- and lays out a plan of attack for solving your problems and adding something to your bottom line -- you have some awfully compelling reasons to make the hire.

But if you trust only a candidate's past accomplishments, references, credentials, or test results, you still won't know whether the candidate can do the job profitably.