Job seekers hoping to land a role at one of Elon Musk’s companies, whether Tesla, SpaceX, or another venture, should think twice before embellishing their resumes. The billionaire entrepreneur has revealed that he relies on one specific question during interviews to assess candidates and even catch out those who may be stretching the truth.
In an interview with Auto Bild in 2017, Musk explained that rather than focusing on traditional qualifications, he asks job candidates about the toughest problems they’ve faced and how they handled them. “I really just ask: ‘What are some of the tougher problems you’ve dealt with and how you dealt with those?’” Musk said.
He added that he also probes into how candidates made decisions during key career transition points.
This method, Musk explained, helps him gauge whether a candidate has genuine problem-solving skills and firsthand experience. More importantly, it can quickly reveal if someone is exaggerating their accomplishments.
“What I’m really looking for is evidence of exceptional ability, so that they’ve faced really difficult problems and overcome them,” he said.
Musk believes that those who truly tackled major challenges will remember intricate details. “Normally, the person who’s had to struggle with the problem, they really understand it, and they don’t forget,” he said.
On the other hand, those who were not actually responsible for an accomplishment tend to stumble when asked deeper questions.
“You can ask them very detailed questions about it, and they’ll know the answer, whereas the person who was not truly responsible…will not know the details,” Musk said.
His approach aligns with common problem-solving interview techniques. Employment website Indeed also highlights similar questions in its list of eight key problem-solving queries that candidates may face.
One of them: “Describe a time when you faced an unexpected challenge in your job?”, follows the same principle Musk applies to identify strong candidates and weed out potential liars.
With competition fierce for jobs at Musk’s companies, candidates should prepare to showcase their real experiences and be ready to back them up with details.
