WASHINGTON, DC – MARCH 9: Elon Musk, founder and chief engineer of SpaceX, speaks at the 2020 Satellite Conference and Exhibition on March 9, 2020 in Washington, DC. Musk answered several questions related to the SpaceX projects during his appearance at the conference. (Photo by Win McNamee / Getty Images)
Photo: Win McNamee / Getty Images
Elon Musk has revealed that there is a question he always asks candidates in interviews to check if they are lying or not.
As head of Tesla, SpaceX and co-founder and founder of Neuralink and The Boring Company, the 49-year-old entrepreneur clearly knows what he’s doing when it comes to business.
In addition, it recently became the richest person in the world with a net worth in excess of £ 136 billion, so it’s no surprise that everyone wants to know their secrets, also when it comes to hiring employees.
Musk is not interested in what school a potential employee attended, not even in his level of education, the Daily Star reports.
“You don’t even have to have a college degree, not even high school,” Musk said during a 2014 interview with Auto Bild.
Instead, research “Evidence of exceptional ability” when it comes to hiring new staff.
“If there is a history of exceptional success, it is likely to continue in the future,” he said.
Sure, it’s easy for someone to lie on their resume or about their accomplishments, but Musk has a question designed to catch liars.
Speaking at the World Government Summit in 2017, Musk admitted that he asks every candidate he interviews the same question: “Tell me about some of the most difficult issues you worked on and how you solved them.”
A study published in the Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition in December 2020 uncovered several approaches to detecting liars based on a job interview technique that actually supports Musk’s technique.
One of these methods is called “Asymmetric Information Management” (AIM) and is designed to provide the interviewee with a clear means to prove their innocence or guilt to the researcher by providing detailed information.
“Small details are the vital element of forensic investigations and can provide investigators with facts to verify and witnesses to interrogate,” he wrote. Cody Porter, One of the study’s authors and a leading member of teaching at the University of Portsmouth, in an article for The Conversation.
Interviewers should give clear instructions to respondents that “if they provide longer and more detailed statements about the event of interest, then the investigator will be able to better detect whether they are telling the truth or lying.
Instead, liars want to hide their guilt, “Porter explained.
“This means that they are more likely to retain information strategically in response to the AIM method.
“Your assumption is that providing more information will make it easier for the researcher to spot your lie, Therefore, there is a tendency to provide less information “.
The study also found that the use of AIM method it can increase the probability of detecting liars by almost 70%.
Musk added in the interview with Auto Bild that what he really wants to know is whether a candidate actually solved the problem he claimed to have solved.
“And of course, do you want to make sure that if there was any significant achievement, were they really responsible for their successes or was someone more responsible for them?
“Overall, someone who really had to deal with a problem, really understands [los detalles] and don’t forget it, ”he concluded.