Corner Office, Interview with Jana Eggers; New York Times, 2/21/10

Corner Office, New York Times; Interview with Jana Eggers, chief executive of Spreadshirt: Should I Hire You? I’ll Ask the Receptionist:

"Q. How do you hire?

A. I’m going to ask you a lot about what you did. Of course, I’m interested in why you want to come to Spreadshirt, and those are usually the kind of ice-breaker questions to get people comfortable, because that’s what they’ve been thinking about, and what they’ve prepared for.

But what I really want to know is what they’ve done, because that is the biggest indicator of what they’ll do. I don’t mean specific things like, “Oh, I implemented this e-mail program.” I’ll ask: “Well, how did you do that? Who was involved? What was the biggest challenge you faced in doing that?” I’m interested in seeing how they organized themselves, how they think about projects, how they think about other people around them. There are very few jobs in any company these days where one person goes in and does it alone. They always have to interact with other people.

Q. What else?

A. I’m also going to see how they treat the receptionist. I always get feedback from them. I’ll want to know if someone comes in and if they weren’t polite, if they didn’t say, “Hello,” or ask them how they were. It’s really important to me.

I also check references myself. A lot of times people may leave that to their H.R. people or to someone who works for them. But, to me, it’s really important to talk to the person and build a rapport. I really want to know, what am I going to see? Everybody has challenges. One of the questions I usually ask on references is, “Where should I spend time coaching this person?”

Q. What qualities are you looking for in hires?

A. I’m usually listening for passion. I want that passion, because that passion is what’s going to get you through your failures. It’s when the tough things happen that a person’s real personality comes out.

And I’m looking for whether someone’s aware that business is a team sport. You have to communicate. How do they describe the team, their role on the team? I always like to get their perspectives on the management, too."

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/21/business/21cornerweb.html?scp=1&sq=jana+eggers&st=nyt