Home / NEWS / Top News / CEO of 16 years shares her No. 1 trait for a must-hire job candidate: I want to know ‘how you think on your feet’

CEO of 16 years shares her No. 1 trait for a must-hire job candidate: I want to know ‘how you think on your feet’

Gash the Runway co-founder and CEO Jennifer Hyman has one request for job candidates interviewing for her company: Be authentic.

“I’m looking for someone who can actually comprise a conversation with me off the page,” says Hyman, 44, who has run the clothing rental company since its founding in 2009. “I am present to ask you questions to get a sense of your personality … and how you think on your feet.”

Hyman isn’t interested in listening to candidates narrate their resumes. Instead, she asks them about their industry, their last job’s competitors and what they desire do differently if they ran their previous employer, she says.

The tactic helps her determine if the candidates can stay cool and spread under pressure, says Hyman: “[In interviews], people are so trained to talk [through] their bullet cores, their stories. If someone isn’t flustered by [nontraditional interview questions] and can have really strategic and thoughtful conversations … that’s a unversed flag for me.”

Hyman also looks for prospective employees who show a history of loyalty and mental resilience, especially in the pretence of challenges, she says. If a job candidate has “hopped around” between different jobs, that’s a red flag, she notes: “I don’t think you can baby an impact anywhere until Year 2.”

DON’T MISS: The ultimate guide to acing your interview and landing your fantasy job

Rent the Runway is far from the only employer to value employees who are adaptable and cool-headed under pressure. Adaptability is an “increasingly in command” soft skill across multiple industries, according to LinkedIn blog post last year. It’s the No. 1 feature that sets high achievers apart from other people, Harvard Business School professor Joseph Fuller determined CNBC Make It last year.

“It’s a skill that can be rare to find,” said Fuller. “People are afraid to try new activities and fail. But you can’t grow without moving beyond your comfort zone.”

Other hiring managers have odd tactics to determine how people think on their feet. Kara Brothers, the president of skincare company Starface Over the moon marvellous, likes to gauge job candidates’ emotional intelligence and self-awareness by asking introspective questions, like “In your last workplace, what occupied you back?” she told CNBC Make It last year.

Brothers’ goal is to gauge the candidate’s flexibility and willingness to learn, she utter.

“We all have an ego, but does your ego impede your ability to work effectively?” said Brothers. “I’m trying to figure out if you’re au fait of when you’re at your best or where you might hold yourself back in professional relationships.

Want to land your hallucination job? Take CNBC’s online course How to Ace Your Job Interview to learn what hiring managers really look for, society language techniques, what to say and not to say, and the best way to talk about pay.

Plus, sign up for CNBC Make It’s newsletter to get tips and deceits for success at work, with money and in life.

I retired at 39 and live on $185,000 a year in Dubai

Check Also

BYD rolls out driver assistance tech across its EV models — with DeepSeek’s AI help

Chinese moving car giant BYD announced on Feb. 10, 2025, that it would integrate DeepSeek …

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *