If you’re currently job hunting, you may want to prepare yourself for a new line of questioning during the interview process inspired by X CEO Elon Musk. According to the eccentric billionaire, Musk asks all interviewees the same question – and he does it with the intention of discovering who is lying and who is telling the truth.
A recent story from the New York Post unearthed an interview with Musk at the World Government Summit in 2017, during which he offered a look into his interview process.
“Tell me about some of the most difficult problems you worked on and how you solved them,” Musk says he asks all applicants – and the way he identifies liars from their responses may shock you.
According to Musk, this simple question can identify liars by using something known as “Asymmetric Information Management,” or “AIM.” The principle allows truth tellers an opportunity to give as much information as possible about a situation in a previous role, but makes it difficult for liars to come up with something on the spot.
For a liar, making up an answer will require more time than they have during the interview. A lie will typically be vague, and they will not be able to provide a great amount of detail. Somebody telling the truth, however, can easily answer follow-up questions without tying themselves up in knots, and they’ll easily be able to provide a lot of detail about the problem they faced and how they solved it.
It’s just one example of Musk’s strict hiring and firing practices, and it’s likely the least controversial thing he’s ever done in this area. In 2022, Musk faced international backlash when he announced that he would lay off a substantial number of employees from the newly-acquired Twitter social media platform. Employees publicly blasted Musk’s decision to let them go, with software engineers Ben Leib and Eric Frohnhoefer being among the first legacy Twitter staff members to be fired for publicly criticizing their new boss.
