Steve Jobs was a very special person and had a real gift for choosing the best: “the beer test”.
Steve Jobs was a real genius, but one of his main faculties was to surround himself with very good people at his work. From good old Steve Wozniak with whom he founded Apple to Jony Ive, in charge of designing Apple’s most iconic devices.
However, finding these people is not easy. but Jobs had a knack for it. The co-founder of Apple managed to attract the best thanks to very particular interviews, later dubbed “the beer test”.
Steve Jobs had a trick for conducting the best job interviews
I’ve built a lot of my success on finding really talented people, not ‘B’ and ‘C’ players, but finding ‘A’ players. I’ve found that when you get enough ‘A’ players together, when you go through the incredible research work of those ‘A’ players, they really enjoy working with each other. Steve Jobs.
The beer test, more than just a job interview
Each master has his booklet and, just as Tim Cook values 5 functions above all to work at Apple, Steve Jobs had his own technique. Job interviews are often boring and relatively easy to prepare for, which is why Steve Jobs didn’t like them.
For this reason, devised a new way of interviewing that involved getting to know the person better and appreciate that he really had the potential to create something great. And for that, he took them for a walk or a drink to simply chat.
I take them out to eat, walk with them, or just hang out. I ask questions like ‘Tell me what you did last summer?’ or ‘When was the last time you accomplished something?’ There is no right or wrong answer. It’s about doing everything you can to get them to talk about an experience and show you their true selves. Steve Jobs.
Steve Jobs was a very special person and had a real gift for choosing the best
Now to perform this test it is essential that the interviewer, in this case Steve Jobs, knows what he is looking for
It is not known if Apple continues to use this system, we know some of the questions they often ask during their interviews, but the company’s method of hiring has always been quite secretive. Especially the most important people.
The era of Steve Jobs a most unique character, capable of almost anything and with great and funny stories. Throughout his life, he mocked the booming Windows, ruthlessly criticized the latest Marvel movie calling out the director, stuck a device in a small pocket, and threw an iPod in an aquarium, and there has many more interesting stories.
