HASTINGS ON HUDSON, NY - Tonight, while goofing around on Wikipedia, I noticed the following snippet on the entry for Seth Godin:
In December 2008, Godin announced in a blog post that he would be offering a six month alternative MBA program in his office in Hastings on Hudson, NY. 48,000 people looked at the post and 340 applied. He invited 27 applicants to his office for a group interview. They spent two hours interviewing one another. Then they, and Godin, wrote down the names of their favorite candidates. Three weeks later the 9 chosen showed up at Godin's office ...
This is a great application process! I love the idea that the candidates interviewed each other "Tom-Sawyer-paint-the-fence-style" -- although I can't tell from this Forbes.com article exactly what skills they and Seth were interviewing for.
Maybe they weren't interviewing for skills, so much, as character traits. This reminds me of advertising legend, David Ogilvy, hiring ad men based on "the cut of their gib." Warren Buffett has done this, too -- so we know that this type of process can work whenever the technical expertise of the candidates is a given.
Here are the questions Seth asked during the process ...
- What do you do now?
- Why do you do it?
- What are you hoping to learn?
- After you learn it, what are you going to do with it?
- Tell me a true story about making a change in the world.
- Have you overcome a Dip?
- What astonishing thing did you do before you did what you do now.
- Make a wish.
- What else should I know?
I wonder if the people Seth hired were stars. Is it too early to tell? Given the lack of a job description, how would Seth know they were stars?
Seth, if you are reading this, perhaps you could share your thoughts in the comments section. Specifically, does your process work, and could any company replicate it? That's all I'm really after. [Seth did respond. See comments.]
UPDATE (04-JUN-09): Seth blogs about the results of his program.
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