The world's wealthiest individual, Elon Musk, employs a 20-minute technique when evaluating potential employees - and it has nothing to do with their CV. The 54-year-old has accumulated a fortune estimated at around £624.4bn.
This wealth stems largely from his involvement with companies such as Tesla, SpaceX and XAI. His initial millions came after selling software firm Zip2 in 1999, before establishing his own venture that subsequently merged with PayPal. Throughout his journey to becoming the planet's richest person, Musk has had to make critical decisions regarding staff recruitment.
He has now disclosed that he adopts an unconventional method when evaluating candidates, disregarding their CV and concentrating instead on what he terms the "wow factor".
During a podcast with Stripe's John Collison and tech producer Dwarkesh Patel, Musk explained he requests bullet points demonstrating "evidence of exceptional ability". He also stated he favours having a discussion with applicants rather than judging them on paper, according to News.au..
He said: "Generally, what I tell people, I tell myself, I guess, aspirationally, is, don't look at the resume. Just believe your interaction.
"The resume may seem very impressive ... but if the conversation after 20 minutes is not 'Wow', you should believe the conversation, not the paper."
This strategy has resulted in the average tenure of Tesla's senior leadership increasing from 10 to 12 years. However, this hasn't always been the situation.
Musk recalled a time when other Silicon Valley companies were "carpet bombing" Tesla's senior leadership with recruitment approaches from Apple. He claims his firm's staff were believed to possess "pixie dust" that contributed to making the organisation successful.
This resulted in competitors offering double what Tesla could afford. According to news outlet CNBC, 46 former Tesla workers joined Apple for its electric vehicle project, which has subsequently been shelved, in 2018.
He added: "I've fallen prey to the pixie dust thing as well, where it's like, 'Oh, we'll hire someone from Google or Apple, and they'll be immediately successful'."
The billionaire maintains he prioritises a candidate's character equally alongside their skills and experience. He considers that "goodness of heart is important".
Musk stated: "I underweighted that at one point. So, are they a good person? Trustworthy? Smart and talented and hardworking?".
It isn't the first occasion the world's wealthiest man has proposed a radical transformation to the workplace either. On the Moonshots podcast he indicated he anticipates there will eventually be a "universal high income".
He maintains that AI will ultimately have a substantial impact on people's daily lives, significantly enhancing their workplace productivity. He anticipates it will generate "an abundance" of resources worldwide.
In December, Musk secured a record-breaking pay deal that could see him earning up to $1tn (£760bn) if he meets ambitious Tesla targets over the next decade. The agreement did attract some criticism from shareholders, but it was contended that the company simply couldn't afford to lose Musk.
