Elon Musk has a simple job interview question that always catches out liars.
Musk is one of the world’s richest men and arguably one of the hardest-working people in business.
He’s the leader of five huge companies: Tesla, SpaceX, The Boring Company, Neuralink, and X (formerly Twitter).
So it’s no surprise Musk needs to hire the best employees – and he has a method to pick out the best candidates.
Unlike most employers, Elon Musk isn’t concerned with formal qualifications or what’s listed on a résumé.
In an interview with the German automotive magazine Auto Bild, he stated, “There’s no need to even have a college degree at all or even high school.”
Instead, Musk prioritizes “evidence of exceptional ability” when evaluating potential hires.
“If there’s a track record of exceptional achievement, then it’s likely that will continue into the future,” he explained.
He also has a unique approach to detecting dishonesty in job interviews.
Musk asks each candidate: “Tell me about some of the most difficult problems you worked on and how you solved them.”
Musk is less concerned with whether a candidate gets the right answer and more focused on how they approach problem-solving.
As he explained to Auto Bild, “When I interview somebody, I really just ask them to tell me the story of their career.
“What are some of the tougher problems they’ve faced? How did they handle them? And how did they make decisions at key transition points?”
According to Musk, this method provides deep insight into a person’s abilities and thought process.
To detect dishonesty, he closely observes whether a candidate can explain their solutions in detail.
“Usually, someone who really had to struggle with a problem understands [the details] deeply—and they don’t forget,” he added.
Detectives reportedly use the same strategy in interrogations.
Musk’s technique is also backed by psychologists who have researched the topic.
Lie-detection expert Dr. Cody Porter explained in an article for The Conversation: “If [people] provide longer, more detailed statements about the event of interest, then the investigator will be better able to detect if they are telling the truth or lying.
“In contrast, liars wish to conceal their guilt. This means they are more likely to strategically withhold information.
“Their assumption here is that providing more information will make it easier for the investigator to detect their lie, so instead, they provide less information.”
Lie-detection accuracy rates are said to have increased from 48 percent to 81 percent when using this technique, with truth-tellers providing more information.
