I like these five questions. Would I go job-by-job and ask these questions? Maybe.

Interviewers often look for “red flags.” Long employment gaps, negative perceptions of past employment, or the wrong word said at the wrong time — all can be considered “red flags.” What makes these red flags?

Employment gaps — some people have them. I have them. Does that make me less employable? An interviewer might wonder what caused that large gap — perhaps something happened. An involuntary exit from a past employer is almost assumed. A skilled interviewer gets curious.

Skilled recruiters are self-aware. They know what they don’t know, and they know that humans are unpredictable. A “red flag” in one circumstance could be “gold” in another circumstance. Expert interviewers ride that middle line of curiosity and probe further. “Tell me about that gap, what were you focused on? What did you learn from it? What did you get from that gap that you can take here?”

Harry Stebbings, the interviewer from the video I linked above, offers you and I “the five questions to ask every potential new recruit.” I might rewrite it as, “a set of five questions you can ask every potential new recruit… if you’re skilled enough.”

HT to Tyler Cowen from Marginal Revolution for sharing the link