Elon Musk's top two interview questions + my thoughts & tips

I was listening to the radio on the way to the office this morning and they mentioned the two top interview questions Elon Musk asks candidates at an interview to determine if they are the fit role the role & business.

Naturally, this sparked my interest, below are my thoughts and a few tips which you may find useful when heading into your next interview or interviewing your next hire!

Q1. Can you talk me through your journey to date and tell me about the key decisions you have made to get to where you are today ?

• The way in which the individual answers these questions is key, being able to clearly articulate your career history and the journey (yes that includes your personal choices because we are all human) in a timely manner that doesn’t lead into what you had for breakfast / snooze-city makes an impact.

Q2. Can you tell me about some of the most difficult problems you have faced along your journey?

• Being able to quickly identify some difficult problems and how you have dealt with them demonstrates that you, yourself dealt with the problem rather than passing it onto someone else.

People at ALL levels including executives often struggle with articulating their career journey in a way that leaves an impact, in a timely, informative manner. I have seen so many candidates fall over at interview stage because they weren’t able to clearly articulate or demonstrate how they have achieved success previously with first-hand examples.

So, with this in mind here are some key pieces of advice that may help you leave the right impression next time you land a job interview.

• Practice talking about your career journey to date and think about the key pieces of information relevant to that interview.
• Show the company/interviewer some of your personality and leave your ego at the door ,it’s okay to let your guard down, your skills & experience is what got you this far, your authenticity is what makes you unique.
• Think about some of the difficult situations you’ve had along your journey and some problems you have solved (big or small) that you are proud of.
• Follow the STAR methodology:
• Situation Use: specific details about a situation or task.
• Task: Tell what led to the situation or task?
• Action Taken: Discuss what you did and who was involved?
• Result: or outcome Communicate the outcome?

Source: linkedin