"Novel" Interview Method: the Driving Interview

[nsuttitinagul]

I've gone through the interview loop at companies dozens of times. As an experienced interviewee, I know how easy it is to fool interviewers by beefing up on miscellaneous trivia and puzzles. To combat such trickery as an interviewer, I read widely and ask about typical problems in an interesting light; it takes some mindfulness, but making sure a candidate knows his stuff is straightforward.

Unfortunately, that's not the case when making sure a candidate knows how to get along with people. Getting a good interviewee and a good coworker are two very different problems. The former is driven by knowledge, ability, experience, and productivity; the latter is driven by personality. How do you find out what a person's inner character is really like?

As I was driving to work one day, some asshole cut me off. I braked violently and honked, and he flipped me off in retribution. Later passing him in a different lane, he saw me and flipped me off another time, this time in vain at me. I smiled in somewhat dark delight before it struck me: the driving interview! What an ideal way to test both character and reaction under pressure!

The routine would go something like this.

1. Meet and greet, ideally 5-10 minutes late. By being slightly late, I underscore that I'm a busy person, that this candidate is an imposition on my time, and adds some extra time pressure to make the situation feel a little bit more difficult.
2. "I need to get to this other meeting in the city at the San Francisco Powerset office in 30 minutes. Care to drive, and I'll chat with you on the way?" The timeline would be kind of doable but difficult. He should be required to maintain speeds around 5-10 mph over the limit. I would stress as he starts driving that we're kind of in a hurry, so step on it. The lunch hour would be a great time for this so that we run into traffic and see how the candidate responds under duress.
3. Signal to my coworker to take his car and leave a little early. My coworker will be the asshole to test my candidate while he drives.
4. Give logic problems that don't require too much writing while the candidate drives. Having been through the pain of this before, also consider bringing along the candidate's resume, then tear apart experiences from years ago in gruesome detail, in an accusatory tone that assumes his resume is lying.
5. The coworker I signal earlier drives vindictively, continuously tailgating then passing and cutting off my candidate and slowing down immediately after cutting him/her off. Note how the candidate reacts.
6. Finally, when arriving at the destination, evaluate the candidate along these grounds:
   • Correctness of answers
   • Driving time and how much under/over the limit the candidate is
   • Reactions the candidate had to the situation while driving
The following are grounds for failing the candidate:
• Candidate gets into an accident: immediate failure, no questions asked
• Driving not under time limit (depending on how merciful I feel that day)
• Swearing or other inappropriate actions while driving
• Road rage vindictiveness toward his future coworker who cut him off
• Incorrect answers to logic/resume inquisition questions
Should the candidate pass this driving interview, I hand him off to the vindictive coworker who drove with us on the way, then have him conduct a lunch interview and another driving interview on the way back.

Given that most person's true personalities come through when driving, what better way to evaluate someone? This examination would test reaction to pressure, logical ability, and strength of character and personality all in one fairly quick and efficient means.