Hiring Outliers: Lions, Monkeys, Rabbits, Horses and Cows. Oh my!

Posted on by

CEO of ING Direct, discusses one of his top interview questions re: lions, monkeys, rabbits, horses and cows.

===============
Q. So let’s say you’re interviewing me. How do you find out if I’m an outlier?

A. Well, one clear sign is if you’re difficult. Outliers are, by definition, always difficult. They’re difficult to manage, difficult to get along with. The other thing is, you’ve got to start by looking outside the industry. I’m looking for people with new ideas, a new set of eyes who look at things differently.

But in the interview, I have to look and say, “Well, what really makes him tick that would make him different?” So I’d be probing to see if you have a hobby. What do you do in the evenings? I’m trying to find data points, some clues to figure out what you are all about.

Q. Give me an example of how you do that.

A. Here’s one. There are five animals — a lion, a cow, a horse, a monkey and a rabbit. If you were asked to leave one behind, which one would you leave behind?

Q. Leave behind? In what sense?

A. Make up your own scenario.

Q. I’d leave the rabbit behind.

A. What was the story you had in mind?

Q. If I’m going on a journey, the rabbit isn’t a lot of use to me.

A. “Isn’t a lot of use. …” O.K., so a utilitarian approach.

Q. Right.

A. Well, I would leave the cow behind because I thought I could ride the horse; the monkey would be on my back; the little rabbit, I would just stick in my jacket. But the one thing that was going to hold me up is the cow, which is slow. And the lion can forage out there. So now you know what I picked and I know what you picked.

So the lion represents pride, the horse represents work, the cow represents family, the monkey represents friends, and the rabbit represents love. In a stress situation that you and I’d be working in, I know the one thing that you would sacrifice would be love, and your story would be something like this: that you could sacrifice love with people because you could make it up to them later.

So if you have to get something done on the weekend, you’d work all weekend. When push came to shove, you’d sacrifice love. So that teaches me quite a bit about you. If you picked the horse, the conversation would end. I wouldn’t hire you because we’re never leaving work behind. Those types of examples teach me quite a bit about you.

Q. But this psychology test of the five animals …

A. It’s actually a Japanese personality test. I just happened to pick that up.

3 thoughts on “Hiring Outliers: Lions, Monkeys, Rabbits, Horses and Cows. Oh my!”

  1. 1. Your blog is very, very cool.

    I chose the cow, because I figured I could eat the horse. No, I really didn't think it through.

    2. Do you really, absolutely, essentially – like – totally need the domain name staycation.com? :-/ That said, wouldn't have found you otherwise!

    3. It totally sucks that drop.io is being closed down but it really isn't the sort of thing I write about. Maybe a good topic of thought for your next entry…?

Comments are closed.