The Talgo Blog

Most of us know the Segway. A supposedly "cool" innovation that was received by the general public as decidedly... uncool.

Keep that image in mind the next time you are tempted to "segue" your interview from one topic to the next. Most interviewers attempt to do this to make the conversation more "na...

In interviews, the questions we ask should serve two goals. First, they must have a high probability of gathering relevant, predictive information about the candidate. Second, they should avoid telegraphing exactly what we’re looking for or what the “right” answer might be.

When the intent of the q...

Most interviewers are either afraid of asking for negative information from candidates (weaknesses, mistakes). Or they are simply unskilled in doing so. Often both.

Why do we insist that asking for negative information is such an important part of a well conducted interview process? Three reasons:

There’s no shortage of leadership gurus who talk about the importance of hiring people with specialized skills and expertise. “Specialists over generalists” was a common refrain at my former employer, the renowned leadership advisory firm ghSMART. Peter Drucker has written extensively about the valu...

You may be familiar with the classic airport test: "Is this the type of person I could stand to be around while waiting for a flight?" Etc.

I was recently talking to a friend at a NYC VC about the recent CrowdStrike outage and the ensuring debacle with Delta Airlines at Atlanta airport.

That gave ...

Interview questions play a crucial role in the hiring process, but some common ones don't quite hit the mark. In this post, I'll explain why certain popular interview questions fall short and share some underrated alternatives that can help you find the right candidate more effectively.

Let's start...

As an interviewer you want the most actionable data per unit of time. (Subject to the candidate also having an enjoyable experience.)

If you've ever ran out of time (or run over your allotted time) you know that time is your scarcest resource. 

What if there were a couple of tactics that could get you...

From our academic years onward, each of us spends thousands of hours building our technical or functional skills—the "tools of our trade" as individual contributors (finance, sales, engineering, marketing, law, product development, etc). 

Over time, these personal/individual skills become less and ...

If you’ve done even a modest amount of interviewing, you’ve certainly heard your share of long-winded (and sometimes aimless) stories about big, complex projects or engagements.

You ask a simple question about a key highlight in their last role, and before you know it, you’re 15 minutes into a stor...