When asked, "how do you know someone is a fit for the job?" Mike said:
Well, I think that you can fake things pretty well. You can rehearse, you can have a friend or a colleague or a spouse ask you all the tough questions, and you can research how other people did it, and you can come in there and you can put on a good show.
But the best way to really cut to the chase, is to have someone tell you a story. Because you can't really make those up, and if you do, you can tell it's inauthentic.
It's kind of like - "you can pay someone for their hands, but you can't pay them for their mind." People can do the technical stuff, but you're looking for how people think.
That's been the guiding principle for me - tell me a story. And it's not the stereotypical "what's your biggest strength" or "what's your biggest weakness." Because you can fabricate that stuff or you can say the right thing.
It's how you talk about it. That was big learning for me, and I didn't get that type of training or mentorship until I got to grad school... People learn when they can put stuff into application.
