Elon Musk Knows When Job Applicants Are Lying Heres How

Elon Musk Knows When Job Applicants Are Lying Heres How Honesty is an essential quality for any employee to have. As an applicant, though, it can be tempting to stretch the truth to spruce up your resume or embellish your experience. If youve made these exaggerations, you arent alone 81 percent of people lie during job interviews.Because interview overstatements are so common, geschftsleben leaders are becoming more savvy about spotting lies. Sure, there are the semi-notorious tell tale signs that signal lying, like glancing to the right or repeating questions. But looking for lies with these methods is far from being an exact science.So, short of hooking potential employees up to a polygraph machine, how can a business owner verify an applicants honesty? Tesla CEO Elon Musk has a solution.Musk claims that hes able to effectively weed out liars with one follow-up question What were the most difficult aufgabes you faced and how did you solve them?While many interviewers ask job seeke rs the first question, the second half is where the magic happens. If the candidate is able to explain the process by which the solutions were found, you have a winneror at the very least an honest applicant.Anyone who struggles hard with a problem never forgets it, Musk said.They know the little details.COMPANY_AD_STANDALONEPretending to solve a problem becomes apparent when someone starts to speak and only glosses over the details. If an applicant is unable to provide specifics for how a problem was solved, they may have had a smaller role in finding a resolution than they are claiming.While its totally acceptable to play up your strengths and downplay your weaknesses during an interview, getting caught over embellishing could cost you a job you may have gained by being honest.You can give your deficiencies a positive spin by describing the skills you do have that are similar to those you are asked about, as opposed to lying about the skill. For example, if youre asked if you have experience working with a software program youre unfamiliar with, tell your interviewer about a program you are advanced in using. Alternatively, explain your willingness to learn the system. If youre asked about your skill level when you have only little experience, acknowledge that you recognize your deficiency and are still in the process of improving. Employers want to hire willing applicants who put in the effort to improve themselves and by extension, improve the company.--Kayla Heisler is an essayist and Pushcart Prize-nominated poet. She is a contributing writer for Color My Bubble. Her work appears in New Yorks Best Emerging Poets anthology.