The interview question you should ask

http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/cs/2009/01/the_interview_question_you_sho.html
this note is built on the above note by Peter Bregman (in the Harvard Business Conversation Starter.)

An interesting write up which ties in with the 10,000 hour rule given in Malcolm Gladwell’s book ‘Outliers’. (tks for poiting that out Surya JVS)

What Peter is saying is that if you are passionate about what you do, you end up finding ways to pursue that passion outside work. The activites during and out of office hours then re-inforce each other to help you gain more expertise in your chosen field.

For example and I quote: "In Captain Sullenberger's case (he landed a pretty big plane on the Hudon river recently), the first clue that he would become Captain Sullenberger the hero is that, in his teens, when most of his friends were getting their driver's licenses, he got his pilot's license. What did he do for fun? He flew glider planes. Which is basically what he did when he landed in the Hudson River with no engines"

Peter indicates a few more examples to say that what we do in our leisure could (and he says COULD) tell us of our commitment to our chosen field and hence a good question to ask is what you do in your leisure time.

We're writers on Marketing and Sales. We meet a lot of people in this line of work. The truly outstanding ones do sales and marketing in their spare time. They're not at work 24/7. But they're working on their blogs...their favourite charities...helping friends in start-ups...participating in lectures on marketing and sales.... they practice their craft in different ways. Thats the beauty about them.

Sure, they dont have great stamp collections, or may not Salsa very well...but they're happy with a passion...its not their fault they are paid for what they are passionate about. And they are the best at what they do. Know the trends, know the new ideas, critique them...

We think its a good question to ask, and you have shown the relevance of the question beyond what we understood.

thanks
Venkat