I've been interviewing young college kids after my company has gone through 3 integrated producer / creative directors / manager types in 3 months. I told them to stop hiring managers if they are going to attempt to micromanage them and not let them do their job. Get young bucks who are ambitious, don't know what they want and will listen to you like you are king. Plus we can get 2 college kids and still have money left for an expensive dinner (with drinks!).

I did the interviews the standard way first. 15-20 minutes of hard hitting questions, a straight face. I listened to them go on and on about their strengths and weaknesses and challenging projects. Then I took them up to where they would be working and let them associate with my coworkers and see how they fit in. Reality is, their resumes can be shit or amazing, their "I'm detail oriented and love to work hard" answers mean jack shit, but the way they sit and interact and hold a conversation reveals just about everything I need to know.

This one girl seemed glorious on paper. Perfect everything. Purpose statement that I might steal a couple lines from for my own resume. Another guy had the most beautiful resume I've ever seen - which is saying a lot because I consistently scour the internet for design resume inspiration. Typography, color, and was even printed on cool paper!

The problem with the girl was she couldn't interact. She knew the right words during the traditional interview and probably spent 3 months solid perfecting her resume. But when I sat her down with a bunch of people her age (her potential future co-workers) and asked her what she likes to do - she can't answer. There's no meaning behind the perfectly crafted words on her resume. "I like to be detailed oriented in my free time." Bullshit.

I want to work with people who are genuinely interested in the things they do and the things around them. Last week, we played with fire. This week we played with holograms. No offense, but if you want to sit and craft powerpoints silently, I don't want you here. I want someone who loves to learn and is innately curious and intrigued by things around them. When you are curious, you think, you analyze, you look at problems, you look for solutions. Plus, people go insane after 10 hours of powerpoints. Fire is necessary for sanity's sake.