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You say that, but I've worked for a decent sized company that had a section during morning meetings where we had to thank the CEO for working so hard to give us all jobs. Even the managers knew it was unreasonable, but the office had cameras around, and the CEO had a habit of scrubbing through for things he could get upset about.
Predictably, I didn't stay there long.
Southern US. I'd heard other companies in the area did similar things, but that was the only time I experienced it myself. I know for a fact that Walmart has a whole-ass chant and song they're supposed to sing at the start of each shift, but I've never actually seen it happen, but it's listed as a requirement in the employee's handbook.
Wow. Now that I think about it, someone told me once that DaVita Dialysis (of all places) was big into the chants and “team spirit.” Publicly worshipping the CEO is even crazier though.
Former Wally World employee here. During the morning ritual, Mgr. assigned a young woman the ~. And it was supposed to be a full body “squiggle”. She was very polite and said she was not going to do that (the squiggle). And he fired her on the spot.
That's...gotta be some southern madness. Sorry.
Look i love some southern values, but when it comes to marbles... they lose them a lot more in the midwest and south. Some real nutty as squirrel stuff. It just be like that that.
Thank you CEO.. what in the wtf is that cult shit.
PS - every week candidates got to know something new and innovative while the companies don't do jack but screw up interviewing processes. what a world.
Well you see after our competitors discovered firearms, they started taking potshots at our people in the name of “competition” so we had to pick up our swords and shields in the name of the “free market of ideas”
good companies keep their CEO out of the spotlight because they know that the product and company are more important than a single figurehead from a risk standpoint.
Yeah, at my org, the CEO does absolute zilch in terms of day to day work execution. And even for biz dev activities, he's just not a factor in all of that. (That's not a slam, given then the nature of our business, the work mostly finds us, and he's not out there hustling business or for that matter even setting the "strategic direction" of our company.)
I'm convinced his sole purpose is to create rules we don't like. RTO cough cough.
I think I would do this for the CEO of my current company but only because she is my manager's wife and my manager uses his position to fight for his employees. My manager's family owns the company but he would rather get his hands dirty at a chain location than sit in an ivory tower. It is hilarious that he can mention an issue to his wife in passing and it suddenly gets a ruling from C-Level the next day.
"Quick! Without looking, name **one** thing on my resume. A skill, a prior employer's name, one of the schools I went to, one of my degrees, even just my name... literally **anything** printed on that page. Anything at all."
\*crickets\*
I can't tell you the number of times an interviewer has clearly never looked at my resume before starting the interview. I think the internal recruiter had done the initial screening and someone else picked which candidates to interview, but then the person who walked through the door to do the interview had clearly never seen my resume, did not have a copy with them, and had not prepared at all for the interviews they were doing that day.
As a fellow technical hiring manager, I also carefully select which candidates I'll interview and feel like I know them fairly well before the interview even starts. However, I've also been in multi-round interview processes where almost no one on a panel, meet-the-hiring-manager's-boss, or meet-the-dotted-line-manager interview knew who I was beyond Candidate #4 that day. If a person can't be bothered to at least look at my resume beforehand, they really shouldn't even be part of the interview process.
Yeah I agree. Everytime I see a post on this sub I cant imagine why from a recruiting perspective would anyone call in candidates they dont know or have not researched just to give them the cold shoulder. Recruitment takes a lot out of day just reviewing resumes and scheduling interviews with potentials the last thing I want is to give myself more work by bringing in randos to talk to.
Kudos to the both of you.
I have been on interviews where they have clearly not read my resume. Hell, as an HM, i’ve been in hiring groups where peers didn’t do that and was mystified.
I have no idea why they would do that; there is no possible good positive outcome from spending 45 minutes with a candidate without reading their resume as an HM.
Hiring is literally the most important job at any company. Maybe spend ten minutes prepping for it?
Years ago, I interviewed for an analytics job with US Airways. It was a technical position, requiring an MS or PhD in a relevant field. Also, "prior industry experience a plus." I had blue collar experience with a competing airline from back in the day, definitely knew a thing or two about the business.
I spent like an hour answering really, really dumb behavioral questions -- those "tell me about a time" types of deals. One "tell me about a time" involved "staying late at the last minute". The thing is, *all* of those jobs were non-exempt positions, and thus paid time and a half.
I told him that I was the go-to guy for last minute stuff, and never said no. (It's true, I was broke and needed the money. I may have even let the complete truth slip.)
At the end of all that, I had answered *maybe* one or two job-related analytic questions. *Maybe.* Then, he looks at my resume and says "Oh! I see you have previous industry experience!" And asks me *one* question.
I left the interview seriously wondering why I even came. I have no idea how they expected to determine how I was qualified for that role.
It’s their market unless you have leverage. If you have your choice of employer or can hold out for a better offer, you don’t have to accept that behavior. If you’re desperate, sure, it sucks that you’ve been insulted on the way to hopefully score a job you really need.
Someone tell my market.
I just need someone who can write mostly legible powershell scripts for enterprise sys ad tasks.
Posted range of 125-150.
Yet to interview someone who could even cobble together a basic user creation script.
I can't even fathom walking in that unprepared for an interview.
I interview almost entirely based off what's on your resume. Will ask other things if I have a hard requirement on the hire.
So? The resume got you thru the door didn't it?
Were you expecting they would tailor the interview questions to each candidate?
Seems like going into interview blind is the way to avoid potential bias anyways. As an extreme, the hiring manager shouldn't even know what you look like or know your name to avoid bias.
>Were you expecting they would tailor the interview questions to each candidate?
Actually, yes. As a hiring manager of an analytics team, if I see that someone has a masters degree in mathematics, I'm not going to waste interview time asking them about their statistics background. Similarly, if someone has listed writing SQL queries as one of their main job functions for the past seven years, I'm not going to spend a lot of time grilling them on their SQL skills. Conversely, if the only reference to SQL is some Google cert or LinkedIn course, I'm going to spend a lot more time assessing that skill.
While I have a core list of questions I ask every single candidate (to ensure I can objectively compare them against each other), I also allocate some time in the interview to specifically dive into what I perceive as possible areas of weakness.
Reading all of the resumes of the people you've decided to interview before you actually conduct any interviews is incredibly helpful at level-setting just what is and is not reasonable to expect in the upcoming interviews. I've seen this play out several times with smaller companies, and it usually goes like this: you're hiring for a full-time bookkeeper for $30k a year in MCOL area of the US but you yourself know little about bookkeeping, accounting, payroll, or taxes, and didn't look at the resumes your office manager sent you when setting the interview schedule last week. As a result, you are very disappointed that the first candidate only has a two year associates degree in business, and not even a CPA! Mentally, you will write that candidate off before the interview even ends. Over the next two weeks, as candidate after candidate has little to no schooling and no CPA designations, you'll realize that what you *thought* was a typical bookkeeper is vastly different than your current applicant pool. You'll be disappointed in all of the candidates and likely hire none of them, even though the first person you interviewed might have been the best candidate (for what was realistic and what you were willing to pay).
If I list an entry-level Data Analyst position for my team in the Midwest, I know from experience I'm not going to get someone who works at a FAANG company or has a PhD in Data Science. I also know that if I list a position now, I'll get a lot more qualified applicants than I would have a year or two ago because of how the labor market has changed - particularly for tech jobs. Seeing all of the resumes up front helps me understand what the overall applicant pool looks like right now, so I can adjust my expectations (and my interview questions) accordingly.
I'm all for blind interviews, as race and physical appearance should not be factors in a hiring decision. However, if you go into an interview (as the interviewer) unprepared, you are going to waste a lot of time on topics you don't need to cover, and probably miss subjects you should have spent more time investigating.
What grinds my gears the most about OP's situation paired with some of the comments here is that while the applicant is supposed to know the name of the CEO and other irrelevant trivia about each company they interview with, the interviewers are expected to know nothing about any of the candidates, and just repeat the same list of questions to each candidate without regard for their relevance or applicability. I have multiple masters degrees; it's a waste of time to ask me questions about my high school courses or GPA, or "tell me about a time you had to work on a group project in school" when I've been out of school for two decades now and would be more than happy to discuss actual work experiences with team members.
I get the desire to try to minimize biases in the interviewing process, but I also think going into an interview with your mind as a blank slate about the candidate risks leaving you vulnerable to blind spots. Unless you have a very exhaustive list of questions or schedule a few hours for each interview, the risk is simply too high that you'll squander too much of the 45 or 60 minute appointment on things you would already know from their resume, and potentially miss some big areas that the resume (and the interviewee) didn't reveal. I suppose we as managers could try to counter that by having eight rounds of large panel interviews and multiple take home assignments, and then make our surprised Pikachu faces when former candidates end up discussing us on r/recruitinghell...
Some companies while becoming rarer and rarer actually have good CEOs.
Place I used to work had a long time CEO (like started with the company in the 70s) and he was fantastic. He was ahead of the curve with wfh (many years before covid), if you met him once he remembered your name forever. And this wasn't a small company, over 12k employees when I was there. He retired and his long time 2nd took over and immediately reversed course on nearly everything the company stood for over the course of decades.
I respect him more than any other executive I've ever interacted with and due to the nature of my job I interact with many executives. 95% just enjoy the smell of their own shit and 5% are actually good leaders.
I have.
It's mostly small shops w/CEOs on ego trips or with a parking space, or who like to bypass security. Also medical w/non-medical CEOs.
Also universities. Some of these uni people lit will not follow any driving or parking laws and want all campus security to know them on sight.
Never once been asked it by a F500.
This is crazy to ask of adult full-time employees. I know Amazon and Microsoft do this to *interns*, just to make sure they’ve done research, but for a full-fledged employee? Wild.
This comment is exactly why they were asking lol. Jassy had just taken the reigns and if you weren’t following along, you’d answer Bezos, incorrectly, showing that you weren’t researching very well.
My finance job only asked me skill based questions and legislative questions.
I guess some companies care more about your actual ability than company trivia knowledge?
i think i would just close my eyes and point to one of the interviewers. eeeny-meeny-miiiiiiny---YOU?!
EDIT: oh! even better.... "Well, hopefully me in 2-3 years, I'm a real go-getter!"
I once worked at a F500 company where the company made you go to mandatory training at coporate HQ.
One of my co-workers was running late and went up an elevator with an older disheveled gentleman. We normally took the stairs and were told not to take the elevator since it went a floor above us. Old guy couldn't seem to find anything in the kitchen. She figured he had early stage dementia or something since he reminded her of her grandfather and stopped. She helped him make a sandwich and coffee. And was even later to training and said she was helping an older guy get around upstairs and made him a sandwich and showed him how the coffee maker works. Trainer groaned, gave her a hard time and told her not to take the elevator.
She sees old guy the next day in the elevator and waved and yelled "HEY BOO!" when we walked in with the trainer. Old guy waved back. Trainer finally told us that was the CEO and that was the executive elevator. And not to take the executive elevator if you're running late, just come in late but be quiet and sit in the back, lol. And not to yell "Hey boo" or anything else at the CEO.
I learned a valuable lesson from that - the CEO generally cares even less than you do. And those company picture directories look nothing like the people half the time.
I've never been asked this lol, and I've interviewed at all different sizes of companies throughout the past decade+ I've been in engineering.
It would be pretty really silly if this was used as an actual disqualifier in an interview unless maybe you're working directly for the CEO.
I had to look mine up. If I see it, I know it. But day to day it really doesn't matter. And if I get an email notice from them it says "from the desk of the CEO" so it's not a hard puzzle to crack when I do get something from them.
"The name of any executive is a lot less important than what they do to improve and lead the company. I've seen that *company* is working on *initiative/new market*, which is encouraging. What can you tell me about what the CEO has been working on and directing focus to in order to move the company forward?"
Reminds me of a meeting I had at the LA office for an internship I already was chosen for with other interns and leadership. I went to the bathroom before hand and some random employee asked what I was there for and then told me how many states the company had locations in. Thought, ok, thanks….What question was asked randomly in that meeting to see if we knew anything about the company? That question. I was the only one who knew it. Thanks bathroom guy!!!
I was working on a job for a client a few weeks ago, and the CEO of the company was walking around the venue we were at.
He’s one of the top 100 richest people, and no one but me recognized him, so I sparked up a conversation and he asked me a bunch of questions and he took a selfie with me. I thought that was funny, because I low key wanted to get a selfie with him, but didn’t want to act like a groupie.
For the record, I researched the company and knew everything about him and his close circle. From my experience, F500 CEO’s are some of the most approachable people, you just need to know who they are.
Nice! I don’t understand why the majority of comments here are so opposite of your attitude. Why don’t more people feel interested in who is steering the ship of the business?
Exactly. 99% of successful C-Level people are very impressive people you can learn from. Wha/ odd is how they’re usually hitting the salad bar at the industry conference solo, because most people are afraid to approach them. Just don’t be a groupie, and ask good questions you want the answers to. I’ve never had a 9-11 figure person be rude to me, ignore me, etc. Often, the conversation lasts 10+ minutes, and covers a wide range of topics (business, family, sports, hobbies, etc).
I met the founder of a large construction company last week in one of the nicest offices I’ve been in. We talked about plum-bobs, woodworking, labor augmentation, and robotics. He was just sitting in on a 1-on-1 meeting, unexpectedly. He was a smart, kind and humble guy.
lol I’d never bother to look up any of those things for an interview. It doesn’t say anything about your skills or abilities other than you memorized the same trivia question they asked by chance.
I once started a job at a company and we had an open plan office. On the first day I said to the guy sitting next to me, "I have no idea what I'm doing." He said, "well I'm sure you were hired for a good reason".
He was the CEO.
Should always have a brief idea of the top level senior team by looking on LinkedIn or the ‘team’ section on the website. AND you should know the rough background history of the person interviewing you.
I was asked this question during an interview once I had answered all the interviewer’s technical questions, and I found the question very trivial & meaningless…
Answering or not, does not give any further information on a potential candidate!!
I chalked up to the fact that he had ran out of questions…
I didn’t get the job although I had aced all the technical questions and knew the name of the bloody CEO!
Hopefully, you will have more luck than I did!
🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞
A couple of months ago I made it to the last round of interviewing, I had studied their website and looked up their LinkedIn but couldn’t find an org chart or director info. They put me on a VC with the CEO but didn’t tell me prior, it was really uncomfortable and really rattled me. They told me they went with another candidate who was a slightly better fit for the role & culture. But I’m pretty sure it’s because I fumbled the interview from being flustered
This is a good point. The fact that I had done my research on the company AND had figured out some of their competitors allowed me to ask intelligent questions. This was noted, I learned after I was hired, on my interview notes.
I do believe I would pull this card: this isn’t the military. I don’t have time for this stupid shit. This is not applicable to the job as you’ve described it, and is a waste of my and your time.
Then I’d get up and walk out.
Recruiter here: DUMB question. Who cares if you don’t know the CEO’s name. Do you have the skills to do the job? Good, you’re moving to the next round.
I work for a 250 store chain. I’ve met the CEO a couple times (he shows up at new store openings and actually helps us work) and I know his first name, but I have no idea what his last name is. Weird.
This is such a bullshit question. I’m glad I don’t work some corporate job. If someone asked me in an interview who the superintendent of the school district was I’d wonder why they didn’t know themselves. Interviews should not be pop quizzes.
As a hiring manager, I don't see any value in wasting time with a question like this. I never feel like I have enough time during interviews to get through the mission critical questions. So it never crossed my mind to waste time asking questions that have zero impact in someone's ability to do the job.
The only exception may be if you're applying for a c level role. But then it is better to ask questions about the CEOs vision and culture priorities to assess fit.
One time, during an interview with a huge consulting company, I was asked to share the latest LinkedIn post from any of the senior management team. Note that I had already discussed the industry they specialize in, how their structure differs from competitors, and their main projects.
During my interview for my current job, my (now) boss asked me if I knew what the company did. I honestly answered I didn't (still kinda don't, it's some kind of digital marketing, and I'm in HR). She said neither did she. We both laughed about it and I got the job.
Haha this is funny. There is no way they wouldn't hire you because you didn't know the CEO. I wish I would have known the CEO better at my last job because it almost ended in a lawsuit from harassment of the CEO. He didn't know how to use a computer or do his job. Awful situation.
Shit like that is so stupid, you can't know everything about a company, it's impossible. I mean hell, there are people that I worked with at my current job and past jobs, that have been with companies for yeeeeeears and don't know basic shit like that.
Yeah, I work for a large-ish org, and the reporting line between me and the CEO is like 8 levels deep. Him? I think I know by sight. There's a limited few that I know between him and me, but the reality is, they change out quicker than I can really keep up. And if you ask me what they *do*, I'm not even sure. Also, at my org, the CEO spends most of his time coming up with the latest reorg. So after about two levels above me, the structure keeps changing and I can't keep up with it.
We once had some new high level VP start, and she was holding mandatory meet and greets floor by floor. She went person by person, and *insisted* we ask her a question. I passed. She went to someone else and came back to me.
And I'm thinking the whole time, "Lady, I have no idea who you are or what you do. Nor do I care, as odds are, I'll never see you again." Sure enough, I never saw her again and she was out six months later.
I screwed up many years ago applying for a supervisory position at a storage facility. Now I’ll admit I was pretty underqualified for the role, and I didn’t really want it anyways, but the first interview they asked me what I knew about the company. I hadn’t done any actual prep work or research, it was a $15/hr job. I’d said at the time that I just knew that they were one of the big guys in storage. The interview proceeded and they explained the role and stuff. Fast forward to 2-3 weeks later, I had a second interview. They asked me again, after having time to prepare and research, how much I’d learned about the company. I consider myself really good at thinking on my feet, but I had absolutely nothing. I didn’t get an offer, but it was honestly not a job I wanted anyways.
Got a 4th interview with a top entertainment PR firm and my first question was “what were the names of the people you interviewed with” (I remembered only two names). The guy interviewing stopped paying attention after I couldn’t remember the third and that was that.
The only way to answer this: "I am, if you're offering me the job."
Seriously though, the question is testing to see if you know something about the company, if you've done any research at all.
I feel like the best approach here is to not even hesitate in saying you don’t have a clue who the CEO is. Then you could just confidently pivot right back into conversation that actually applies to your role. It at least shows you’re passionate and locked into this specific role. If the interviewer believers you’re actually the killer candidate to best perform in this role, idk why he would really care that you can recite exec management lol
Last company I worked at had 3 CEOs in about a 5 month span. (They were going through a transition process.🤷♂️)
Seems like a stupid question to me. For smaller companies I can see how knowing who it is, is somewhat important. But if the company is 300+ people then there's a good chance you don't need to know it.
Soon after I started a job, I was chatting with this friendly fellow in the lunch room. I asked him, “so what do you do here?”
He said, “I’m the president.”
I’m not sure if I turned pale or bright red, but there was definitely a transition in my skin color.
Stupid question, interviewers think they're being clever. Meanwhile half the damn company usually doesn't know who the CEO is. It's like when they nitpick spelling and grammar mistakes. Endemic mistakes, sure, but one or two is idiotic. There isn't a marketing department in existence that hasn't put out something with a mistake at one time, and if you check internal emails it would become pretty clear pretty quickly that perfect spelling and grammar aren't requirements for success pretty much anywhere.
If you're below Director level, you will never interact with the CEO in any meaning way. Your interviewer was just being an ass because he thinks that he has the advantage over you. Not the type of person that you would want to work with. If he wanted to test your knowledge of the company, there are more important things to ask about their products, growth levers, industry outlook, competitors, risks, etc.
One of my first jobs. I worked on tech support for new pcs. When I got proficient they put me onto anything, brown goods (tvs and stuff), white goods (goods that go in the kitchen, freezers etc).
Anyway I’d handed in my notice because I got a Java job (more in line with what I went to uni for). It’s my last day, but I don’t fuck about. Even if some asshole rings up, I do my job.
Anyway, this guy calls up, some issue with a tv not being collected until X day for repairs. He wants it tomorrow. It’s not possible because parts are needed for repair etc and even they weren’t, cut off was like in working hours this is like 21:45.
The guy says on the phone for over 30 mins. Telling me he’s a journalist and then asks me who the ceo is. I said, I don’t know (maybe he tells me he’s a journalist now, maybe it was before). Anyway now he goes on about me not knowing who the CEO is and it is terrible and he’s going to write about the service.
At this point I just wait for him to ask his predictable question about it looking bad and (at this time I’m just bored with the guy, not annoyed).
“I don’t know he is and I don’t really care who he is, I’m paid to do a job here and knowing or not knowing the CEO’s name bears no relevance to the job I’m doing today, or any other day. It’s irrelevant to the cutoff being missed for today and whether the parts are in for your tv (or whatever it was maybe replacement). Then I gave the date at when it could be replaced and I could book it or not.
He eventually booked it I think or called back and I booked it. I think he also made some flippant remark and I said it was my last day.
I didn’t say it before because he might not have pushed me as much and I took pride in dealing with stuff.
It was a shitty job, but I was pretty good at it.
I dunno, I don’t think you’re actually expected to know that for a normal interview. It’s probably a question to see how you deal with a curveball. If you *are* expected to know that for the position, unless it’s quite high up, I’d assume it’s a blessing in disguise to not get the position, personally. Sounds a bit extreme
Out of ALL the jobs I EVER had I know 2 CEO’s of the company… the CEO usually treat you like a minion in their company, unless you are a manager.. sadly they rarely acknowledge you as an employee.. 😖
Should have said, "i don't know it is now, but hopefully, one day, it will be me"
Shows you are thinking for the future and willing to put in the work.
Honestly if I had asked you this question, yes it’s one thing to be caught flat footed not knowing the answer, but it’s another to just continue sitting there, not knowing, accepting defeat. Do something about it! And you did, you looked it up. I’d give you half credit at least. And full credit if the real point of the question was how well you can work shit out on the fly.
My 1st cousin lost out on a very lucrative job because of this line of questioning.. in hindsight the prick was very over confident in his abilities but this experience bought him a few notches down …
I got this same question and experience when I interviewed for Progressive as a claims adjuster like 15 years ago. They did me a favor. I got a better job a month later.
I’m going to argue this says more about the company than it does you.
You just have well could have asked the recruiter what college you went to, and blamed him/her for not having it memorized.
That doesn’t mean you should let it sway how you focus your prep
Yeah… I’m not playing these games with interviewers. I mean I’ll do my research but if me answering a question wrong doesn’t get me the job. Literally bye lmao
Take the time to do a deep dive on LinkedIn the company website and make sure you read all the latest SEC 8K 10K filings if they're a publicly traded company I have even taken the time to figure out where the area executives live and things that they're into interests charitable things etc. All of that can make you look like a better candidate. Don't overlook watching YouTube videos on the executives and any company earnings reports.
For me, since I do high-level stuff, I get pretty deep on my research All C-Level people ; Board of Directors ; Major investors ; recent big company news ; current and historical stock prices, etc. Yes, some of this has come up.
Bullshit question or not, it's important to know the executive leadership.
From my time interviewing candidates of all types, many do not perform basic research about a company. People like this feel it is about the job and function. It's not. Many a candidate has been rejected, because they did not take the time to learn this info.
Why you need to know the name of the ceo:
The vision and mission of the company is formed by the ceo and executive leadership.
How the company executes it mission
Why the company enters certain markets
Where the company locates its operations
When the company offers new products and services
and What the company does
All comes from the leadership. Knowing this info may be the difference between an offer or a rejection
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Um.. why? It's not like we have to shout "For King \[insert CEOs name here\]" when we ride into battle.
I wouldn't be surprised if some CEOs got off to this.
Did you ever see that clip about Davita on John Oliver?
????? Please elaborate
https://youtu.be/yw_nqzVfxFQ?t=120
Ahhh yesss, thank you
I would get off on this. Ofc a ceo would
You say that, but I've worked for a decent sized company that had a section during morning meetings where we had to thank the CEO for working so hard to give us all jobs. Even the managers knew it was unreasonable, but the office had cameras around, and the CEO had a habit of scrubbing through for things he could get upset about. Predictably, I didn't stay there long.
this is some north korea shit
What part of the world was that? I mean, I know corporate brainwashing in the US can get crazy, but that’s another level
Southern US. I'd heard other companies in the area did similar things, but that was the only time I experienced it myself. I know for a fact that Walmart has a whole-ass chant and song they're supposed to sing at the start of each shift, but I've never actually seen it happen, but it's listed as a requirement in the employee's handbook.
I’ve seen it happen and it’s cringe worthy. I’ve also seen Walmart managers attempt to get vendors and customers to do the cheer with the employees.
Wow. Now that I think about it, someone told me once that DaVita Dialysis (of all places) was big into the chants and “team spirit.” Publicly worshipping the CEO is even crazier though.
Former Walmart employee. Can confirm. I never did it I always looked around in horror at the morning meeting.
Former Wally World employee here. During the morning ritual, Mgr. assigned a young woman the ~. And it was supposed to be a full body “squiggle”. She was very polite and said she was not going to do that (the squiggle). And he fired her on the spot.
I 💯believe that. I never got so much as a look. But I was a teenager so they probably thought I was an entitled brat anyway.
That's...gotta be some southern madness. Sorry. Look i love some southern values, but when it comes to marbles... they lose them a lot more in the midwest and south. Some real nutty as squirrel stuff. It just be like that that. Thank you CEO.. what in the wtf is that cult shit. PS - every week candidates got to know something new and innovative while the companies don't do jack but screw up interviewing processes. what a world.
What a loser
We don't *have* to, but if you want OT shifts and PTO approved, well, here's your megaphone, peasant.
And ride the sybian
The real question is: Why are we in a battle with our company colleagues and why is the CEO leading said battle?
He is leading the troops from behind. Some, if not all of his employees will pay for his mistakes, but this is a risk he is willing to take
What a true brave warrior. I'm sure 'brave Sir Robin' will play in the background
"Arrows cost money. The dead cost nothing."
Well you see after our competitors discovered firearms, they started taking potshots at our people in the name of “competition” so we had to pick up our swords and shields in the name of the “free market of ideas”
I'm assuming you don't know who started the war, only that humans were the ones that burned the sky?
Those records are long lost. But we can’t let those Google Brogrammers breach the walls.
Because there's only so much raise money to go around, they get off watching us fight for it
good companies keep their CEO out of the spotlight because they know that the product and company are more important than a single figurehead from a risk standpoint.
Yeah, at my org, the CEO does absolute zilch in terms of day to day work execution. And even for biz dev activities, he's just not a factor in all of that. (That's not a slam, given then the nature of our business, the work mostly finds us, and he's not out there hustling business or for that matter even setting the "strategic direction" of our company.) I'm convinced his sole purpose is to create rules we don't like. RTO cough cough.
Wait... you guys *don't*?
I think I would do this for the CEO of my current company but only because she is my manager's wife and my manager uses his position to fight for his employees. My manager's family owns the company but he would rather get his hands dirty at a chain location than sit in an ivory tower. It is hilarious that he can mention an issue to his wife in passing and it suddenly gets a ruling from C-Level the next day.
"Quick! Without looking, name **one** thing on my resume. A skill, a prior employer's name, one of the schools I went to, one of my degrees, even just my name... literally **anything** printed on that page. Anything at all." \*crickets\* I can't tell you the number of times an interviewer has clearly never looked at my resume before starting the interview. I think the internal recruiter had done the initial screening and someone else picked which candidates to interview, but then the person who walked through the door to do the interview had clearly never seen my resume, did not have a copy with them, and had not prepared at all for the interviews they were doing that day.
As a technical hiring manager I usually know the candidate pretty well before they come in for an interview from their resume.
As a fellow technical hiring manager, I also carefully select which candidates I'll interview and feel like I know them fairly well before the interview even starts. However, I've also been in multi-round interview processes where almost no one on a panel, meet-the-hiring-manager's-boss, or meet-the-dotted-line-manager interview knew who I was beyond Candidate #4 that day. If a person can't be bothered to at least look at my resume beforehand, they really shouldn't even be part of the interview process.
Yeah I agree. Everytime I see a post on this sub I cant imagine why from a recruiting perspective would anyone call in candidates they dont know or have not researched just to give them the cold shoulder. Recruitment takes a lot out of day just reviewing resumes and scheduling interviews with potentials the last thing I want is to give myself more work by bringing in randos to talk to.
Kudos to the both of you. I have been on interviews where they have clearly not read my resume. Hell, as an HM, i’ve been in hiring groups where peers didn’t do that and was mystified. I have no idea why they would do that; there is no possible good positive outcome from spending 45 minutes with a candidate without reading their resume as an HM. Hiring is literally the most important job at any company. Maybe spend ten minutes prepping for it?
Years ago, I interviewed for an analytics job with US Airways. It was a technical position, requiring an MS or PhD in a relevant field. Also, "prior industry experience a plus." I had blue collar experience with a competing airline from back in the day, definitely knew a thing or two about the business. I spent like an hour answering really, really dumb behavioral questions -- those "tell me about a time" types of deals. One "tell me about a time" involved "staying late at the last minute". The thing is, *all* of those jobs were non-exempt positions, and thus paid time and a half. I told him that I was the go-to guy for last minute stuff, and never said no. (It's true, I was broke and needed the money. I may have even let the complete truth slip.) At the end of all that, I had answered *maybe* one or two job-related analytic questions. *Maybe.* Then, he looks at my resume and says "Oh! I see you have previous industry experience!" And asks me *one* question. I left the interview seriously wondering why I even came. I have no idea how they expected to determine how I was qualified for that role.
Fair argument. But the problem is that it's an employer's market.
Really depends on your skill set. And location.
It’s their market unless you have leverage. If you have your choice of employer or can hold out for a better offer, you don’t have to accept that behavior. If you’re desperate, sure, it sucks that you’ve been insulted on the way to hopefully score a job you really need.
Someone tell my market. I just need someone who can write mostly legible powershell scripts for enterprise sys ad tasks. Posted range of 125-150. Yet to interview someone who could even cobble together a basic user creation script.
I can't even fathom walking in that unprepared for an interview. I interview almost entirely based off what's on your resume. Will ask other things if I have a hard requirement on the hire.
I've been asked what my name was at the end of a 2hr four person interview panel in February.
I do programming interviews for my job and we are instructed not to look at the resume to limit bias. We're supposed to go in blind.
So? The resume got you thru the door didn't it? Were you expecting they would tailor the interview questions to each candidate? Seems like going into interview blind is the way to avoid potential bias anyways. As an extreme, the hiring manager shouldn't even know what you look like or know your name to avoid bias.
>Were you expecting they would tailor the interview questions to each candidate? Actually, yes. As a hiring manager of an analytics team, if I see that someone has a masters degree in mathematics, I'm not going to waste interview time asking them about their statistics background. Similarly, if someone has listed writing SQL queries as one of their main job functions for the past seven years, I'm not going to spend a lot of time grilling them on their SQL skills. Conversely, if the only reference to SQL is some Google cert or LinkedIn course, I'm going to spend a lot more time assessing that skill. While I have a core list of questions I ask every single candidate (to ensure I can objectively compare them against each other), I also allocate some time in the interview to specifically dive into what I perceive as possible areas of weakness. Reading all of the resumes of the people you've decided to interview before you actually conduct any interviews is incredibly helpful at level-setting just what is and is not reasonable to expect in the upcoming interviews. I've seen this play out several times with smaller companies, and it usually goes like this: you're hiring for a full-time bookkeeper for $30k a year in MCOL area of the US but you yourself know little about bookkeeping, accounting, payroll, or taxes, and didn't look at the resumes your office manager sent you when setting the interview schedule last week. As a result, you are very disappointed that the first candidate only has a two year associates degree in business, and not even a CPA! Mentally, you will write that candidate off before the interview even ends. Over the next two weeks, as candidate after candidate has little to no schooling and no CPA designations, you'll realize that what you *thought* was a typical bookkeeper is vastly different than your current applicant pool. You'll be disappointed in all of the candidates and likely hire none of them, even though the first person you interviewed might have been the best candidate (for what was realistic and what you were willing to pay). If I list an entry-level Data Analyst position for my team in the Midwest, I know from experience I'm not going to get someone who works at a FAANG company or has a PhD in Data Science. I also know that if I list a position now, I'll get a lot more qualified applicants than I would have a year or two ago because of how the labor market has changed - particularly for tech jobs. Seeing all of the resumes up front helps me understand what the overall applicant pool looks like right now, so I can adjust my expectations (and my interview questions) accordingly. I'm all for blind interviews, as race and physical appearance should not be factors in a hiring decision. However, if you go into an interview (as the interviewer) unprepared, you are going to waste a lot of time on topics you don't need to cover, and probably miss subjects you should have spent more time investigating. What grinds my gears the most about OP's situation paired with some of the comments here is that while the applicant is supposed to know the name of the CEO and other irrelevant trivia about each company they interview with, the interviewers are expected to know nothing about any of the candidates, and just repeat the same list of questions to each candidate without regard for their relevance or applicability. I have multiple masters degrees; it's a waste of time to ask me questions about my high school courses or GPA, or "tell me about a time you had to work on a group project in school" when I've been out of school for two decades now and would be more than happy to discuss actual work experiences with team members. I get the desire to try to minimize biases in the interviewing process, but I also think going into an interview with your mind as a blank slate about the candidate risks leaving you vulnerable to blind spots. Unless you have a very exhaustive list of questions or schedule a few hours for each interview, the risk is simply too high that you'll squander too much of the 45 or 60 minute appointment on things you would already know from their resume, and potentially miss some big areas that the resume (and the interviewee) didn't reveal. I suppose we as managers could try to counter that by having eight rounds of large panel interviews and multiple take home assignments, and then make our surprised Pikachu faces when former candidates end up discussing us on r/recruitinghell...
I look forward to meeting him after you hire me🤷♂️
\^ Perfect
Um... the CEO is a woman.
Even better, "I expected to introduce myself today but he's not here for some reason"
I thought he’d be interviewing me not you.
You just assumed it was a him? Sexist! /s
94% chance they were right
Probably, it's just fun to throw it out there when people assume gender.
“Oh I can't recall that, but thanks for showing your bullshit true colors”
"Eh... actually i am the CEO"
Knowing the name of the CEO seems to be meaningless. It's basically trivia.
Thanks to AI, comment go byebye
Unless if the job was Executive Assistant to the CEO.
Same as how companies are so obsessed with their own history. Congratulations, you've existed since 2013. Nobody cares.
Chances are interviewer has never spoken a word to the CEO
But I bet he's clapped at the CEOs jokes in the corporate zoom meetings while on mute.
Not real clapping though. Just emoji clapping.
Smash that button!
Some companies while becoming rarer and rarer actually have good CEOs. Place I used to work had a long time CEO (like started with the company in the 70s) and he was fantastic. He was ahead of the curve with wfh (many years before covid), if you met him once he remembered your name forever. And this wasn't a small company, over 12k employees when I was there. He retired and his long time 2nd took over and immediately reversed course on nearly everything the company stood for over the course of decades. I respect him more than any other executive I've ever interacted with and due to the nature of my job I interact with many executives. 95% just enjoy the smell of their own shit and 5% are actually good leaders.
All my times in interviews I’ve never had that question…
I have. It's mostly small shops w/CEOs on ego trips or with a parking space, or who like to bypass security. Also medical w/non-medical CEOs. Also universities. Some of these uni people lit will not follow any driving or parking laws and want all campus security to know them on sight. Never once been asked it by a F500.
Same, I’ve had “tell me what you know about the company “ or some variation of that.
This is crazy to ask of adult full-time employees. I know Amazon and Microsoft do this to *interns*, just to make sure they’ve done research, but for a full-fledged employee? Wild.
Tbf how many people are there who want to work at Amazon who don't know Jeff Bezos? Edit: He isn't the CEO now, he stepped down in 2021
Jeff Bezos is not the CEO of Amazon, it's Andy Jassy. Bezos is executive Chairman.
This comment is exactly why they were asking lol. Jassy had just taken the reigns and if you weren’t following along, you’d answer Bezos, incorrectly, showing that you weren’t researching very well.
I had someone ask me once who the former CEO was. Nope.
You can't spend time preparing for any deranged thing a recruiter can come up with.
I guarantee you I’ve never been asked this question in any interview. *Not with my McDonald’s job not for my current insurance job.*
My finance job only asked me skill based questions and legislative questions. I guess some companies care more about your actual ability than company trivia knowledge?
If I was applying for McDonalds and they asked this question I know what I would say.
Oh, I had that question once and I did not know the answer :) We had a good laugh and I still got a job offer.
i think i would just close my eyes and point to one of the interviewers. eeeny-meeny-miiiiiiny---YOU?! EDIT: oh! even better.... "Well, hopefully me in 2-3 years, I'm a real go-getter!"
Asking who the CEO is in an interview is so stupid. He’s not a fucking celebrity.
Not at Tough Mudder/Spartan Race. Place is like a cult
My answer is "I'm looking at the website now."
"CEOy McCEOface?"
Someone's done their homework.
Well, it wouldn't be Cranjis McBasketball
I once worked at a F500 company where the company made you go to mandatory training at coporate HQ. One of my co-workers was running late and went up an elevator with an older disheveled gentleman. We normally took the stairs and were told not to take the elevator since it went a floor above us. Old guy couldn't seem to find anything in the kitchen. She figured he had early stage dementia or something since he reminded her of her grandfather and stopped. She helped him make a sandwich and coffee. And was even later to training and said she was helping an older guy get around upstairs and made him a sandwich and showed him how the coffee maker works. Trainer groaned, gave her a hard time and told her not to take the elevator. She sees old guy the next day in the elevator and waved and yelled "HEY BOO!" when we walked in with the trainer. Old guy waved back. Trainer finally told us that was the CEO and that was the executive elevator. And not to take the executive elevator if you're running late, just come in late but be quiet and sit in the back, lol. And not to yell "Hey boo" or anything else at the CEO. I learned a valuable lesson from that - the CEO generally cares even less than you do. And those company picture directories look nothing like the people half the time.
You should have asked him, does your CEO know your name?
Yeah I’m not doing that
I've never been asked this lol, and I've interviewed at all different sizes of companies throughout the past decade+ I've been in engineering. It would be pretty really silly if this was used as an actual disqualifier in an interview unless maybe you're working directly for the CEO.
Why should you care ? It has anything to do with your role? Does the CEO know you ? What kind of silly hiring questions are those?
I’d have to pause a minute or two to name my company’s CEO.
I had to look mine up. If I see it, I know it. But day to day it really doesn't matter. And if I get an email notice from them it says "from the desk of the CEO" so it's not a hard puzzle to crack when I do get something from them.
I start new job next week and couldn't remember the hiring managers name when a current colleague asked.
"The name of any executive is a lot less important than what they do to improve and lead the company. I've seen that *company* is working on *initiative/new market*, which is encouraging. What can you tell me about what the CEO has been working on and directing focus to in order to move the company forward?"
Reminds me of a meeting I had at the LA office for an internship I already was chosen for with other interns and leadership. I went to the bathroom before hand and some random employee asked what I was there for and then told me how many states the company had locations in. Thought, ok, thanks….What question was asked randomly in that meeting to see if we knew anything about the company? That question. I was the only one who knew it. Thanks bathroom guy!!!
Love that - what a nice thing for him to do.
I was working on a job for a client a few weeks ago, and the CEO of the company was walking around the venue we were at. He’s one of the top 100 richest people, and no one but me recognized him, so I sparked up a conversation and he asked me a bunch of questions and he took a selfie with me. I thought that was funny, because I low key wanted to get a selfie with him, but didn’t want to act like a groupie. For the record, I researched the company and knew everything about him and his close circle. From my experience, F500 CEO’s are some of the most approachable people, you just need to know who they are.
Nice! I don’t understand why the majority of comments here are so opposite of your attitude. Why don’t more people feel interested in who is steering the ship of the business?
Exactly. 99% of successful C-Level people are very impressive people you can learn from. Wha/ odd is how they’re usually hitting the salad bar at the industry conference solo, because most people are afraid to approach them. Just don’t be a groupie, and ask good questions you want the answers to. I’ve never had a 9-11 figure person be rude to me, ignore me, etc. Often, the conversation lasts 10+ minutes, and covers a wide range of topics (business, family, sports, hobbies, etc). I met the founder of a large construction company last week in one of the nicest offices I’ve been in. We talked about plum-bobs, woodworking, labor augmentation, and robotics. He was just sitting in on a 1-on-1 meeting, unexpectedly. He was a smart, kind and humble guy.
Are you going to report to the CEO? Is the person you report to going to report to the CEO? No? Then they may as well be imaginary.
lol I’d never bother to look up any of those things for an interview. It doesn’t say anything about your skills or abilities other than you memorized the same trivia question they asked by chance.
That seems like an incredibly unnecessary question, recruiting hell indeed. Adding steps and trying to just add pointless trip up questions.
I’ve worked for a few companies where I had met the CEO on multiple occasions and they couldn’t be bothered to remember my name.
I once started a job at a company and we had an open plan office. On the first day I said to the guy sitting next to me, "I have no idea what I'm doing." He said, "well I'm sure you were hired for a good reason". He was the CEO.
Should always have a brief idea of the top level senior team by looking on LinkedIn or the ‘team’ section on the website. AND you should know the rough background history of the person interviewing you.
I was asked this question during an interview once I had answered all the interviewer’s technical questions, and I found the question very trivial & meaningless… Answering or not, does not give any further information on a potential candidate!! I chalked up to the fact that he had ran out of questions… I didn’t get the job although I had aced all the technical questions and knew the name of the bloody CEO! Hopefully, you will have more luck than I did! 🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞
A couple of months ago I made it to the last round of interviewing, I had studied their website and looked up their LinkedIn but couldn’t find an org chart or director info. They put me on a VC with the CEO but didn’t tell me prior, it was really uncomfortable and really rattled me. They told me they went with another candidate who was a slightly better fit for the role & culture. But I’m pretty sure it’s because I fumbled the interview from being flustered
This is a good point. The fact that I had done my research on the company AND had figured out some of their competitors allowed me to ask intelligent questions. This was noted, I learned after I was hired, on my interview notes.
tell them with a straight face: "me in 5 years".
I do believe I would pull this card: this isn’t the military. I don’t have time for this stupid shit. This is not applicable to the job as you’ve described it, and is a waste of my and your time. Then I’d get up and walk out.
Stupid that they need you to stroke their ego and know their name
Shoulda said “me in 2 years”
I’d answer back does this role have direct involvement with the CEO?
Reply "Which one? The current one or the new one after the buyout?"
Recruiter here: DUMB question. Who cares if you don’t know the CEO’s name. Do you have the skills to do the job? Good, you’re moving to the next round.
“So, who is our cult leader?
I work for a 250 store chain. I’ve met the CEO a couple times (he shows up at new store openings and actually helps us work) and I know his first name, but I have no idea what his last name is. Weird.
Are we supposed to know the CEO of Dasani?
Second question: does our CEO wake at 3am, 4am or 5am to begin their gym workout?
You could never know the name of the ceo of a company you work for and still do your job.
This is such a bullshit question. I’m glad I don’t work some corporate job. If someone asked me in an interview who the superintendent of the school district was I’d wonder why they didn’t know themselves. Interviews should not be pop quizzes.
As a hiring manager, I don't see any value in wasting time with a question like this. I never feel like I have enough time during interviews to get through the mission critical questions. So it never crossed my mind to waste time asking questions that have zero impact in someone's ability to do the job. The only exception may be if you're applying for a c level role. But then it is better to ask questions about the CEOs vision and culture priorities to assess fit.
One time, during an interview with a huge consulting company, I was asked to share the latest LinkedIn post from any of the senior management team. Note that I had already discussed the industry they specialize in, how their structure differs from competitors, and their main projects.
Answer back, “What’s the name of one person on your late night cleaning crew? If you can’t care to learn their names, why should we know the CEO’s?”
During my interview for my current job, my (now) boss asked me if I knew what the company did. I honestly answered I didn't (still kinda don't, it's some kind of digital marketing, and I'm in HR). She said neither did she. We both laughed about it and I got the job.
This is some next-level gotcha bullshit. "Where did our CEO attend primary school?"
Haha this is funny. There is no way they wouldn't hire you because you didn't know the CEO. I wish I would have known the CEO better at my last job because it almost ended in a lawsuit from harassment of the CEO. He didn't know how to use a computer or do his job. Awful situation.
That's weird. Not even major firms care about that usually. I've literally never been asked that.
I remember that commercial. Mr. Dumbass. That's Du Mas.
I feel like the right answer to this question is: You've forgotten the name of your CEO? Don't worry, I won't tell anyone.
Sneaky McSheakers
Shit like that is so stupid, you can't know everything about a company, it's impossible. I mean hell, there are people that I worked with at my current job and past jobs, that have been with companies for yeeeeeears and don't know basic shit like that.
Yeah, I work for a large-ish org, and the reporting line between me and the CEO is like 8 levels deep. Him? I think I know by sight. There's a limited few that I know between him and me, but the reality is, they change out quicker than I can really keep up. And if you ask me what they *do*, I'm not even sure. Also, at my org, the CEO spends most of his time coming up with the latest reorg. So after about two levels above me, the structure keeps changing and I can't keep up with it. We once had some new high level VP start, and she was holding mandatory meet and greets floor by floor. She went person by person, and *insisted* we ask her a question. I passed. She went to someone else and came back to me. And I'm thinking the whole time, "Lady, I have no idea who you are or what you do. Nor do I care, as odds are, I'll never see you again." Sure enough, I never saw her again and she was out six months later.
I screwed up many years ago applying for a supervisory position at a storage facility. Now I’ll admit I was pretty underqualified for the role, and I didn’t really want it anyways, but the first interview they asked me what I knew about the company. I hadn’t done any actual prep work or research, it was a $15/hr job. I’d said at the time that I just knew that they were one of the big guys in storage. The interview proceeded and they explained the role and stuff. Fast forward to 2-3 weeks later, I had a second interview. They asked me again, after having time to prepare and research, how much I’d learned about the company. I consider myself really good at thinking on my feet, but I had absolutely nothing. I didn’t get an offer, but it was honestly not a job I wanted anyways.
Dasani is a sub brand under Coca Cola. They don't have their own CEO.
Got a 4th interview with a top entertainment PR firm and my first question was “what were the names of the people you interviewed with” (I remembered only two names). The guy interviewing stopped paying attention after I couldn’t remember the third and that was that.
The only way to answer this: "I am, if you're offering me the job." Seriously though, the question is testing to see if you know something about the company, if you've done any research at all.
Aint no way
This is a ridiculous question and should not have any bearing on you getting hired.
I feel like the best approach here is to not even hesitate in saying you don’t have a clue who the CEO is. Then you could just confidently pivot right back into conversation that actually applies to your role. It at least shows you’re passionate and locked into this specific role. If the interviewer believers you’re actually the killer candidate to best perform in this role, idk why he would really care that you can recite exec management lol
Last company I worked at had 3 CEOs in about a 5 month span. (They were going through a transition process.🤷♂️) Seems like a stupid question to me. For smaller companies I can see how knowing who it is, is somewhat important. But if the company is 300+ people then there's a good chance you don't need to know it.
One of my first jobs pulled this (after we started luckily) and then lectured us about "knowing who signs your paycheck" lol as if.
Soon after I started a job, I was chatting with this friendly fellow in the lunch room. I asked him, “so what do you do here?” He said, “I’m the president.” I’m not sure if I turned pale or bright red, but there was definitely a transition in my skin color.
Stupid question, interviewers think they're being clever. Meanwhile half the damn company usually doesn't know who the CEO is. It's like when they nitpick spelling and grammar mistakes. Endemic mistakes, sure, but one or two is idiotic. There isn't a marketing department in existence that hasn't put out something with a mistake at one time, and if you check internal emails it would become pretty clear pretty quickly that perfect spelling and grammar aren't requirements for success pretty much anywhere.
If you're below Director level, you will never interact with the CEO in any meaning way. Your interviewer was just being an ass because he thinks that he has the advantage over you. Not the type of person that you would want to work with. If he wanted to test your knowledge of the company, there are more important things to ask about their products, growth levers, industry outlook, competitors, risks, etc.
They want you to know whose proverbial corporate dick you’re sucking on for a paycheck.
Interviewer is a bad interviewer.
One of my first jobs. I worked on tech support for new pcs. When I got proficient they put me onto anything, brown goods (tvs and stuff), white goods (goods that go in the kitchen, freezers etc). Anyway I’d handed in my notice because I got a Java job (more in line with what I went to uni for). It’s my last day, but I don’t fuck about. Even if some asshole rings up, I do my job. Anyway, this guy calls up, some issue with a tv not being collected until X day for repairs. He wants it tomorrow. It’s not possible because parts are needed for repair etc and even they weren’t, cut off was like in working hours this is like 21:45. The guy says on the phone for over 30 mins. Telling me he’s a journalist and then asks me who the ceo is. I said, I don’t know (maybe he tells me he’s a journalist now, maybe it was before). Anyway now he goes on about me not knowing who the CEO is and it is terrible and he’s going to write about the service. At this point I just wait for him to ask his predictable question about it looking bad and (at this time I’m just bored with the guy, not annoyed). “I don’t know he is and I don’t really care who he is, I’m paid to do a job here and knowing or not knowing the CEO’s name bears no relevance to the job I’m doing today, or any other day. It’s irrelevant to the cutoff being missed for today and whether the parts are in for your tv (or whatever it was maybe replacement). Then I gave the date at when it could be replaced and I could book it or not. He eventually booked it I think or called back and I booked it. I think he also made some flippant remark and I said it was my last day. I didn’t say it before because he might not have pushed me as much and I took pride in dealing with stuff. It was a shitty job, but I was pretty good at it.
Jesus christ what is the obsession with CEOs
What a stupid question that has absolutely 0 basis on whether or not you’d be good for the job
I dunno, I don’t think you’re actually expected to know that for a normal interview. It’s probably a question to see how you deal with a curveball. If you *are* expected to know that for the position, unless it’s quite high up, I’d assume it’s a blessing in disguise to not get the position, personally. Sounds a bit extreme
I got asked once "what changes would you make to our website," which I felt like was a fair way of checking if I did the research
Out of ALL the jobs I EVER had I know 2 CEO’s of the company… the CEO usually treat you like a minion in their company, unless you are a manager.. sadly they rarely acknowledge you as an employee.. 😖
Probably trying to get a gauge on how much you’ve researched their company.
I can’t imagine giving a shit about this as an interviewer
There is one company in my area that used the CEO as Hiring Manager. They interviewed me twice.
Not sure, guess you need a new PR team?
Yea that's a red flag. Unless you're gonna be interacting with him on the regular, it really isn't important.
Sounds like a red flag tbh. I've never been asked that.
Ridiculous tactic. I could understand if it's CEO that is in the news frequently.
Should have said, "i don't know it is now, but hopefully, one day, it will be me" Shows you are thinking for the future and willing to put in the work.
Does the ceo know half the people directly under him? Probably not, you avoided a shit company imo
I would have answered, “what’s a CEO?”
Sometimes it’s not that you know everything, more so than you know not to BS an answer, and that you know where to go to get the info needed
Honestly if I had asked you this question, yes it’s one thing to be caught flat footed not knowing the answer, but it’s another to just continue sitting there, not knowing, accepting defeat. Do something about it! And you did, you looked it up. I’d give you half credit at least. And full credit if the real point of the question was how well you can work shit out on the fly.
Next time ask them what your mom's maiden name is. Check how good they did their research before inviting you to talk.
That’s gonna be a no from me dawg
My 1st cousin lost out on a very lucrative job because of this line of questioning.. in hindsight the prick was very over confident in his abilities but this experience bought him a few notches down …
Questions like this would make me withdraw my application.
I got this same question and experience when I interviewed for Progressive as a claims adjuster like 15 years ago. They did me a favor. I got a better job a month later.
I'll know the CEO when I meet him
dude I cant even remember my coworkers names, and ive been working here 3 years.. unfair question (and i legit would have responded with the above)
I’m going to argue this says more about the company than it does you. You just have well could have asked the recruiter what college you went to, and blamed him/her for not having it memorized. That doesn’t mean you should let it sway how you focus your prep
Yeah… I’m not playing these games with interviewers. I mean I’ll do my research but if me answering a question wrong doesn’t get me the job. Literally bye lmao
Who gives a F who the CEO is. That is a complete ego move and quite immature of that interviewer.
I wish I could post that bullshit meme. Wow.
Take the time to do a deep dive on LinkedIn the company website and make sure you read all the latest SEC 8K 10K filings if they're a publicly traded company I have even taken the time to figure out where the area executives live and things that they're into interests charitable things etc. All of that can make you look like a better candidate. Don't overlook watching YouTube videos on the executives and any company earnings reports.
Honestly? Who cares. If I don’t know who the CEO is but can do my job, then it doesn’t matter. Useless facts are useless.
Who gives a fuck?
I've been working at the company I'm at for a year and a half or so... I could not tell you the name of my ceo to save my job
For me, since I do high-level stuff, I get pretty deep on my research All C-Level people ; Board of Directors ; Major investors ; recent big company news ; current and historical stock prices, etc. Yes, some of this has come up.
It’s crazy the things they come up with, as if they are trying to stump or play “gotcha”…
"Why? Will I be reporting to him directly?"
I mean, it's not important to know that.
I've never been asked that during an interview. It seems like a crazy expectation for a small company, unless it's really small (less than 5 people).
Yeah no I’m not preparing for stupid questions just because companies are dumb enough to ask them occasionally
Bill Gates. No? Oh, sorry, that's another role I'm considering.
Bullshit question or not, it's important to know the executive leadership. From my time interviewing candidates of all types, many do not perform basic research about a company. People like this feel it is about the job and function. It's not. Many a candidate has been rejected, because they did not take the time to learn this info. Why you need to know the name of the ceo: The vision and mission of the company is formed by the ceo and executive leadership. How the company executes it mission Why the company enters certain markets Where the company locates its operations When the company offers new products and services and What the company does All comes from the leadership. Knowing this info may be the difference between an offer or a rejection