INSTANT MBA: Here's how one CEO makes hiring decisions in 7 minutes

MANAGE SUBSCRIPTIONS | UNSUBSCRIBE | VIEW ONLINE

February 02, 2015

Hiring can be a complicated and drawn-out process. But Marla Malcolm Beck, CEO of luxury beauty retailer Bluemercury, has it down to a science.

In a recent interview with Adam Bryant of The New York Times, Beck said she's the "queen of the seven-minute interview."

She told Bryant: "I interview for only seven to 10 minutes, and I have a framework — it's skill, will, and fit."

She said she can ascertain skill in about two minutes, just based on what the candidate has done.

To figure this out, she asks: "What's the biggest impact you had at your past organization?"

"It's important that someone takes ownership of a project that they did, and you can tell based on how they talk about it whether they did it or whether it was just something that was going on at the organization," she told Bryant.

Then, to determine a candidate's will (which "is about hunger"), she asks: "What do you want to do in five or 10 years?"

"That tells you a lot about their aspirations and creativity," she said. "If you're hungry to get somewhere, that means you want to learn. And if you want to learn, you can do any job."

Then, there's fit.

For this she turns to the résumé.

Beck told Bryant that she's always looking for employees who have some sort of experience with a smaller organization. "At big companies, your job is really one little piece of the pie. I need someone who can make things happen and is comfortable with ambiguity."

Click here to read the full New York Times interview.