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We spend a lot of time preparing for job interviews. We update our CVs. We choose the right outfit. We search the web and prepare answers to difficult questions. We try to explain why we are the right person for the job and what motivates us to apply. And, of course, we think about what the company can offer us.
But there is one question we rarely ask ourselves:
“If I was the manager, would I hire me?"
Not because of my degree. Not because of my years of experience. Not because I know Excel, AI, HR systems or whatever happens to be needed on the job description. I mean something much simpler: would I want to work with myself?
The CV version of you
A CV can tell us a lot about the person. It can tell us where someone worked, what tasks they filled, what they studied, what languages they speak and what skills they have. It can even tell us that someone is "highly motivated", "a great team player" and has "excellent communication skills".
But there is a small problem. Almost everyone says the same things.
The interesting part is not what people write; it is what they actually are in real life.
Being a team player is not only helping when everything is going well. It is also how you behave when a colleague makes a mistake. Communication skills are not only about speaking confidently. Sometimes they are about listening to someone you completely disagree with. Being proactive is not only having ideas. Sometimes it is noticing a problem and saying: "I think I can help with this."
These things rarely make it onto a CV. But they make a huge difference at work.
Marshall Goldsmith, an executive coach who has worked with some of the world's most successful leaders, wrote a book called “What Got You Here Won't Get You There”. His central observation is striking: the behaviors that help people reach a certain level of success are often the exact same behaviors that prevent them from going further. Not a lack of skills or knowledge but small habits, ways of reacting, patterns of interaction that have become invisible precisely because they've always been there. The book is essentially one long, honest answer to the question: what am I not seeing about myself?
Would you want to work with yourself?
Just for a moment, imagine you are the person sitting next to you, imagine you are your colleague.
Would you enjoy working with you? Would you feel comfortable asking for help? Would you trust yourself to finish something you promised to do? Would you know how you react when someone gives you feedback? Would you feel that you can have a different opinion without creating unnecessary tension? And perhaps the most important question: do you make the people around you better?
I don't think there is a perfect answer to these questions. None of us are perfect colleagues all the time. We all have bad days. Sometimes we are tired, stressed, impatient or simply not at our best. That is normal. The point is not to become the perfect employee. The point is to be honest enough to notice what we could do better.
Skills get you hired. Behavior builds your reputation.
Experience matters. Skills matter. Education matters.
But once you start working with someone, these are not the only things you notice.
You notice who takes responsibility. Who helps when things get difficult. Who shares information instead of keeping it to themselves. Who says "I don't know" when they don't know. Who can admit a mistake without spending ten minutes explaining why it wasn't really their fault.
And you notice the people who make work just a little easier for everyone around them.
These things are difficult to measure. They are not always included in performance reviews. And they definitely don't fit into a CV. But they become part of something much more powerful: your reputation.
And what if the answer to the main question is "No"?
What if you honestly asked yourself: would I hire me? … and the answer was no?
That doesn't necessarily mean you are doing a bad job. Maybe you have outgrown your role. Maybe you have stopped learning. Or maybe there is simply something you have been avoiding working on.
And that is not a failure. It is information.
Carol Dweck, a psychologist at Stanford, spent decades studying how people respond to challenges and difficulties. In “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success”, she describes the difference between a fixed mindset, which is the belief that our qualities are set, that we either have something or we don't. Also a growth mindset, which is the belief that our abilities can be developed through effort, honesty, and a willingness to see clearly where we fall short. Her research shows that this one difference in how we think about ourselves shapes almost everything: how we handle setbacks, how we respond to feedback, how far we go.
Asking "would I hire myself?" and sitting with an uncomfortable answer is, in a way, a very small act of growth mindset.
The interview doesn't really end when you get the job.
We usually think of an interview as the moment when a company decides whether they want us or not. But perhaps there is another interview happening all the time. Not a formal one. No questions. No hiring manager. Just the small decisions we make every day. How we treat people. How we react when something goes wrong. Whether we keep learning. Whether we take responsibility. Whether we help. Whether we listen. Whether we care about the work we are doing.
And maybe these are the things that ultimately answer the question better than any CV ever could.
Would I hire myself?
I don't think the answer has to be "yes" every single day. But if we can honestly say: "I would want someone like me on my team," we are probably doing something right.
And if the answer is "not yet"… maybe that is not a bad place to start.
Recommended reading: Marshall Goldsmith's “What Got You Here Won't Get You There” - for an honest look at the invisible habits that shape how others experience us at work. And Carol Dweck's ”Mindset” for anyone who wants to understand why the willingness to ask hard questions about ourselves is itself a skill - one that can be developed.
