What’s a red flag you’ve experienced when interviewing? For me, it was a box.
Let me explain.

A few years ago, we were interviewing for an account manager role at Fulling. We had a candidate come in who looked great on paper, but a weird thing happened.
They brought a box to the interview.

At first, I wasn’t sure what the box was for, but not long into the interview the candidate opened it and began to pull out trophies and awards they had received throughout their career.

While I was impressed that they were thinking outside the box (no pun intended) for their interview, the box of accolades made me question whether this individual would be a team player.

It reminded me of Patrick Lencioni’s book, “The Ideal Team Player.” In it he highlights three attributes to look for when hiring: humble, hungry, and smart.

Here’s a breakdown of each:

✅ HUMBLE: It's about being more about the team than the 'I'. This candidate's show-and-tell with his trophies made me question his humility.

✅ HUNGRY: This is the drive to work hard and excel. The candidate showed a lot of this, eagerly displaying his past achievements. I gave him some extra points for this one.

✅ SMART: In the sense of being people-smart – can they read the room, do they have common sense? His decision to bring a trophy box to the interview put a question mark on this one.

Despite my reservations, I invited the candidate back for a second round of interviews. But, I told him, “don’t bring the box next time.”

Well, instead of leaving it behind, he actually showed up with an even LARGER box! Boy, was I surprised.

He didn’t end up getting the job, but the experience reminded me of the value of checking for those three attributes when hiring new team members.