Perspectives
Our last Sockwell Partners newsletter pondered the first of two questions we almost always ask serious candidates are there experiences from your formative years that you know affect you at work today? The second question is equally revealing what is the biggest adversity you have faced? It is also a fundamental question for bosses, college admissions officers, counselors, HR professionals and mentors. What are we all looking for? RESILIENCE. It is at the core of how major negative obstacles or challenges impact you and what you learn from them.
For much of our firm's history, we have posed two questions in nearly every in-depth candidate interview that we do. The first such question: Are there experiences from your formative years that you know affect you at work today even if others might never notice? Why do we ask this question? To clarify, although the term "formative years" is sometimes limited to early childhood, for executive workplace relevance it extends to college, grad school, or even first or second jobs. During this 20+ year period of intensive learning, we develop core beliefs about ourselves, others, and our environments.