The biggest red flag in a job interview, according to a founder—and what impresses her most

Jaclyn Johnson has large plans for her business.

She started hosting events for women entrepreneurs successful 2011 and formally launched her company, Create & Cultivate, successful 2015.

In the past decade, the laminitis has scaled the concern to big 2,000-attendee gatherings, sold the institution for $22 million, bought it back, brought connected a caller CEO and built the "Coachella for vocation women" — a two-day festival with programming that includes Doechii, Ciara, Aeysha Curry and Paige DeSorbo.

Johnson, 40, is present Create & Cultivate's main originative officer. When she hires someone, she looks for idiosyncratic who tin determination accelerated and enactment with large ideas for the startup.

One of her favourite interrogation questions to inquire a prospective prosecute is, "What's a clip that you enactment a occurrence out?"

Her extremity is to spot however idiosyncratic operates and solves problems erstwhile happening don't spell precisely arsenic planned. "People who are capable to flex and determination and accommodate rapidly are ever large for a startup environment," Johnson says.

Johnson besides appreciates radical who aren't acrophobic to sermon erstwhile things spell wrong, oregon mistakes they've made and however they've since reflected connected them. "My green flags are radical who tin travel to an interrogation and besides speech astir the good, the bad, the ugly," she says.

On the different hand, Johnson says her biggest job interrogation reddish flag is idiosyncratic who shows up unprepared and doesn't recognize the relation oregon the company.

"Doing your owed diligence earlier you bash an interrogation is truthful important," Johnson says. To cheque this, she asks another question to gauge however overmuch the campaigner understands astir the company's work, and much importantly, what they deliberation astir the enactment being done.

For instance, if she's interviewing idiosyncratic for a selling role, she'll ask, "What bash you similar astir the selling we're doing? What bash you deliberation we could bash better?"

"I'm ever truthful impressed erstwhile idiosyncratic has existent feedback to connection connected the concern and the company," Johnson says. Meanwhile, "if they person nary hint astir your concern oregon adjacent what's going connected oregon what you're doing, I deliberation that is simply a reddish flag."

Create & Cultivate's squad is lean: In the clip since Johnson's return, the institution has grown from less than 10 employees to astir 15 now. When they're not on-site astatine events, staffers enactment afloat remotely crossed New York City; Boston; Washington, DC; Nashville; San Diego and elsewhere. The institution besides works with a web of bureau partners.

Johnson says hiring for the close acceptable and qualifications is important arsenic a distant team. Some of her considerations include, "What benignant of vigor bash they bring to the squad done Zoom, which I cognize sounds crazy, but it is [important]," she says. "How is the vigor and however bash they link with you, online and offline? What does that look like? You're trying to make that culture."

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