Thursday, March 7, 2013

The 140 Second Interview


Q&A: 140 Seconds With Pizza Hut on Its 140-Second Job Interview

By Venessa Wong on March 07, 2013 – Bloomberg Business Week

You’d best talk fast. Pizza Hut is holding job interviews this Sunday at the Hilton in Austin and online on March 14 (via Google (GOOG) Plus), and it’s giving each candidate only 140 seconds. The position: manager of digital media based out of Plano, Tex. In addition to preparing your spiel, be prepared to show them everything on your phone.
How much can you really learn about a job candidate in 140 seconds? A lot, Pizza Hut (YUM) claims. To test the theory, we sat down for 140 seconds with Caroline Masullo, Pizza Hut’s director of digital and social media and the person who will be conducting the interviews.

Explain the thinking behind the 140-second interview.
It literally ties to the way people communicate on Twitter today. We need this person to be super knowledgeable in the social space. They need to be able to communicate with our consumers in fun, quick, concise ways. They need to be relevant, and they need to be on the cutting edge of the social space and keep us at the forefront. In terms of that short an amount of time, we need someone who knows who they are, what they are looking for, someone who’s super passionate, quick on their feet, able to communicate clearly in a short amount of time.
Will you show more mercy if they run over time than, say, the Academy Awards?
If I love them, absolutely.


So no band ushering them away.
We talked about having an air horn or something. If they are amazing, we want to hear what they have to say, but at the same time, we want to hear as many people as we can. The other benefit of giving people 140 seconds is we’ll be able to talk to tons of people within that 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. time frame.
Have you been practicing? Are you talking faster?
Yeah. I spend a lot of time in the social space, so I would say, you know, we’re pretty good at it as a brand. We already have a good presence on Facebook and Twitter and Instagram, so this is a space we’re familiar with.


But you’re not looking for a glimpse into the hearts and souls of these candidates.
No. Ultimately it’s like an elevator [pitch]. Tell me in 140 seconds why you think you should be the next manager of ….
Oh! Sorry, we’re at 140 seconds. Thank you for your time.

Wong is an associate editor for Bloomberg Businessweek.

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