“If Van Gogh and Mozart would have been in the crowd listening to the famous Mark Anthony speech on the death of Julius Caesar (as written by Shakespeare), what would have been their comments?”
This sounds like the interview question from hell, but it is the only way Mark Essien believes he can identify the brightest and the best to work for him.
Mr Essien is the founder and CEO of Nigeria’s biggest hotel bookings site, Hotels.ng, but claims he is uninterested in CVs or fancy qualifications - he only cares whether or not you are a genius.
And if you are to be able to demonstrate in 10 words or less why you are, he may have a job for you.
Using Twitter, he is encouraging jobseekers to explain how they are smarter than “95% of people in the world”.
Looking to employ full-time genius. Job description: Be smarter than 95% of people in world. Send me email mark@hotels.ng. 10 words only.
— Mark Essien (@markessien) April 20, 2015
Job Open: Detective and Pattern Matcher. Pay: N150k up. Exp Rq: None, Qualifications: Be smarter than me. E: mark@hotels.ng (15 words)
— Mark Essien (@markessien) August 9, 2015
In a blogspost for CNN, he explained: “On a whim I decided to try posting a job application on Twitter 'only for geniuses'. The task was to apply for an unspecified job in 10 words only.
“As it turned out, even though it was just 10 words, the quality of the applications was way better than all we had to date."
He said one of his new hires, Femi, had increased the efficiency of his department from "low 70% to above 90%”.
“Generally, I ask simple questions that require a certain way of thinking. A question like 'how do you create a bow that shoots arrows around corners?' may not yield any practical answers, but it helps to see how minds work when faced with challenges,” he added.
