Former CEO reveals his go-to question in job interviews that instantly shows red flag traits

A big dog has given some pro advice to us smaller dogs, and if you want to land THAT illusive job you're going for then read on.

Former CEO Steve Kaufer, the co-founder of Tripadvisor, has shared some of his wisdom with YouTuber Logan Bartlett, who runs the channel The Logan Bartlett Show - which the 61-year-old appeared on.

Former Tripadvisor CEO Stephen Kaufer in Needham, Massachusetts. (Barry Chin/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)

They discussed what it takes to impress in an interview and his beliefs on whether you have played around with AI, which are a little, if not incredibly, harsh - but we'll get into that shortly.

But first a bit on Kaufer, and why you should heed his advice.

In February 2000, Tripadvisor was founded in Needham, Massachusetts by himself, Langley Steinert, Nick Shanny, and Thomas Palka.

It was Kaufer who came up with the idea after running into difficulty, while trying to plan the perfect family vacation.

After 22 years in charge, the philanthropist decided to step down and instead focus his energy on a new startup business - Give Freely, a web browser extension that allows users to make donations to charities while they shop online.

While he admitted that it most likely will never be as big as his first brain child, he hopes it will have 'a fabulous impact on the world'.

Kaufer explained the 'red flags' he looks out for when interviewing candidates. (Getty Stock Image)

One question he tends to ask interviewees is 'what's the hardest project you've ever worked on?', and Kaufer listens to whether they are a team player and own up to why it became difficult or if they point the finger on someone else - that's a red flag.

He said: "It can tell me, are they ever taking responsibility for why something became difficult?"

If someone views a task to be hard because they had to work on a Saturday, Kaufer said it could be 'kind of a red flag'.

But he doesn't stop there, he then asks the candidate how they would refine their most successful project.

Kaufer said: "That'll sometimes catch people off guard. And I can see kind of by the pause — they've never thought about it."

Kaufer pictured in 2022 shortly before retiring from Tripadvisor - the company he co-founded. (Barry Chin/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)

While interviewing he wants to know whether his potential employee is adaptable to anything that is thrown at him, and to do so he quizzes them on how curious they are.

He gave an example, he said that when interviewing software engineers he asks them whether they have experimented with AI and new chatbots that are available - any that say no are immediately put to the back.

"I just don't understand it," Kaufer said. "And I probably don't want to work with that individual."

Personally, I think that's a little harsh - as a writer I don't use AI because I don't want to help feed this machine that may one day do men out of a job, and I'm sure software engineers may think the same way.

If I've taken anything from this it would be that you've got to be open-minded because at the end of the day, it's a dog-eat-dog world - you either adapt or die.