A hiring expert with 20 years of experience considers the biggest red flag in a job interview.

Adriane Schwager often inquires about instances in a candidate's career where they made a mistake. This is typically done to assess their ability to handle stressful situations and their capacity to learn from past mistakes.

GrowthAssistant's CEO and co-founder, Schwager, with 20 years of recruiting experience, can reveal a significant issue: low ownership of work.

Schwager evaluates whether the individual can take responsibility for their error or if they are shifting blame onto someone else.

If the candidate blames someone else for the mistake and shifts responsibility, it indicates a lack of ownership, according to Schwager.

Instead of saying that, she suggests: "I once failed to send something to accounting, which resulted in a $250,000 loss and nearly cost me my job. To prevent such a mistake from happening again, I created a weekly reminder to send accounting documents on Tuesdays."

"Schwager believes that all situations are co-created, and we all contribute to some of the failure. Even if you are not running the department, you still played a role in its failure. This does not make you good or bad; it is simply a fact. Therefore, be aware of your involvement in the outcome and be able to discuss the lessons you learned from it."

According to Schwager, the ideal candidate should be aware of their role in the outcome.

She can sometimes determine if a candidate has low ownership by analyzing their explanation for leaving their previous job.

Schwager wants to know if the candidate tried to take ownership and manage up when they left because their manager had it out for them or they weren't being managed well.

Have they recognized their burnout patterns, learned from the situation, and acquired strategies to cope?

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