A candidate went through 39 interviews to land a job at Goldman Sachs during the financial crisis. When a managing partner handed him a prospect list with Lewis Howes's number, he asked for a script instead of winging it. The partner said in 20 years, only two MBA graduates had shown that kind of humility.
Chapters
I had 39 one-on-one interviews to get the job at Goldman. And this is not including dinners, lunches, informational interviews, et cetera. This was 39 one-on-one interviews to get a job at Goldman. And of those, the craziest interview of those was I walk into this managing partner's office, and this was when the great financial crisis was happening. And he walks in frazzled with a briefcase and and a leather notebook. And he sits down, he's like, you're a hotshot? I see hotshots like you all the time. He drops a notebook, he goes, that's my prospect list. Here, here, set me some appointments. He pushes the book towards me and I have no idea what to do. So I grabbed the book, I look at it and it has Lewis Howes and a phone number on it. I said, would you like me to call them? He goes, yeah, set me an appointment. And I said, sir, I don't want to misrepresent you. Could you give me a script so I can actually have this conversation? He looks at me, he smiles, he wraps up the book, he stands up, he shakes my hand, he says, you'll do great, kid. And he walks out. And so I see him at the cocktail party that night. And I said, that should have gone really bad or really well. Like, what happened? He says, I've interviewed MBA grads for last 20 years, I do the same exact routine with all of them. Only 2 of you in the last 20 years have actually had enough humility to stop and say, give me a script.
