Work Ethic

I was speaking with a young person who is about to graduate soon and we got to talking about how we expect candidates to handle campus interviews. I stated that our process is geared towards trying to find and recruit people who demonstrate knowledge, curiosity and drive and of course a strong work ethic.

This person asked how we could possibly test for work ethic in the short span of an interview.
I said we were still evolving the process, but one question that we like to ask is, "What would you do with your life if money were no object?" Work ethic, I clarified, is about seeking meaningful work and not whiling one's life away.

This person stared at me for a while and said, "It is incredibly difficult for me to answer this question if I have not thought about it before. And it would be unfair to expect 20 somethings to have thought about this before they meet with you. Most graduating students therefore, when faced with this question are likely to try and game the situation by trying to build an answer that they think you are looking for."

Even more important, this person pointed out, was that I seem to have a different definition of work ethic in my mind as compared with most people currently graduating from Engineering School. To most young people, work ethic implies professionalism; i.e. delivering promised output at the promised time. They have just been through a few years of meaningless work and the better students have worked hard to submit assignments on time. To them, work ethic is not about seeking meaningful work.

Given that I have not clarified what I am looking for with that question, namely a measure of work ethic, and that my definition of work ethic seems to be completely different from the people I am trying to measure, this question seems to be part of a rather unfair process.

Back to the drawing board then.