Over the last decade, I’ve started three digital agencies, become the CEO of Profit Labs, and interviewed more than 500 candidates for jobs across those companies.
I’ve learned that predicting how someone will perform once they’re hired is about asking the right questions.
And one question — more than any resume or reference check — has consistently told me whether a hire would become one of my best or one of my worst.
Across hundreds of interviews, it’s been my most reliable predictor of long-term success, saving me more money than any hiring tool.
This question gets honest answers
I used to ask candidates about their “zones of genius” — including excellence, competence, and incompetence — to glean what they’re great at, what they can do decently, and what they struggle with. But the word “incompetence” often put people on the defensive. I kept getting rehearsed answers when I wanted honest ones.
Over time, I found a better way to get similar insights. Today, I ask: “What gives you energy, and what takes it away?”
This framing shows I’m on their side. I’m not trying to trip them up. I’m trying to protect them from a role they might hate. This gives people permission to answer more candidly, and their responses are revealing.
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The question gets to job fit faster than any resume review or personality test. Skills and experience matter, but they miss a critical variable: energy. Even top talent burns out when they spend their days on tasks they find draining. When their work aligns with what energizes them, on the other hand, they can sustain high performance after the new-job excitement fades.
In my experience, nine times out of 10, the energy profile from the interview matches what managers say in performance reviews months later. I’ve never gotten that level of accuracy from expensive hiring software.
It’s a simple question, but if you listen closely to the answer, it can change the trajectory of your team and your business.
Spot red flags early
Sometimes, a candidate’s answer makes it clear they’d be unhappy in the role.
One candidate I interviewed for an account manager position, for example, said something like: “I love helping clients, but I can’t stand going back and forth when they push back on ideas.”
Client feedback — including pushback — is part of daily life in that role.
I knew they’d be drained by the very work the job required. I thanked them for their honesty and explained why the fit wasn’t right. We both avoided a bad situation down the road.
Identify top performers who will thrive
Other times, the answer maps directly to the job and makes it clear someone will thrive.
For a customer success role, for instance, one candidate said something like: “I get energy from diving deep with clients, understanding their goals, and making sure we deliver exactly what they need. What takes my energy is busywork that keeps me away from them.”
Six months after they were hired, their performance review echoed that conversation almost word for word. They excelled in client-facing work and became a top performer.
How to ask this question
If you want to use this question in your own hiring process, here’s what I recommend:
Ask it early. Don’t wait until the end of the interview. You’ll get a clearer, more relaxed answer when the conversation is still fresh.Listen beyond the words. Pay attention to tone, pauses, and cadence. Hesitation can be just as telling as enthusiasm.Make sure you can deliver. If they say they thrive in high-energy, collaborative environments, make sure you can actually offer that. Otherwise, you’re setting them up to fail.Don’t “sell” them into a mismatch. It’s tempting to convince a great candidate to take the job anyway, but that almost always leads to short tenures and rehiring costs.
How to answer this question
This question is a litmus test for job seekers, too. My advice for candidates:
Reflect in advance. Think about your current and past roles. Which tasks left you feeling energized at the end of the day? Which ones left you depleted? Use it to assess fit. If the role’s day-to-day responsibilities don’t line up with what you said gives you energy, that can be a sign that it’s not the right opportunity.Be honest. Hiding the truth will only land you in a role that feels like a grind. The more candid you are, the more likely you are to find a role where you can thrive and avoid jobs that will drain you.
Eli Rubel is a life-long entrepreneur and currently serves as the CEO of Profit Labs, a strategic finance, bookkeeping, and accounting firm for agencies, and SurveyGate, a SaaS tool that helps business owners automatically capture objective client feedback. He also owns a small portfolio of services businesses, which includes NoBoringDesign, a design and creative agency for technology companies, and Matter Made, a B2B performance marketing agency for technology companies.
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