When I interview candidates I like to get a feeling for their passion. A great question for this is "What professional achievement are you most proud of?"

The way a candidate answers will tell you a lot. Make sure they tell you a story about the achievement -- what was the situation, what did they do, what challenges did they face and what was the result?

Watch the candidate's face carefully as they tell you the story. It should show emotion and passion. That's how you know the candidate is passionate about their work.

A few years ago I was hiring an SEO manager. Our SEO manager is responsible for making sure VietnamWorks appears #1 on Google when you search "viec lam." The position required someone who enjoys solving technical problems and doing quantitative analysis. I wanted someone who was passionate about those things.

One candidate, Binh, told me a story about how his parents had bought him a computer when he was in high school. He taught himself to program. One time he was up all night trying to make one of his programs work. He finally finished it at 4:30am.

As he told me the story I watched his face carefully. I could see him re-living strong emotions he had when he made the program work. I thought "This guy LOVES to solve technical problems with computers!" I hired him. Today VietnamWorks is usually #1 on Google (it's a constant battle though!)

Regarding how to find your own passion, the following is from my interview on "Toi va Vietnam" program (http://www.chrisfharvey.com/2011/10/toi-va-vi%E1%BB%87t-nam-me-and-vietnam/):

Chris: So the advice I have for young people is this. A lot of people
say, “Follow my passion. Wow, that’s so big. Gosh, I don’t
know how.” They think oh it’s this huge thing. No. You
could have small passions, even small ones. A passion is
something that when you do it, it gives you energy. You
just enjoy doing it. Young people should look at what
they’ve done, look at experiences they’ve had, in school,
in other activities or clubs. What activities did they do
that they just really loved to do? What was it?

Let me tell you a little bit about how I discovered some of
my passions. When I lived in Washington D.C. and I worked
at AOL, I volunteered to teach English to immigrants and
American citizenship. I did it once a week from 7:00 to
9:00 at night. Often, at the end of the day, I had a long
day, I’m tired. I want to go home. I really don’t feel like
going to class. As soon as I got into that class, bing, I’m
wide awake and I just had energy.

Khanh: That’s natural. Something just natural, right?

Chris: I discovered . . . I didn’t realize it at the time. I actually
hired a career coach, who helped me realize it later, but I
look back, and that was something that gave me energy. It
told me I like to coach people and I like to teach people.
My job now gives me the opportunity to coach and teach and
share, and I really love doing that. So I encourage people,
young people to think about what do you enjoy? Do you enjoy
talking to people? Do you enjoy meeting others? Do you
enjoy achieving things? Maybe you’d be good at sales. Do
you like numbers? Do you just like how numbers fit
together? Maybe you’d be good at accounting or finance.
When I interview people, I always try to understand if they
like the activity of their job. If they come in and they
work on a spreadsheet all day, is it like a puzzle that
they enjoy to do? So look for your little passions.
Everybody has them. You don’t know until you try it, but
think back to your experiences. Which experiences did you
do, which activities did you do that gave you energy? Those
are your passions.