IT job seekers must discuss their past actions to show their knowledge, the impact they have made for their organizations and what they have learned from the experience, says Ogilvy & Mather CTO Yuri Aguiar. IT job candidates: What decisions have made you stand out? What mistakes have you made in your career? Related on CIO.com PG&E CIO Shares Her Unique Method for Engaging Candidates During Interviews Hiring Manager Interviews Special Report: The Future of IT Leadership These are two of the most important questions Yuri Aguiar, senior partner and chief technology officer at Ogilvy & Mather, likes to ask job candidates as he seeks out the best IT talent to work for the global advertising agency. Aguiar, who was honored as a Ones to Watch winner, is a rising IT leader himself. He spoke to CIO.com at the recent CIO Leadership conference in Boston. (You can watch video excerpts of his interview.) “What kinds of decisions candidates have made that pull them into the limelight: those tend to be turning points in their lives,” Aguiar says. Asking candidates about their regrets helps him understand if a job candidate has moved on from their past mistakes. The idea: everyone makes mistakes. The question really is, what did you learn from the experience?Aguiar says staff contacts are a great place to start recruiting, and his group sometimes attracts employees from other departments at Ogilvy and trains them. Conferences are another recruiting tool.One other question Aguiar seeks to answer: what interests outside of the office do job candidates have? He’s looking for hobbies and other pursuits. Aguiar says he tends to choose people who demonstrate some balance in their lives.Of course, that should not be taken to say that Aguiar is an easy boss. He notes that one of his mentors taught him a valuable lesson by quoting from the playwright George Bernard Shaw: “Unreasonable men get results.” Related content brandpost Sponsored by Palo Alto Networks x Accenture Making sense of zero trust - why a managed SASE solution is the ideal option for enterprises Security leaders are turning to SASE as their preferred network security solution amid a new era of cloud-powered businesses working from anywhere. By CIO Contributor Nov 28, 2023 4 mins Network Security feature 8 tips for unleashing the power of unstructured data For most organizations, data in the form of text, video, audio, and other formats is plentiful but remains untapped. Here’s how to unlock business value from this overlooked data trove. By Bob Violino Nov 28, 2023 10 mins Data Mining Data Science Data Management opinion What you don’t know about data management could kill your business Organizations without a solid data management strategy are on a collision course with catastrophe. Unfortunately, that’s most businesses, judging by the fundamental disconnect on the importance of strong data foundations. By Thornton May Nov 28, 2023 6 mins Data Architecture Data Governance Master Data Management brandpost Sponsored by Dell Technologies and Intel® Gen AI without the risks Demystifying generative AI: Practical tips for cost-effective deployment in your organization. By Andy Morris, Enterprise AI Strategy Lead at Intel Nov 27, 2023 6 mins Artificial Intelligence Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe