The Single Best Question for Job Applicants

Hiring tends to be a total crapshoot, Peter Bregman writes in a Harvard Business Review blog. But you'll get better results if you ask applicants one question: What do you do in your spare time? Hero pilot Chesley Sullenberger flies gliders for fun and used to build intricate models. "Perhaps that attention to detail explains why he walked through the cabin twice" after landing safely on the Hudson, Bregman notes.

Managers tend to favor well-rounded candidates without obvious personality quirks. "But people are often successful not despite their dysfunctions but because of them," Bregman writes."Obsessions are one of the greatest telltale signs of success." (More hiring stories.)