The work of the company Airsurf always takes place between two locations.
One is the research location with papers, patents, and prototypes. The other is the customer’s site where the equipment is actually in operation.
New technologies are born in places of research. However, whether it actually benefits society can only be seen by taking action on the ground. ── Actually, there aren’t that many engineers who can travel between these two places.
The most time-consuming part of a job interview is determining whether the applicant can handle this “back-and-forth” process.
Even just in research and field settings is not enough.
There are people in the world who can write papers and people who can fix equipment on site. Their skill sets may seem similar, but they are completely different.
If either of these is excellent, you can thrive in each location. However, Air Surf seeks people who can go back and forth between both.
Why? — We bring what is happening at the customer’s site back to the research site, physically organize it, and return it as new technology. Conversely, we translate and deliver discoveries born in research settings into forms that can be implemented in the field. ── Because this round trip is the essence of our work.
Three Questions You Always Ask in Job Interviews
1. “Tell me the one most difficult problem you have ever solved.”
What I want to ask is not the problem itself. This is how your thoughts move when facing a problem.
Excellent engineers always answer like this: “At first, I thought it was X. But when I measured it, it was Y, and the cause was different from what I expected. “We rebuilt the hypothesis again, and in the end, it was Z.” Hypothesis→ Validation→ Revision—the movement is always included in the answer.
2. “What have you recently realized that you were wrong?”
This is a question that measures the ability to see oneself objectively. In work that involves back-and-forth between research and the field, the speed at which you notice your mistakes in judgment determines the quality of the results. A misjudgment left unattended for one month leads to six months of rework, and a misjudgment left unattended for six months can lead to the collapse of the entire project.
3. “Choose one physical phenomenon and explain it to a high school student in 5 minutes.”
This simultaneously measures the ability to structure and communicate knowledge. A good engineer can break down complex concepts into several intuitive pictures. Instead of using jargon directly, we convey the skeleton through familiar metaphors. This ability almost perfectly overlaps with the ability to explain technical content in meetings with customers.
Focusing on the “rhythm of the round-trip” rather than skill.
These three questions are not about the applicant’s basic skills, but about their rhythm of thought.
- The rhythm of back-and-forth between hypothesis and verification
- A rhythm that alternates between judgment and reflection
- The rhythm of shuttling between specialty and general
The work at Air Surf involves moving back and forth between the two worlds of research and the field. Whether you have the rhythm to travel the world determines your long-term success.
Skills are acquired even after joining the company. However, rhythm is something that already exists within the person when they join, and it is something that is extremely difficult to create after joining. That’s why we prioritize this in interviews.
Conclusion — Recruitment is the gateway to trust
Air Surf is still a small company. As the scale grows to 30 or 50 people, the challenge of documenting hiring criteria and ensuring consistent implementation will inevitably arise.
What I am now convinced of is that “engineers who can travel back and forth between research and the field” earn trust from outside the company as well. To be a reliable partner for clients to confidently bring technical consultations, it is almost essential to be able to speak both the language of research and the language of the field.
If you are interested, please start with a casual interview . Start by talking about one of the three questions.
Author Profile
Chief Research and Development Officer at Air Surf Co., Ltd. Engaged for many years in research and development of power technology.