“Here’s a calculator, a pencil and a sandwich. We’ll be back in two hours.” That’s how one $2 billion hedge fund interviews for analysts positions.

That’s one of the things I’ve learned reading “The Corner Office,” a column by Adam Bryant that appears in the New York Times on Fridays and Sundays. He interviews CEOs with questions about leadership and management.

Because I deal with CEOs as well as function as an interim CEO in my business as The Turnaround Authority, I enjoy reading insights into other CEOs. When I’m running a company I do a lot of hiring and firing so I especially enjoy reading their thoughts on how they hire new people for executive positions.

Meridee A. Moore is founder of Watershed Asset Management based in San Francisco where they give the calculator, pencil and sandwich test. They simulate a real office experience and see how an analyst reacts to a tough assignment, looking for people who enthusiastically embrace the challenge.

She said they consider it a bonus if a person has had a rough patch in his or her past, because, “If you’ve ever had a setback and come back from it, I think it helps you make better decisions. There’s nothing better for sharpening your ability to predict outcomes than living through some period when things went wrong.”

Bill Marriott, executive chairman and former CEO of Marriott International, says as a young man he learned a lesson from President Eisenhower, who was visiting his family’s farm at Christmas. They were going to shoot quail but it was extremely cold, so his dad asked the president if he still wanted to go. President Eisenhower turned to young Bill and said, “What do you think we should do?”

From that Bill learned that the four most important words are, “What do you think?” Like me, he likes to hire people smarter than he is, but sometimes those people come with huge egos that preclude them from considering other people’s point of view. So when he interviews candidates he always looks for good listeners.

The CEO of YouSendIt, Brad Garlinghouse,  says he looks for people with passion. Some of the questions he asks include, “How would your friends describe you in college?” and “When you started working, how would your first group of colleagues describe you?” He also looks for humility so he asks if they have ever fired someone and what it was like. He is looking for a sense of empathy from their response.

Wendy Lea, chief executive of the customer experience platform Get Satisfaction, also looks for people who are self aware by asking her favorite question, “Let’s assume we’ve worked together now for six months. There’s something that I’m going to observe of you that I have no idea about right now. What would that be?” She finds that is a way to dig a little deeper into a person.

The CEO of International Medical Corps, Nancy Aossey, says one of her favorite interview questions is to ask candidates about colleagues who are not on their reference list, people they didn’t get along with. She wants to know what those people would say about the candidate.

You may be surprised what Karl Heiselman, the chief executive of Wolff Olins, is looking for when he asks candidates, “What’s your story?” He doesn’t just want to hear about the job they are interviewing for. He is trying to find out what they want to do with life and determine if they are being sincere.

If you are interviewing with a CEO it’s usually a given that you’ve already got the skills and experience for the position. So what they are looking for goes deeper than that. They are looking for people who are self-aware, display passion for the profession and are good listeners.

What do you think?