Airport Test 2.0

You may be familiar with the classic airport test: "Is this the type of person I could stand to be around while waiting for a flight?" Etc.

I was recently talking to a friend at a NYC VC about the recent CrowdStrike outage and the ensuring debacle with Delta Airlines at Atlanta airport.

That gave rise, organically, to a new "Airport Test" where the question is: "All flights on a major airline carrier at the hub are cancelled for the next several days. What do you do?"

Now, I know this is a hypothetical question and therefore a bad one. But it's a fun thought experiment to think about how you'd want your ideal (future) teammate to respond here. What traits would you want on display?

I'd want someone who remained calm in the face of this (admittedly) stressful situation. I'd want someone resilient, gritty, and proactive in finding a solution to the problem. I'd want someone who embodied a "full agency" mindset and didn't adopt an "oh well, what can we be expected to do?" mindset.

In other words, I want the person who is immediately calling the rental car agencies rather than camping out on the floors for the next 3 days. And of course, I still want to enjoy spending time with this person. But the way they approach and respond to problems is a key part of why my friend's "Airpot Test" is a key upgrade over the original.