Condé Nast Interview Test

"To be hired at Vogue in the 1990s, candidates had to recognise all the references on a sheet of 178 names, ranging from the Connaught to Diana Vreeland, proving their cultural bona fides, and their social class."

So explained Hadley Freeman. In her review, "Michael M Grynbaum’s Empire of the Elite chronicles the rise and fall of the publishing giant behind Vogue, Vanity Fair and the New Yorker — from whopping expense accounts to outrageous snobbery". Inside the empire of excess.

It seems quite the story. Yet from the countless jaw-dropping snippets, it is the above recruiting reveal that gets the Sales antennae wagging.

It is both scarcely yet also utterly believable.

Forget learning on the job there. You must know the players already. In forensic depth and breadth.

You can't help but think on Sales equivalents.

Even if their fashion listings relate solely to producers de luxe, then I wonder if 178 is actually that many. After all, you can break the space down by category, gender and country in manifold pots. Indeed each time I somehow find myself on the webstore of a garment, accessory or footwear vendor, the homepage drop-down can literally fill my big-screen.

Maybe we'd fill pages with our market's suppliers, competitors, customers and substitutes. In the manner of a Strategist.

Mix in professional leanings. Such as selling skill angles. Proxy signals noted, expected even, of the successful. Related media shapers.

Yet these kinda miss the point.

We can all take on raw talent. And rub that grain of sand 'til irritation forms pearl. But there may well be a platform from which such can be best shucked, then polished.

How much does the candidate actually care about our arena? The one in which they choose to construct a career. Or at least, a winning chapter of it.

Would I be happy if someone wanted a seat on my bus but knew little to nothing about my world?

The trusted performers within it. Those duly admired. Ones we aim to emulate, disrupt, surpass?

Maybe 178 is a stretch. A typically OTT flex of positioning.

Yet a sheet filled with names - or a couple adorned with logo icons - could act as a type of interviewing moodboard.

These are people we know, think and talk about. Who in some way, may indeed shape where we head. If you don't recognise any of them, then are you really right for us?