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After a year-long search, Duolingo was about to hire a chief financial officer. One person shone above the rest, with a stellar resume and strong interpersonal skills. The entire hiring committee \u201creally liked\u201d the candidate, Luis von Ahn, Duolingo\u2019s cofounder and CEO, told The Burnouts podcast<\/a> last month.\u00a0<\/p>\n There was just one problem. It turned out that the person was \u201cpretty mean to their driver from the airport to the office,\u201d von Ahn disclosed. \u201cAnd that made us not hire them.\u201d<\/p>\n Duolingo makes it a practice to evaluate candidates from the minute they step into a taxi cab \u2014 even if they aren\u2019t aware that they are under scrutiny. The CEO pays taxi drivers to determine whether candidates deserve to be hired, judging by their behavior in the car. It\u2019s one extra layer of evaluation that job seekers have to pass to be hired by the $4.6 billion<\/a> company.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cOur belief is if they\u2019re going to be mean to the driver, they\u2019re probably going to be mean to other people, particularly people under them,\u201d von Ahn said on the podcast.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, it\u2019s a tough job market for candidates, especially for those seeking entry-level positions. A recent analysis from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York<\/a> showed that by the end of 2025, unemployment among recent college grads (ages 22 to 27 with a bachelor\u2019s degree) climbed to about 5.6% \u2014 the highest it\u2019s been in three years and noticeably higher than the overall 4.2% rate.\u00a0<\/p>\n Hiring the right people matters more than ever at Duolingo, especially as the company doubles down on AI.\u00a0von Ahn told the Financial Times<\/a> in June that AI won\u2019t replace jobs, but will require employees to shift how they operate. AI will \u201cfundamentally change the way we work \u2014\u00a0and we have to get ahead of it,\u201d von Ahn said in a LinkedIn post.<\/p>\n Last April, von Ahn made headlines for saying he was cutting contract roles and replacing them with AI. In a memo<\/a> posted to LinkedIn announcing the news, von Ahn said that Duolingo couldn\u2019t afford to wait until AI was \u201c100% perfect.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019d rather move with urgency and take occasional small hits on quality than move slowly and miss the moment,\u201d he wrote.\u00a0<\/p>\n In May 2025, one month later, Duolingo launched 148 new AI-written courses, touting the benefits of AI in quickly rolling out new material. The CEO said in a statement that it took 12 years for Duolingo to create its first 100 courses. \u201cNow, in about a year, we\u2019re able to create and launch nearly 150 new courses,\u201d he stated. \u201cThis is a great example of how generative AI can directly benefit our learners.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Duolingo\u2019s CEO isn\u2019t the only one looking beyond resumes and interviews to spot real character.<\/p>\n Trent Innes, chief growth officer at hotel commerce platform SiteMinder, told The Ventures podcast<\/a> last year that he always takes candidates to the office kitchen for a beverage when they first arrive. The candidate then brings the drink with them into the interview.\u00a0<\/p>\n After the interview concludes, Innes looks for one make-or-break sign: does the candidate want to take that empty cup back to the kitchen? If they leave their cup behind and do not offer to take it back, Innes refuses to hire them \u2014\u00a0no matter how well the interview went.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cYou can develop skills, you can gain knowledge and experience, but it really does come down to attitude, and the attitude that we talk a lot about is the concept of \u2018wash your coffee cup,\u2019\u201d Innes said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n After a year-long search, Duolingo was about to hire a chief financial officer. One person shone above the rest, with a stellar resume and strong interpersonal skills. The entire hiring committee \u201creally liked\u201d the candidate, Luis von Ahn, Duolingo\u2019s cofounder and CEO, told The Burnouts podcast<\/a> last month.\u00a0<\/p>\n There was just one problem. It turned out that the person was \u201cpretty mean to their driver from the airport to the office,\u201d von Ahn disclosed. \u201cAnd that made us not hire them.\u201d<\/p>\n Duolingo makes it a practice to evaluate candidates from the minute they step into a taxi cab \u2014 even if they aren\u2019t aware that they are under scrutiny. The CEO pays taxi drivers to determine whether candidates deserve to be hired, judging by their behavior in the car. It\u2019s one extra layer of evaluation that job seekers have to pass to be hired by the $4.6 billion<\/a> company.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\nDuolingo makes an AI push<\/h2>\n
Another test to evaluate candidates<\/h2>\n
Key Takeaways<\/h2>\n
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