My Favorite Interviewing Tips
And a Confession From a Lousy Driver
It’s easy to be an expert in interviewing. At least, it’s easy to feel like an expert in interviewing.
Why? Most interviewees are eager to please, so an interviewer rarely feels any immediate negative feedback. Interviewing is like driving: everyone thinks they are above-average. Well, except for me - I’m a below average driver, for sure. I have lousy depth perception and don’t see well at night, in case you’re curious.
It was many years into my career before I actually talked to recruiting experts about conducting interviews. Oops - shoulda done that years before!
One great tip I received for interviewing junior candidates - don’t ask a question that you couldn’t have answered at that stage. Presumably you were good at the job in question - don’t ask a question that would have filtered you out!
Another great tip was from an expert recruiter who told me her favorite interview question:
“From your last job, can you give me a few examples of times when you went above and beyond what was expected of you?”
If a candidate has to think for a while before answering, it’s a bad sign. Someone who truly went above-and-beyond on a regular basis will be able to quickly think of many examples.
After asking this question a few times, it occurred to me that the most impactful thing in business is this - finding people who will go above-and-beyond expectations.
This applies to a VC trying to find great founders: the greats are the ones who consistently go-above-and-beyond. Of course, this also goes in the other direction. Founders should try to find the VCs who will routinely go above-and-beyond. Easier said than done!