credit goes to: https://www.demilked.com/job-interviews-stereotypes-comics-leonid-khan/
Lately I’ve been conducting many interviews, some with experienced professionals and others with law students or even undergraduate students. Regardless of resume, educational background and even working experience, there are always a few things I quietly observe before I make a final decision. So what are they?
1. How much they talk about themselves and with what kind of rhythm
The first question I typically ask is for them to describe their experience. It’s kinda a lame question, I know. But there are a few purposes for this question: to warm them up and make them comfortable, to get an overview of their experience and objective for applying from their perspective, and of course, give me a chance to get their resume out and ask them the questions I think are relevant.
The amount of time and the level of details a person includes in the response says a lot about the person. Some people can spend 15 minutes doing a monologue. The impression from that would be to pass. Spending too much time talking about one’s experience without paying attention to the interviewer or giving the interviewer the chance to ask any follow up questions is a sign of arrogance and/or lack of self awareness. I once had a boss who came out of an interview and told me, “you won’t believe this guy, he spent the entire 30 minutes talking about himself!”. I thought that was hilarious. I asked him, “Why did you let him?” My boss chuckled, “I just want to see how long he can go with this.”. The point is, don’t let that be you.
The opposite extreme would be to underplay your own strengths and experience by being too concise without the ability to describe the relevant points with enough detail to capture the interviewer’s attention. Needless to say, most of the time they are inclined to pass on you (it’s true, their job is to screen out the unfit candidates, not the other way around). So if you come across as too plain or too underwhelming, you just made their job easy.
My recommendation is to balance the need for conciseness and speedy communication with enough detail and examples to make your experience and ability memorable. I personally think a five minute answer to this question is about right. When you are preparing, prepare a long and short version. And when asked, adjust the level of detail based on the reaction of the interviewer.
This brings me to my next point: the person who did the 30 minute monologue clearly didn’t have the ability or didn’t bother to observe their interviewer. If he did, he would have found that my boss was blown away and also probably super bored by how lengthy his answer was. It’s important to observe the reaction of the interviewer, adjust the length of your response, take cues to see whether they are engaged and whether they have a question they want to ask.
2. How they dresses, conduct themselves and the background
Needless to say, in a face to face interview, there is an entire set of literature about proper attire for an interview. Actually for tech interview, it may be different from what you think. That’s a topic for a different day.
Even for zoom interviews, how a person dresses, their hair and how they conduct themselves matters. Some people show up as if they just crawled out of bed. That’s clearly not a good sign if you are trying to hire someone reliable and mature. Others choose to wear a suit even though we are a tech company and there is a lot out there about how to dress for a tech interview. If they don’t bother to read about us, check out our linkedin pages and see what kind of style we love, and show up in a suit with a handkerchief, the motivation and judgment become somewhat questionable.
More importantly, I always observe what they are showing in the background. Messy rooms? Eh, not great. Organized bookshelf with a good selection of titles? Looks like we are heading the right direction. If you don’t have time to tidy up the background, have you heard of a thing called a virtual background?
My favorite interview lately is this one candidate who took the time to draw out our company logo and wrote: “Hire me for Trusli”. I thought that was awesome. That shows thoughtfulness, creativity and more importantly passion. Great marketing strategy, given the candidate is interviewing for a marketing role.
3. Can they do math or think on their feet
During business school I did tons of case interviews as an applicant. I hated it back in the day. I thought forcing someone to do some algebra in front of the interviewer is an insult in the face.
Because I didn’t know better.
Many years ago, after many failed hires where you discover even though they talk a good talk but don’t actually have substance and don’t possess basic logic, all of a sudden the case interview method makes a whole lot of sense.
So a case interview is a must for me.
Back in the day when we did face to face interviews, I will require them to do it with a piece of paper and a pen. No calculator. In a real consulting interview, you are supposed to turn the page aside and explain your math while doing. I think that’s an over kill. Also, I do my math in chinese, so there is no way for me to “explain my math”. Lol.
I did have candidates who asked to use a calculator, and then told no, just give up the math. That was interesting.
Now that we do all the interviews via zoom, there is no way you can control how they do the math. So I actually encourage them do it in a spreadsheet and encourage them to use certain formulas, such as sum product. If they don’t know what that function is or don’t even know how to use a spreadsheet, that tells a lot about the candidate.
Don’t get me wrong. I’ve hired people who didn't’ count their zeros right or got to the right answer after a while. As long as they are coachable, I am ok with them making a couple of mistakes or simply taking their time. I won’t hire the ones who can’t get to the right answer after three attempts and or couldn’t follow my cues to get them to the right place.
And the case interview doesn't stop with the math. I would also give them an interesting fact pattern with multiple ways to look at an issue and see how they analyze it. I would then challenge their view by throwing in some opposite factors or points of view. This is a great way to see whether they can think on their feet and take into consideration an opposite perspective, new facts and take guidance from someone who sees things differently from themselves. Again, knowledgeable matters but doesn't matter as much as the ability to listen, adopt and consider different points of view. This process can tell me a lot about the mental sharpness and flexibility of a candidate.
So if your ideal employer has a reputation of giving out case interview, I’d review some questions and learn the methodology. Some basic skills about how to do a break even analysis or compounded interest calculation can also be handy. Case In Point is a great little book to get you up to speed.
4. What questions they ask at the end
Good interviewers typically leave some time for the candidate to ask questions. So what questions the candidate asks also says a lot about the candidate.
Some people clearly didn’t take the time to read up on our company and ask thoughtful questions. If they are clueless about what we do, what our product or mission is, that’s a big turn off for an interviewer. Similarly, if they ask a question that’s already covered by the job description or generally available information, not a great sign.
On the contrary, if they have read through all your blog articles, or even your linked in page of your personal experience, the interviewer can’t help but to be partial to this kind of candidates. We are all humans, including interviewers, so if a candidate compliment you on your latest blog article with relevant and insightful information, it’s hard not to like such a candidate.
If some one runs out of questions to ask after a couple of shallow ones, it equally shows a lack of interest, initiative or both. On the contrary, good candidates tend to a list of relevant yet thoughtful questions and always manage to use the entire time slot for questions.
The best questions I’ve seen so far are things like: if you could go back in time to my state in the career, what would have done differently? What advise could you give me based on performance today? I thought that’s really interesting because typically I don’t volunteer feedback for a casual interview, but since she asked so nicely, I had to tell her. I hope whatever I told this woman was helpful to her, but at least she gave me enough motivation to provide my sincere feedback.
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