Great Interview Questions that CEOs love to ask

17 Jan

Asking the right interview questions that give you insight into someone’s personality, ambitions, biases, and fears is a difficult task. Especially because interviews are designed as a mating dance for both sides, it is difficult to measure them accurately.

Recently, the co-founder of Wingify, Paras Chopra started a really interesting tweet thread about favorite interview questions different people like to ask. It’s a great exercise to help you take a peek at the interview practices of the smartest and best. Here are a few that we found really interesting.

See, How to Conduct a structured interview?

Aakrit Vaish – Co-founder & CEO, Haptik

What do you like to do outside of work and spend half the interview discussing this.

Aakrit goes on to explain that following this question, he spends roughly 50% of the interview discussing this. It helps him understand the person holistically.

Ruhi Mahajan – Talent Acquisition – Kayako

Tell me about the last thing you did for the first time and when was it?

Ruhi works in talent acquisition at the leading support desk software makers Kayako. This helps her understand how readily can people go out of their comfort zone.

Gautham – Co-founder – Startup Village

What is the most important thing you completely reversed your opinion on when compelling arguments where presented?

It’s a sign of an intelligent and humble person who can absorb evidence and overcome the mental resistance of changing their opinion about something.

Anand Bhardwaj – Pocketaces

Our customers at Pocketaces are extremely creative with their questions! One of the questions they ask is

What is something you do better than your current manager and something that you manager does way better than you?

I am personally a fan of these questions. It gives you a great idea about a person’s proclivity to learn, their views about authority, and humility.

Of course, then there are some legendary founders who through their varied experience with the best and a diverse set of people, have developed models and questions to judge candidates. Here are a few we find incredible!

Peter Thiel – Co-founder of Paypal and Founders Fund, Author – Zero to one

What important truth do very few people agree with you on?”

Peter talks about this in his book Zero to one. It is the single most incredible book that I have read about startups and technology. To quote “This question sounds easy because it’s straightforward. Actually, it’s very hard to answer. It’s intellectually difficult because the knowledge that everyone is taught in school is by definition agreed upon. And it’s psychologically difficult because anyone trying to answer must say something she knows to be unpopular. Brilliant thinking is rare, but courage is in even shorter supply than genius.”

Brian Chesky – CEO, AirBnB

Give me an elevator pitch of your life

Brian asks the candidates to comprise their life in an elevator pitch and summarise it in three minutes! On the spot. He’s got a great reason.

I’m trying to figure out the formative decisions and experiences that influenced who you are as a person. Once I figure that out, I’m trying to understand the two or three most remarkable things you’ve ever done in your life. Because if you’ve never done anything remarkable in your life until this point, you probably never will.

Source: NYT

Also, check the Recruitment Process Framework for Startups

Neil Blumenthal – Co-CEO of Warby Parker

What was a recent costume you wore?’

One of our core values is to inject fun and quirkiness into everything we do. So we’ll often ask, “What was a recent costume you wore?” And the point isn’t that if you haven’t worn a costume in the last four weeks, you’re not getting hired. It’s more to judge the reaction to that question. Are you somebody who takes yourself very seriously? If so, that’s a warning sign to us. We want people to take their work seriously but not themselves. We also ask, “What do you like to do for fun?” The answer always speaks volumes of who that person is.

Source: NYT