

Ask HN: Founders, what are your favorite interview questions and why? - doppenhe

Interviewing is hard for your startup - essentially the most important thing you will do. What are some of your favorite questions and why ?
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divisive
Q: Do you have a personal practice?

What I'm looking for is intrinsic motivation and commitment to a process.
People reach their goals mostly because of _what_ they do, not because of
_who_ they are.

Q: To explain to me something that isn't technical, within 5 minutes, assuming
I know nothing about it.

I'm mostly looking for ability to make anything easy to understand. The way
you describe the world reflects how you understand it, and if you can't
explain it well it's because you don't understand it well.

I'm also looking for ability to zoom in to the most important thing. What you
need isn't just the ability to work on what's important, but also the ability
to _not_ work on what isn't, and what you describe the most reflects what you
think of the most.

Q: Do you have good instincts?

What I'm looking for is tidbits of wisdom that help decide under uncertainty.
That you don't discard emotions or seemingly innocuous events as useless data.
I also want to see someone trusts their own self with whatever knowledge they
have before attempting to trust others or gain new knowledge.

But in the end what I'm really looking for with all these questions is how
determined someone is.

~~~
jamescampbell
The second one is especially important to me during the hiring process. It is
such an underrated skill to be able to explain something to make it easily
understandable to someone who knows nothing / little about it. Thanks

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wayno
Two answers, here's the first (it doesn't answer the question directly but I
think it's so NB that it's worth mentioning nonetheless).

In 13 or so years of doing this I have found that that there's not a single
interview question that can replace the value of chatting to references.

I tried for years to perfect our interview process with clever questions, and
time and time again, if we had issues after hiring someone it's because we
chose to turn a blind eye to something that came out in a call with a previous
employer or colleague. I have had countless conversations with my partners
that went something like "that's exactly what so and so said before we hired
this guy". As if it were a surprise. Trust what the people who have worked
with this person before say - there's no better way to assess fit.

So we changed our interview process, and now in interviews I focus much more
on establishing cultural fit. How we do that is also very simple - we just
talk to the person (kicking off the conversation with a question like "I've
read your resume but please tell me your story briefly in your words" \- and
let the conversation flow naturally from there, asking follow-up questions out
of genuine interest, making sure we are contributing to the conversation). It
makes it comfortable for everyone and allows us to establish a rapport. Then,
if I feel this is someone I would like to spend more time with I know they are
a good cultural fit.

Skill is assessed in addition to this, but that's job dependent (short note on
that - we ask people to do a practical in the final round because when it
comes to skill you can't take their word for it).

More direct answer to follow...

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wayno
Q: If I were to ask one of your colleagues to describe you, what do you think
they would say? \- This is another way of asking about character, strengths
and weaknesses, but you get a much more honest answer when you ask it this
way. You also get insight into a person's self image.

Q: If you were interviewing a candidate for this position, what criteria would
you use to evaluate them? \- We are trying to get insight into their values
(eg. for a programming position we want to hear things like Commenting, Reuse,
Readability, Test coverage). And if we hear those things we know we aren't
going to have to battle to instil those values.

Q: What appeals to you about this job? \- You see whether they have bothered
to research the position (if they haven't it says a lot about work ethic). You
also get a sense for whether they are excited about the prospect of working at
your company - for a startup it's very important that they are excited about
what you are doing.

Q: What concerns you about the prospect of working here? \- If they say
"nothing concerns me" you know they either generally don't think things
through enough, or are possibly putting a positive spin on everything just to
land the position (in which case you need to wonder about how honestly they
answered your other questions). We prefer hiring people who aren't ready to
dive in without thinking. This kind of question also gives you an idea of
whether they are willing to communicate with you openly and honestly.

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JSeymourATL
Q: I know you've reviewed the position summary, spoken with other members of
the team. What questions do you have for me?

I'm looking for intellectual curiosity, interest level, and how this person is
evaluating the opportunity. The questions posed by a candidate can be very
insightful.

~~~
speedyapoc
What would you consider to be good ending questions? I've undergone multiple
interviews before and by the final one, all of my questions have been
answered.

~~~
JSeymourATL
Q: Before we go-- are there are any areas relevant to either role or your
background & experience that we didn't cover? Anything else that you might
like to discuss?

This is a good way to wrap up and probe for any areas of concern from
candidates. It often yields additional insights.

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doppenhe
Q: If you could excel at one skill you currently do not possess what would it
be?

What I am looking for: \- Desire to learn \- Acknowledgment of a weakness and
desire to fix \- Its easy to give a cope-out answer but the good ones won't.

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garysvpa
Are you overqualified for this job? \- I want to know how confident the
applicant about himself.

How would you handle it if your boss was wrong? -I want to know if this person
will treat me nice

What do people most often criticize about you? \- It is same as what are your
weaknesses? I just asked it differently.

