Thread by @joulee

Is there a term for someone who geeks out on how to get to know someone better? Because I'm definitely in that club.

So of course I looooove thinking about interview questions.

Thread of my favorite questions to ask folks to understand how they think and work.

(1/11)

For understanding their personality:

If I interviewed your siblings and 3 best friends and asked them to describe you, what would they tell me?

(2/11)

For understand their career journey:

What was your decision-making process to join/leave your last 3 roles?

(3/11)

For understanding their strengths:

If I asked your past managers and colleagues to tell me what you do exceptionally well compared to others, what would they say?

(4/11)

For understanding their weaknesses:

Imagine you could work with the perfect partner to start an ambitious project together. What kind of person would you be looking for to best complement you? What skills would they have that would balance you?

(5/11)

For understanding their growth:

Imagine the you of today met the you of 3 years ago. What are the top three things you've learned that you'd want to teach the you of the past? How did you come to learn those things?

(6/11)

For understanding their taste:

When was the last time you experienced a product/design/technology that you felt was truly excellent? Why? What specific decisions do you admire from its creators?

(7/11)

For understanding their proactivity:

Tell me about the most impactful thing you did to address a problem you saw that nobody expected you to work on. What happened?

(8/11)

For understanding how they approach feedback:

What was the best piece of feedback you've ever given to a colleague? Why do you consider it the best?

(9/11)

For understanding how they manage conflict:

Can you describe a time when you or your work was adversely affected by the behavior of a colleague? What was the situation? What did you do?

(10/11)

For understanding their motivation:

How would you stack rank the following in terms of what matters to the most to you right now in considering a role?

Compensation
Learning
People and work environment
Nature of the work
Career trajectory
Something else

(11/11)

I always remind myself that spending an hour with someone gives me a *tiny* slice of who they are. So trusted references count for way more than an interview.

Biases, time spent on reflection, communication skills, etc all sway our understanding of others.

Still, we can make the time we do have higher-signal with a curious mindset and a better set of questions.

Have other favorite questions or resources? Please share below! :)

Fin.

Also: if you want to get a once-a-month e-mail summarizing my weekly Twitter threads, sign up here: lg.substack.com

Back to the top of the thread:

https://twitter.com/joulee/status/1392504865352417284