WayUp CEO and Google alum Liz Wessel has a lot of experience finding talent. Here are the 2 interview questions she asks to help get to know a candidate. Following is a transcript of the video.
Sometimes you get really nasty answers and that’s when you know the person might have an ego.
It depends on the interview. I definitely change it up sometimes based on what the person’s interviewing for. My company, WayUp, we have these 7 company values and one of them is “Be a master of your craft, but know you are not the master.” Which means be really good at what you do, but know there are other people out there who are way better at each of the skills, and so go out and find as much information as you can.
One of the questions I like to ask is, “Tell me about a time when you had to learn something on your own in the workplace or for a class or for a club that was not required but you did it on your own and you used that for leverage.”
I sometimes hear some really fascinating stories and it’s a great way to learn more about a candidate. I definitely have some more trick ones, like, “If I found someone who didn’t like you why would they say they don’t like you?” Sometimes you get really nasty answers and that’s when you know the person might have an ego. Like I’ve heard, “Because they’re jealous.” And that’s when I’m like, “You’re probably not going to make it here.” But, yeah, I’ve heard good answers and it’s a nice way to kind of pull out the whole weakness question without asking it.
