How to ask better interview questions? Like, what browser tabs do you currently have open?

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The Writing:

Whether it's applying for a new job, raising money for a business or even building your personal or company profile, you've probably sat in a few interviews over the years.

Most people fear them.

A few people enjoy them.

There are plenty, particularly when it comes to job interviews, that dismiss their value.

Whatever your position, they're a reality, so it wouldn't do any harm to improve the quality of their outcomes. So that's why today, I'm sharing eight examples of interview questions that I found intriguing from Tyler Cowen and Daniel Gross' book Talent: How to Identify Energizers, Creatives, and Winners Around the World.

Before I do, let's just acknowledge that point about their value – specifically when it comes to job interviews.

In the wrong hands, armed with the wrong questions, you've no doubt experienced interviews that offered very little. In some cases, you may have been the victim of an interviewer, who, despite fancying themselves as a great 'reader of people', asked you nothing that bore any relevance to the role. I've certainly regretted my approach to some of the hundreds of interviews I've conducted over the years.?

As Jason Dana, an assistant professor of management and marketing at the Yale School of Management wrote in the New York Times in 2017, many free-form ones are effectively "useless."

Dana gave the example of his students who predicted the future grade point average of people they interviewed and a group they'd never met. Using both sets of candidates' historical grades, they were more likely to predict the results of those they hadn't interviewed! That's why, should they be used at all, he advocates structured questions.

On the other hand, there's nothing worse than stock answers to stock questions, pre-prepared and lacking any authenticity.

Plus, speaking to someone face-to-face (in-person or online) can yield important information and be revealing, as long as:

• You're clear about what you're assessing.
• Don't over-value articulateness.?
• Focus on substance and the quality of answers to your question rather than style.

So, with that in mind, here are eight uncommon questions that got me thinking, mainly because they're designed to get someone else thinking.

1.What did you do this morning?

You're asking for a story here, and given it happened this morning, they won't have had time to prepare an answer. This can give you a view into how they organise ideas and drive a narrative to tell a story. It can also break down that awkward formality barrier by referencing 'the real world'.

2. How did you prepare for this interview?

As well as giving you some insight into how someone researches a company and role, I'm always interested in whether they've learned anything about the person interviewing them. Before meetings, I go deep (without veering into stalking) on the person I'm seeing. For example, one of my new clients was surprised and delighted when I mentioned his grandfather, a famous rugby commentator. It showed I was taking it seriously.

3. What subreddits or blogs do you read?

Cowen and Gross build on economists' point that 'revealed preferences' are often more revelatory than 'stated preferences'. In this case, what you do in your downtime says a lot about what you're really interested in and your breadth of interest.

4. What are the open tabs on your browser right now?

One for online interviews, this question can tell you a few things, including your intellectual habits and how you exercise your curiosity. Or if you don't have any open at all, maybe you’re just fastidious and obsessed with order.

5. What views do you hold religiously, almost irrationally?

A version of a question you may have heard – "what's something you believe that most people would disagree with?" this one can reveal where you sit on the 'conformist scale', as well as create an opportunity to demonstrate how you argue your position.

6. Who are our competitors?

If your first reaction is to think of the closest companies in their industry or category, you're not alone. Yet, this is a chance to think laterally. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings had an interesting response to this question, referring to the company's biggest competitor as sleep. A battle he said they were winning.

7. How ambitious are you?

Appears a little more conventional at first, but when you think about this, it's difficult to fake. Combining demonstrated behaviour and requiring a clear vision of your future is not easy. Particularly when probed about why it matters to you and how you achieve your ambition.

8. How do you think this interview is going?

The most passive-aggressive sounding question of these eight, however, is one which, if asked sincerely, can give you an excellent sense of how well someone can read a room and a chance to be completely honest. Just don't deliver it with a sneer.

So there are eight questions I'll be adding to my locker and would be intrigued to answer one day.

One thing to note. No one likes a smug interviewer, so not only should you expect a pause before people answer uncommon questions (this is actually good as it tells you they haven't prepared for them), you may even want to frame it with something like:

?"This may be something you haven't considered before, so feel free to take a moment to consider it."

Because how they explain is possibly the biggest revelation of all.

• Do they approach it differently from everyone else? That's a great sign of unique thinking.
• Do they draw you into their worldview even if you don't initially agree? An indication of persuasiveness?
• Are they concise and specific with every response? Perhaps that shows honesty and clarity of thinking.

Interviews may not be the only judge of whether someone is the perfect match. Still, sometimes unstructured questions give you a different perspective, particularly when hiring for what Cowen and Gross describe as:

"People with a creative spark who can produce ideas that make a difference."?

Real conversations reveal characteristics important to assessing how well they align with creating the future you want to see and give you a view of how motivated they'll be to help you succeed.

I'd love to hear how you approach interviews and your favourite questions, so get in touch to share them!

Have a nice weekend,

?Ollie

My book,?Work/Life Flywheel: Harness the work revolution and reimagine your career without fear, will be published on 17th January 2023. You can pre-order your copy?HERE .

The Reading:

Interesting piece from McKinsey’s Phil Kirschner on the workplace of the future, including why:

“The overarching principle is to make the office magnetic enough to inspire presence. Think nudges , not mandates: knowing when colleagues plan to be in the office can lure others in, too. Meeting spaces should be positioned at the heart of the building’s circulatory system, and personal desks could be cut back in favor of upgraded common areas. Spaces to be creative and solve challenging problems should be highly visible, to encourage collaboration and to show that the company values innovation and teamwork.”

You’ll be able to hear more from Phil in episode two of the new Future Work/Life podcast series, which starts next week.

Great recommendation from Daniel Pink this week. As this Stanford Business article explains, “when it comes to communication from the top, less isn’t more. Many managers don’t convey the right amount of information, but those who undercommunicate pay a steeper price.”

If perfect calibration is an unrealistic goal, err on the side of overcommunicating, which relays a desire to see your employees succeed. When a leader overcommunicates, [organizational behavior professor] Francis Flynn says, “you might not be very effective at helping, but at least you are not also coming across as completely unfeeling. When you’re undercommunicating, there’s no evidence of any pro-social motivation to go along with an apparent lack of helpfulness.”

Listen my podcast conversation with Dan HERE .

Interesting piece from Bruce Daisley in The Guardian , arguing that, “Gen Z can handle stress – in fact they’re brave enough to say it’s unacceptable.” For good reason as he explains:

Before the pandemic hit, one US survey suggested that 60% of people who used computers in their daily working lives remained connected to work for more than 13 hours a day and a further five hours at the weekend. Mid-pandemic, according to Microsoft’s mining of data about its Teams users, the average working day increased by about 45 minutes. For much of that stretch of time, junior staff are sitting silently on video calls, listening to senior staff hold forth. They feel unproductive and powerless. When they’re not in soul-sapping meetings, they’re checking emails (an exercise that is thought to have quietly eaten into another two hours of their time). The working day has got longer. Its rewards have become increasingly less apparent.

Listen to me chat with Bruce about making work better HERE .

The Listening:

Not necessarily the most uplifting of podcasts, but this episode of Evan Davis’ Bottom Line podcast is a valuable listen nonetheless.

Focused on whether Britain has “stopped working”, the conversation between four excellent guests explores why there are more job vacancies in Britain than there are people looking for work. Specifically, it tackles why the situation is having such a damaging effect on industries like home care and what we need to do about it.

The guests featured are Jane Townson OBE (CEO of The Home Care Association), Will Beckett (CEO of Hawksmoor restaurants), Jane Gratton (Head of People Policy at the British Chambers of Commerce) and Jon Wilson (CEO of TotalJobs online recruitment agency).

Check it out.