Just some of my favorite interview questions
Through interviewing 100 people in the past year, I have thought a lot about great interview questions. Although I am constantly iterating, below are my current favorites:
Founders
Team
What is the hardest role to hire for and how did you hire for it?
How did you find your co-founder/founding team and know you would be a fit?
How to hire engineers as a non-technical person?
Product & Sales
When did you know you had something to scale?
How did you build an MVP as a non-technical person? (if relevant)
How did you get your first paying customers?
How did you make your product self serve?
How did you achieve product led growth?
What are your favorite strategies for organic growth?
Do you start with a vision or have your users define the vision?
Engineers/Operators
Job
What was the learning curve like? How did your culture/socioeconomic background play into this, if at all?
What is the most high impact project you have worked on?
What is a common myth about your role?
What is the hardest part of your job?
How do you learn and continue to hone your skills on the job?
What is the most underrated part of your job?
What is your biggest hot take on your field?
How have you created impact by thinking outside of the box or doing something different from your predefined role?
What has been the hardest hierarchy or department transition?
As a manager, do you transition completely out of coding/designing?
How to evaluate people as individual contributors vs. leaders?
What makes a great PM you have worked with?
How do you lead teams through hypergrowth?
How do you make connections in the developer community?
How do you champion for D&I as a leader in engineering roles?
Life
What is an area you wish you could better understand?
Tell us about a mistake you have made professionally that turned into a constructive learning experience.
Who is a woman you admire?
What is something you are working actively to improve on?
What is the most surprising piece of advice you have ever received that turned out to be apt/true?
What is the most contrarian piece of advice you would share?
How did you identify your core strengths and comparative advantages?
How did you make sure your voice was heard (in male dominated fields and/or when you were in more junior positions)?
How to manage imposter syndrome when applying for jobs or self advocating?
How do you deal with uncertainty?