Interview Questions for Culture Fit
우리나라 문화에서는 이런 질문 하기가 참 어려운데
사실 그 사람의 성향을 이해하고 또 회사와의 궁합(?)을 알기 위해서는 중요한 질문이 아닐까.
– How did the culture at your last company empower or disempower you?
– What were the characteristics of the best boss you’ve ever had?
– Describe how you handled a conflict with one of your co-workers?
– What kind of feedback do you expect to receive in this role and how often do you expect to receive it?
After Giving 1,000 Interviews, I Found the 4 Questions That Actually Matter
Hiring for culture fit can seem like a mystery, but these 4 interview questions will help you get it right every time.
If there’s one thing that keeps every founder up at night, it’s hiring. Hiring the best talent is a massive and never ending challenge. It’s hard to hire your first employee, it’s hard to hard your 50th employee and it’s still hard to hire your 500th employee. If you’re just starting your company, you may as well get over the fact that you’ll likely lose sleep over hiring.
If you’ve read anything about hiring best practices, you’ve probably read about hiring for culture fit. This isn’t an article about convincing you to hire based on culture fit, this is an article on how to actually do that. While every company has a different culture, there are 5 questions that will help you identify if a candidate is a good culture fit no matter where your company falls on the culture spectrum.
In my role as CEO of Triplemint, I’ve hired over 100 people and therefore my co-founder and I have interviewed close to 1,000 (admittedly, with all the lost sleep over the challenges of hiring I didn’t keep track of the exact number of interviews I’ve conducted). I’ve made great hires that were a near-perfect culture fit, and I’ve made less-than-stellar hires that ultimately didn’t work out. There is no such thing as batting 1000 with hiring, you’re going to make mistakes no matter how good you are. That said, in my personal experience I’ve found these 5 questions to be hugely helpful in determining culture fit.
How did the culture at your last company empower or disempower you?
This is a really interesting question because it will get the candidate talking about their previous company through the lens of how they were affected by the company’s culture. Getting a candidate to talk about their past employer can be very telling. Do they openly throw the company under the bus? Do they recognize the positives even though it ultimately didn’t work out?
Asking specifically about the culture of their last company also tells you a lot about how they view the importance of culture. Their response will tell you if they’ve thought a lot about company culture or if they don’t really know what it is. The question will also reveal how they think they are empowered or disempowered which will give you a look into their motivations.
What were the characteristics of the best boss you’ve ever had?
I like this question as a follow up to the culture question because it’s somewhat similar, but from a different angle. If you didn’t get a sense for the candidates view on culture and what motivates him/her, you likely will from this question.
Did he/she thrive under a boss who was extremely direct and valued performance above all else? Did he/she thrive under a boss that put as much emphasis on communication and interpersonal skills as results within the role?
Describe how you handled a conflict with one of your co-workers?
It’s always helpful to ask candidates about how they dealt with conflict. As people we tend to be more open and honest when recalling a specific event versus describing characteristics about ourselves. Understanding what the candidate perceives as a “conflict with a co-worker” will likely reveal information about his/her level of self-awareness.
Understanding how they dealt with the conflict will also give you insights into what he/she perceives as a reasonable and positive response to a conflict. No matter how wonderful your culture is, conflicts will arise. How your team deals with conflicts is the true test of your culture.
What kind of feedback do you expect to receive in this role and how often do you expect to receive it?
Understanding a candidate’s desire or hesitation to receive feedback tells you a lot about his/her expectations. The frequency and type of feedback that is shared within a company tends to be highly correlated to culture.
Does the candidate expect feedback to be tied to core values? Does he/she think feedback is only about performance in the role? Does he/she see feedback as a once a year HR formality or a constant process of growth and improvement?