Getting hired at a startup series: Get the 411 up front… Ask who you’re interviewing - know their motivations and skillsets (3 of 5)
One trend I’ve noticed over the past year, in particular, is earlier stage startups (mostly Series A and B companies) adopting the lessons learned from Series C+ through public companies in buttoning up their interview process, including the “pre-interview” phase between phone screen and showing up for the interview.
And one really awesome change I’ve seen across all companies I track in Boston is: telling the interviewee who they will be interviewing with the day of. Example: “Hi Ryan… when you come in for your interview on Friday, you’ll be meeting with Janet Smith, Scott Townshend (Marketing), Johnny Rocket (Product), Susy Carlson (Engineering), Sofia Pino (Engineering), and our Eliza Burton (CEO).
Tip #3: If you’re not told who you’ll be interviewing with… ask.
90% of the time, I would expect the person on the other end of the phone/email from the company coordinating the interview will tell you. And if they do not know at that moment, ask them to get back to you with the answer.
Why? For two reasons: (1) It allows you to do in-depth research on each person you’ll be speaking to, and (2) so that you can be less fearful walking into the interview. If you’ve ever gone on a blind date where you never knew anything about the other person you’d be dining with… you know what I’m talking about. And if you’ve ever crept on someone’s Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, or googled' them prior to a date, you probably felt more comfortable knowing what you’d be walking into.
But when I say “do in-depth research”… I mean really… really… go deep.
The more you study someone, the more you can pull together potential hypotheses around why they may have made transitions in their career. And the more it allows you to test those hypotheses in an interview…. especially when it comes to the Q&A (typical last 10-15 minutes of an interview). You’ll be able to ask more thought-provoking questions, not just about the business, but the interviewer in person. Example: “Hey Susy, I noticed that prior to DraftKings you were at Hubspot. Like you, I’m not coming from a consumer background, and I’d love to know how you thought about your decision to join the company, what the switch was like from a B2B world, and how you think about the opportunity within this highly regulated sports gambling space.”
Push on transition points in a person’s career, just like they will push on your transition points in your own during the interview. Push on their interests, their nonprofits, their certifications, etc that may be listed on their LinkedIn.