David Cummings on Startups

Interviews Where Only One Question Matters

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David Cummings

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A month ago I was talking to an entrepreneur about corporate culture and the interview process. He said that he knew of an entrepreneur that would ask a bunch of questions during the interview process but only cared about one of them. There was one single interview question that decided the majority of the hiring process. I asked if he remembered the question, but he didn’t.

The mere idea that an interview where only one question matters got me thinking. For us, we ask a number of interview questions and there are only three that really matter, each aligned around one of our core values. Could we do it in one question? Yes, one question accounts for the majority weight of the three important questions, and gets us pretty far, but would leave us short of our current success rate.

Our interview process is designed to find candidates that fit our corporate culture (#1), are smart, and get things done. Joel on Software articulates the smart and gets things done idea nicely. The next time you are interviewing someone, ask yourself what your three most important interviews questions are and why. You might surprise yourself.

What else? What interview questions matter most to you?

Comments

6 responses to “Interviews Where Only One Question Matters”

  1. Kyle Porter Avatar
    Kyle Porter

    The most powerful question I’ve ever asked is this:

    “What is your most significant accomplishment and could you tell me all about it?”

    The answer to this question can tell you the person’s competence, motivation, and priorities. It can uncover passion, communication & values.

    If I could only ask one question, that would be it.

    Reply
  2. Matthew Avatar
    Matthew

    “Tell me about a time where something went wrong and what you did in response.”

    “Give me an example of your best experience working with teams.”

    Those two are key for me.

    Reply
  3. Jan Goldstein VPHR Avatar
    Jan Goldstein VPHR

    I think making hiring decisions based on ONE question is a very risky practice. Most people think they are a good judge of character – sure, some people are – but it’s not that common. Rather it’s more common to be fooled by someone charming who lacks substance. Lots of people are hired based on interviews that blew the hiring manager away, only to shock them with poor performance later.
    There simply is no effective way to make a snap employment decision based on limited information. Interviewing is a skill, although many managers are expected to make hiring decisions without ever being trained to be an effective interviewer.
    My advice is to know the core values and experience that is essential to the job. Design behavioral questions to get answers regarding what an employee has done in the past (the best indicator of future performance is past performance) and have the interviewer trained on how to ask “digging” questions to get real answers.
    In my experience, seldom does a candidate hit all values and experience perfectly. But a decent interview can often reveal the dealbreakers, spotlight strengths, and provide valuable information about how to develop the candidate once they become an employee.
    I would be pleased to elaborate if you wish!

    Reply
  4. makegreengoinggreen Avatar
    makegreengoinggreen

    At this point, the most important question to me is “Are you actually going to work?” I am getting tired of letting people join my company and them not doing any work. I am sure everyone can relate!

    Reply
  5. Peter Avatar
    Peter

    I completely agree with Kyle Porter: What’s your most significant accomplishment? The questions reveals the candidate’s values and what motivates them.

    Reply
  6. Peter Avatar
    Peter

    Additional thought:

    At the end of the interview after building trust and rapport with the candidate, you’d be surprised how candid people are when you ask them to rank on a scale of one to ten how excited they are about the job.

    I’d rather have someone slightly under-qualified and over-eager than over-qualified and nonchalant.

    Reply

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