5 Questions and Answers to Ace your first Start-Up Interview
Hi — 🙋♀️ I’m Grace a tech recruiter — who is also a pretty good chef, part-time kick boxer and somewhat successful plant mom 🪴
A lot of people I talk to in my daily life are interested in joining a start-up. Having been a recruiter for 4+ years I have had my fair share of intro calls talking to individuals spanning from customer success to senior product managers and all the way up to head marketers and data scientists.
One thing every start-up recruiter is assessing in the inevitable intro call is “Does this person have what it takes to work at a start-up?”
In this article I will outline the top 5 Questions & Answers in order to pass your first interview with a start-up.
Question 1: Why are you interested in working at a start-up?
This question seems basic but let me tell you I have asked this simple questions countless times and I do find the answer to be pretty telling of whether or not the person really wants/understands what it’s like working at a start-up.
Answer: Focus on the traits start-ups look for and use those to architect your answer. Some good traits to think about are:
ability to wear multiple hats
ability to take ownership
ability to grow and learn quickly
ability to make a big impact
Choose 1 or more from this list and think of a time where you exampled them in your current or previous work and mention that’s what motivates you in your career.
Example: “I’ve recently been interested in working at a start-up because I’m the kind of person who wants to make a big impact. In my current work, I got to work on a side project where I got to work on a smaller team and take on more ownership than my usual work. I got to work with other departments and got to see the direct impact of my work to the business, we were able to create XXX% of revenue or streamline inefficiencies and save XXX amount of time. But since that project ended and there aren’t new opportunities to work on similar projects — I started to miss that work. So that’s why I started looking at your company and what you do seems to really align with my background but also my career aspirations.”
Question 2: What experiences do you have that will lend themselves to working in a fast-paced and at times ambiguous environment?
I love this question because the immediate response I get from a candidate usually tells me whether they even thought about what the environment at a start-up is like. If the candidate seems to struggle to find the words it’s usually not a good sign. The best candidates get excited about this question and show it in their answers.
Answer: Think of an example where you had a short-deadline to meet or you were handed a new project where little details were given. You don’t have to work at a start-up to have the core traits. Always frame your answer using the SAR methodology (situation, action and result).
Situation: I was recently given a pretty large project where we had to get our product’s MVP out in a very short period of time. At first, I admit I was a little nervous about being able to ship the product on time.
Action: First, I took the time to define the key business objectives with our stakeholders and then brainstormed with engineering and design teams on what our main priorities would be and made sure every thing was feasible; even though we had to de-prioritize some pretty cool ides we knew making the launch date was more important for this feature.
Result: There were a few long nights in there but in the end we pulled it off in time. I attribute this success to aligning the key business goals to the product’s road map and then working in harmony with the other teams.
Question 3: Why are you interested in our company?
Seems like a standard question but I think the way you answer this is even more important than let’s say you were interviewing for Facebook or Google. Start-ups want to find candidates who align with their values, their product and their vision. As recruiters we are trying to see if you just want a job or if you want this job.
Answer: Recruiters don’t care if you researched the company for 5+ hours or if you looked at the website 20 minutes before the interview, they just want to see if you are interested in the industry and whether or not you can succinctly answer this question.
Don’t say:
🤦🏼♂️ After I applied I researched your company, the job looks pretty cool
🤦🏽♀️ The job description matches my skills and experiences perfectly
Keep it simple:
“I really like your mission OR product OR values and I think what you all are doing in the XXX industry is really interesting and after reading the job description I got more excited.”
Extra points: After reading/listening to XX podcast I got even more excited.
Question 4: Why do you want to move from a more enterprise organization to a smaller agile start-up?
I don’t ask this question to all candidates but if I see on your resume that you’ve only worked at large enterprise organizations I am going to want to know why you want to make the shift.
Answer: Similar to question #2 rely on your start-up like experiences and say that you think those could translate well to the company you are interviewing for.
Question 5: What is something new you learned that you’ve applied to your work?
This one is my favorite question to ask. At a start-up you may get hired for a job description that says Product Manager or Operations Manager but you may doing that role’s requirements and then some.
Learning new skills on the job will definitely be something you will do while working at a start-up — and I think it’s a great thing.
Answer: Having examples of a time where you sought additional information to complete a task or project would be good to explain or when you didn’t have all the information and you sought out ways to get it.
Some examples could be: you took an online course, you asked a team mate to teach you something, you read a book or an article on some topic, you refreshed your memory on something (Excel, Python, Interactive Design, etc).
Hopefully by the end of reading this article you feel a lot more confident in taking that first phone call with a recruiter for that next start-up you want to join.
If you’re interested in reading more content Follow Me for more start-up recruiting tips — thanks for reading and best of luck!
Feel free to email me if you have any questions my door is always open: grace.turner.89@gmail.com
