The 7 Most Common Non-Technical Startup Interview Questions

Published

3 years ago

May 18, 2021

admin

There are tons of resources available about technical interview questions but what about non-technical questions? What kind of non-technical questions are startups asking?

Below, we go through the 7 questions and describe why the question is important and what you should be thinking about as the interviewer asking the question.

Why should I hire you versus the next person to walk through the door?This is a question that forces the candidate to speak about the value they bring to the position and company. A great answer is going to take into account the specific attributes of the role the candidate is interviewing for and will factor in specifics about the company.As an interviewer, you want to find out what is unique about this person, have they prepared for this interview and have they actually thought about how they will fit into the role.
Why do you want to work for _____?Similar to the last question, this one helps the interviewer assess the candidate’s level of preparation and their motivation. Grit and determination are essential to the success of a startup. Founders and employees alike often work for less pay and more stress than at a larger company. Making sure a candidate’s motivations are in line with those of the company is a necessary step to making good hiring decisions.
What gets your fired up and leaping out of bed in the morning?Being passionate about your job is great, but as my opinion, having interests outside of work is just as important. It makes you interesting and helps you relate to other employees outside of strictly work-aligned interests.For other founders, they may be looking for more work-aligned passion, but ultimately this question is about assessing cultural fit and what the candidate really enjoys doing.
What’s the job you want two jobs from now and how does this role help you get there?This question accomplishes two things.The first is it helps the interviewer find out how much forethought the candidate has put into their career. Have they set some kind of goal for themselves?
The second reveals how much thought they’ve put into how to actually achieve that goal and how your company relates to achieving that goal. Having goals is great, but you actually need systems to achieve those goals. This question helps dig into both.
What are you most proud of?This type of question helps assess cultural fit for your company and also the candidate’s ability to explain something to you. What they are proud of might be something completely foreign to you. It’s important to dig into why they are proud of the particular moment or achievement. Out of everything they could have picked, why that thing?
What is your biggest career screw up?As an interviewer, you want to look for the candidate’s ability to explain their choice and reasoning. Ask lots of follow up questions, like what did they learn from this screw-up? How did the solve the problem?Their answers will help you discern how good this person will be in a crisis and how they think about failure.
What do you do for fun and what hobbies do you partake in when you are not at work?Interviews are nerve racking and it can be difficult to get a candidate to relax and open up, but without that, it’s hard to get to know them and assess how they’ll fit in with the team.Asking questions about something not work-related can help set them at ease. If they do it for fun or it’s a hobby they are really passionate about, they’ll feel less pressure talking about it. This helps warm up the conversation for other questions and also helps you as the interviewer gauge how excited they get about something they are really interested in.
Can they relate to you and your team? This is the type of question you should be asking yourself as your digest their answer.

These 7 most commonly asked interview questions should give you a good base for your next interview. They are all open-ended questions focused on assessing motivations, personal interests and cultural fit, all essential components to consider in startup hiring. Skills are important, but they can also be taught, it’s difficult to teach grit and determination.

Hire an Attitude, Not just Experience and Qualification

Published

3 years ago

September 23, 2021

Ravi Panchal

“HIRE AN ATTITUDE, NOT JUST EXPERIENCE AND QUALIFICATION” – GREG SAVAGE

Hiring, an important aspect of human resources without which an organization ceases to exist. Recruitment has undergone tremendous change in the past decade with new innovations in technology, artificial intelligence, RPO (Recruitment Process Outsourcing) and the like. With all the tools, technology and automation in place, the need to hire the right people is still crucial and challenging. Below are a few lessons learnt while in recruitment

Passion over experience: A candidate who is passionate and has the basic skills about the role in question can be considered for an initial interaction even with little or no experience. Passion drives performance and hence leads to success. A passionate employee will go out of the way to make things happen, will come up with out of the box solutions, ideas & initiatives, is self-driven and motivated. Hence is ‘fully engaged’ and that makes up for an excellent performer.

Will is more than Skill: An employer comes across a lot of candidates who have the right skills but lack the WILL. As the leaders say ‘Skills can be learned but what about the WILL’. Such candidates may fair very well in the interview but fail to perform their roles & responsibilities. They need constant supervision and are not self-driven. On the contrary candidates who have the WILL to learn and win end up developing more skills.

The skill vs will quadrant would be like: If the candidate’s skill and will are high, go for him. If his will is high, but skill is low, consider him. If his skill is high but will is low, place him on hold. If both are low, reject him.

Career Break is Not a Crime: Most candidatures with a gap in employment are rejected outright. It is important to know and understand the reasons for such gaps. A failed business idea, family reasons, health issues, lay off and trouble finding job after are some of the many reasons of being unemployed. Past experience and potential of such candidates should be considered while hiring.

Cross Sector Talent: A typical job post would read “Candidates from similar industry and experience only”. The rule of ALWAYS looking for people with similar experience and industry is irrational. This doesn’t mean industry and experience identical to the job don’t matter. It definitely does but not looking at others is like missing on a potential pool of talent. Companies should hire talent that has proven its flexibility and adaptability by switching industries. They should also look outside their own industry for innovation in the area of processes and technologies. Cross sector talent provides room for new ideas and fresh approaches. That’s what makes diversity both a key driver and an associated benefit of hiring out of sector.

Age is just a Number: The many not so young yet highly talented and well experienced candidates struggle to get their desired jobs because of ageism. Most of the organizations are inclined towards younger talent. Typical job specifications would read “Candidates below 30 only.” The importance of age in the selection process varies across sectors. For eg: India’s entertainment industry has long been accused of being ageist, with older models, actors, and performers losing out roles to their younger counterparts. While age factor is important and essential for certain job roles, candidates with good experience and high potential should not be overlooked. Instituting opportunities for intergenerational or multi-generational teams to work together is a brilliant way to dismantle myths and stereotypes while engendering respect and goodwill among all employees.

The above are a few but important parameters that are overlooked while hiring. Recruitment is an integral part of HRM. It is the deciding factor on the right candidates being chosen in the selection process. Hence while following a structured recruitment format, LOOKING BEYOND proves to be extremely beneficial.

Recruitment

Importance of Background Verification Checks for Employees

Published

3 years ago

June 26, 2021

Ravi Panchal

Importance of Background Verification Checks for Employees

A company’s investment in a new employee is significant. The hope is that they will stay with the company for a long time and continue to provide excellent work with a favourable influence on the bottom line.

Regrettably, poor hires do occur. In the best-case situation, you swiftly realise your error, and the person moves on before causing severe injury. In the worst-case scenario, they fail to complete the task, impair workplace morale, or cause other significant issues for your business. In any case, you’ll have to deal with a bad issue and go through the laborious process of rehiring for the position.

Because of a lack of background checks, 43% of employers have made a bad hire. In addition, according to a CareerBuilder poll, 75 percent of HR managers have spotted a falsehood on a CV out of the verified cases.

Conducting background checks before making employment offers to candidates can help you avoid making disastrous hiring. In addition, it will expose any information the person withheld or lied about throughout the interview process, ensuring that your organisation only invests in respectable individuals.

What does a pre-employment background check entail?

A normal background check collects information about a person based on their name, birthday, and social security number from public and commercial databases. A reputable background check company can search all relevant databases and produce an easy-to-understand report on the applicant for the employer to peruse.

A pre-employment background check often includes the following areas:

Identity verification
Criminal history
Employment history
Education background
Government-issued licenses
Motor vehicle records
Credit check

Why is it necessary to do pre-employment background checks?

Employers frequently do a background check as a final step to make a sound hiring decision and protect themselves from various potential threats.

Competence on the job : A background check is a reliable tool for many businesses to verify claims made by job applicants throughout the recruiting process. However, in a tight labour market, the appeal of exaggerating school credentials or embellishing work records, for example, can grow.Wouldn’t it make you feel more secure as a potential employee to know that your coworkers have been tested to guarantee that they are competent for the positions they hold?
Safety in the Workplace :Employers are responsible for the well-being of their staff and the safety of customers, vendors, and visitors.For example, suppose an employer hires someone who harms another employee; in that case, the employer may be held liable for negligent hiring if the employer had reasonable cause to believe the employee was dangerous to others or failed to conduct a proper investigation to determine whether the employee was unfit for the position or could harm others.
Theft in the Workplace : Insiders, as we all know, are responsible for the majority of business theft nowadays. Employers may use a background check to make more educated hiring decisions, which can help them lower their theft risk.
Integrity and honesty :A candidate’s confirmed mistake or fabrication during the hiring process is typically enough for an employer to doubt the candidate’s honesty or integrity and potentially exclude them from a job.Look no further than the very public examples of CEOs, high-profile professors, and coaches who embellished their credentials, only to harm the reputation of the employers who failed to conduct a (or a sufficient) background check on them to see how important it is for employers to confirm candidate credentials.

To summarise

For startups and developing businesses, employment verification is critical. Candidates’ backgrounds are revealed through background checks. It also aids organisations in establishing and maintaining confidence with their customers. Using background verification services will help you screen out the bad and keep the good, which is essential for a happy workplace and consistent business growth.

Recruitment

Factors to incorporate for effective workforce planning

Published

3 years ago

June 1, 2021

Ravi Panchal

Factors to incorporate for effective workforce planning

Strategic workforce planning is essential for an organization as it helps ensure that the organization has the right people with desired skills at the desired timing. An accurate workforce planning model is essential to help the HRs examine all the gaps available in the current workforce and understand the needs for the future.

Answer these questions for effective workforce planning:

What is the plan?
Who do we have now?
What do we need next?
Gaps
Fixes
Results

Here are some questions, answering which will help you conclude the required changes.

How was the last year for your organization? Review the previous months and understand whether you are heading the right way or not.
Does the strategic plan meet the company’s current needs? Please take a look at the current planning and whether or not it is meeting the desired goals. If not, analyze what else to change for a better growth rate.
What is your budget flexibility? Departments can manage more with lesser resources, but you must be aware of how far you can go with that.
What talent do you need to get an effective strategic plan? Understand the proper skill requirement that you have for getting a better workforce.

Steps to help you get effective workforce planning –

Set the planning: In this stage, collect all the necessary information for the workforce planning action. Ask your agency’s diplomatic planners for the time required for exploring and understanding or setting the plan. You can question the official team to give annual and business plans. This might target the extended needs for taking out goals’ process, including the number of employees required.
Analyze the current workplace profile: Classify tacts to help close some gaps you learn in the initial two steps. Think of investing in real-time reporting software to track employee productivity correctly. This might be a particular problem within some organizations. Restructuring and outsourcing can give provident clarifications.
Implement the action plan: This step needs working with several teams and agencies to take the workforce strategy to life. Consult the given budget with the accounting team or financial analyst. Tend to Talk and exchange new positions open to the aspired parties. Get assured that all the things run well at this point.
Monitor and revise your plan: Keep an eye on implementing the plan to learn its effectiveness and faults. This step enables modifications to enhance the effects of the workforce planning project.
Be prepared for different scenarios: The future is unpredictable. But, that doesn’t mean you can’t prepare for various uncertainties. Stay updated and prepared for anything sudden which goes behind industry-specific developments. This step also involves scenarios such as an unexpected, notable shift in a financial situation and a global budgetary strike of the company.
Do not forget your organization’s culture: Okay, gaining specific skills is essential to meet the organization’s business goals, and they might change too. Additionally, technology plays a vital role in what future skills you must focus on. Don’t forget the culture of the company in tricky workforce planning. Like the people and facilities required, the organizational history is continually unfolding, and it must also stay as your priority concern like the other factors.

Conclusion –

Effective workforce planning always comes as a priority concept in any organization. For organizations of different sizes, there are varying ways to have an effective workforce. However, the above-mentioned steps are the best fit to incorporate better plans for the workforce and have a good overall performance and results.