It’s exciting to join the startup world because you can help build a business from the ground up. If things go well, you might end up with some pretty valuable stock and a great job. However, high reward is usually accompanied by high risk, and this is no exception. You pretty much know what you’re getting into when you work for a blue-chip company or a more established startup. You can also be pretty sure that your employer will still be around in three years. With startups, especially the early stage ones, the future is far murkier.
If you work for the right company, you’ll learn how to build a business firsthand, have a lot of freedom early on in your career, and be first in line for leadership roles as the team grows. However, if you make the wrong choice, you’ll be let down by inexperienced managers, stuck in useless plans, and eventually out of work.
Here are the most important questions you should ask a startup about its product, business model, finances, and leadership. This research should be done before, during, and after the interview. However, it’s usually only after you get an offer letter that you can really decide if you want to accept it. We know it’s a lot, so don’t think you have to question them quickly to get all the answers at once. Use this as a rough guide – we hope you find it helpful!.
Going here will help you find questions to ask about the stock part of your offer: Startup Equity Basics: What to Ask About Your Stock Before You Accept
In this comprehensive guide, we will cover the following topics
What Are Human Interest Interview Questions?
Human interest questions go beyond a candidate’s skills, qualifications and work experience. They aim to uncover
- Interests and hobbies
- Life experiences
- Personal background
- Values and passions
This provides deeper insight into who the candidate is as a person. Common examples include:
- “What do you enjoy doing in your free time?”
- “What are you most proud of in your personal life?”
- “Where did you grow up?”
- “What causes are you passionate about?”
Human interest questions allow recruiters to evaluate soft skills, fit, and motivations. They also help build rapport with candidates by showing genuine interest in their lives.
Benefits of Human Interest Interview Questions
Asking the right human interest questions delivers multiple benefits:
Reveals Personality and Work Style
Hobbies and interests provide clues about a candidate’s inherent personality traits and work style. For example, an interest in team sports may indicate strong collaboration skills. Creative hobbies can signify innovation and an artistic flair. These insights help assess job fit beyond just technical qualifications.
Builds Deeper Connections
Human interest questions enable authentic conversations that foster understanding and connection. Candidates feel valued when recruiters show interest in their lives beyond work. This facilitates trust and rapport between recruiter and candidate.
Signals Inclusive Culture
Asking personal background questions in an appropriate, sensitive manner demonstrates that your organization values diversity and inclusivity. This provides candidates, especially those from underrepresented groups, assurance of fair treatment.
Uncovers Motivations and Values
Understanding what matters to candidates on a personal level offers clues about their motivations. For instance, volunteer work for social causes may reveal a strong sense of empathy and desire to help others. This helps assess alignment with company values.
Reduces Candidate Stress
Human interest questions interspersed with technical questions provide breathing room during tense interviews. Candidates can express themselves more naturally when given opportunities to talk about life outside work. This thoughtful approach creates a more humane, welcoming interview experience.
Crafting Effective Human Interest Interview Questions
Human interest questions must be handled skillfully to gain useful insights without making candidates uncomfortable. Here are some tips:
Keep it Conversational
Pose human interest questions in a natural, conversational manner to put candidates at ease. Avoid firing off questions rapid-fire like an interrogation. Let the dialogue flow organically instead.
Make it Optional
Phrase questions in an open-ended manner that gives candidates the option to opt out if they prefer not to answer. Never force them to reveal personal details.
Avoid Controversial Topics
Steer clear of questions on polarizing topics like politics, religion, or social issues that could spark debate or discrimination. Focus on universally appealing subjects.
Be Sensitive
Avoid questions that seem intrusive or could bring up difficult experiences for candidates. Get to know them while being respectful and empathetic.
Connect it Back
Bridge human interest conversations back to job fit and motivations. This demonstrates that the personal details candidates choose to share are valued and meaningful to the interview.
Best Human Interest Questions to Ask Candidates
Here are some of the most effective human interest questions to incorporate into your candidate interviews:
1. What hobbies or interests do you enjoy outside of work?
This open-ended question reveals personality traits, work style, and motivations. Look for clues about skills related to the job like creativity, collaboration, analytical abilities, leadership, competitiveness, or strategic thinking.
2. What is one personal accomplishment you are most proud of?
The choice of accomplishment indicates motivations and values. Perhaps it’s career-oriented, like launching a successful business. Family-oriented, like raising bilingual children. Or hobby-related, like running a marathon. This provides insights beyond a resume.
3. If you could have dinner with one famous person, dead or alive, who would you choose and why?
Their choice of dining companion uncovers aspects of who candidates admire and what inspires them. Their explanation reveals values and interests. A tech CEO might admire innovative thinkers, while an activist may choose pioneering humanitarians.
4. What is your favorite book you’ve read recently? What did you enjoy about it?
Literary choices reveal personality. A sci-fi pick indicates interest in technology and imagination. Selecting a comedy book may signal optimism and humor. Asking what they enjoyed uncovers values regarding storytelling, characters, or thought-provoking ideas.
5. How do you like to spend your weekends or free time?
This question provides insight into their interests and work life balance. Do they recharge with quiet time at home? Or by being active outdoors? Or engaging in community service? Their choices demonstrate what energizes and motivates them.
6. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you choose and why?
The location itself reveals preferences – from bustling cities to remote nature. Their reasons why provide a glimpse into what environments they thrive in and value the most – from culture and diversity, to pace of life, climate, or accessibility.
7. What is your favorite local restaurant and what do you enjoy ordering there?
Food interests inject fun personal details and conversation. It clues you into their preferences for cuisine, ambience, dining companions, and experiences. Their reasons will highlight their values – from adventurous eating to dietary needs.
8. What is one non-work topic you could talk about for hours?
This allows candidates to geek out on something they’re passionate about, whether it’s sports, videogames, politics, social causes, DIY projects, travel adventures or more. Their enthusiasm will shine through.
9. If you could learn any skill with the snap of a finger, what would you choose?
Their response indicates skills they aspire to learn, and values driving their choice. Is it career-oriented like coding? Creative like improv comedy? Service-oriented like learning a language to connect with more people? Their answer shows what abilities they prioritize.
10. What is one piece of wisdom you try to live by?
Look for values and motivations in their chosen mantra. Does it emphasize determination and grit? Compassion? Curiosity? Creativity? Gratitude? Integrity? Listen for principles they aim to embody at work and in life.
Questions to Avoid
While human interest questions help uncover the person behind the candidate, avoid questions that are too personal, controversial or unrelated to assessing job fit.
Examples to avoid:
- How much do you earn at your current job?
- When are you planning to start a family?
- What is your political affiliation?
- What is your relationship status?
- What is your religion?
Focus your human interest questions on non-controversial topics that provide safe opportunities for candidates to voluntarily open up.
When to Ask Human Interest Interview Questions
Human interest questions are a great way to begin and end interviews:
Start with an Icebreaker
Ease candidate nerves from the outset by starting interviews with a low-pressure human interest question like asking about hobbies or weekend plans. This sets a friendly, conversational tone.
End with Memorable Small Talk
Wrap up the formal portion of the interview by switching gears to a more personal question about favorite books or role models. This allows you to connect with candidates as people, not just professionals.
Sprinkle a few additional human interest questions between heavy technical questions to create interview flow. Limit these lighter questions to no more than 1-2 per interview to maintain focus on qualifications.
How to Transition Smoothly to Human Interest Questions
Segue purposefully when shifting between technical and human interest questions. Here are some sample transitions:
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“Let’s switch gears from work topics for a moment…”
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“Setting professional questions aside briefly…”
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“On a lighter note, tell me about…”
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“Out of curiosity, what do you…”
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“I appreciate you sharing your impressive career background. I’d love to learn more on the personal side as well…”
These transitional phrases progress interviews smoothly between assessing skills and getting to know candidates as multifaceted people.
How to Relate Human Interest Details to Job Fit
Always bring the conversation full circle by explicitly connecting personal interests back to relevant strengths and motivations for the role.
Examples:
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You mentioned playing competitive tennis on weekends. How might those skills – competitiveness, focus, strategic thinking – translate to excelling in our fast-paced work environment?
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I see volunteering at animal shelters is important to you. What is it about those altruistic experiences that motivates you and would translate well to empathizing and connecting with our customers?
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*You shared that traveling to experience different cultures inspires you
Business model: Can the startup actually make money?
It seems like having a business plan would be necessary to get funding, but that’s not always the case. The company’s plan for making money should make intuitive sense.
Can you explain your business model in depth? This one should be a gimme for your employer. If they can’t answer this one quickly, that’s more red flags than an Alabama football game. It should be the jumping-off point for more in-depth questions, like:
What is the cost of getting a new customer (CAC)? This cost includes marketing costs like affiliate and advertising fees, as well as sales costs and, most of the time, the salaries of the marketing and sales teams.
What is the lifetime value (LTV) of a customer? LTV is pretty simple: it’s how much money you can expect to make from a customer, including payments for subscription products that they make over and over again. In this case, you want an LTV that’s higher than the CAC. If it’s not, the company will lose money. An LTV lower than CAC isn’t necessarily a deal-breaker, though. Some marketing strategies take a long time to work, which raises the CAC. On the other hand, some new businesses start out with smaller deals and work their way up, which lowers the LTV. But in that case, the company should tell you exactly how and when they think the CAC or LTV will go down. Otherwise, you’re looking at an unsound business model.
How soon do you recover the CAC? The longer it takes to recoup the CAC, the more vulnerable you are to churn, changing market conditions, and negative cash flow. David Skok of For Entrepreneurs recommends a recovery period of 12 months or sooner.
How big is the market you can reach? In general, you should look for companies that are moving into a big or profitable market. For example, a product that only appeals to college students in college towns has a lot less potential than one that serves the multibillion-dollar healthcare diagnostics market.
What are the barriers to entry into the market? If a product or service is easy to copy, there will be a lot of competition very quickly, which will make the business unable to last in the long term.
What percentage of your total revenue is recurring? It’s better to make recurring revenue (e. g. subscriptions and licensing deals) than one-and-done sales – it has higher margins and is more scalable. You should also check to see if the company’s annual recurring revenue (ARR) and ARR per customer are both going up. ARR per customer tells you if they’re able to upsell, while ARR as a whole tells you if they’re getting new customers and keeping old ones.
[For B2B companies] What’s your annual contract value (ACV)? Many B2B companies start out with a low ACV (three or four digits) until they improve their product and marketing and close bigger deals. Also, companies that target small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) tend to have a lower ACV than companies that target large businesses. There isn’t a single “best” ACV, but you should find out if the ACV is going up or down and if a company that works with small businesses plans to move up to bigger, better deals.
Product: Is the startup building something worthwhile?
The company’s product tells you a lot about them, like how well they know their market, where they see the business going, and whether they’re really giving people something of value.
Who is your ideal customer? Look for companies that know who their ideal customers are and what problems they are having. They should be able to show strong proof that people will not only want their product, but also pay for it.
How is your product different from [list a few competitors]? Good companies have a clearly articulated, differentiated offering. Note: This kind of question shows that you’ve thought about the job and can make hiring managers like you more if you ask it during the interview. ) You can also ask, “What would your current customers do if your company disappeared tomorrow?”.
What do you think the product will be like in two to three years? This question helps you figure out if the founder has a clear picture of the company’s future, if it will go into new markets, and how it plans to make its product “sticky,” which means that customers won’t want to stop using it.
WHAT ARE YOUR HOBBIES AND INTERESTS? (The BEST SAMPLE ANSWER to this TOUGH INTERVIEW QUESTION!)
FAQ
What questions should you ask when writing a human interest story?
What are the 3 C’s of interview questions?
What is a human interest story?
Simply put, a human interest story is a type of feature article that tells someone’s story through vivid detail, quotes, and emotional language rather than relying only on hard facts. They differ from news stories because they highlight the human experience, telling tales of people’s journeys, tragedies, and triumphs.
What should you tell a job interviewer about your interests?
When answering ‘What are your interests?’ in a job interview, be honest about what they are. Papadoupolos advises, ‘It’s best to find a work environment that suits you.’ Look back to the job description or think back on what you’ve already learned about the role and company from interviews.
How do you talk about a personal interest?
When talking about a personal interest in an interview, you might mention a few skills the interest has taught you. However, you don’t need to directly connect it back to the job at hand. You can answer this question in various ways, depending on the interest you choose to discuss.
What is an example of a human interest article?
A human interest article’s subject could be a particular person, an animal, or the story of an event or organization and the people involved with it. For example, if you love dogs, you could tell the story of a dog that got lost, survived on their own, and eventually found their owners again.
