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Ex-Spotify HR pro’s No. 1 job interview tip: Ask ‘humblebrag questions’

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4 months ago

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Ex-Spotify HR pro’s No. 1 job interview tip: Ask ‘humblebrag questions’

When you’re going in for a job interview, remember, you’re interviewing your prospective employer, too.

That conversation is an opportunity to show you have what it takes to succeed, but it’s also an opportunity for you to get a sense of the company culture, team dynamics and workload. Consider the questions you’d like to ask and sprinkle them in throughout the interview or ask them at the end when they open it up.

There is a certain type of question that could help you do both. It’s what Dan Space, who’s worked in HR at companies like Electronic Arts and Spotify, calls “humblebrag questions.” Here’s what they are and why he recommends using them.

They show you off and get your questions answered

A humblebrag question both shows you off and addresses something that you’re genuinely curious about.

It can look like, “hey, in the last two companies, when I did this, here were some problems that we had, how are you solving that? Here’s this new technology that we used, are you thinking about doing that?” says Space. You can also reference a specific success you had in a similar job and ask if this company is doing something similar. Space gives the example of when he was hired at Spotify.

“I love HR analytics and data,” he says, and in previous jobs had worked on building predictive models based on analyzing hiring and attrition patterns. “I said, ‘Hey, we started to build some of these models at Electronic Arts,” he says. “We got to about a 95% confidence rate for that. Do I have any opportunity to use something like that at Spotify?”

They want you to understand ‘your place in this universe’

There are multiple benefits to asking this type of question.

First, it really shows you have what it takes to do the role. When hiring managers consider prospective hires, they want someone who’s not going to need a lot of training and be able to dive in quickly, says Space. In getting into such great detail, you’re indicating that “you understand what your place in this universe is going to be,” he says.

This type of question is likely also going to help you stand out. Anyone can ask about what success looks like in the first 30 days, but not everyone can reflect on your particular experience in a similar role and apply your knowledge to this new one.

Want to land your dream job? Take CNBC’s new online course How to Ace Your Job Interview to learn what hiring managers really look for, body language techniques, what to say and not to say, and the best way to talk about pay.

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