The CEO of Databricks, Ali Ghodsi, says that he doesn’t put too much value on taking interviews of job candidates. Instead, he asks them their takes on ongoing issues the company is facing and asks them to solve them. He thinks that some people do pretty well in interviews but when they face real issues, they cannot do well. Similarly, there are people who do bad in interviews but they can actually do the job. Ali says that instead of asking the candidates questions they might have already prepared for, he asks them questions that are related to the actual job they have to do.
Nowadays many job interviews require coding tests and assessments to determine how well candidates can do. But Ali Ghodsi said that he doesn’t believe in all this and often tests candidates by asking them practical questions/tests about what the company is actually experiencing. He gives the example of a head of marketing candidate who someone needs to interview. Instead of asking them generic questions about marketing, ask them to solve something that is going wrong in marketing. Call them and explain the issue. If they are capable of solving that, they are possibly the right person for the job.
If you treat the candidate as if they are already an employee, it can help the company see how beneficial they would be after officially joining the team. The CEO of Databricks isn’t the only one who thinks that way. Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, also thinks that testing a candidate's skills is more important than the actual interview.
Although Ali Ghodsi prefers giving real problems to candidates, he also thinks that we shouldn’t scrap the interview. Interview is still a fundamental part of hiring so companies should also take interviews, in addition to making the candidates face real problems in the company.
Image: The Logan Bartlett Show / YT
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Nowadays many job interviews require coding tests and assessments to determine how well candidates can do. But Ali Ghodsi said that he doesn’t believe in all this and often tests candidates by asking them practical questions/tests about what the company is actually experiencing. He gives the example of a head of marketing candidate who someone needs to interview. Instead of asking them generic questions about marketing, ask them to solve something that is going wrong in marketing. Call them and explain the issue. If they are capable of solving that, they are possibly the right person for the job.
If you treat the candidate as if they are already an employee, it can help the company see how beneficial they would be after officially joining the team. The CEO of Databricks isn’t the only one who thinks that way. Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, also thinks that testing a candidate's skills is more important than the actual interview.
Although Ali Ghodsi prefers giving real problems to candidates, he also thinks that we shouldn’t scrap the interview. Interview is still a fundamental part of hiring so companies should also take interviews, in addition to making the candidates face real problems in the company.
Read next: Is Instagram the Future of Meta's Advertising Revenue? Reels and TikTok Ban May Hold the Answer
