Beeswax asks interview questions to evaluate candidates’ values

Beeswax’s founders, from left, Shamim Samadi, Ari
Paparo, and Ram Rengaswamy.
Courtesy
of Beeswax

• Questions during a job interview don’t always have to do
  with the job itself.
• At
  Beeswax, an ad-tech startup in New York, potential hires
  are often grilled on the last thing they “geeked out” over and
  where friends and family would consider them an expert.
• The questions are used to assess a potential hire’s
  curiosity, one of the company’s four core values.

Smart hiring managers know to ask all the right questions
during job interviews. 

Sometimes that means asking questions that seemingly have
nothing to do with the job itself.

At Beeswax, an
ad-tech startup in New York run by three former Googlers, no job
interview is complete without a few questions that dive into the
personal interests of potential hires.

One of the most notable questions, the company’s founders
Shamim Samadi, Ari Paparo, and Ram Rengaswamy told Business
Insider, goes as follows: “
If I asked your friends
and family, what would they say you are their go-to guru
for?”

Another one asks, “
What was the last thing you
geeked out over?”

A third: “
Tell me something you have taught
yourself and how you went about it.”

Read more:

9 puzzling interview questions from real execs that seem to have
nothing to do with the job

The questions, while not as extreme as ones that ask

what you want written on your tombstone or
what you would do during a zombie apocalypse, help Beeswax
measure the curiosity of potential hires. “Be curious” is one of
Beeswax’s four core values, the founders said, along with “be
open,” “be customer-driven,” and “be effective.”

“We realize that those are the values that we think are
necessary for someone to be successful here,” Samadi, Beeswax’s
chief product officer, told Business Insider. “Like, I haven’t
stopped working, making decisions, being open, being a learner.
And it’s equally important to evaluate people on their functional
skills as well as their values.”