1 00:00:04,360 --> 00:00:06,800 Speaker 1: Welcome to How I Work, a show about the tactics 2 00:00:06,920 --> 00:00:09,000 Speaker 1: used by leading innovators to get so much out of 3 00:00:09,039 --> 00:00:11,760 Speaker 1: their day. I'm your host, doctor Amantha Imba. I'm an 4 00:00:11,800 --> 00:00:15,720 Speaker 1: organizational psychologist, the founder of innovation consultancy Inventium, and I'm 5 00:00:15,760 --> 00:00:19,239 Speaker 1: obsessed with finding ways to optimize my work day. This 6 00:00:19,360 --> 00:00:22,720 Speaker 1: episode is another my favorite tip episode. It's the titles 7 00:00:22,760 --> 00:00:25,640 Speaker 1: probably self explanatory. It's about my favorite tip from each 8 00:00:25,680 --> 00:00:28,880 Speaker 1: of the interviews I conduct. So I use this format 9 00:00:28,920 --> 00:00:31,240 Speaker 1: because sometimes I feel as myself as a podcast listener, 10 00:00:31,280 --> 00:00:33,600 Speaker 1: I just want to get in, get value, and get out. 11 00:00:34,159 --> 00:00:38,400 Speaker 1: So I attended TED twenty nineteen back in April of 12 00:00:38,440 --> 00:00:40,760 Speaker 1: this year in Vancouver, and I recorded a bunch of 13 00:00:40,840 --> 00:00:44,440 Speaker 1: interviews with some very inspiring speakers and attendees while I 14 00:00:44,560 --> 00:00:48,600 Speaker 1: was over there, and Jerry Dishlatt was one of those interviews. 15 00:00:48,920 --> 00:00:52,600 Speaker 1: So Jerry is the VP vice president of Product Management 16 00:00:52,680 --> 00:00:55,800 Speaker 1: at Google, where he leads the product team for Google's 17 00:00:55,800 --> 00:00:59,800 Speaker 1: search ads business, the product and also the engineering teams 18 00:00:59,800 --> 00:01:03,840 Speaker 1: for YouTube advertising, and the product engineering teams for Google's 19 00:01:03,880 --> 00:01:06,840 Speaker 1: homegrown sales and support tools. So it's got a lot 20 00:01:06,880 --> 00:01:10,800 Speaker 1: going on. So Jerry was fascinating and This extract starts 21 00:01:10,840 --> 00:01:14,600 Speaker 1: off with me asking Jerry about his approach to recruitment, 22 00:01:14,720 --> 00:01:17,399 Speaker 1: which he has done a lot of in his time 23 00:01:17,480 --> 00:01:20,920 Speaker 1: at Google. I want to ask you about recruitment because 24 00:01:20,959 --> 00:01:23,040 Speaker 1: I imagine, like, how many people do you think you've 25 00:01:23,080 --> 00:01:25,120 Speaker 1: recruited at your time at Google? 26 00:01:25,640 --> 00:01:30,200 Speaker 2: A lot, a lot, Yeah, hundreds of interviews, let's say, yeah. 27 00:01:30,040 --> 00:01:32,400 Speaker 1: Wow, And so I want to know, like Google obviously 28 00:01:32,440 --> 00:01:37,160 Speaker 1: is famous for its incredibly thorough and data driven recruitment process. 29 00:01:37,200 --> 00:01:40,280 Speaker 1: For you, personally, what have you found to be the 30 00:01:40,319 --> 00:01:45,039 Speaker 1: most effective questions or techniques or things that have been 31 00:01:45,080 --> 00:01:47,760 Speaker 1: like the biggest predictors for making a great hire. 32 00:01:48,280 --> 00:01:51,080 Speaker 2: Well, there are tons of there are tons of online 33 00:01:51,080 --> 00:01:56,440 Speaker 2: resources on Google interview questions, but there are a few 34 00:01:56,480 --> 00:01:59,560 Speaker 2: that I really kind of dwell on. One of them 35 00:01:59,640 --> 00:02:03,560 Speaker 2: is why do you want to work at this company 36 00:02:03,640 --> 00:02:07,760 Speaker 2: in this role? And people who have really thoughtful answers 37 00:02:07,800 --> 00:02:10,840 Speaker 2: to that tend to do well in the process. People 38 00:02:10,880 --> 00:02:12,880 Speaker 2: have really reflected on that, and I would say that 39 00:02:12,880 --> 00:02:15,840 Speaker 2: that is probably ten percent of the people who I 40 00:02:15,840 --> 00:02:17,960 Speaker 2: talk to you have like a truly good answer for that. 41 00:02:18,280 --> 00:02:20,240 Speaker 1: Really, Like what's it? Like? What are the sorts of 42 00:02:20,280 --> 00:02:22,760 Speaker 1: things that someone would say that that would make you 43 00:02:22,800 --> 00:02:24,320 Speaker 1: think or I don't know, if there's an example of 44 00:02:24,360 --> 00:02:27,079 Speaker 1: someone that you're like, oh, yeah, they've really thought about this. 45 00:02:27,639 --> 00:02:29,560 Speaker 2: Well, you know, it's I mean, a lot of people 46 00:02:29,600 --> 00:02:31,640 Speaker 2: will say, well, it's an interesting company, you know, you 47 00:02:31,720 --> 00:02:34,320 Speaker 2: have vast resources or other things like this, you know, 48 00:02:34,360 --> 00:02:36,440 Speaker 2: et cetera. But there are some people who will say, 49 00:02:36,520 --> 00:02:41,200 Speaker 2: you know, there's you know, there's this particular opportunity which 50 00:02:41,560 --> 00:02:44,720 Speaker 2: in which I'm really interested or Google acted in the 51 00:02:44,720 --> 00:02:47,280 Speaker 2: following way in this situation and that is in line 52 00:02:47,320 --> 00:02:52,120 Speaker 2: with my values, just sort of like deeper, deeper analysis 53 00:02:52,200 --> 00:02:54,680 Speaker 2: of that, and those people tend to be sort of 54 00:02:55,000 --> 00:02:57,880 Speaker 2: self reflective people who also end up doing really well 55 00:02:57,919 --> 00:02:59,919 Speaker 2: in the rest of the interview. So that's that's one thing. 56 00:03:00,960 --> 00:03:03,079 Speaker 2: Another thing I like to ask people a lot are 57 00:03:03,800 --> 00:03:07,040 Speaker 2: taking a complex idea and making it simple kind of questions. 58 00:03:07,520 --> 00:03:11,880 Speaker 2: So you take a business, and how would you run 59 00:03:11,919 --> 00:03:15,200 Speaker 2: it with a dashboard of metrics or something like this, 60 00:03:15,600 --> 00:03:18,120 Speaker 2: you know, and it's not just what metrics they come 61 00:03:18,240 --> 00:03:20,880 Speaker 2: up with, but how do they think through the problem, 62 00:03:21,040 --> 00:03:22,839 Speaker 2: Like are they a structured thinker? Are they an ad 63 00:03:22,840 --> 00:03:25,600 Speaker 2: hoc thinker? And you know, at the end of the process, 64 00:03:25,600 --> 00:03:28,239 Speaker 2: do they come up with a pretty reasonable approximation of 65 00:03:28,320 --> 00:03:32,919 Speaker 2: an answer or not. And so you tend to get 66 00:03:32,919 --> 00:03:34,760 Speaker 2: a lot out of these types of questions. 67 00:03:35,160 --> 00:03:37,600 Speaker 1: Yeah, cool, Any others that kind of stand out for you. 68 00:03:38,800 --> 00:03:41,680 Speaker 2: We do a lot of for product managers. We have 69 00:03:41,760 --> 00:03:44,320 Speaker 2: a lot of creative sorts of questions like how would 70 00:03:44,360 --> 00:03:47,119 Speaker 2: you make a product better? Sort of intellectual curiosity kinds 71 00:03:47,120 --> 00:03:51,640 Speaker 2: of questions just to see how people are. I mean, 72 00:03:51,760 --> 00:03:54,120 Speaker 2: we make many decisions based on data, but at the 73 00:03:54,160 --> 00:03:56,520 Speaker 2: same time, people have to have pretty good intuition and 74 00:03:56,600 --> 00:04:01,120 Speaker 2: judgment and have to have, you know, a curious mind, 75 00:04:01,160 --> 00:04:03,960 Speaker 2: and so trying to identify that and trying to tease 76 00:04:04,000 --> 00:04:05,200 Speaker 2: that out is really important too. 77 00:04:05,880 --> 00:04:08,360 Speaker 1: Hello me again. I hope you've got some useful stuff 78 00:04:08,400 --> 00:04:11,200 Speaker 1: out of this extract, particularly if your role involves recruiting 79 00:04:11,200 --> 00:04:14,560 Speaker 1: people for your company. I really liked what Jerry had 80 00:04:14,560 --> 00:04:17,200 Speaker 1: to say about looking for people who are self reflective 81 00:04:17,240 --> 00:04:20,279 Speaker 1: and how do identify that in their answers. Definitely know 82 00:04:20,320 --> 00:04:23,120 Speaker 1: that at Inventium, people that bring a lot of self 83 00:04:23,160 --> 00:04:27,039 Speaker 1: insight tend to do much better at the company. So 84 00:04:27,200 --> 00:04:29,640 Speaker 1: that is it for today. If you like this excerpt, 85 00:04:29,680 --> 00:04:31,799 Speaker 1: you might want to listen to my full chat with Jerry, 86 00:04:31,839 --> 00:04:34,680 Speaker 1: which I linked to in the show notes. And if 87 00:04:34,720 --> 00:04:38,120 Speaker 1: you're enjoying How I Work, why not tell a friend 88 00:04:38,160 --> 00:04:40,880 Speaker 1: about it because word of mouth is one of the 89 00:04:40,920 --> 00:04:44,720 Speaker 1: ways that this podcast has grown. So thank you. If 90 00:04:44,760 --> 00:04:48,080 Speaker 1: you've shared and spread the love of How I Work, 91 00:04:48,120 --> 00:04:50,800 Speaker 1: I'm very very grateful. So that's it for today and 92 00:04:50,839 --> 00:04:51,880 Speaker 1: I'll see you next time.