Ex-Google recruiter encourages candidates to ask one question in a job interview

A former recruiter at Google and DoorDash has shared his top tip for candidates hoping to impress during an interview.

Nolan Church has had a lengthy career in recruitment and, as such, has seen the good, the bad and the ugly over the years.

Revealing his number one candidate red flag, Church, who currently works as CEO of Continuum, told CNBC that he’s immediately put-off if he feels the person being interviewed is putting on a bit of an act.

“You can clearly tell they’ve been rehearsing the same answers over and over again,” he explained.

Before going on to say that they may also waffle quite a bit without really making any point.

He said: “They say a lot of words but nothing meaningful.” Well, I reckon I’ve been guilty of that one myself, to be honest.

Now, when it comes to what he likes to see, Church said the best interviewees are the ones that teach the interviewer something, and these are the ones who will land the job.

Pexels/ Edmond Dantès:

“The best candidates that I meet, I’m always learning something from them,” he told the news outlet.

“And those are the people that I want to work with.”

Giving details on one such occasion, Church said he was recruiting for a chief revenue officer at an equity management platform and said one stand-out candidate ‘gave me a full breakdown on how he would take our business from zero to one’.

However, he did say this particular tip does come with some caveats - Church explained that you shouldn’t try to force this ‘teaching process’ into the interview, but if you see a spot when you can mention it naturally then go for it.

Pexels/Sora Shimazaki

Church suggests a good opportunity to bring it up could come after an interviewer has questioned you about your experience - from there, he says you can reply with ‘can I tell you a quick story about what I learnt in my last role?’

Church suggests a simple framework where you lay out the context of the story, then describe the assumption you had before learning, then explain what you learnt - before finally giving some detail into how the learning or insight you gained applies to the role you are applying for. Simple, eh?

Church believes the second and third parts are particularly important as they give the interviewee a chance to ‘show a growth mindset and a dose of humility’.