Dan Porter, founder and CEO of digital sports activities media firm Overtime, can rapidly level out a candidate who is not the correct match for his firm.
He makes use of his go-to interview query, one that you have doubtless heard earlier than: “Do you have any questions for me?” The interviewee’s reply paints an image about what sort of worker they’d be, Porter informed LinkedIn’s “This Is Working” podcast on Sept. 18.
“Bad employees, or bad interviewers, ask me about a dental plan or how I started Overtime when there’s, like,100 podcasts,” he stated. “And good people are like, ‘Oh, I’m glad you asked that.’ And they have like 20 questions.”
Make no mistake, the interview course of is usually the time to ask about advantages, says Suzy Welch, a career expert, NYU Stern School of Business professor and three-time New York Times best-selling writer. “After all, people work for the love of it, for meaning, for growth — but also to pay the bills,” she says. “To ignore this reality, especially in 2025, is ridiculous.”
“But I agree, these are not matters to discuss with the CEO, and frankly, not matters to raise until you have an offer in hand. … Frankly, they may not even know about the dental benefits in any detail, and if you ask, they could very possibly think, ‘Well, I know why this person wants to work here,'” Welch provides. “With the CEO, use your time to talk about the markets, competitors and any ideas you have about the many ways you will make the company better, smarter and stronger.”
Candidates may ask concerning the firm tradition and the way workers on the group collaborate, says Welch. Just ensure to ask particular, explicit questions, not these with “fluffy, jargon-addled terms.”
Something like “How do the managers here support work-life balance?” for instance, sounds good on the floor, however does not actually get down to what day-to-day life on the group appears like and may immediate a broad reply. Using Welch’s recommendation, a query like, “What kind of person should not work at this company?” is way more pointed, eliminates buzzwords and prompts much less rehearsed solutions.
“Use your time wisely in the interview,” says Welch. “You’re not wrong to care about benefits, just do it with the right people at the right time.”
As for what green-flag qualities Porter appears for when hiring somebody, he values character and intelligence over a prolonged resume, he says.
“I prioritize personality and intelligence, but not academic intelligence, intelligence to think about the world,” stated Porter, 59, utilizing his expertise working social recreation firm, OMGPOP — which was acquired by Zynga for $180 million in 2012 — as an instance. “When I ran a gaming company, I used to only ask one question: What’s your favorite game and why?”
When an individual may give an in depth reply about what makes that particular recreation higher than all of the others, “I knew they would be great to work at a game company,” he added.
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