Up for an interview for a growth role? Read this 👇🏼
Leaders always hire for passion. If you got it, show it.
Welcome to the 51st edition of the GrowthX Newsletter. Every Tuesday & Thursday I write a piece on startups & business growth. Today’s piece is going to 94,400+ operators & leaders from startups like Google, Stripe, Swiggy, Razorpay, CRED & more
Fact 1: April 2022, Indian job market showed 15% YOY growth.
Fact 2: On an average, 118 candidates apply for any growth role
So what makes a candidate different from others?
What makes a leader select that ‘ONE’ candidate over others?
When most are equally qualified, experienced, and passionate.
Growth roles = outcomes 🎯
Every founder / growth leader has business problem statements. They are trying to get someone who will prioritise the right problems → nail user pain points → build hypotheses → run experiments → repeat until the north star metric isn’t solved for.
What’s the basis to evaluate candidates?
Here’s a sneak peek into the framework used by top leaders of the GrowthX community. Absorb what’s been written after speaking to 100s of hiring managers.
Competency to solve ✋
The tenets of selection vary with the stage of the company. Early-stage startups love to test the grounds using guesstimates. On the contrary, a leader from post-product market organisation would throw in a case - how to solve a real problem at work.
💡 Pro tip: Before you enter the interview, spend sometime on the product, and write down the top 10 problems they must be solving right now. Create a structure on how will you address these problems if you are hired. If you can add value to solving problems, you have shown competency.
Intent 🤯
Repeat after me: I will research about the role/ company/ space/ competitors. The highest rating in an interview scorecard goes to the candidate who asks the right questions, consistently. This process allows candidates to control the process, and navigate the questions in the right direction.
💡 Pro tip: During your research, go through the product flow at least 3 times. Understand friction points. Try guessing what are some of the potential competitors they have and assess how their products fair against each other. Hiring managers, especially leaders, love insights. Bring useful insights that could potentially help them solve the problem statement. Idea is to make them crave to hire you.
Bar raiser 🔥
This round is usually saved for the leaders, who don’t check you on the skill, but is this the kind of person I want my teams to follow? Will they improve the average competence, prioritisation skills, speed & innovation in the team? They will see how would you influence the org culture. Nobody wants to hire someone who is mediocre, at least not early-stage companies.
💡 Pro tip: This is the time to bring past experiences that you came through. What were the situations you were put into, and how did you respond & helped the product grow? Plus, if you are chasing early-stage roles, remember that girl who made an Insta page to apply for a job or a guy who created a mini-website? You get the idea.
Want to figure out which growth roles are right for you?
Here’s a framework
Growth parameters 📊
Growth interview processes vary basis the growth stage of the company. That means different for different organisations viz acquisition/ revenue, but holistically, there are only two buckets to be assessed on:
MACRO : Can you identify all the problems? Prioritise them later?
MICRO : Can you solve the most non-negotiable problems?
Plus, we recently asked 200+ growth leaders in the GrowthX community & here are the top 3 themes of problems these leaders face - mental models for growth leaders.
That’s all for now 🎩
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