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Airbnb founder Brian Chesky on how to interview and reference check new hires

Brian’s first piece of advice comes from Steve Jobs:

“Start with the results and work backwards to the people. Most people start with resumes. They start with brands — ‘Oh, this person worked at Google.’ But you should actually ask yourself: What products do I admire? And then who built those products?”

With respect to actually interviewing them, Brian’s first tip is to ask follow-up questions:

“Ask them to explain how they did something, and then the key is to ask two follow-ups. You never want the first answer. You always want the third answer. And if people don’t know what they’re talking about, they struggle. They might be able to follow-up, but the second follow-up, they become absent of details.”

But more important than interviewing, Brian argues, is references:

“I prioritize references over interviewing, especially with executives who have more experience BSing you than you have experience detecting their BS.”

Brian recalls that Andreessen Horowitz would tell him to do 8 hours of reference checks per employee:

“[That’s] probably over the top, but you should probably spend as much time referencing as you do hiring.”

He also believes the CEO should interview and reference check new hires as long as possible. Brian interviewed the first 400 people at Airbnb, but he wishes he interviewed longer.

And with respect to tactics for reference checks, Brian offers the following advice:

“A lot of people are polite. They’re afraid of the feedback getting back. So the first thing to say when you start the call is that everything is off the record — and it should be off the record. It should never be attributed to them. The more it’s unattributed to them, the more honest they’re going to be.”

On this topic, Brian recommends avoiding disqualifying questions:

“A lot of people don’t want to say somebody sucks or is not good… Say, ‘Okay, separate from this topic, I just want to know who’s the best person you’ve ever worked with?’ Do they say the person’s name you just asked about? They usually tell the truth and if they don’t say that person’s name, they’re not the best, right?”

And then ask for specifics:

“They said they’re amazing — well why are they amazing? What would you point to? If they have no specifics, maybe they weren’t really good… Then ask questions like, ‘Okay, what do I need to watch out for if I were to hire them?’ or ‘What’s the one area of development you would give them?’ If you say that, they have to tell you something because they’ll feel like they’re not thoughtful enough…. And then you ask them at the end who else you should talk to: ‘Can you give me two more names?’ And then you use that to build a network.”

Brian believes recruiting should be more like building a talent network than a sales pipeline.
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