Brian Chesky (Airbnb cofounder) outlines practical hiring and reference-checking strategies: start with results and work backward to the people who built admired products; during interviews ask at least two follow-up questions to force detail; prioritize reference checks (don’t outsource them) and build a talent network by repeatedly asking sources for the best people they know; he shares heuristics (e.g., ask who the best person they worked with is) and gives guidance on CEO involvement in interviewing (he interviewed the first ~400 hires and recommends interviewing extensively until recruiting stages an intervention).
Questions this video answers
Two follow-up questions (aim to get to the third answer).
He interviewed the first 400 people (and said he wished he had interviewed the first 1,000).
About eight hours of reference checks per employee.
Chapters
The first thing, there was an old saying that Steve said. He said, start with the results and work backwards to the people. Most people start with the resumes, they start with the brands. Oh, this person worked at Google. But you should actually ask yourself, what products do I admire? And then who built those products and who actually built them? It's like a detective novel to actually find out who actually did the thing. So you start with the results, you work backwards to the people. Interviewing. I have only a couple tips. Interviewing. My first tip is you ask follow up questions. You ask them how to explain how they did something. And the key is to ask two follow ups. You never want to get the first answer, you always want the third answer. And if people don't know what they're talking about, they struggle. They might feel the follow up, but the second follow up they actually become absent of details. But the biggest lesson of all I've learned from hiring is I actually prioritize references over interviewing. Because interviewing especially. Here's the thing, executives have more experience bullshitting you than you have experience detecting their bullshit. So it's like an asymmetric game where like you're a white belt fighting a black belt and they're going to just punch you in the face repeatedly. So you kind of want to do the references. I remember Andreessen Horowitz would tell me you should do eight hours of reference checks per employee, which is probably over the top, but you should probably spend as much time referencing as as you do hiring. And you basically, the way to find good people is ask any one person who the best people they are. Then ask those people, then ask those people and build a talent network. In other words, I think you should be recruiting outside of job openings. Hiring should be more like network building than a sales pipeline. Do you believe the CEO should interview every candidate? I interviewed the first 400 people and I wish I interviewed longer. Maybe my biggest regret is not interviewing the first thousand. I think you should interview every candidate until the recruiting team stages the intervention. Once they were stage intervention, you should interview for two more years after that until everyone threatens to resign. So wait till an intervention and then an add 2 years post intervention and then you should step away. I kind of am joking, but I'm kind of not. But I would recommend being the co hiring manager. I would recommend interviewing as much as possible. I would recommend doing the references yourself. Never outsource the references. Any other techniques you use in references? Well, a lot of people don't want to like say somebody sucks or is not good. So One thing to ask is not to only ask disqualifying questions about the person, but ask them who the best people are. Say, okay, separate from this topic, I just want to know who's the best person you 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 one of the best. Right. I don't want to say these are tricks, but like, a. A lot of people are polite. They're afraid of the feedback getting back. So I guess the first thing I'd say is when you start the call, say everything is off the record. I mean, and it should be off the record, and it should never be attributed to them. The more it's unattributed to them, the more honest they're going to be. Then I think you should ask them for specifics of what the person did. They said they're amazing. Well, why are they amazing? Like, what would you point to? They, if they have no specifics, they maybe don't know they were really good. They just think they were good or they're psing you. Then you ask questions like, okay, like, what do I need to watch out for if I were to hire them? What's the one area of development you would give them? If you say that, they have to tell you something because they feel like they're, like, not thoughtful enough and they're going to give you something. And then you ask, who's the best you ever worked with? And see if they say that person. And then you ask them at the end, who else should I talk to? Can you give me two more names? And then you use that to build a network.
