Transcription
I'm going to give you the top five interview questions that you have to crush if you want to get that six-figure job. And yes, I'm even talking about if you work at McDonald's currently. If you can crush these five questions, you can get a six-figure job. No experience doesn't matter, and education doesn't matter. Let's hop right in.
Hey everyone, it's me, Jazzy Mack. Lately, I've been posting videos from all of these big tech companies, from places like Pinterest, TikTok, and Cash App. We've been seeing a lot of six-figure roles that pay six figures. A lot of people have been saying these are cool roles, but Jazzy, I don't know what to say in the interview. I just freeze up. I don't know how to articulate my experience. I haven't worked in years. What do I say?
The first thing that I want you to understand is that these jobs are looking for personality. All of the technical stuff, they can either train you on or send you to training for it. The technical stuff is small; the big stuff is what matters. How you answer these questions is going to help the hiring manager determine what it's like to work with you.
The first question that always trips people up and kind of disqualifies them is, "Tell me about yourself." Now, "Tell me about yourself" is a chance for you to show your personality and give that interviewer a chance to understand what it's like working with you, but also to understand a little bit about your background and your passion areas.
This is not the time for you to tell your life story. If someone said, "Tell me about yourself," the way that I would answer that question, if I worked at, let's say, the Verizon store, I would answer that question like this: "Well, hello! As you know, my name is Jazzy, and I've been living in the Atlanta area for a little bit over a decade now. Go Falcons! Rise up! I've been working in technology for that time, and it's truly a passion of mine. I started out just working at the Apple Store as an advisor, and then I moved up into a management role and fell in love with that. From there, I was able to get a lot of exposure on some special projects, doing some research around product bugs—bugs that we saw within the software, different anomalies that we were seeing within software releases, and things of that nature.
I also had a really cool opportunity to work with the social media team to do a lot of partner outreach. I've enjoyed that, and of course, when I'm not working, I love my college football. I love going to Falcons games and just really hanging out with my family. So, that's me in a nutshell, and I am happy to tell you more."
Now, going back to the actual job description, the job description called for someone that had experience in data analytics and doing research and keeping the platform safe. Did you notice how I talked briefly—very briefly—about having some exposure to data analytics and checking for anomalies? Those are going to be the types of keywords that you want to call out.
The next thing that oftentimes trips people up is the "Why do you want to work here?" question. This is a super important question because you never want to come off as the person that says, "I want to work here because you pay more," or "I want to work here because it's close to my house." What they really want to hear is that you've done some research about the company.
You could say, "Well, I love Pinterest. I've been a user since it was founded back in 2010, and I love the growth that the platform has seen. I love the growth of the company. I've definitely followed a lot of Pinterest values, and the inclusion groups that you guys have at Pinterest are just super, super awesome. I think Pinterest probably has the best value system that I've seen for a social media company in a really, really long time. If you pair that with the technology and the innovation of the company, and it just being a platform that I personally love, for me, it's just a match made in heaven.
To be able to be behind the scenes researching the analytics and making sure that the platform is safe for its users, for me, it's just a match made in heaven. So, that is just one of the many reasons why I want to work for Pinterest."
Now, if you look at how I answered that, you saw a spark in my eye. You saw that I enjoyed using the platform, but I also talked about the innovation of the company and the value system of the company. This says that I've done some research and that I'm not just a surface-level person that wants to work here. I actually want to be inside this operation, and I want to contribute and be a part of that movement.
The next question that often trips people up is when they say, "What are your strengths and weaknesses?" People usually do good talking about their strengths, but they trip up when they say, "What are your weaknesses?" Your weaknesses are not to say, "I just have bad luck with computers. Every time I get a computer, I break it," or "Every time I try to learn a new skill, I just always have trouble with it." This is not what they're looking for. They're just looking for you to be honest enough to talk about the things you need help with.
So, if someone said, "What's your biggest weakness?" I would say, "Well, you know what? I wouldn't consider this a weakness, but there was a time where I implemented something at my job, and I didn't write down the steps that I used for that automation. I realized the impact that that could have on my team members when I'm not around. I'm so used to keeping things in my head that I have to consciously remember to document everything that I'm doing so that somebody can go back and replicate what I've previously done. So, I'm working on it, trust me. I'm a lot better at it, but I would just say that that was one of the things that, in the past, I had to overcome and still remain conscious of."
In that question, in that response, I'm not talking about things that I'm bad at. I didn't give them anything negative, but I also gave them an honest enough answer to say, "Hey, this is something I've struggled with, and this is how I overcame it." That's the important piece—to talk about how you overcame it because that shows growth, it shows potential, and it shows that you're human.
Now, other things that people trip up on are going to be around the questions to ask the interviewer. People make a huge mistake when the interviewer, at the end, goes, "Do you have any questions for me?" and the person sitting across from me will go, "Nope, I don't have any questions." If you're being interviewed, you should always have questions. When you have questions, that shows that you're interested in the company. Remember, interviews are a two-way street, so you always want to have questions.
But the questions that you ask should be highly focused questions, not, "Oh, what time does everybody eat lunch?" You want to ask questions like, "Hmm, if you had a magic wand, what would you change about Pinterest? Would you change its infrastructure, or would you change the growth strategy?" Now, you're going to make the interviewer lean back in their chair, and they're going to go, "Oh, I never thought about that. Nobody ever asked me that."
Now we're playing kind of a psychological game where they're digging deep in their mind and saying, "You know what? I would change this, and I would change that." What that does is it's now creating rapport because you're asking a question that the interviewer doesn't typically get asked. That person interviewing you, the hiring manager, is going to remember you because you asked such an uncommon question that's really making them think. They're going to think about that question for the rest of the day because now you got their wheels spinning, like, "Man, what would I change? I would change a lot about this company."
So, you always want to say, "If you had a magic wand, what would you change about this company? Infrastructure? Growth strategy? Partnerships? What would you change?"
The other questions that you want to ask are, "What does success look like in this role?" and "What will my training be like for the first 90 days?" Again, you are forcing them to picture you on the team, going through training, and what that would be like. You want them to visualize what it's going to be like training you.
That's why you're saying, "What would my training be like? What would success for me look like in this role?" You want them to express what it is that would make them happier, what would make their operation go smoother day to day. These are also questions that you can take as feedback to say, "Oh yeah, I am absolutely that person that arrives on time, that always has a great attitude, that always goes above and beyond for the customer. I am absolutely that person."
So, those are five of the super most important questions that you want to make sure that you're properly answering and asking. Those are the five critical questions that people just don't do well with.
So, those are some of the secrets in tech. Again, let me tell you something: a person could work literally for McDonald's and get a six-figure job. So, you know what? I'm going to save that story for my next video. I want to say that story, but what's super important to remember is you always want to research the company, research the values of the company, research the founders, know the CEO's name.
You want to know what the company's competitors are. You always want to ask about the company's growth—what are the growth plans and how your particular role that you're applying for plays into that growth plan? When you ask questions like that, nobody cares about how much experience you have because you're thinking like a business owner. You're thinking like the person that is in charge, as opposed to the person that's just taking orders, waiting for somebody to tell them what to do.
So, you're thinking as a leader, and people want to hire leaders that they don't have to micromanage. I hope you found that helpful, and I hope you go and apply for that job at Pinterest, but of course, apply for all of the other opportunities that I presented to you all and done videos for.
Again, resume templates are down below in the description box if you need a little bit of help getting started. Let me know if you have questions, but this has been super awesome. I've enjoyed seeing you all get out of your shell and apply for all these jobs and say, "Jazzy, I have the confidence to apply for this job or that job because you showed me that what I do is very relevant."
So, continue to believe in yourself, and let me know how I can help boost your confidence. Let me know what other videos you guys want to see, but until then, I will see you later. Bye!