The Talgo Blog

Interview questions play a crucial role in the hiring process, but some common ones don't quite hit the mark. In this post, I'll explain why certain popular interview questions fall short and share some underrated alternatives that can help you find the right candidate more effectively.

Let's...

As an interviewer you want the most actionable data per unit of time. (Subject to the candidate also having an enjoyable experience.)

If you've ever ran out of time (or run over your allotted time) you know that time is your scarcest resource. 

What if there were a couple of tactics that could...

From our academic years onward, each of us spends thousands of hours building our technical or functional skills—the "tools of our trade" as individual contributors (finance, sales, engineering, marketing, law, product development, etc). 

Over time, these personal/individual skills...

If you’ve done even a modest amount of interviewing, you’ve certainly heard your share of long-winded (and sometimes aimless) stories about big, complex projects or engagements.

You ask a simple question about a key highlight in their last role, and before you know it, you’re 15...

I’ve worked closely with dozens of founder-led companies that have fallen on hard times, often in the context of a private equity buyout.

It’s clear when a founder or founding team has failed to pursue a winning hiring strategy. You can see the “scar tissue” from prior bad...

I’ve worked with hundreds of organizations to help them build world-class hiring and interviewing practices. Some of the outcomes have been transformative, and (admittedly) some of them have not.  

There is one factor, above all, that determines how good your company can...

Most interviewers make "depth" mistakes when diving into candidates' stories. Fundamentally, there are 2 kinds of mistakes here: 

1. Not diving deep enough (no substance)
2. Diving too deep (largely into irrelevant areas)

The first point: the majority of your time in an interview should be...

AI is already shifting the hiring landscape dramatically. Several startups have seized the opportunity to build tools that help with everything from role definition to sourcing to interview workflow, data capture and analysis. 

Make no mistake, AI will utterly transform hiring, and the...

A hidden theme in diagnosing interviewing and hiring problems: failure To communicate. Here are 6 inflection points in your hiring pipeline you can improve: 
 
1. Define the role. (Communicating with yourself and your teammates.) 
 
Get the results you expect in writing. And get...