Killer Interview Question: What Does My LinkedIn Profile Tell You About Me?

This week’s KIQ comes from LinkedIn’s Managing Director of Australia, New Zealand and SE Asia, Cliff Rosenberg. Rosenberg is a big fan of this interview question — and not just because it’s conveniently on-brand. Rather, it instantly lets him know whether a candidate has done any homework before showing up for the interview.

[credit provider=”Wikimedia Commons” url=”https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Linkedin_Chocolates.jpg”]

Cliff Rosenberg told Lifehacker that this was his favourite interview question during a recent tour of the company’s Sydney HQ (stay tuned for a Featured Workspace gallery, coming soon.) He claimed it has the potential to determine whether a candidate will successfully navigate the remainder of the interview.

“Occasionally there will be someone who cannot answer this question because they never looked at my profile,” Rosenberg explained to us. This is a failing that he considers to be a big no-no.

“In today’s day and age, to not leverage the power of the internet to do your research on a company and the person conducting the interview is crazy. A LinkedIn profile allows you to go in and learn everything about your [prospective employer], from their career progression to where they went to school. When I’m interviewing someone for a position, I expect them to have done this level of research.”

In addition to sorting the wheat from the chaff, the above question can also reveal how a candidate will fit in culturally. Rosenberg said he is looking for deeper insights about his profile and follow-up questions from the candidate, rather than just “reading a list of what they’ve read”.

Naturally, you don’t have to work for LinkedIn to ask this interview question — the principle applies to any manager with a well-maintained profile. Alternatively, you could make the question broader and ask “what have you learned about me/the company online?” If the candidate is hungry for the position, they should be armed with the necessary info and be able to give a detailed answer.


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