This week on KIQ, we take a look at a question that is favoured by a former Facebook executive.
The question “How do you want to be of service?” isn’t intended to make you sound eager to please. The reason why former Facebook global head of business strategy and growth Debra Bednar-Clark likes to ask this question in interviews is to explore a job applicant’s passions and motivations in life.
She is currently the CEO and founder of career and leadership coaching firm DB+co.
Bednar-Clark elaborated on why she uses that question to Business Insider:
“I start there because I think it’s an interesting place. You can be of service to people, to the planet, to animals — whatever currently inspires you. Different positions require different things, but if you can understand what a person is innately good at and where their interests and passions life, you can better align them with the goals of the organisation.
“When you have those conversations from the outset you can understand who this person is, what why’re best at, and you can make the connection.”
How would you tackle this question? Let us know in the comments.
Comments
One response to “Killer Interview Question: How Do You Want To Be Of Service?”
Maybe work on the sentence structure a bit? It sounds like something you’d say to a butler in a 50s film right before you slapped your wife.
Kooky questions by amateur psychologists get amateur results…how would you use this question to differentiate capability in a useful way that was repeatable and reliable (the old ‘test-retest’ and inter-rater reliability concepts). If you are not asking about demonstrated experience, or how demonstrated experience applies to the role in question, you may as well talk about flying pigs.