Culture fit interview questions

Pedro Abreu, Senior Associate, Sales Strategy & Operations at LinkedIn Published: February 23, 2022

Key traits | How to prep | What to avoid | Example questions

Cultural fit interviews are extremely important. Companies are trying to match their own culture against your values, passion, and motivations to see if there’s a mutual fit.

The importance of these interviews vary from company to company, but tech companies are known to pay a lot of attention to it. For example, Google has its Googliness assessment, focused on culture, collaboration, and overall team work.

Many other startups apply their own approach to evaluate culture fit. At Gusto, there’s what is known as the Watermelon interview. This interview is conducted by a specialized team that only focuses on assessing the candidate’s fit within Gusto’s culture. Folks on this team are chosen based on their tenure with the company, having shown that they live the culture, and are in good standings performance wise. They are also picked from several teams across the company so that diversification is ensured. I was part of this team and conducted dozens of cultural fit interviews.

Key assessment areas for candidates (Top)

• Willingness to help others – if you go the extra mile to help a fellow co-worker. Questions fall around mentoring examples or simply of you going out of your way to help others (e.g. volunteering for a cause you believe in)
• No ego - if you show that it’s not all about you. Questions are related with receiving and acting on feedback, or humbling lessons learned (e.g. being left out of soccer team for not passing the ball)
• Growth mindset - if you challenge yourself and are willing to go outside of your comfort zone. Questions tend to be around new experiences (e.g. studying abroad, changing careers) and new challenges (e.g. learning to play an instrument, learning to code, doing an ironman)

The watermelon interview is specific to Gusto, but during my time conducting these I noticed that there are some universal traits that make candidates standout. Here’s what you can focus on strengthening:

How to prepare for cultural fit interview questions (Top)

• Know about the company and why you want the role. I always start here. I need to know why you want to join the company. Great candidates know why they want to join, show excitement, and have a level of detail on their answer that makes them stand apart. For example, a candidate said that she wanted to join Gusto because she had managed her own design studio and knew how painful payroll is. Plus, she lived the values, had been following Gusto’s designs for a while, and met with several team members before applying.
• Show you have learned from failures. Don’t be afraid to share your failures, Candidates that shine aren’t afraid to share their failures. But they don’t just share the failure. They share the learning that goes with it. And - more importantly - the results they’ve achieved since that learning. For example, a candidate said that he once got feedback for not being fast enough and if he wanted to succeed he needed to pick up on things faster. This led him to study outside of work to be more prepared. Eventually he picked up and since then has continued to apply that “readiness” mentality to whatever he does.
• Be (genuinely) curious. One interesting characteristic of folks that perform well is that they show interest in what I’m sharing about my role and the company. They ask questions, they ask follow up questions, and they listen to the answers - I don’t have to repeat things after a few minutes.
• Tell stories. Stories make everything easier to understand. Make sure you have a few to share. Great candidates tend to have a story to tell, or two, or three. They don’t just answer my questions, they give their twist and make it engaging. For example, a candidate once shared that he gave up his job to manage a food truck. To do this, he had to go and learn about everything related with preparing food, setting up a business, and managing people. And he did this all by himself, without prior experience or close relatives or friends in the industry. It was quite interesting to hear his journey!
• Share knowledge. Always make the interviewer (or anyone) feel like they gained something by interacting with you. Those great candidates give me something to take with me - mostly they have me learn or discover something new. This is great because it makes my time feel not wasted - and if I feel like this, others are more likely to feel it too. For example, I ask candidates for a book (or a podcast or movie) recommendation. It’s clear the ones that really have something to share - they elaborate and explain the why of the recommendation in detail, almost jumping from their seat.

Key things to avoid during cultural fit interview questions (Top)

On the other hand there are candidates that don’t make it. These are good candidates, many if not all are nice people, but they failed to standout and instead showed red flags. Once again, there are universal traits amongst these that you can avoid:

• Don’t join for superficial reasons. A solid reason for why you want to join. A big turnoff is when candidates don’t have a good answer to this why. The answers aren’t necessarily bad, but there’s no depth to their reasoning. For example, a few candidates say that they “read good glassdoor reviews”, “heard about the new round of funding”, or that “a friend mentioned it was a great place to work”. These are fair answers but by themselves aren’t enough to explain the why - many other places have great glassdoor reviews, have received funding, and are great places to work. But what is unique to the company is missing.
• Avoid not elaborating enough… or elaborating too much. Find a balance - not too short, not too long. If the answer feels short, ask if more details are needed, and if the answer is dragging, stop and ask if that is enough. Many candidates just answer my questions directly without elaborating. As if they are just saying “yes” and “no”. I always discount the nervousness and personality factors, but some folks make it really hard to extract something out of them. On the other hand, some folks go on without stopping for several minutes in a row. I purposefully avoid stopping these folks for as long as possible, so that I can assess their level of awareness. Both cases are troublesome however as they don’t allow interviewers to properly extract what they are looking for.
• Don’t focus too much on titles. In many startups, titles are purposefully not explicitly used. But even if they are, focusing too much on them can hurt your chances. A few candidates just focus on the title, the size of the team they’ll be managing, or who they’re going to report to. This is part of being ambitious and that is not necessarily bad, but it can also be a sign of egocentrism which is a big no for many companies.
• Don’t be bored. Don’t look like you’re doing a favor to someone. Might sound surprising, but some candidates do look like this. It’s a weird situation, but it happens. More than once I had candidates commenting - not with pride, but with boredom - that I was the last interview of the day. Even if you’re tired (and maybe somewhat bored) don’t throw it in your interviewer’s face. Do the opposite, try to show interest and enthusiasm.
• Don’t point fingers. Remember that companies are looking for folks that are team players and finger pointing is a big red flag. The tricky part about finger pointing is that it can be very subtil, so you might not even realize you’re doing it. For example, a candidate once told a story on how he and his team were disassembled after a restructuring and the whole time he mentioned how he should have stayed because he did most of the things and others didn’t know about the processes/ couldn’t do them. He said this as if it was positive, trying to convince me he was a great worker, but the way it came out was a very poor example of camaraderie.

Once again, do keep in mind that these interviews are extremely important. To the point that they can decide whether you’ll get an offer or not. At Gusto, I saw many candidates never getting an offer despite being great candidates because they didn't pass this interview. And it was not just the scorecard that mattered. The hiring committee read the interviewer notes as well - even a “yes” or a “strong yes” could be further scrutinized if the notes raised concerns. So do prepare and pay attention to this interview. It is important. On the plus side, with some preparation and focus on the areas above, you’re setting yourself to succeed!

Examples of culture fit interview questions (Top)

These questions focus on your willigness to help others.You go the extra mile to help a fellow co-worker. Questions fall around mentoring examples or simply of you going out of your way to help others (e.g. volunteering for a cause you believe in)

Example question #1: Can you share an example of a time you helped a co-worker or friend succeed?

Example question #2: Did you ever go out of your way to help others?

Example question #3: Is there a time you’re proud of something that wasn’t your direct accomplishment?

Example question #4: If you can do anything in life, what would it be and why?

These questions focus on having no egos.You show that it’s not all about you. Questions are related with receiving and acting on feedback, or humbling lessons learned (e.g. being left out of soccer team for not passing the ball).

Example question #5: Why did you apply to this company and role?

Example question #6: Have you ever been given some constructive feedback? How did you feel and how did you handle it?

Example question #7: How do you feel joining a company with no titles?

Example question #8: If you had to help out answering phones and responding to customer emails, what would be your reaction?

These questions focus on having a growth mindset.You challenge yourself and are willing to go outside of your comfort zone. Questions tend to be around new experiences (e.g. studying abroad, changing careers) and new challenges (e.g. learning to play an instrument, learning to code, competing in a triathlon)

Example question #9: How have you challenged yourself in the past year?

Example question #10: Why did you choose your area of study/work?

Example question #11: Can you share an experience that forced you outside of your comfort zone?

Once again, do keep in mind that these interviews are extremely important. To the point that they can decide whether you’ll get an offer or not. At Gusto, I saw many candidates never getting an offer despite being great candidates because they didn't pass this interview. And it was not just the scorecard that mattered. The hiring committee read the interviewer notes as well - even a “yes” or a “strong yes” could be further scrutinized if the notes raised concerns. So do prepare and pay attention to this interview. It is important. On the plus side, with some preparation and focus on the areas above, you’re setting yourself to succeed!