Learning while interviewing...

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A side-effect of returning to the Mountain View campus is that I'm back on the recruiters' radar, and so I'm interviewing Product Management candidates regularly again.
I'm doing 1 to 2 interviews every week, and I'm surprised at just how happy I am to be interviewing again.

There are a few reasons. Helping ensure that we have great people coming into the company is an important contribution I can make. I also enjoy meeting new people, and do a pretty good job of selling the company, the culture and the role.

However, interviews are also an incredible way to learn. The person across the table is generally an incredibly smart person with a different set of experiences from you. I've found increasingly, particularly if the candidate is doing well, I actually enjoy asking an open-ended set of questions that lead to some good discussions.

Getting feedback on something you're working on, or the what's important to the company, or even industry trends always ends up broadening my mind, and with some management, they can be great interview questions.

So the next time, you have an interview to do, don't complain about the time its taking away from your workday - think about it as an opportunity to learn and relish it.

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