"If your life is a book, tell me about the chapters of that book."
That's a go-to prompt for Lexi Reese, the chief operating officer of the human-resources-software company Gusto, when she's interviewing job candidates.
Reese, who previously held management positions at Google and American Express, wants to hear what you've accomplished over the course of your life and career. But more importantly, she said, she's interested in why you made the choices you did.
Reese's question reflects a broader shift toward more holistic hiring practices that go beyond technical skills. HR execs at top employers like Salesforce and Southwest say they look for candidates whose values align with theirs. And research suggests that employees who share their organization's core values are more satisfied at work and less likely to quit.
When Reese asks a candidate about their life story, she "can suss out things like ego," she said.
"Is your ego focused on, 'I'm proud of doing the right thing in a way that's going to impact lots of people'? Or is your ego placed on, 'I did this and I did that, and I am so great'?" she said.
Specifically, she's evaluating candidates on three dimensions: clarity, energy, and humility, as she wrote in a recent LinkedIn post. She seeks candidates who can express themselves in an interview, spark energy instead of drain it away, and are driven to serve other people.
As far as red flags, she watches out for rambling, a lack of self-awareness, and a large number of "I" statements.
Reese generally hires a person more for their values than their role-related fit, she added. (Gusto's company website indicates that its values include "go the extra mile" and "do what's right.")
The chief operating officer's technique sounds similar to the online bra company ThirdLove's interviewing strategy.
Ra'el Cohen, ThirdLove's chief creative officer, previously told Insider that her team likes to ask job candidates, "What was the last mistake that you and your last team made, and what did you learn from it?"
In ThirdLove's case, they're actively looking for the candidate to use the word "I" instead of "we" because it suggests that the person takes ownership and responsibility for mistakes instead of blaming them on others.
Reese looks for job candidates who have spent a lot of time thinking about their values.
"We try to find people who are really deliberate about where they want to build their careers and why they're trying to build them here," she said.
This article was updated from an original post from February 2019.
