If you want to work for YouTube, you better have some advice for improvements to its products ready to fire off in your interview.
At a talk hosted by The New York Times on Tuesday, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki shared her favorite interview question. She said she would usually ask about a specific product YouTube had released, or a neutral product — something she knows the interviewee uses — and then ask the person, "How do you make it better?"
A product manager especially should always be thinking of the next generation, Wojcicki said. If you can't think of a single way to improve a product you use a lot, you are in trouble. And if Wojcicki is hiring, you're probably not going to get the job.
Wojcicki said she had also previously asked, "How do you manage your email?" She said it gave her insight into people's organizational skill sets and how they schedule their days — it even produced some useful tips.
"I found that incredibly interesting, the variety in ways people manage their email," she said. And for the record, Wojcicki has all her email in one box and never deletes email — ever. She likes to be able to search for an email someone might have sent her three years ago.
See the full talk here:
