I used to prep for interviews the normal way. Read the job post twice. Practice "tell me about yourself" in the mirror. Show up hoping for the best.
Three offers later, I do one thing differently. Five minutes, right before I log in or walk through the door.
The trick
I write down one sentence about the company's biggest problem right now. Not their mission. Not their "values." Their actual problem.
How do I find it? Quick scan. Recent news, a Glassdoor review or two, sometimes just the job post itself. If a company's hiring four people for one role, something's broken or something's growing fast. Either way, that's the problem.
I write the sentence by hand. Something like:
"They're scaling support faster than they can train people, and it's probably showing up as slow response times."
Takes two minutes, maybe three.
Then I turn it into one question. That's the other two minutes.
"I noticed you're growing the support team fast — is that mostly about response time, or are you prepping for a bigger launch?"
Why it works
I ask that question in almost every interview now. Every single time, the room shifts a little. The interviewer leans in. Sometimes they laugh and say "yeah, actually, funny you ask." Sometimes they go quiet for a second because nobody's asked them that all week.
Here's the reason. Everyone else walks in ready to talk about themselves. I walk in already thinking about their problem. That's it. That's the whole trick.
It's not a magic script. It's not a personality hack. It's five minutes of thinking about them instead of me, right before the pressure hits.
Try it
Before your next interview:
- Write one sentence about their real problem.
- Turn it into one question.
- Watch what happens.
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