How to Pretend EVERY Job Interview Is With Google!

Google famously asks its potential hires difficult, riddle-like interview questions. They're not always looking for a "right" answer—sometimes they're just looking to see how well you can attempt to solve an impossible problem.

Most of you will never interview with Google—but Google's also no longer the lone coolest company on the block. We tracked down hiring mangers from four of today's cutting-edge businesses—Airbnb, Fitbit, JetBlue, and Pinterest—and asked them what interview questions they ask their prospective employees. Read on to see how you can bring the insights they're striving for to your own interviews.

Company: Airbnb
Key interview question: "What's the biggest compliment you've gotten at work?"

Airbnb recruiter Jill Riopelle is looking for a couple of things with a question like this. "First, great people usually have an example that comes to mind easily, and can get very specific around the answer," Riopelle says. "Second, it shows me what the candidate considers to be important at work." If you get a question like this—a similar question might be about your biggest accomplishment at work— it's okay to brag, as long as you do it the right way.

The results often blow her away. "I got a great answer on this today," she says. "A candidate told me that the biggest compliment he had gotten was that he was asked, a few months ago, to train all new hires in his small company. I love that—it shows that he's a team player and is someone that the company wants new hires to emulate. It was also apparent that although this was time-consuming and an addition to his core role, he loved it and had a great positive attitude."

Company: Fitbit
Key interview question: "If you were able to build a new feature/product at Fitbit, what would it be, and why?"

Innovative companies like Fitbit expect you to bring your creativity and passion to the interview room, says Fitbit recruiting manager Jill Martino. "When we ask a question like this, we're not looking for a particular response," Martino explains. "We're looking for innovative, creative, forward-thinkers who have a passion for solving problems related to health, something Fitbit is obviously dedicated to." Questions like this one ask you to be both creative and knowledgeable about the company and its products—pitching an idea for a Wi-Fi-connected toaster oven isn't going to win you points, no matter how clever you think it is.

You probably already know that if you're interviewing with a company that makes tangible products, you should familiarize yourself with said products before heading to your interview. But what Martino also wants to see is passion and dedication. "We look for employees who not only have the right skill sets, but who also have a clear passion for their craft," Martino says. "We once had an engineer interview with us who demoed a very interesting app on the Google market place. It wasn't just any app—it looked as though Google had built it themselves. The engineer had spent months creating this outside of his daily job, and it was amazing because it clearly portrayed his dedication—someone who wasn't prompted took the time to build something, and that showed us how valuable he could be to us."

Company: JetBlue
Key question: "Tell me about a time you made a bad decision."

Interviewees are always prepared to share their "shining moments" in the interview room, but that's not what JetBlue talent acquisition manager Debra Cartagena is looking for. In a service industry, it's important to know if someone is a team player. So when Cartagena asks about a time you made a bad decision, she's not asking for you to present a strength cleverly disguised as a weakness.

"It's helpful to know how a prospective crewmember handles mistakes they've made, and what they've learned from them," Cartagena says. "Taking ownership of your mistakes and not letting it get in your way in the future is key to a successful answer." (Airbnb's Riopelle agrees—owning your mistakes is key. "I once had someone spend 15 minutes telling me how he covered his tracks so he would still get his commission," Riopelle says. "That was a definite red flag.")

Company: Pinterest
Key question: "Are you interested in learning outside of your expertise?"

It's no longer just a job—cutting-edge companies look for intellectual curiosity beyond the workplace. If you get a question like this, don't feel like you need to limit your answer to something that falls directly in line with the company's main mission, says Pinterest operations manager Mike Joyner. "We want people who embody what we're trying to create in the world, which are products that help people discover the things they love," Joyner explains. "Similarly, we look for people who are using their talents to pursue the things they love. This could be people who have served their country through the armed forces to simple things like coaching their kid's baseball team—or more ambitious things, like hiking all of the world's highest mountain peaks."

Similar open-ended questions have no "wrong answers," but Joyner warns against answering in a way that makes you seem like you're not a team player. "Some people really like to work alone and they think they're most effective at solving problems this way," Joyner says. Pinterest may be looking for more teamwork than the average company, because they're a social network, but most non-social-media companies are also looking for people who play well with others.

Bonus tip:
A final key piece of advice from all four hiring managers: Know the company. Know its products, its services, its philosophy, its history—and, if you have time, even do some research on the person who will be interviewing you. And let it show. "It sounds obvious, and I think a lot of candidates do the research, but often they don't let you know it," Riopelle says. "A great way to let people know is to ask targeted questions of each interviewer, for example, 'I see you worked at company X—what made you decide to come here?' "