Lyft COO Jon McNeill asks interview questions about mentoring

Lyft COO Jon McNeill wants to make sure that every job candidate is interested in other people's development.To that end, he asks them to tell him who they've mentored.If the candidate can't name anyone, they probably won't be a cultural fit at Lyft, McNeill said.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.Lyft has been in the news a lot lately.The company filed to go public in March 2019. In May, Lyft's stock price dropped 11% to a record low. Meanwhile, drivers who work for Lyft and Uber around the world staged protests against low wages.Amid all this turmoil, Lyft is still bringing on more employees to work in its corporate offices.If you apply, you'll likely interview with the company's COO, Jon McNeill, who told Business Insider he spends 40% of his week meeting with candidates at all levels.By the time it's McNeill's turn to interview the candidate, he's less concerned with whether the person has the technical chops to do the job. Instead, he said, he's more concerned with whether they're a cultural fit.To that end, McNeill likes to ask candidates to tell him who they've mentored. “I really want to know if they're interested in the development of others,” McNeill said.“If the candidate starts to go down a long list of people, that's a really good signal,” he added. “Then we'll dive in on a few of those people ... to really test the authenticity of the example.”Read more: A former Google HR exec asks job candidates a tough question to figure out how they'll act 'when the chips are down'McNeill is hardly the only executive to ask job candidates about their mentorship experience. In a 2016 Harvard Business Review article, Jay Parikh, vice president of engineering at Facebook, wrote that Facebook managers ask interviewees: “Can you tell me about four people whose careers you have fundamentally improved？”According to Parikh, “successful candidates should clearly demonstrate that their priorities are company, team, and self — in that order.”Meanwhile, Jim Ayres, managing director of Amway North America, previously told Business Insider he'll prompt candidates for leadership positions to simply tell him who's on their team. He's looking specifically for signs of emotional intelligence.If the candidate mentions a team member named Karen, for example, Ayres will ask to hear more about her. Specifically, he'll want to know about her family, how she works best, and what typically gets in her way.If the candidate doesn't know anything about Karen's work style or personal life, that's a bad sign.Other go-to interview questions for McNeill include: “What gets you out of bed in the morning？” and “What's the best experience you've had where you felt like you were bringing your whole self to work？”