Brewbound Podcast Episode 26: Monday Night Brewing’s Jeff Heck on Company Culture and Interviewing Best Practices

When Monday Night Brewing co-founder Jeff Heck is looking to hire a new employee, he doesn’t just sit a candidate down and run through a list of the 15 most common interview questions.

“It’s a painful process to go through for people that want to get a job with us,” he said, noting that the company asks applicants to actually perform the job they are applying for as part of the assessment.

When the company was trying to identify its next wood cellar manager, the executive team and other key brewing and operations personnel spent an hour-and-a-half tasting 15 different beers the candidate had produced and asked him dozens of questions about each one.

“We just want to see – how does he think about the beer? What would he do differently? Is he able to talk about the mistakes he’s made? Is he able to talk about how he would take learnings from one beer and apply it to another?” Heck said.

Similarly, when the company was looking for a new marketing manager, it asked candidates, who had already passed an initial round of interviews, to create a mock social media calendar, which helped the hiring team narrow its search.

“It’s a great screening tool,” he said.

In episode 26 of the Brewbound Podcast, Heck discusses the company’s recruiting and hiring processes, interviewing and onboarding new employees, the company’s culture, and how the executive team encourages employees to take ownership over certain aspects of the brewery’s operations.

Listen to episode 26 of the Brewbound Podcast above, as well as on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, and Soundcloud. New episodes of the Brewbound Podcast, which is co-hosted by Chris Furnari and Justin Kendall, are published every Thursday.

Episode 27, featuring Fort Point Beer Company founder and CEO Justin Catalana, will be released on Thursday, March 14.

For questions, comments or suggestions, please email [email protected].

In episode 26 of the Brewbound Podcast, Heck discusses the company’s recruiting and hiring processes, interviewing and onboarding new employees, the company’s culture, and how the executive team encourages employees to take ownership over certain aspects of the brewery’s operations.