Uber gets some good reviews and some bad press. They are definitely disruptive and innovative and forward-thinking. They are currently looking closely at autonomous vehicles which may some day wipe out their fleet of cars with Uber drivers. That flips their entire business model.

That’s not unique. Look at Netflix. They started as a DVD service using the postal service. But they quickly starting flipping that to a streaming service and will eventually eliminate the less efficient physical media and physical delivery.

They released their app in 2010.  Über is a German word meaning “above” or “over” but Uber Technologies Inc. is an American multinational online transportation network company headquartered in San Francisco, California.

For many Uber users, it is the first app they have used for transactions. They offer a free first ride (up to $15) which gets you to download the app and give it a try. A literal test drive of the product.

For Uber, problem solving is at the core of what they want in an employee. Yes, they hire many people in traditional roles and use some traditional recruiting. But they have flipped a few things about hiring that we might learn from.

They are very lean. As they expand into new geographies, they use teams of only three.: a city General Manager (operations and strategy), a community manager (marketing on social media and local markets) and an operations manager (logistics).

They also have a strategy to hire local people (local intelligence) for marketing and operations.

In interviewing, they don’t use the typical behavioral questions. They focus on finding out how a candidate would respond to situations. Outperform the tricky part and solve an Uber situational problem and you’re a good prospect.