Senior Engineers — Ace behavioral interviews by writing stories!!
5 simple steps to success are:
- Write your top 3–5 projects and their narratives in a doc
- Find top 20 behavioral Qs
- Cross-check which aspects of your story can answer these top Qs.
- Expand those answers
- Practice → Give mocks → Improve story by including feedback → Practice
Example Story
I worked on a project to break a monolithic service into multiple microservices for 6 months and led 3 engineers.
Now from above story, you can find so many interesting aspects that can answer some common Qs:
1. how u led and coached those 3 engineers
2. how you wrote the design and how you brought consensus on design with architects and stakeholders
3. how you partnered with your EM to prioritize this project over other business critical project
4. how you collaborated with multiple upstream and downstream teams
5. how you ensured that project timelines were on track and how you communicated them to stakeholders
And there are many technical aspects which we have not even touched.
So your 1 (true)story can answer so many important behavioral Qs! But remember, a fabricated story can land you in lot of trouble.
Comment what are your favorite hacks to ace behavioral questions!
