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Interview advice that got me offers

zainrizvi.io

101–110 of 372 posts

Re: Interview advice that got me offers

#101
>Learn to answer the more ambiguous questions

This is something I have never done before my most recent job search but it has been a huge help. Previously all my interview prep was on tech and I pretty much winged it for the behavioral stuff since interview prep guides seem to always focus on the tech side. Plus it always feels worse and more obvious when you struggle with or fail to properly answer the tech questions.

What I did is I prepared 10 different stories about my career experience and then tagged them with a bunch of prompts. For example I have a story about one project that had dual PMs that experienced a lot of scope creep and eventually fizzled on release. I can now use that story to answer a broad range of questions from failure to various project management approaches. Overall I now have prepared stories to answer probably 50-75 different questions immediately.

Another benefit is that I have also told these stories multiple times in interviews now and I get better telling them each time. Even if the answer isn't 100% relevant, I feel more confident and likely come off better launching immediately into a detailed story about my experience rather than trying to awkwardly come up with an answer on the fly. It is also easy to drop irrelevant parts or expand on specific details when the basic framework of the story is already something that feels natural.

I will even have the document with all the prompts and story bullet points open whenever I am doing phone or remote interviews. I could probably even create a cheat sheet to use for in person interviews since I usually would bring an executive style notepad with me anyway to interviews to jot down notes about the company.

Maybe this is obvious advice, but I think I am relatively smart and never done it previously or even seen this approach recommend so I am guessing there are other people who could use this tip.

Re: Interview advice that got me offers

#103
post #52

The hardest part about interviewing is that there is no feedback loop; I once interviewed at 10 companies within 2 weeks and got rejected from all of them, but to this day I still don't know what part I need to improve upon.

Same. I interviewed with Amazon twice and it's like a 10-hour meat grinder. No offer either time and I have no idea what I did wrong. I absolutely don't get those wide open questions like "How would you design 1-hour delivery?" (real question btw). As someone who has done a lot of consulting work, my instincts are never, ever try to answer such a ridiculously broad question on your own with no context. The answer to…

>I absolutely don't get those wide open questions like "How would you design 1-hour delivery?"

Quick tip: interviewers often design that kind of question to be intentionally vague. If you get a question like that, they probably want a bunch of questions before you start on an answer. Like, "which part of the process are we designing? The software stack, interfacing with logistics companies, customer service?"

It seems frustrating, but they're looking for people who will drill down and make sure they fully understand a task before they run off to solve it. Asking for clarification is usually a good thing in an interview, especially since the interviewers don't always think the problems through completely.

The lack of feedback seems like a liability thing. A very small number of people will sue because they don't like the reason they were given, so the company decides not to give detailed feedback.

Re: Interview advice that got me offers

#104
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can confirm as a senior engineer at a FAANG. I've rejected people for showing negative non-technical traits but being ok technically, and recommended people for hire with not the best technical skills but with excellent non-technical/leadership traits. Life is too short to work with assholes if it can be helped.

> I've rejected people for showing negative non-technical traits I'm not an expert, but this can be a really slippery slope to implicit bias creeping in to your hiring decisions, especially if these traits are outside of your area of interview/expertise.

In some cases you are effectively screening out senior engineers that have pretty much reached their plateau. They won't learn anything new and they don't want to learn anything new.

There's a difference between 10 years of experience and 10x one year of experience.

Re: Interview advice that got me offers

#105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you find that recruiters will typically give you a salary range beyond "competitive" before you've started the interview process?

You usually have to be the first mover and be willing to give them a number you’re looking for.

Never give a recruiter a number - there is 0 value you get out of it and it gives the company you interview for the power and you'll leave money on the table. Let them tell you.

I always just say stuff like "I assume that the compensation at amazing company xyz will be competitive enough to consider"

Re: Interview advice that got me offers

#106

One additional tip on recruiters: have a cheat sheet ready (web page or public Google doc) that answers the basic questions they'll have for you and makes clear your expectations. Here's the info I ask them to provide: - Job Title and Salary - Job Description - Company Overview and Location - Steps in Hiring Process Whenever I'm emailed by a recruiter, I politely thank them for reaching out, paste the link to the che…

> Job Title and Salary

"Compensation will depend on your experience"

Re: Interview advice that got me offers

#107
post #63
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same here. Some of my goto questions are questions I don't expect a solution to. I'll tell people that - I know some people use similar questions without telling candidates that, but I don't think the extra pressure is necessary. I also explicitly explain to people that what I want to see is how they think, more so than the final solution. It tells me a lot about how a candidate will work within a team if they're cap…

Huge +1 on explicitly setting expectations. I've written on this topic[0], and there are a lot of different ways interviewers don't set expectations: - Is the interviewer looking for syntactically correct code, or general algorithmic skills? - For a warmup, is the interviewer looking for a basic solution, or an optimal solution? - For architecture walkthroughs, what level of detail is expected? The extra pressure is…

I'll keep these in mind.

I like to ask open-ended questions. "I am trying to solve X problem, how should-I do it?". That reduces the rote bias and also checks if the candidate can communicate.

Re: Interview advice that got me offers

#108
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This limits options that are unwilling to meet your requirements; places you would have passed on due to insufficient salaries anyway. If you're willing to take lower salaries, lower your minimal salary requirements to receive more of them. Dictating salary reqs up front does two things: 1. Reduces time wasted on folks or orgs that don't want to pay your rate. 2. Immediately moves discussion away from a dance around…

It limits your options down . If you say you're looking for $100/hour, and the recruiter was planning on giving you $150/hour…guess what offer you're going to get?

I have never seen this in practice (but I'm sure it happens all the time). At the places I've worked/hired, if a candidate's ask was below the bottom of the range we paid that role, we just paid them the bottom of the range (regardless of their ask). It's a win/win from a hiring perspective. You hired a candidate for the minimum you possibly could (from a budget perspective) and the candidate is grateful you didn't hire them on their bad ask.

At some terrible companies even, it's harder to hire someone outside of their defined salary band. Even if you don't care about being nice or paying fairly, your life is just made easier by paying them the bottom of the range rather than dealing with HR about salary bands.

Re: Interview advice that got me offers

#109
post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You usually have to be the first mover and be willing to give them a number you’re looking for.

Never give a recruiter a number - there is 0 value you get out of it and it gives the company you interview for the power and you'll leave money on the table. Let them tell you. I always just say stuff like "I assume that the compensation at amazing company xyz will be competitive enough to consider"

I’ve taken this strategy before, but now that I’m more senior I’ve found there are lots of positions that are not even in the right ball park that I’ll only find out after wasting a bunch of time.

Re: Interview advice that got me offers

#110
post #52

The hardest part about interviewing is that there is no feedback loop; I once interviewed at 10 companies within 2 weeks and got rejected from all of them, but to this day I still don't know what part I need to improve upon.

Same. I interviewed with Amazon twice and it's like a 10-hour meat grinder. No offer either time and I have no idea what I did wrong. I absolutely don't get those wide open questions like "How would you design 1-hour delivery?" (real question btw). As someone who has done a lot of consulting work, my instincts are never, ever try to answer such a ridiculously broad question on your own with no context. The answer to…

There is no stock right or wrong answer for those kinds of questions. You should ask questions to understand which area the interviewer wants you to concentrate on (if any). Some interviewers are happy if you choose an area where you can showcase your experience, others expect you to answer an area they have in mind. If you cover enough, with enough detail, they will be happy. Ask questions.
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