I’ve been through my fair share of engineering interviews over the past few years. I’ve looked at large companies and smaller start-ups like companies. Everyone has a different process, but there’s one thing in common: you need to have stories.
Being a leader is being a storyteller. I’ve added some tips below to help you think about stories from your past that may be relevant to leadership interviews. This is written for engineering leaders who may be looking for their next role (their first in a long time) and don’t know where to start or how to prepare.
It’s going to be competitive. There are a lot of engineering leaders out there, but there are a few great ones. You need a strong EQ and curiosity to take on a new leadership role. Prepare to go through multiple rounds, as interviewing engineering leaders is hard. How do you know how effective the person is going to be? How do you know if they’re a cultural fit? Do they have the technical skills our organization requires to build trust?
Do Not Lie
While I mention that you need stories, these are not made up or copied off the Internet. You have been through these events and should know the details inside out. They are stories because you need to sell your side of events. You must tell people what you’ve been through and how you’re the hero.
Lying will either mean you add too much detail or you can not go deeper when an interviewer asks follow-up questions. They will most likely (not all the time) see through your story and understand where you are glossing over.
Stories of Growth
Think about times when you’ve failed – especially more recently. What was your ultimate learning from that? What do you want the interviewer to know about you? Remember to choose wisely, as you probably don’t want a story of losing the company twenty million dollars because you deleted a database (unless it’s an outstanding series of misfortunate events). You want stories that show humility and how you reacted under stress. What did you do afterwards to prevent that from happening again?
Think about times when you’ve got a promotion. What did you do to achieve that promotion? How do you use that growth mindset in the future,e and how is it relevant to the new job? Don’t choose a story from twenty years ago about how you got promoted from junior to intermediate engineer. That’s no longer relevant. Choose a recent promotion or switch to management. What kind of growth have you had from that? What have you learned about leadership?
Stories of Conflict
Conflict is part of a manager’s job. There should be a lot of stories to tell here. The first one you should look into is a conflict on your team. Choose a deeper conflict that seems complex and requires your negotiation skills. They want to see how you will handle and resolve conflict in a stressful situation. They want to know how you treat your team.
Another story should be about interpersonal peer conflict. This can be with another manager or your product/business counterpart. Think about the times you’ve disagreed with them. Choose a meaningful interaction that shows a win-win for you and the other party. If there are trade-offs, mention how you handled them with the other party.
Lastly, if you’ve dealt with large scopes covering multiple teams, let’s prepare a story about organizational conflict. How did you solve the conflict? Who was involved? What actions did you need to take? What was the outcome or consequence of the conflict?
Stories of Management
Management is a skill set. One of those skills is the ability to have hard conversations. Remember, back to those hard conversations. Think about a time when you’ve had an underperformed. Why were they underperforming, and when did you notice it? What did you do about their low performance? What was the outcome? Ideally, you need to have multiple stories here. One of a successful turnaround – i.e. you’ve managed to coach someone to be a top performer. And one of failure, i.e. you needed to let this person go.
The other side of the coin is promotions. When you think of your subordinates, how do you promote people? How do you set goals? Think of some stories of growth – not your personal development but that of your team. How do you go about it? What are the steps you’ve taken to ensure someone’s career flourishes? How do you decide who is ready to be promoted and who is not?
Lastly, think about how you manage. What do you do every day? What kind of meetings do you have, and why are they important? How do you keep track of your subordinates? Think about your schedule and what’s taking up your time. They want to know if you’re a cultural fit. How do you split your time between technical and non-technical work?
Stories of Projects
Let’s reflect on the more significant projects we’ve led. How did the project start? Who was responsible for it? Think about what went right and what went wrong. Consider what you can do better and what you would change. How was the inter-team communication? How did you communicate the progress to various stakeholders?
Return to the start of each project and create a timeline. You may not need this for the interviews, but it will help ground you while you deliver your retrospective. What were the significant events that happened? How did that change the project deliveries? Was the project ultimately a success or a failure? Why do you think that is?
Be Yourself
Remember, interviews are a stressful time. You only have a certain number of minutes to sell yourself, your management and leadership capabilities and your technical abilities. If you can, try to lead the interview; if not, let the interviewer lead you. They want you to be successful. They want to hire someone without being stuck in an endless interview cycle.
As an engineering manager and leader, you’ll also need to have covered the basics of software engineering. Make sure you remember how to do system design and coding. You should go over some good resources. I recommend Hello Interview for system design: super helpful tips and an excellent structure for going through these types of problems. You can use LeetCode or HackerRank to improve your problem-solving skills for coding.
Lastly, don’t try to fake anything. Be real. Show that you’re down to earth and humble. Show that you care about your team. Management and leadership are skills that you can learn; this is your chance to prove that you’ve learned something in your last role.
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