How to Create a Custom Tech Interview Prep Guide

(Photo credit @kaitlynbaker)

One of the most common questions I hear from early to mid-career job seekers in tech: how do I know what to prepare for in my upcoming interview? 

It's understandable that this may be confusing, as some hiring managers add unnecessary complications to the interview process. But most of them are thinking strategically about how to best assess your experience and your potential (as we’ve discussed before) and will develop questions in advance as well as in the interview itself. 

Let me share with you one preparation tip that has made the difference for many of the candidates I've worked with over the years. I had one client tell me recently that using this strategy gave him the exact questions he was asked in his interview! 

🔥  Hot Tip: Use the bullets of the job description to create a highly customized set of practice interview question prompts. 🔥

You should take each bullet and turn it into two types of interview question prompts: “Tell me about a time you did…” and “Tell me about how you would approach doing…”

• Let’s take a look at a sample job description: SoFi Business Operations + Strategy Manager

  • Bullet: “Evaluate and help optimize the operations of the Member Business Unit and related cross-functional initiatives”

    • Interview Q1: “Tell me about a time that you evaluated and helped optimize the operations of a business unit and/or cross-functional initiative.”

    • Interview Q2: “Tell me how you would approach evaluating and helping optimize the operations of a business unit and/or cross-functional initiative.” 

Why is this approach so powerful?

• Q1 offers you a chance to tell the interviewer about your experience executing on a similar project. It’s also highly specific to this job (not just a generic ‘tell me about a time that you optimized a project’). 

• Whereas if you don’t have that experience, Q2 offers you a chance to tell an interviewer about semi-related experiences and/or your approach to solving a similar problem. Tech is a fast-paced & ever-changing industry so if you can show that you are always thinking ahead about how you’d solve problems you haven’t faced yet, you are demonstrating a highly valued skill set!

Note: Most interviewees don’t take the time to consider the Q2-type questions -- so you’ll be way ahead of the other candidates if you use this tip to prepare!  And as you become more experienced, you can also use the job description to create custom practice hypothetical/case questions to practice. 

💡  I've found that with this approach, candidates report back that they felt prepared for around 80% of the interview questions asked! But as it's hard to be completely prescient, the remaining 20% allows for the random vagaries of the interview process (i.e. interviewer creativity, random/specific questions for a candidate's individual background, the waxing and waning of the full moon, etc). 😉

Remember: Interviews aren’t supposed to be a ‘gotcha’ situation - they are supposed to evaluate your fit for a position across multiple dimensions so you can join the company & help them solve problems. This tip will help you strategically prepare for a good interview experience. Good luck!! 

Let me know in the comments if you have used this strategy and how it turned out! Need help with preparing for an upcoming interview? Send me a note here: digitalorchards.com/contact

This post was originally shared on December 14, 2020 and was updated on November 22, 2022.

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Do you understand the narrative behind the ‘magic’ of tech/AI?

(Photo credit @juliusdrost)

On Sunday, I was listening to the latest episode of ‘This American Life’ - one of my *favorite* podcasts for its fantastic ability to tell unique stories. I like to visualize the narrative arc included in each episode (and in each ‘act’ within the episode). This episode’s title was ‘The Magic Show’ and I enjoyed hearing the backstory for how magic tricks are constructed -- and how crucial story-telling is for a mind-blowing magic trick. I remember experimenting with a magic kit as a kid -- and I loved showing off my (clumsy) ability to make a scarf disappear from my hand. Good career coaches are a bit like magicians -- helping you pull together seemingly disparate aspects of your background until -- poof! -- a compelling pitch appears. But as any good magician will tell you -- you need to practice over and over and over...and sometimes you drop the ball instead of palming it.

#random

I highly recommend listening to The Magic Show podcast episode - a completely enjoyable way to spend an hour and might even spark some long-dormant magical yearnings. 

#techtopic

Sometimes, tech innovations can seem like magic.  Fifty-odd years later, the Apollo 11 moon landing is considered both a magic moment and a feat of technological and scientific innovation. I am also continually impressed by the new feats achieved by AI. After ‘listening’ to thousands of recorded coughs, an AI can now diagnose covid19 from just the sound of a cough (and even for those who are asymptomatic!)  Not only are balloons bringing internet to rural areas of the world...but an AI has been developed to allow a Loon balloon to take in wind speed & direction inputs and raise or lower the balloon accordingly.  AI also recently solved a 50-year-old biology challenge known as the ‘protein folding problem’ -- helping biologists determine how and why certain proteins fold themselves into certain shapes. Behind all of these seemingly magical feats is ridiculous amounts of hard work. 

While I don’t want to lose the awe and wonder behind many tech innovations, I know more people in the general public need to understand the narrative behind the “magic.” If people don’t understand how drones work and the software that runs them is developed, then we could end up unknowingly subverting our own privacy interests with AI-powered police drones recording our moves. A lack of understanding about how automated systems are developed can cause us to be unaware that these same systems may be excluding the poor from basic services, jobs and housing. Or we can be fooled into thinking a blog is being written by a human when it was really by an college kid’s AI. 

Tech is increasingly pervasive in all aspects of our society -- and that means we have an individual responsibility to see what’s behind the curtain and the ‘tech magicians’ also need to show us how their tricks are developed (like my favorite YT illusionist Zach King!).

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Customizing your resume

(Photo credit @craftedbygc)

When applying to a job in tech, use the bullets of the job description as a checklist.

• Take any well-written job description which can help you to do two things: customize your resume for the specific job/company AND allow you to conduct a gap analysis of your skills. 

• Customizing resume:

  1. This is very important to do in tech, as most tech companies do not look at cover letters -- so your resume has to do the double duty of telling your story and describing your skills.

  2. The job description can also provide you with keywords that are important to the company, so make sure that you use their words in your resume whenever you can. 

• Skills Gap Analysis

  1. No candidate is an exact match for a job description (because then there would be no room for growth!). However, you want to have a high percentage of experiences/skills that the job requires (greater than 50%).

  2. If you don’t have a high percentage but are really interested in the job, then the job description can give you a list of skills & experience you need to go get - so you can add them to your resume!

• Once you’ve done this a few times, you’ll see the pattern and won’t need to spend a lot of time on each application. 

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#random

Platypuses Glow Under Blacklight. We Have No Idea Why. 

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Want personalized resume tips and career guidance? Take a look at my Career Strategy Session options.