The internet is full of resources for coding and system design interviews. But there’s a third kind of interview for software engineers that gets often ignored during prep - the behavioral interview. What is a behavioral interview? The behavioral interview is designed to understand the candidate’s leadership and interpersonal skills, which like technical skills, are a crucial component of the candidate’s ability to do their job effectively.
Thanks for helping to raise the profile of behavioral interviews. Definitely an under-utilized opportunity for job seekers, especially since 1/ differentiating yourself from other applicants in coding+system design is inherently difficult and 2/ many roles are increasing the number of rounds of interviews, including some early "behavioral" interview with a HM to assess fit before spending more time on technical rounds.
Great article ! Got to know few topics which I didn't heard before. Moreover, I am not sure if big tech companies ask this question or not and if they ask it, can you provide a hint how to handle the question, 'What are your strong and weak areas?'
Or do they find the answer by asking another questions indirectly?
They do both. Personally, when I was giving behaviorals for Meta, I would ask, "Tell me about recent feedback you've been receiving from your manager." This gets at strengths/weaknesses but also helps me assess whether/how they've been responding to feedback.
Great content, Bhavana! Often these interviews are overlooked and lots of people can't understand why they dont get the job even when acing all leetcode style questions. I'm definitely keeping these tips close to the heart!
Behavioral interviews are very important as you go up the ladder too, great suggestions and actionable tips.
Thanks for the link to MS and Netflix principles, I never saw them before and they look quite interesting.
PREPARACION GRACIAS
GRACIAS
Great article Bhavana and thanks for the mention 🙂
Thanks for helping to raise the profile of behavioral interviews. Definitely an under-utilized opportunity for job seekers, especially since 1/ differentiating yourself from other applicants in coding+system design is inherently difficult and 2/ many roles are increasing the number of rounds of interviews, including some early "behavioral" interview with a HM to assess fit before spending more time on technical rounds.
GRACIAS
Great article ! Got to know few topics which I didn't heard before. Moreover, I am not sure if big tech companies ask this question or not and if they ask it, can you provide a hint how to handle the question, 'What are your strong and weak areas?'
Or do they find the answer by asking another questions indirectly?
They do both. Personally, when I was giving behaviorals for Meta, I would ask, "Tell me about recent feedback you've been receiving from your manager." This gets at strengths/weaknesses but also helps me assess whether/how they've been responding to feedback.
Great content, Bhavana! Often these interviews are overlooked and lots of people can't understand why they dont get the job even when acing all leetcode style questions. I'm definitely keeping these tips close to the heart!