8.1 KiB
model, allowed-tools, argument-hint, description
| model | allowed-tools | argument-hint | description |
|---|---|---|---|
| claude-sonnet-4-0 | Task, Read, Bash, Grep, Glob, Write | <question-topic> [--level=staff|principal] [--category=leadership|influence|conflict|ambiguity|failure|vision] | Prepare for behavioral and competency interview questions using STAR method |
Behavioral Interview Coach
Master the behavioral/competency interview with STAR method stories calibrated for Staff+ engineers. Focus on demonstrating technical judgment, leadership, and impact.
Interview Structure (30-45 minutes)
Opening (1 minute)
- Warm greeting
- "Tell me about yourself" (30-sec version, then pivot to questions)
Behavioral Questions (25-30 minutes)
- Ask 3-5 targeted questions
- Listen for specificity and agency
- Follow up to understand your thinking
Your Questions (5 minutes)
- Show genuine interest
- Ask about growth, culture, technical challenges
Closing
- Thank you and next steps
STAR Method Framework
Situation (15-20 seconds)
- Context: Where were you working?
- Challenge: What was the situation?
- Constraints: What made it hard?
Task (10 seconds)
- What needed to happen?
- What was your responsibility?
Action (60-90 seconds)
- What specifically did YOU do?
- Focus on your decisions and reasoning
- Include 2-3 specific steps or decisions
Result (20-30 seconds)
- What was the outcome?
- Use metrics/numbers when possible
- What did you learn?
Total per story: 2-3 minutes
Staff vs Principal Calibration
Staff Engineer Stories
Show:
- Technical depth in your domain
- Mentoring and multiplying through others
- Taking on bigger scope than expected
- Making architectural decisions
- Influencing people with expertise, not authority
Narrative Focus:
- "I became the expert in [domain]"
- "I helped the team level up by..."
- "I recognized [pattern], which became how we..."
- "I took on [stretch project] and learned..."
Principal Engineer Stories
Show:
- Organizational impact and vision
- Shifting how the company thinks about problems
- Building capability that multiplies across the org
- Influence at executive levels
- Creating lasting change, not just fixing things
Narrative Focus:
- "I identified [organizational gap] and built [solution]"
- "I shifted how we think about [problem]"
- "I created [framework/pattern] that the org now uses"
- "This impacted [multiple teams/business metrics]"
Question Categories & Preparation
Leadership & Influence (Most Important for Staff+)
"Tell me about a time you influenced a technical decision without direct authority"
Staff approach:
Situation: Team was about to choose database that I thought would scale poorly
Task: Convince them to reconsider without having authority over decision
Action:
- Analyzed growth projections vs database scaling curves
- Created comparison showing where each option breaks
- Proposed low-risk: try with our data patterns first
- Presented as "here's the cost-benefit" not "you're wrong"
Result: Team switched. Prevented major rewrite later. Became go-to for architecture questions.
Principal approach:
Situation: Org was doing microservices without platform support; chaos ensuing
Task: Shift organization's thinking from "do it now" to "build foundations first"
Action:
- Didn't argue; modeled the operational cost
- Showed 3-year roadmap: capabilities → services
- Proposed partnership: I'd build platform, they'd phase services
- Made it their success, not my pushback
Result: Org adopted phased approach. Better outcome. I led platform team.
Handling Ambiguity & Complexity
"Tell me about a time you had incomplete information and had to decide"
Challenge: Show you gather data before deciding, or decide quickly when you must Include: How you frame the decision, how you commit despite uncertainty
Mentorship & Growth
"Tell me about someone you mentored and helped grow"
For Staff: Show concrete growth (junior → mid) or helped someone transition areas For Principal: Show broad impact (multiple people, org capability building)
Conflict & Disagreement
"Tell me about a conflict you resolved"
Key insight: The best answer shows how you converted conflict into collaboration Include: Listening to understand, finding shared goals, proposing together
Failure & Learning
"Tell me about something you'd do differently"
Don't say: "I didn't really fail" Do say: "I made assumption X that turned out wrong. Here's what I learned."
Technical Vision
"Describe your biggest technical contribution"
For Staff: Deep expertise that became team/org standard For Principal: Platform/capability that others build on
Interview Red Flags
❌ Vague answers: "We did X" instead of "I did X" ❌ No specific details: "Everything went well" vs "This metric improved 40%" ❌ Rambling stories: "Let me back up... actually, before that..." ❌ Defensive tone: "I wasn't wrong, the other person was" ❌ No learning: "It worked great" with no reflection ❌ Unrelated stories: Story doesn't address the question
✓ Specific examples: "In Q3 2022, I..." ✓ Your agency: "I recognized... so I..." ✓ Concrete outcomes: "Reduced latency by 60%, improved reliability to 99.99%" ✓ Clear learning: "This taught me that..." ✓ Focused narrative: Answer in 2-3 minutes
Building Your Story Bank
Create stories covering:
- Technical depth / expertise
- Influence without authority
- Mentoring / growth
- Conflict / disagreement
- Failure / learning
- Ambiguity / decision-making
- Innovation / new idea
- Scale / big project
Have 1-2 stories per category, flexible enough to adapt to questions.
Adapting Stories to Questions
Same story, different angle:
Your story: "I designed a caching layer that improved latency 60%"
If asked about technical depth: Focus: "The hard part was cache coherency patterns. We chose [approach] because..."
If asked about influence: Focus: "The team was skeptical about complexity. Here's how I convinced them..."
If asked about learning: Focus: "We made assumption X that failed at scale. So I redesigned around..."
Interviewer's Perspective
They're evaluating:
- Can you think clearly under pressure?
- Do you have good judgment?
- Are you easy to work with?
- Do you take responsibility?
- Are you growing?
- Will you make our org better?
Your stories should show all of these.
Talking Points for Interviews
When you're stuck:
- "Let me think for a moment..."
- "That's a great question—it reminds me of..."
- "I want to give you an honest answer rather than rush one"
When explaining your reasoning:
- "I recognized that [insight]"
- "So I proposed [approach]"
- "The result was [outcome], and the learning was [insight]"
When asked follow-up questions:
- "That's a great point. Actually, it's why I..."
- "I hadn't thought about it that way. It changed my perspective on..."
- "Yes, and what I learned from that was..."
Execution Day Tips
Before interview:
- Review your story bank (don't memorize, internalize)
- Get good sleep
- Arrive 5 min early
During interview:
- Listen fully to question before answering
- Take 2 seconds to collect thoughts
- Tell story conversationally (not rehearsed sounding)
- Check for understanding: "Does that make sense?"
- Be specific: names, dates, metrics
If you get stuck:
- "Let me think about the best example..."
- "Want me to tell you about another time...?"
- Ask: "What part would you like to know more about?"
After Interview
How you did well:
- They asked follow-up questions (means they were engaged)
- They smiled/nodded (means they believed you)
- They spent time on your story (means it resonated)
- They asked your questions back (means they're interested)
Signs to improve:
- They seemed disengaged
- They interrupted to move to next question
- You rambled (they redirected)
- You couldn't answer follow-ups
The Ultimate Goal
Interviews aren't about being perfect. They're about showing:
- You think clearly
- You can communicate
- You take responsibility
- You're growing
- You'll make their team better
Your stories are the proof.