Roadmap to a Successful Interview

(Photo Credit @markkonig)

As I mentioned yesterday, all of my clients have used my interview prep methods to be prepared and know what’s coming their way, which leads to successful outcomes & offers. 

I’m going to lay out my Interview Prep Roadmap for you here. Over the next few days, I’ll also provide links to free worksheets and common non-coding tech interview questions. For some, this will be new & for others, this will be a nice refresher. If you use any of these tools, I’d love to hear how they helped you be more successful in your interviews! 

Step 1: Developing Your Interview Intro, aka Pitch

Step 2: 3 Main Types of Tech Interview Questions

Step 3: STAR Interview Basics

Step 4: My List of Intro Tech & Startup Interview Questions

Step 5: When to use Tech Interview Prep Sites

Step 6: How to Create a Custom Interview Prep Guide

Step 7: How to Structure an Offer Negotiation Conversation

Think of this Interview Prep Roadmap as your training schedule. 

When you train for a 10K, you don’t just lace up your shoes & run (well, most of us don’t). Instead, you develop a training plan that looks at your current fitness level, your goals, and helps you get from A to B. 

My Interview Prep Roadmap does the same thing: helps you assess your current interview readiness and devise a personalized plan for action. 

Curious to know more about how I can help you with your interview prep? Head over to the Contact Me page and let me know more about your situation.

When to Use Tech Interview Practice Sites

(Photo credit @thoughtcatalog)

Many career pivoters face a specific challenge when interviewing in tech: not realizing that tech companies expect you to know some stuff about tech before you arrive at the interview. 

No, they are not expecting you to be a tech industry expert - but they do expect that you have done some research on the market landscape that tech companies operate in, on what product(s) a company produces, and some of the basic terminology common to their area of tech. 

Need help learning about the tech industry? 

• Feel free to check out my guide “Required Reading for Tech” to get access to a curated list of blogs, publications, podcasts, tv shows, & movies to help you learn about tech, and a few links to tech terminology guides. 

I’d like help in practicing non-coding tech interview questions

• That’s a great idea! There are a few sites to help you practice tech interview questions by role and by company, and I highly encourage candidates who are coming to tech from other industries to use these sites. 

• Tip: start prepping for interviews even before you know if you got the interview. Tech companies are known for scheduling interviews with only a few days notice, and waiting until then will not help you do well. 

Why employ a coach vs just signing up for an interview practice site? 

• As a tech career coach, I can give you an overview of *your* entire tech job search process, from evaluating your chances when pivoting, crafting your specific story/resume, choosing your companies, developing your networking strategy, decoding upcoming interviews, and discussing offer details. I am particularly skilled at helping candidates prepare for upcoming interviews by interpreting a job description and converting it into a customized set of interview questions – but I’m only one person. Candidates need to practice with multiple people to get good at tech interviewing, because there is such variation in interview style, types of questions asked, product variations, tech niches, etc. 

• An interview practice site can help you with your reps (ie repetitions). Like your arm muscles, your brain needs to practice answering interview questions to help you think through possible answers, convert thoughts into coherent spoken answers, feel the stress rising, and prepare your response. These sites often have videos to watch, question banks to practice with, and other drills to put you through (like mental math exercises). They also have interview coaches for specific roles/companies - so if you want to do a one-hour interview practice session to prep for your dream interview, you can sign up. What the sites can’t really offer? Personalized assistance with your entire search. 

Top 2 Tech Interview Practice Sites I recommend for non-coders

• Exponent

  • Site Navigation: There is a lot going on on the Exponent site! While it’s relatively easy to find what you need, I do sometimes feel that there is a lot for me to have to review visually that could be better organized on the site. 

  • Content focus: Exponent straddles the line between technical and non-technical interview prep, which makes sense as tech companies have a lot of roles that exist in the in-between (or are quasi-technical). 

  • Roles: good for Technical Product Manager; Product Design; Technical Program Manager roles

  • Course Modules: There is a plethora of courses on specific roles (ie Complete PM Interview Course) to company-specific ones (ie Amazon Interview Course) to specific question types (ie Estimation Questions). 

  • Pricing: 

    • Monthly: $79/month for access to all modules

    • Annual: and if you purchase an annual subscription, it’s $12/month - or $144 for the year. 

    • There is a coaching marketplace and you can add one or more sessions.  

    • Need a discount? Exponent uses an inclusive pricing app called Affordably to instantly calculate an income-based discount and verify it based on your current salary. 

  • Note: if you sign up, use my referral link - and know that if you sign up via my link, I get a tiny bit of credit for that referral. 

• Rocketblocks

  • Site Navigation: It has a very simple design and is easy to navigate. There is a place for signed-in users to keep track of your notes. 

  • Content focus: RB has great free ‘Getting Started’ guides for Product Management, Behavioral Interviews, Product Marketing, and Strategy & BizOps.   

  • Roles: good for Strategy/BizOps and Non-Tech Program Manager roles; non-Technical Product Managers I’ve worked with are split on whether RB or Exponent is better for that role’s prep. 

  • Course Modules: Behavioral; Product Management; Product Marketing; Strategy & BizOps; Analytics (they also have a Consulting module)

  • Pricing: They have monthly or annual pricing. Every plan starts with a 7-day free trial. 

    • Monthly: One module is $35 per month, two modules is $55 per month. Each additional module is $15 per month. 

    • Yearly: One module is $155 per year, two modules is $240 per year. Each additional module is $35 per year. 

    • Members have the ability to book coaches at $200/hour.

• Other Sites to Check Out

  • Product Management Exercises

  • StellarPeers 

Get My List of Intro Tech & Startup Interview Questions

(Photo credit @glenncarstenspeters)

Once you have grasped the basics of answering Level 1 Tech Interview questions, you are ready to start tackling Level 2 Tech & Startup Interview questions. 

Remember, each candidate is different - don’t worry if you are having trouble with developing your answers - that is why practice and preparation are important! And if you are moving quickly through this prep, that shows you have already done a lot of work and should feel confident in how you will show up at your interview. 

For many of these questions, you will continue to use the STAR framework that we covered before, but your answers will start to become even more tech-specific. You will also start to see how some of these behavioral questions can morph into the hypothetical/scenario/case questions, where you are being asked to help solve a problem or make a recommendation, based on the scenario prompt you are provided. Really good tech interviewers know how to listen to your interview answers and develop interview scenario questions on the fly. 

This all goes back to the main point: tech interviewers are trying to balance experience with potential. Past experience can help show that you will do well in tackling their current company challenges, but assessing your potential in how you might solve their future unknown challenges is the real goal. And it’s tricky as hell to assess potential. 

Over the years, I’ve collected many real interview questions from my clients, as well as developed my own set of interview questions that I use for mock or practice interviews. And I’m happy to share those questions with you here!

⭐ Click here to access the Level 2: List of Intro Tech & Startup Questions. ⭐

➡️ BONUS 1:  In the download above, I’ve included info about my 2x2 Product Matrix, a framework trick that can help you to prepare for basic product/company questions, regardless of what role you are interviewing for. Tech companies expect candidates to have done some research in advance about the tech industry, and this matrix gives you a structured way to start doing that research.

➡️ BONUS 2: I’ve also developed a list of startup-specific interview questions that will help you understand the different types of answers that a startup may be looking for, as compared to a large tech company. I’ll share the link to these in the same document with my Intro Tech Questions, so sign up today!