No one wants to spend weeks writing answers to use in their interview.
BUT. I’ve had many clients come to me with 5 or 6 answers ready, and then when we start practicing it’s obvious they aren’t going to be able to cover all the questions with just those answers.
In order to get through all of your interviews - or even just one interview - you should have 15-30 stories.
Yes, I said 15-30.
How many questions will I get asked per interview?
Interviews have more than one type of question. They’ll usually begin with some small talk, and then one or more of the intro questions like “Tell me about yourself” and “Why do you want to work here?” Then they may ask you questions about your experience. They can do this by asking straightforward questions - “Do you know Java?” - or asking behavioral questions - “Tell me about a time you used Java to solve a problem.”
Behavioral questions require stories as answers, so they can’t ask too many in 1 hour. You will usually get 2-6 of them in 1 hour.
If you’re only being interviewed by one person, then you’ll just have those questions - but if you’re being interviewed by more than one person you’ll have that number in each hour. And you shouldn’t repeat your answers.
How many questions will I get in an Amazon interview?
You’ll have a few different types of interviews in the Amazon series.
You may talk to a recruiter first, and they’ll ask you a few intro questions, a few technical questions (or job-related skills questions if it’s not a technical job), and maybe 1 or 2 behavioral questions.
If you have a technical interview, that will be about 80-85% technical questions, and then some intro and a few behavioral.
The other interviews, which are usually called “behavioral,” can be with the hiring manager, a future peer, or someone else, and will be a mix of intro, job-related skill questions, and behavioral questions. In a 1 hour interview, you will usually get between 2-6 behavioral questions.
That doesn’t sound like that many in 1 hour, but like I said earlier, you shouldn’t repeat between interviewers or in the same hour, because they take notes on what you say.
How can I prepare for my interview quickly?
You’re asking me to prepare at least 15 stories - that’s going to take me a long time. Isn’t there a faster way?
Start with the job description. Use the job description for clues to help you predict the questions.
Once you’ve made a list of potential questions you might get asked by looking at the job description, start creating answers. For each question on your list, brainstorm as many stories as you can that would be a good story.
Where to get ideas for your stories:
Look through your old files or emails.
Ask past colleagues about past projects.
Ask past colleagues what they think you did well.
Look through your old performance reports.
Look at your resume – if you wrote it correctly, you’ll have your past projects and successes written on it.
Success and failures:
Think of things that happened in the past in terms of accomplishments. What successes did you have? Once you’ve written down the major ones, think of anymore, even if they weren’t quite as substantial.
Hints to help you think of accomplishments or failures:
Did you think of an idea that got used?
Were you creative in some way?
Did you show leadership?
Did you set a goal and accomplish it?
Prompts you can use to think of details:
Where was I when this happened? Where was I working? Who did I work for or with?
What was the situation? What was I doing related to the situation?
How did I feel? Was I stressed? Was I happy?
What actions did I take? Why did I do this?
What happened in the end? Did I learn something from this?
Get some feedback
Once you have some of your stories ready, the fastest way to make sure you’re ready is to practice with someone. Do a mock interview with a friend or schedule a coaching session with me.
