Long read, sorry. 2 YOE. Applied for role of Frontend Developer 2. I cleared the technical rounds at the aforementioned companies. All of these companies value their engineering culture a lot, which I do appreciate and am especially pursuing jobs at these kind of companies. The behavioral rounds were taken by senior people working as Tech Lead/EM. The questions in all 4 companies were more or less along the same lines. About usual workplace situations and common work related scenarios, and I had to explain what my general approach would be to resolve it, and examples from my own work experience detailing how I dealt with that scenario and what my learnings were from it (major production bugs, direct interaction with customers, most challenging tasks, dealing with constructive criticism, PR reviews and how to deal with disagreements there, building something on vague instructions, prioritising tasks, why do you want to join X etc). I have encountered almost all of those situations personally at my job, and answered in what I thought was a practical and good way to deal with the situation. I did not talk with negativity about any past experience, instead reflected on my mistakes and mostly focusing on prevention of the issues which are avoidable in the future. I was honest about why I liked the companies and wanted to join, I wasn't being insincere or superficial in any of the answers but I understand it can come off differently based on the way I communicate. I was polite and there were no interruptions when either person was speaking from both sides. All 4 interviewers were nice and helpful, not a bit condescending or uninterested in listening to what I had to say. They all seemed very very experienced and good at judging how well the person would fit in the team, I am saying based on the impression I got from talking to them. So I understand something is gravely wrong with me. I've kind of reached my breaking point because I prepared very hard for the coding/assignment rounds and unexpectedly cleared not 1 or 2, but all 4 and then couldn't clear these rounds. I needed advice from people who've given or taken these sort of interviews on how to prepare for the behavioral round and also how to rectify the way I approach things at workplace in general, so that what they're looking for is naturally my behaviour to begin with, it's not possible to fool such experienced people nor do I want to try, because I want to actually fit into the team and culture. I would also be very grateful if someone could guess and point out what I might be saying wrong in the interviews, like the common mistakes inexperienced people such as me are likely to make. Thanks.
Having failed multiple interviews all i can say is its good to introspect but move on from it quickly. There are factors beyond your control. So prepare hard and then try again. Keep the conversation flowing in interview even if you think you have given an answer try to followup with more details, try to get feedback by saying “does this make sense?”. Share your story and experience with examples. Other than Microsoft i haven’t heard a proper feedback post interviews for the companies i have interviewed with recently.
About the feedback, I reckon the recruiters didn't want to seem rude, so they weren't very forthcoming in my case. I've failed multiple interviews and generally know what I did wrong in coding rounds. But for behavioural rounds it's very hard to pinpoint. I don't want to move on because I want to understand what I'm doing so wrong that all these companies together rejected me in Behavioural rounds. These factors seemed to be in my hands though, in coding rounds they might ask you some obscure LC hard, that's luck. Here it was basic situational questions. Thanks for the advice about the conversation, I'll follow through on that. Still, I felt it was more of the content of what I was saying rather than not talking more.
These days behavioral interviews have become quite common, even for junior roles. It requires preparation - figuring out stories from your past experience, knowing the right things to say and being succinct. All this can be improved. Let me know if you need help preparing. I have a behavioural coaching practice. DM if you want.
Op, use paragraphs!
One of the very prominent once after few years of experience in Industry is accepting everything and not questioning the status Quo. Subconsciously this builds up because there are companies out there that expect such behaviour. Can you share what things you shared regarding mistakes?
That's an intriguing insight. Thanks for sharing. They were more likely looking for team players who can drive big projects on their own if need be, not really conforming robots, but yeah, that's the case in several companies.
Hard to advice without specific questions and answers. But if you speak in the same way you write, it seems there are lot of vectors going on your mind at the same time without a clear organization on delivering the message. If that is true, maybe work on it.
Hi. Would you mind if I PM you?
Sure, no problem