# Behavioral Question Set 3

## Tell me a bit about your professional experience in 2-3 minutes

* This question will allow you to get an initial sense of your peer’s technical experience.
* Feel free to ask follow-up questions, for instance, can you elaborate a bit more on your experience with [specific technology] or your responsibilities at [company]? You can also use this opportunity to ask the candidate which of their experiences had the greatest impact on them.

## What are you looking for in your next role

* This is an opportunity to get insight into whether a candidate would be a good culture fit for your company. Is the candidate looking for a company of your size? Do their expectations match the role?

## What’s an example of a difficult technical problem you solved? Be specific about how the problem was diagnosed and your process for approaching it

* Owner vs participant: Many candidates will claim they led a big project or created significant impact, but if you dig deeper, you’ll find that the candidate only played a participatory role or was involved in just one facet of the project. As an interviewer, it’s your role to uncover the truth. Follow-up questions asking about who was involved, what the candidate personally did, and how they did it will help you make an informed decision about the candidate’s true impact.
* Good vs great achievements: Many candidates are good at quantifying their achievements, but you’ll want to know how big of an impact this achievement actually had. Was it a minor success or did it have a significant impact? Were the results due to the candidate’s impact, or would those results have likely occurred without their involvement? You may consider asking follow-up questions here too: try to drill down into the baseline metrics used, such as “What were the projected metrics had you not made this decision?”

## What is the most constructive feedback you have received recently

* This question helps you evaluate how self-aware the candidate is about their personal/professional experience and competencies. In addition, it also helps show whether the candidate is able to receive feedback and what they’ve done to act on the feedback.

## Tell me about a time when you failed at a project. How did you try to avoid failure? What did that experience teach you

* This question is trying to get at the candidate’s ability to be self-aware and retrospectively self-critical. The best answers are those that indicate both their thought process that led to the failure, the tradeoffs, and what they learned from the experience.
* Remember that just because the candidate made an error, it doesn’t mean that they were being negligent – learning from one’s mistakes is a central element for a growth opportunity.

## If you were in charge of picking projects for your company, what problem would you try to solve

* This question is trying to get at the candidate’s critical thinking about problems beyond their personal role at the company.