
FAANG hiring managers share how to answer behavioral interview questions - sjunlee
https://www.beseen.com/blog/talent/faang-managers-answer-interview-questions/
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mewpmewp2
As someone who has social anxiety and depression I don't think I can be honest
with a lot of these questions. My real weakness would be inability to connect
with people and constant fear of doing something wrong or being terrible at
what I do.

I usually think up some random weaknesses that I consider irrelevant and speak
about those just to prove that I can be self aware.

Also I think very big portion what I am saying is bullshit because I don't
even particularly remember a lot of the details of the stories that would
match those questions. So I have to come up with new stories or think up
details for the stories I don't quite remember.

I passed Amazon interview process and all the other behavioral interviews I
have ever attended so I must be doing something right despite my constant
feeling of terror and anxiety.

I do think that I want to find a completely remote job now, I hate being in
the office around people and I feel so much better when I can work from home.
However I am afraid this might worsen the issue since I am not putting myself
out there. But it doesn't seem to me as if putting myself out there has also
helped my anxiety.

~~~
barry-cotter
> As someone who has social anxiety and depression I don't think I can be
> honest with a lot of these questions.

You’re not supposed to be honest. No one expects you to be honest. Everyone
knows everyone knows it’s a game. It’s like the algorithm and data structure
interview; it shows preparation and intelligence to be able to answer the
questions well, whether your answers are based on a real event or pure
fiction. If you can pretend to be a fantastic hire with lots of preparation
there’s a reasonable chance you can actually show decent judgment if hired.

~~~
6gvONxR4sf7o
>No one expects you to be honest.

From OP:

>What’s your weakness?

>“Please don’t take the Michael Scott approach and turn this into a backhanded
compliment (‘My biggest weakness is that I care too much’). I’d highly
recommend giving an honest answer, and one that is as specific as possible and
not handwavy.

Some people believe in this B.S.

~~~
mewpmewp2
I remember the quote by Michael Scott when he said that sometimes he starts
the sentence unsure of what he is going to say and that he hopes to find out
along the way. I can definitely relate to this one during interviews.
Especially since it is recommended not to pause and think for too long.

It is actually quite often I can relate to Mr. Scott I can't help but to feel
entirely sympathetic towards him.

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allovernow
>Please don’t take the Michael Scott approach and turn this into a backhanded
compliment (‘My biggest weakness is that I care too much’). I’d highly
recommend giving an honest answer, and one that is as specific as possible and
not handwavy. This shows that you’re self-aware and are able to independently
identify areas for personal growth

I disagree. People should be aware of the downsides to their strengths when
they exist. One can be very creative but with the cost of a very scattered
focus. One can drill down extremely deeply on problems but have trouble
knowing when to move on.

Then again I think this whole exercise in telling people what managers want to
hear in an interview is pointless, subjective ego masturbation.

What if your greatest weakness comes off as a false red flag? What if you know
there's a high likelihood that they'll take it as such even though you're an
above average fit for the position? Of course the manager wants an honest
answer - this is the ideal answer from the manager's perspective, but piss
poor advice for a candidate. Personally, I can't imagine putting an
interviewee on the spot like that for such a poor, noisy signal.

~~~
fg6hr
This question sends a message "I'm a boss, you're a rank-and-file employee.
Now, when we've made it clear, do a little self shaming."

Imagine addressing this question to a senior lawyer that you need to sort out
some complicated situation. I guess, the lawyer would be first stunned for a
second and then insulted that he's being treated like a kid.

~~~
joshuamorton
Would they? Lots of law firms advertise when not to use them, and will often
refer you to other, better options.

~~~
6gvONxR4sf7o
But you don't go to a lawyer and ask what they don't do. You ask whether they
can solve your specific problem.

~~~
joshuamorton
And you don't (often) hire full-time employees to solve a specific problem.
They may work in a domain, but you don't hire someone to solve a specific
problem.

------
wwweston
"What's your biggest weakness?"

"Well, I tend to think about things that may be interesting and even have
implications for work at hand for a given organization, but may turn out to be
impolitic. For example: to what degree do behavioral interview questions
either _resemble_ on the job activity, or _correlate_ with performance? If
that degree is small, what's the real function of behavioral interview
questions? Now, I'm sure you'll agree, that's an interesting question, maybe
even one that could be used to generate productive insights for the right
company. But on the other hand, it may not be very well directed to my
immediate interests and goals -- there may be a much more productive answer
that's more likely to result in concrete positives, like a job offer. So, you
know, probably something for me to work on."

(This supersedes my previous nose-thumbing answer, which was "Fire.")

~~~
Supermancho
I appreciate the thought you have put into this. I'm open and honest, which
means it took me a long time to get into a very senior position, where it's
looked on as a strength while rank-and-file are punished to this day.

------
yibg
I've done my share of interviews at FAANG companies, on both sides of the
table, and I haven't encountered most of these questions except "Tell me about
a project you worked on". At least not with enough frequency for them to stick
out. Some times recruiters will ask about why I'm leaving my current company
but that's about it. They usually don't show up in the loops.

------
shaggyfrog
Hearing “What’s your biggest weakness?” from an interviewer should be a strong
red flag for a candidate that they don’t know what they’re doing.

Not only is it a manipulative question, the response is basically meaningless
if the candidate knows the game, because you’ll get back a scripted answer.
Those who don’t know the game and answer honestly will only hurt their chances
at getting the job.

The only question I think it worse is “what would your former manager say
about you?”

~~~
tigen
What's funny is apparently these managers know and want a scripted
("rehearsed") answer. It's a mating dance.

~~~
keyboardbarista
In my experience they don't. They want to know if you're a reasonable, self-
aware person who can communicate effectively.

Let's say you name a reasonable weakness that can easily be improved upon and
that doesn't spell disaster for your ability to do your job. And let's say
they reject you.

Either they're a terrible company to work for, or they have a huge mistake in
their interview process. In the former case you don't want to work for a
terrible company, so great, they just saved you years of pain. In the latter
case, hey, mistakes happen. That's out of your control. Life is random
sometimes. Besides, it's highly unlikely to be significant enough to tank your
entire interview.

~~~
detaro
> _Let 's say you name a reasonable weakness that can easily be improved upon
> and that doesn't spell disaster for your ability to do your job._

To the recipient, that is equally likely the rehearsed answer, because from
high school on your told to think of one to reply to that question that fits
into what your interviewer probably thinks is reasonable.

And there's the entire thing where some people answering truthfully would tell
the interviewer things the interviewer isn't legally allowed to ask about,
which is always a lovely strategy for running an interview.

~~~
keyboardbarista
The stereotypical rehearsed answer is the Michael Scott one, where you dodge
the question by actually naming a strength and pretending it's a weakness.

In my experience working at places full of smart, talented, ambitious people
looking to fill a role with a similar caliber of person: don't do that.

~~~
username90
Most people knows that you should give a "real" but insignificant weakness
just as you said you wanted in the previous post instead of non-weaknesses. If
you don't think that people have practiced such answers and carefully picked
their "weakness" then you are ignorant.

------
pikklemonster
Mostly these aren't really behavioral interview questions.

Behavioral interview questions typically sound something like "tell me about a
time when you..."

There's lots of value in a real, well crafted behavioral interview question,
but most of these examples are just run-of-the-mill low-value interview
questions.

~~~
mewpmewp2
Tell me about the time questions still make me think up bullshit answers as I
have to adapt my existing stories to the question etc. I also don't have the
best memory so I have to think up some details and sometimes I just say
something plain wrong by mistake and I have to keep going with it in order to
save face. I do feel like a Michael Scott actually.

------
throwawayrj
I wish somebody also tells the Giant eCommerce retailer's leadership
principles interview. That one is the weirdest interviews I have ever attended
to this date and I am confident nothing else can top that.

The HR emphasised a lot on preparing those 12 leadership principles and how it
is really important for succeeding there. I walked into a room where a person
on the other end of video conferencing started pounding me "tell me about a
time" questions and whenever I started answering something genuine, he stopped
me and said "No, No, No, you are supposed to answer from one of the 12 points
that our dear lord CEO likes".

It honestly felt like a cult.

------
fg6hr
Rather than studying how to be a good doormat (oh, I meant, how to master the
behavioral interviews), it's a much better use of time to read the G. Morgan's
"Images of Organization".

~~~
mewpmewp2
Could you elaborate further about the book and why it is good. Will it help me
earn more money?

------
pugworthy
I would roll my eyes if I heard some of these answers

------
keyboardbarista
There's so much cynicism from a subset of the HN crowd every time something
interview-related like this is posted. Some of that cynicism is warranted,
sure, but not in this case.

I'll keep it real: These aren't trick questions. They're simple, fair, and
easy questions, and as such they're a good way to filter out people who have
atrocious communication skills, or who possess mediocre theory of mind
abilities, i.e. you can't put yourself in someone else's shoes and empathize
with what they're looking for. If you find these questions particularly
difficult, consider the strong possibility that you're lacking here.

"What's your biggest weakness?" This one is so simple it hurts: _sincerely and
honestly state a reasonable weakness._ For example, "I've spent lots of time
working solo, so while I've learned how to wear many hats, I don't have much
experience working as part of a team." If you have terrible weaknesses that
can't be overcome and would seriously impair your ability to do the job, you
probably shouldn't be hired anyway. If you're completely unable to list any of
your own shortcomings, then you lack self awareness.

The desire to lie and talk about a fake shortcoming often comes from a
scarcity mindset: "I need this job so badly that I'll say anything they want
to hear. I need to be perfect!" No, in most cases you don't. And if your
interviewer is so unreasonable as to expect you to be flawless, is that
someone you really want to work for? There are other jobs in the sea, keep
looking.

"Tell me about a project you worked on." I couldn't agree more with what the
person in the article said. Talk about YOUR contributions. The company is
trying to hire YOU. What did YOU do? How did you do it, and why did it matter?
Again, this is about communication. If you have a halfway decent theory of
mind, it should be obvious what an employer would want to hear from you when
you answer this question. Demonstrate your technical depth. Show that you're
aware of and care about the impact your role has on the company's higher-level
goals. That you can take initiative, drive things to completion, lead, execute
quickly, handle complexity, learn over time, and make good decisions.

"Why do you want to leave your company?" People leave jobs. It's a fact of
life. If you can't explain why you left, you seem clueless or even dodgy.
Obviously if the job was still amazing for you, you'd still be there, so I
can't agree with the article's advice to never mention anything negative. Just
tell the truth, communicate it effectively, and address potential concerns.
For example, if there were interpersonal issues, don't just dwell on those --
compare to other jobs you've had in the past where you've been able to work
well with others together, and stress how important it is to you to work in an
environment where people can communicate well, have good intentions, and
support each other.

These questions just aren't that hard, and unless you have a seriously flawed
track record, you don't have to be dishonest to give great answers. More
importantly, those answers should be a reflection of YOURSELF. If a company
doesn't like you, chances are you wouldn't like them. It's like dating. The
goal is not to be a match with 100% of people. Just be your best self.

Corollary: If there's a test that you find particularly hard to pass in life,
your knee-jerk reaction will always be to criticize the test. But it's
important to consider your own potential shortcomings and ask, "Why is this
test so hard for me?" That way lies self improvement.

~~~
username90
> "I've spent lots of time working solo, so while I've learned how to wear
> many hats, I don't have much experience working as part of a team."

That is a carefully rehearsed answer making the weakness look fixable instead
of being serious weakness.

> sincerely and honestly state a reasonable weakness.

No, the question was "what's your biggest weakness", the "I haven't practiced
doing this kind of work" is not a big weakness, everyone have bigger
weaknesses than that due to their personality.

An honest answer would be "I am much slower learning technical things than my
peers" or "I am competitive so I often come in conflict with my peers" or "I
am afraid of conflict so I have a hard time making decisions" or "I get bored
easily so I have a hard time finishing things" or "I constantly wear a mask so
people never learn to know the real me" or "I don't like being proven wrong"
or "I judge peoples competence by how much I like them rather than what they
actually do" etc.

There is not a single person who doesn't have one weakness like that since
many of them are a spectrum where no position is good. The "correct" answer is
of course like you said, you give an easily fixable weakness like "I don't
fully understand how deployment pipelines work since someone else did most of
the work where I worked previously". But such answers are so easy to come up
with, and are guaranteed not to be their biggest weakness, so you are
basically checking whether they are fine with lying or lack self awareness.

~~~
keyboardbarista
_> That is a carefully rehearsed answer making the weakness look fixable
instead of being serious weakness._

First, there's absolutely nothing wrong with rehearsing your answers to common
questions like this. If anything it allows you to present yourself in the best
light, which every interviewer wants. Nothing is worse than turning down a
good candidate who performed poorly because they didn't take the interview
seriously.

Second, I literally thought of that answer off the top of my head in a few
seconds. It wasn't actually rehearsed. I don't mean this to sound arrogant.
There are many millions of others who can do the same -- think on their feet,
take the interviewer's desires into account, and come up with a great answer.
Some of these people will be interviewing at the same places as you. It's
important to know that there is a wide range of communication abilities, just
like there is a wide range of programming abilities.

 _> No, the question was "what's your biggest weakness", the "I haven't
practiced doing this kind of work" is not a big weakness, everyone have bigger
weaknesses than that due to their personality… such answers are so easy to
come up with, and are guaranteed not to be their biggest weakness, so you are
basically checking whether they are fine with lying or lack self awareness_

This is splitting hairs. A reasonable person won't expect you riff through all
your weaknesses to literally find the _biggest_ one. They just want to hear
something that's not too trivial.

I can confident assert that the best communicators would instantly be aware of
this when posed the question in an interview. I know a lot of engineers
(myself included) who have a higher-than-normal-or-useful tendency to take
things as literally as possible, as if every sentence is a spec, which makes
us (relatively) poor or at least awkward communicators.

 _> An honest answer would be "I am much slower learning technical things than
my peers" or "I am competitive so I often come in conflict with my peers" or
"I am afraid of conflict so I have a hard time making decisions" or "I get
bored easily so I have a hard time finishing things" or "I constantly wear a
mask so people never learn to know the real me" or "I don't like being proven
wrong" or "I judge peoples competence by how much I like them rather than what
they actually do" etc._

Sure, and you could totally go that route if you want to. And ideally you'd go
a step further, demonstrate that whatever trait you list is actually innate in
humans, and that it's taken you work to be aware of it and work on it.

------
gsich
GMAFIA not FAANG. Why is Netflix in that list?

~~~
punchclockhero
Makes the acronym less offensive.

~~~
gsich
Well it's not offensive in the first place.

------
asdfq1234
break up these rancid companies

