Practicing Behavioral Interview Responses Effectively

Friends, many people seek advice for interviews. You'll discover your own method, which is ultimately the best, but here is my guidance based on receiving and accepting four offers from Amazon and conducting nearly 200 Amazon interviews myself. Attached is the Amazon "one sheet" I created for myself. More on this later. It's fully applicable to interviews beyond Amazon as well. First, be authentic and humble. Honesty and acknowledging both strengths and weaknesses are irreplaceable, as people can easily detect insincerity. Second, understand the company and the role for which you are applying. Many applicants fail to demonstrate a convincing passion and suitability for their chosen role. Being non-traditional is fine, but your application shouldn't seem vague or general. Third, have over 30 examples of impactful situations, whether related to Amazon's Leadership Principles (LPs) or general stories, that follow the STAR format. Ensure each story (S+T) clearly illustrates what you (not others) did (A) and the outcomes (R), including metrics if possible. Incorporate layers of thoughtfulness, such as scalability and lessons learned. Fourth, create a one-pager that organizes your preparation and serves as a reference during live interviews. As mentioned above, I've attached the actual edited (with brackets for confidentiality) one-pager I used for my Amazon interviews. I prepared three stories for each LP (42 in total), since interviewers value unique stories and it's uncertain which LPs will be discussed. I prepared three questions for the interviewer, incorporating topics throughout the job process. I crafted a four-point, 60-second summary of my resume, and a 5-minute version, as many candidates overly extend their background discussions. I also practiced delivering every LP response within five minutes, aware that people often extend their answers during the actual interview and in anticipation of follow-up questions. I prepared specific examples of successes in team/stakeholder management. For each past job, I outlined 3-6 examples of impact, serving as backups for LP stories. I noted my interests for the job I'm applying for. In this case, for my ultimate passion for games at Amazon, I went further and listed expertise in games, collectibles, non-endemics, and specific account and platform ideas. Outside of Amazon, prepare 30-40+ general anecdotes and you can make categories for different areas of impact you anticipate wanting to highlight or that they will ask about. I found this one-pager to be an optimal tool for motivation and structuring my preparation. It may seem excessive, but it worked for me, and you'll find what works for you. Given virtual interviews, having a "cheat sheet" seems even more sensible. You can find this reference sheet within resource 9 of 10 ("Career Job Pack") on my LinkedIn profile page, under the 10 video game career resources. I hope this helps, and I wish you the best of luck in all your interviews.

She kept freezing in interviews. Not because she was unqualified. Not because she was bad at interviews. But because her brain wasn’t trained to retrieve. It was trained to recognize. Here’s the difference: ➤ Recognition = “I know it when I see it.” ➤ Recall = “Say it now. Out loud. With no cue.” And interviews? They demand recall under pressure. When we started working together, she had prepared for interviews by: – Reviewing her resume – Highlighting buzzwords – Memorizing her answers But when it was go time? She blanked. Or spiraled. Or skipped the actual point and never made it past the 2nd or 3rd round. It wasn’t a confidence issue. It was a cognitive mismatch. So we changed how she prepped. We used a method called retrieval practice. And we trained her to tell each story in multiple ways: ➤ Concise version for rapid-fire questions ➤ Context-heavy version for behavioral interviews ➤ Values-first version for leadership rounds Each rep stretched her brain’s ability to access and flex her answers without relying on scripts. Within 2.5 weeks, she went from freezing to landing 2 final rounds. Because this time, she wasn’t trying to remember. She had trained her brain to retrieve, adapt, and respond. If you keep freezing in interviews, it may not be nerves. It may be that your prep method is training the wrong muscle. Train recall. Practice variations. Build fluency under pressure. ____________________ And if we haven't met...Hi, I’m Erica Rivera, CPCC, CPRW I help people take everything they’ve done, & say it in a way that lands offers. Let’s stop downplaying your value. You deserve a role that reflects your experience, and pays you like it.

𝗣𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗲, 𝗣𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗲, 𝗣𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗲 𝗕𝗲𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗻 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄 Ask any major league baseball player and they'll tell you to be successful at the plate takes hours of batting practice. The same applies to interviews. Answering interview questions successfully takes hours of practice. You may think you can go into an #interview and wing it, but times have changed. Like today's major league pitchers, interviewers have more pitches (questions) in their arsenal. Traditional questions like, "What is your greatest weakness,?" "Why should we hire you?" and "What would your former boss say about you?" have been replaced by more difficult questions. When I conduct mock interviews, I mainly ask behavioral-based questions because they tell me more about the candidate. Instead of the lame weakness question, I'll ask, "Can you tell me about a time when you were unorganized and as a result you failed to complete an assignment." The weakness I'm trying to discover is disorganization. If the candidate says they can't remember a time, I discover another weakness; lack of self-awareness. How do you know if a question about organization will be asked? Read the job ad carefully, and if one of the required skills is organization, expect questions to be asked about it. Then practice answering a couple of questions about when you have succeeded in an important skill, as well as when you've failed in demonstrating the important skill. How can you practice? ① Read the job ad to determine which are the most important skills and requirements. ② Write the questions you predict will asked. ③ Write the answers to the questions. ④ Rehearse answering without sounding canned. ⑤ Go a step further and have a friend, neighbor, and/or job coach ask the predicted questions and critique your answers. ⑥ The best way to practice answering interview questions is to participate in a mock interview offered by a trained interview coach like the volunteers for Candorful, an organization that provides this service for Veterans and their spouses. #InterviewTips #JobSearch #LinkedInUnleashed

This is how I passed every behavioral and phone interview I’ve ever done. I do a 3 step process that’s really easy, it just takes time and effort. Here it is: I make a Google Doc and write out all the questions I expect to be asked and answer them ahead of time. For example: "Tell me about yourself?" "Why this company?" "What experience do you have related to this role?" "Tell me about some projects you have made?" Then I google the most common behavioral questions and I list those out in my document and answer them. For example: "What is your greatest weakness?"  "What is your greatest accomplishment?" "Tell me about a time you had a conflict at work?" I then search the company name and role on Glassdoor to find questions people have already been asked at that company, and list all of those down and answer them too. Once you have all the questions you want to practice answered, I suggest doing a mock interview with a friend where they will ask the questions out loud. You will stumble and forget your answers from time to time, and that's the important part. In a real interview you probably won't remember most of your answers due to nerves, so the answers aren't actually there for memorization, but to give guidance on topics you can talk about and some foundation for anything you can be asked. After doing this preparation many times for interviews I don't feel pressure anymore, and I always go into the interviews confident that no question will throw me off because I've already prepared for each scenario. I hope this helped!  And if you’re a student trying to break into tech, follow for more tips.