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Faced this weird behaviour from Optum recently. Gave interview for Data Scientist position. HR said feedback is positive. Asked for documents. It's been month now since I have shared the documents. I have no update on the offer. Today I called HR, she called me back saying the position is on hold due to recalibration in team, She has shared interview feedbacks to other teams and will get back to me in couple of days. I am clueless now. My last working day is approaching (In a month). Any Help??
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My problem is that while we are asked to be conversational and a good story teller these days, the STAR/SOAR methodologies and some consulting firms emphasize being brief and to the point. While I agree with the frameworks, the ask to be brief when you are naturally a story teller and to tell stories when your style is concise seem like fakery.
Why can’t every person have an authentic organic style, and as long as they engage the interviewee, it’s should be OK. That I think is true diversity.
OP I have the same issue, what I found to be helpful is that I wrote down stories for every project and tagged the behavioral questions it is addressing. You cannot prepare of questions as they are possibly 10000 of them, what you can prepare is a framework based on your stories to answer any of them.
I still struggle to answer these questions but I am getting there
OP can you tell us what those five questions were? Or what even the first one was.
The STAR method - there’s plenty online about it
You can't possibly memorize all possible answers to behaviorals. You remember the framework and think as you go. That said, I would maybe identify your top 3 stories you think would apply to behaviorals and get the core elements of the story down.
Well apparently yesterday’s interview didn’t go too bad. I made it to final round i learned today. But i def need to prepare for final rounds. The one over the phone i had notes prepared and my laptop in front of me. I get anxious when I’m just talking off the cuff. I’m a rambler.
Good luck OP.
Practice
Uhh practice before going into the interview
pick 5 stories from your experience that you can tell succinctly and get excited about.
look up sample behavioral questions and practice reframing one of those 5 questions ina way that you can address 20 or 30 questions.
i.e. tell me about a time where you handled pressure could also be tell me about a time you exceeded expectations or a time you had a difficult client/team member or a time you faced tight deadlines etc.
s. I know the basics. Looking for something more high quality. A framework.
Yes I’m familiar with the STAR method and usually wind up applying it in some sense. My issue is always landing on a scenario to answer their question. There could be a million ways to finish the question “Tell me about a time you...”. Fill in the blank. So i have to pause and collect my thoughts and it’s so awkward.
It’s not that i don’t have any experience with it- it’s that i go wayyy too deep because i get very excited about it. I want to tell them every nuance of the model and every twist and turn along the way and frankly i don’t think they care
Record yourself! It’s super awkward at first, but you’re able to see exactly how long you speak, your mannerisms, where you trail off, etc.
I did this all throughout college to prep for interviews - I’d google “behavioral questions” or have a friend ask me questions from my resume so I would learn how to think on my toes. For phone interviews, I’d only record sound to listen to the inflections in my voice (smiling while speaking makes a huge difference)
You’re also your own worst critic. If you’re happy with a recorded interview of yourself, I’m sure you will be great during the real thing
You can put a pseudo mental “framework” around how you tell stories or answer questions:
Provide 1-2 quick sentences describing the point. Lead with the outcome.
- Highlight or clarification 1
- Highlight or clarification 2
- Highlight or clarification 3
And then let the interviewer ask for clarification from there. You don’t need to always say exactly 3 things either. Force yourself to pick out what is most important to keep things concise. Your clarification points should not be longer than a natural sentence each. People have short attention spans
A couple of things.
1. If you don't tell me early on why I should care about your story, i won't care about your story. That's why one of the ways to approach STAR is actually by using RSTAR. for instance, "one key example of a difference of opinions with a manager happened last year, when I was ultimately able to get agreement on XYZ analysis which resulted in significant cost savings. So what happened was..."
2. Like other people said, the same story should be used to answer numerous questions. For me, a story about individual impact is also a story about getting buy-in from senior leadership, about having a conflict with a direct manager. about a heavy data analysis, and various others. I just highlight only the relevant portions of the story when I answer the question.
3. There aren't hundreds of unique questions. if you look up lists of behavioral questions, you'll see that the SKILL/COMPETENCY that is actually being asked about is often similar. And that's ultimately what you want to show. So you need to stop overthinking the specific question and instead get comfortable with identifying why the question is being asked and bringing in a story that addresses that while simply changing some key words to fit the question.
4. I personally prefer to practice with the PARADE method, but usually end up going towards some mash of that and STAR at interviews.
Great idea! Go from experience to stories!