Table of Contents

• Part 1 - Who This System Is For…

• Part 2 - What You Can Expect…

• Part 3 - All About First Round Interviews

• Part 4 - What to Expect in the First Round

• Part 5 - How to Prepare for Your First Round Inter …

  • Proven techniques to help you succeed

• Part 6 - Creating a Captivating Career Narrative

  • Rehearse your story out loud.

  • Practice with others

  • Boom!

• Part 6 - Remembering Past Projects

• Part 7 - Behavioural Interview Questions

  • Pure Questions

  • Situational Questions

  • Theoretical Questions

• Part 8 - Prepare Thoughtful Questions to Ask Your …

This course offers a focused and targeted approach to interview preparation that has helped numerous candidates secure their desired positions at leading companies such as Google, Meta, Uber, Airbnb, and others.

This guide gets straight to the point, with the goal of prepping you for the interview process in short order.

Part 1 - Who This System Is For…

Who is this course for?

• This course is for anyone with a first-round interview coming up.

• Whether you are feeling rusty, nervous, have failed before, or are already confident, this course will unlock your performance.

Will this prepare me for a technical screen?

• No, this course is not intended to teach you technical skills.

• However, it will teach you how to access detailed technical examples for behavioral questions, as well as effective communication around technical complexity and technical achievements.

Will this prepare me for 2nd or Final Round interviews?

• While some of what I teach in the guide will apply to final round interviews as well, this guide doesn't cover the role-specific questions that final round interviews tend to involve.

What if Iʼm having a hard time even getting a First Round Interview?

• If you are struggling to get a first round interview, it's usually a resume or career storytelling problem (or both). If so, the career narrative part of this course may help you tremendously.

• To match your career goals and strategy, you may need to engage a resume writer (like me) to convert your career story into a resume.

Part 2 - What You Can Expect…

You'll Enhance Your Interview Skills to:

• Understand Employers' and Interviewers' Goals: Knowing the WHY is key to unlocking what to do in any situation.

• Deliver a Strategic and Compelling Career Story in Less Than 2 Minutes: Master the two most common interview questions of all time.

• Tell Better Stories: Easily access high-resolution career stories that demonstrate your maximum capabilities without writing down hundreds of answers.

• Answer Any Behavioral Question: Respond to virtually any interview question thrown your way using a powerful and reliable response framework.

• Formulate Incisive, High-Signal Questions for Interviewers: Get valuable information and be memorable.

Plus:

• Gain a deeper understanding of first round interviews (the "Why") so that you can gracefully handle any situation that pops up, even the unscripted ones.

• Save time (you'll never again have to endlessly search the internet to prepare for a First Round Interview).

• Gain calm, cool confidence and be reminded of the true professional you are.

Agenda

1. The Why and What of first round interviews: What interviewers are looking for, logistics, questions, timing, formats, etc.

2. Strategies for Efficient, Effective Preparation: Quick Wins, Deep Dives.

3. Quick Wins in Less Than 10 Minutes.

4. "Tell Me About Yourself" and "Why Do You Want to Work Here?"

5. How to Prepare Stories in Advance (Without Writing Down Hundreds of Answers).

6. How to Answer Behavioural Questions (3 Types).

7. Formulating High-Value Questions for Interviewers.

Part 3 - All About First Round Interviews

Why companies have first round interviews

• Companies spend an incredible amount of resources, time, focus, etc. on interviews. (time, resources, focus, context switching).

• The first rounds of interviews are a cost-effective way (30 minutes to 1 hour) to assess whether candidates are a good fit for more in-depth second and third (or final) rounds of interviews.

What first round interviews cover

• A candidate’s surface level/preliminary suitability for the role

• They’re ways for recruiters and hiring managers to identify warning signs and positive signs

  • ⚠️ Warning signs: the candidate is not qualified, not interested, not available, not going to be happy (culture fit)

  • ✅ Positive signs: they’re qualified, are interested, and/or are a fit within the company culture

• Below, you’ll learn how to give off more positive signs and less warning signs during the first round interview.

What first rounds don’t include:

• Comprehensive assessments (employers can’t possibly assess all of a candidates skills against those expected of the job during the first round).

• Offers from the employer. Because companies can’t possibly fully assess a candidate during the first round, they also couldn’t possibly put in a well thought out offer. Companies that do make offers in the first round could be companies you don’t want to work for, because they’re not strategic and thoughtful about their talent.

Part 4 - What to Expect in the First Round

Who you will be interviewing with:

• Typically, you will be interviewing with either the hiring manager or someone who is knowledgeable about the role, such as a peer or someone who has previously held the position.

How long is a first round interview?

• First rounds are designed to gather a lot of information in a short amount of time (remember, the company is trying to be efficient during this stage). Most first rounds last between 30 minutes to 1 hour maximum.

Where are they held?

• Nowadays, video conferencing has become more popular, but first rounds can also be conducted over the phone or in the office, especially for on-site positions.

Typical First Round Interview Format

The typical format of a first round interview is as follows:

• 10% introduction,

• 20% questions from the candidate, and

• 70% questions from the interviewer.

For a 45-minute interview, this would look like:

• Introduction: 3-5 minutes

• Interviewer Questions: 35 minutes

• Candidate Questions: 5-7 minutes

Here are some common questions you can expect:

• The employer will be learning about your resume and digital presence on sites like LinkedIn and Twitter. They’ll be trying to determine if you are actually the person on the resume, and are actually qualified for the role. All publicly available information about you, whether it be on Facebook, a podcast, or YouTube, will be fair game here.

• Core competencies related to the role. Many of these will be behavioural questions (which will be covered in-depth later).

• Assessments of cultural fit: This could be a direct question about your values and career goals, or evaluating your behaviour in the interview. They can also be based on tone, body language, how you talk about past colleagues and managers.

Part 5 - How to Prepare for Your First Round Interview

To get through the first round, you need to do two things:

• Avoid giving off warning signs

• Try to give off as many positive indicators as possible

A quick snapshot of what’s covered later…

Proven techniques to help you succeed

Technique #1 Extract key info from the job description

Paste the Job Description below, then highlight key concepts, this is usually one per line (see Example job description parse below).

Why this is beneficial:

• By taking the time to identify key concepts and map them to your experiences, you’ll trick your brain to use their language to describe your past experiences.

• This subconsciously signals to the interviewer that you’re more qualified for the role.

In the workbook below, paste the JD and comb through it to identify key skills sought after by the employer. Then, think of how your own experiences could be aligned to those key skills.

When you don’t have experience in a certain skill, adopt a “growth mindset talking point”, which involves highlighting what you’ve done in the past that demonstrates how you could quickly learn the missing skill.

This will ensure that you don’t just say “no, I don’t have experience in X” if you’re asked during the interview, but rather, say something like “While I haven’t had the opportunity to work on X yet, I have taken some time to read about it and learn the current trends and challenges are when applying X”.

On a blank doc, copy and paste the job description, then map the items in the job description to matching experiences (see table below).

Mapping

Technique #2: Know What's on Your Resume and Digital Platforms

Sometimes when you haven’t revisited your resume in a while, it’s easy to forget important details, such as projects, tasks, and even achievements. This is a red flag that could easily be avoided.

Before every interview, refresh what’s on your resume.

• List your skills and level of proficiency. Make sure your skill levels match with what you’re saying during the interview. Discrepancies here are a major red flag.

• Mention the technologies and tools you are familiar with.

• Describe your past roles and projects.

• Highlight your accomplishments (especially numbers you share).

If there’s anything on your resume that’s shaky, it’s best to remove it before sending it out. If you need to, update your resume and send the updated copy to the recruiter before the interviewer.

Public content

Take some time now to review your publicly available digital content, and clean up or revise as needed to ensure that you're (1) prepared to talk about anything that's available and (2) presenting the professional brand that you desire.

You can use the list below as a checklist to track your progress.

✓ past projects & role responsibilities (resume & LinkedIn)

✓ stated accomplishments (resume & LinkedIn)

✓ technologies, tools, coding languages, infrastructure, products mentioned (resume & LinkedIn)

✓ listed skills (resume & LinkedIn)

✓ expertise-based posts (medium, substack, company blog, etc)

✓ podcasts

✓ interviews

✓ opinion pieces

Part 6 - Creating a Captivating Career Narrative

One of the most overlooked parts of the first round interview is learning how to tell a compelling story about yourself, which would essentially enable you to answer the two most common interview questions:

1. Tell me about yourself.

2. Why do you want to work here? Why should I hire you?

Why having a captivating narrative matters: Imagine yourself as the product and your career story as the pitch. You need to be able to sell yourself (the product) and get hired.

Why it's important

• When you want a role, it's tough to stand out from the crowd, and on the interviewer's side, it's difficult to determine who the best fit for the job is, and who’s actually interested. Interviewers have a tough time telling the difference between those that are interested in the job, and those that aren’t. A good career story addresses this problem by quickly demonstrating how interested and engaged you are.

• A solid career narrative can quickly demonstrate that you:

  • Are qualified (based on your past experience)

  • See this role as a strategic career move (builds on what you know, provides new and interesting learning opportunities, and will be engaging for you)

Your narrative should be both captivating and strategic

• Captivating: It should inspire and engage your audience. To do this, your story should be short and narrative driven.

• Strategic: It should demonstrate a progressive and deliberate career approach and explain how this new role moves you forward toward your career goal. It should also demonstrate why you took on your past roles, and why you moved on from them, from a strategic perspective.

Step 1: Reflect on your previous experiences

When considering your past jobs, ask yourself:

• What was your motivation for accepting the position? (a strategic and intellectual reason)

• What skills or knowledge did you acquire? (relevant to the skills or qualifications required for the job you are applying for)

• What prompted you to leave? (a strategic reason)

Here is an example of how this might be written out:

Armed with this data, you can create the past portion of your narrative.

Step Two: Craft a Forward-Thinking Narrative

When interviewing for a position, it is crucial to address the following points:

• How your previous experience will contribute to your success in this role (1-2 key points)

• What you hope to learn or achieve in this position (1-2 key points)

• How this position aligns with your career objectives (one key reason)

By answering these questions, you’re also answering the questions mentioned earlier:

• “Tell me about yourself”

• “Why do you want to work here?”

Here's what an example might look like.

Rehearse your story out loud.

Record yourself answering:

• “Tell me About Yourself” (using your Past Career Story)

• “Why do you want to work here?” (using your Future Career Story)

Tips

• Use video recording tools such as Zoom, Loom, or Quicktime to capture body language cues.

• After recording, assess yourself and identify areas for improvement.

• Rework the recording until you are satisfied, but avoid excessive revisions. More than 20 attempts can lead to diminishing returns and the risk of sounding bored during the interview.

Here’s how to score your performance…

Use these metrics to improve your performance during the job interview

• Time: Try to practice to a point where you can answer the questions in 5 minutes or less.

• Speed: Your voice and tone should sound normal. If it sounds like you’re fast forwarding, you’re speaking too fast. Key is to ensure it’s easy to follow.

• Content: Do the learnings from your previous jobs point directly to the requirements of the job you’re interviewing for?

Pro Tips

Focus on creating a good story first, then timing second.

For your Past Career Narrative

• 2 minutes or less if you’re entry to mid level (<10 years)

• 4 minutes or less if you’re senior (i.e., 10 years or more)

For your Future Career Narrative

• Aim for under 2 minutes.

Practice with others

Don’t do this before refining your pitch as noted in the step above.

Interviews are conducted with interactive, real people. It's important to involve others in your practice. Not only can they provide valuable feedback, but they may also help you find ways to enhance your story.

Boom!

You now have a strategic, compelling, and concise career story. This will allow you to answer the two most common interview questions of all time:

“Tell me about yourself”

“Why do you want to work here?”

Part 6 - Remembering Past Projects

It is crucial to recall and organize important details for the following reasons:

• During an interview, you will need to quickly access and present your most impactful career experiences in great detail. However, these memories may be difficult to access from your long-term memory on the spot.

• Solution: By calling up 3-5 of your most significant projects in an easily accessible memory storage area, or "cache," you will be able to recall them in high detail resolution.

How to Prepare

To prepare, follow these steps:

• Recall 3-5 of your most impressive projects with

  • Significant scope and budget

  • High complexity (from a business, people, technology perspective), and

  • Preferably where you took a leading role or one of the leads

• Choose projects that are no more than 5 years old to demonstrate relevance and to make them easier to remember. That’s because older projects are harder to recollect, so the further back a project is, the less details you’ll be able to call up. Also, recent jobs are typically the ones where you’ve handled the largest and most complex scopes (assuming you’ve had a progressive career).

• The reason why you want to talk about projects and career stories with the largest scopes and highest complexity is because you want to demonstrate your max capacity, as this will factor into the type of role you’re fitted to (i.e., will the company decide that you’re best suited for a assistant manager position vs. a senior manager position).

For each of the 3-5 projects/memories, you’ll need to address the following questions:

• Why the project was initiated? What was the business objective? What was the strategic driver?

• How you got involved? Was it your idea? Did you take it over after it was failing? New project?

• Other individuals involved? Core team? Clients? Project owners?

• Project success criteria?

• Major complexities? Why was it hard? Was it due to limited resources? New technologies?

• Project planning

• Project execution and success assurance (what did you do to ensure its success?)

• Issues that arose, including those related to people, technology, partners, environment, or unknowns.

• The results from a short-term, long-term, and strategic perspective. How did the project meet success criteria?

• Lessons learned. How did this move the company forward?

• Personal growth since the project's completion. What did you learn from this project?

It’s important to write these down somewhere, either on paper, or in a document. This will reinforce the details of the project in your memory and ensure you can recall those details sufficiently.

Part 7 - Behavioural Interview Questions

Why do employers use these types of questions?

• They allow candidates to provide answers based on their unique backgrounds.

• They are flexible and adaptable to any industry and position.

• They provide the interviewer with insight into how you handle challenges and get things done.

• They aim to predict how you would behave in the role.

• They are difficult to fake.

Behavioural interview questions are the most frequently asked type of question in interviews.

How do you quickly and effectively respond to behavioural interview questions? By following a formula!

Why?

• You have a very short period of time to build a shared understanding of your stories, to engage the interviewer, and to give them the highest context signal possible.

• To do this, you’ll need to learn repeatable, simple, effective response formulas that you can lean into, regardless of the specific question (or the level of your nerves!)

There are 3 types of behavioural questions:

Pure: These questions ask you to deep dive into a specific work experience. These are the most common types of behavioural questions.

Situational: These questions ask you to put yourself into a described situation.

Theoretical: These questions ask you about how you’d approach a problem, scenario, etc.

Pure Questions

Pure questions require you to delve deep into your past experiences and extrapolate how you’d behave in a particular role and work environment.

To spot pure questions, listen for canonical introductory phrases like:

• “Tell me about a time when...”

• “Walk me through an experience where..”

• “Share an example of...”

To respond to these types of questions, use the STAR++ method:

• Situation – establish what was happening at the time (strategic and business context, complexity, success criteria)

• Tasks – explain what you were responsible for in the situation (not just your job title)

• Action – what you did to solve the problem and deliver outcomes in the situation

• Result – the impact from a short term, long term, and strategic perspective (use numbers)

• PLUS – what you learned

• PLUS – how youʼve used those lessons learned since —or— what youʼd do differently if faced with the same situation today (given the learnings)

To become adept at these questions, you guessed it, you’ll need to practice.

• Record yourself

• Ask yourself three questions (refer to the ‣)

• Answer the question, then take a note of how long it took.

• Assess yourself after stepping away for at least 15 minutes.

• Use these metrics to improve your performance during the job interview

  • Tasks: did you describe your role specific to this project? Did it make sense?

  • Actions: did you share what you did to create a positive result? Did you avoid using ‘we’ (this isn’t about your team, it’s about you). Was it systematic? Easy to follow? Not too jargony or acronym-y?

  • Results: Did you take credit for both the short and long term results of your actions?

  • Learning: Did you share something that you learned?

  • Growth: Did you make it clear that you’re a living, learning, growth machine constantly iterating on your approach to become better every day?

  • Feeling: Do you feel inspired listening to yourself? Would you hire you? If not, what about your story needs to be more compelling? Different words? Tone?

  • Body language: How do you come across? What does your body language say about you? Are you timid or confident?

  • Time: For pure questions, keep it between 3 and 5 min.

  • Speed: Does it sound like you’re going to fast? Too slow?

Situational Questions

Situational questions place you into a realistic work scenario in order to help the interviewer understand how you gather data, what factors you consider, how you synthesize info, and how you prioritize your next steps. Any question that puts you into an imagined scenario is likely a situational question.

Your formula for situational questions:

1. Clarify – ask clarifying questions about the situation, until you feel you have a complete understanding of the situation and the major goals.

2. Synthesize – take time to think. come up with a list of 3-5 actions you would take (and why)

3. Outline – share this enumerated list with the interviewer, as an outline, donʼt dive into each item yet.

4. Expand – for each item in the list, share how you would actually do that in practice (details, tactics)

5. Check In – ask the interviewer if you missed anything or if there are areas they want to dive into more deeply. (if they do, keep at it!)

6. Summarize – paraphrase the question prompt and restate your outline. Be prepared for follow ups, ie “What would you do with more resources or time?

Remember, always practice to reach perfection. Gauge your performance by:

• Clarifying questions: did you ask enough clarifying questions to get to a reasonably scoped problem space? Should you have asked more? Less?

• Outline: Did your next 3-5 steps make sense? Were they reasonable? Were they the best 3-5 actions possible? Were they detailed enough for someone to visualize you in the role?

• Feeling: Did you feel inspired by your performance? Would you hire yourself for the role? If not, why?

• Body language: Did you seem confident? Curious? Nervous?

• Speed: Was it too slow? Too fast? Just right? Ensure you’re speech is easy to follow.

Theoretical Questions

Theoretical questions ask you about how you’d approach key parts of the job, in order to understand your methods, principles, preferences, and your thought processes.

Any question that asks you how you’d do [X] is likely a theoretical one.

Your formula for responding to theoretical questions

1. Zoom out — discuss “Why” it matters. show that you can see the big picture and why this activity or core skill is important.

2. Synthesize – take time to think come up with a list of 3-5 major factors or approaches you generally follow or take.

3. Outline – share this enumerated list with the interviewer, as an outline, donʼt dive into each item yet.

4. Expand – for each item in the list, share how you would actually do that in practice (details, tactics)

5. Exemplify — provide an example from your past work experience that illustrates the framework in action (use STAR++, STAR if short on time, TLDR if no time)

Practice:

• Expanded actions: Did you get specific? Were your responses detailed enough? Do they give off the impression that you’re an expert in your field, and could teach others the craft?

• Situational context: Did you provide enough background context for your story? Was it detailed enough?

• Tasks: Did you describe what you did in a way that’s specific to the project?

• Actions: Did you story actually use the outlined approaches to the general way you approach these situations? If not, you may need to write down the outline and be sure your STAR++ story matches.

• Results: Did you take credit for short and long-term outcomes?

• Feeling: Did you feel inspired?

• Body language: How did you come across?

• Time: Allot 5 to 7 minutes to answer theoretical questions.

• Speed: Are you speaking too fast? Too slow?

Part 8 - Prepare Thoughtful Questions to Ask Your Interviewer

The job interview is a two-way street. It’s not just an opportunity for the company to gauge your fit, but also yours to assess theirs! Asking the right questions also demonstrates you’ve done some homework and will help you stand out from among other candidates.

Questions should maximize signal FROM and TO the interviewer.

• Signals from the interviewer act as cues

• Signals you send to the interviewer show interest, engagement, and preparation

Some categories of questions you could work with:

When you’re preparing your questions, avoid those that may induce defensiveness in the interview. Questions that begin with “Why…” are one example. Prepare questions that check off your own boxes.