Interview Preparation Guide
For data technologists
Purpose
This document outlines recommendations for technology professionals to prepare for interviews with candidate organizations. The questions and points can be used to prepare a document with answers and notes.
Meeting opening – establish rapport and credibility
It’s crucial that the meeting starts by establishing a rapport with the interviewer through a brief, casual conversation. You have done your homework to prepare, and this confidence needs to shine through. Open conversation topics may include a non-work shared interest, a school you share, or any other topic that may present itself naturally. Remember that this is a two-way conversation where you can ask questions about the company culture and job. Start the interview with energy, focus, and captivate the interviewer to learn more about you!
Your Story – who are you, and why are you here?
Document a few paragraphs about your background and why you are excited about this opportunity. Practice, practice, practice so that it comes off as natural and relaxing. Practice in front of a mirror or record a video. DO NOT READ YOUR STORY during the interview. The interviewer has already screened your background. This is an opportunity to engage him or her with your confidence and warmth. This is the two-minute story of why you are here.
Company Research
As a technical person, you need a business-savvy understanding of the company to set you apart from others who did not commit to research. The interviewer will hire you to solve business problems through your skills, experience, and technology. You need to translate how your skills can contribute to solving problems and delivering business impact. As technologists, we love our tools and getting deep into the tech. By arming yourself with knowledge about the business, you will differentiate yourself and be able to ask these questions during the interview. You also need to understand the financial health and risk of the business.
Organization
How many people work for the company?
What locations do they have a presence in? Where is the HQ?
Business model
How does the company make money? Understand the products, services, and channels that bring in the cash and the % of each. Listen to and read the last earnings announcement for publicly traded firms.
How much money do they make in a quarter or year?
If a startup, what is the burn rate look like, and what time is estimated to reach profitability?
Public/Private
Is the company public or private?
Have there been any recent acquisitions?
If private, is there a plan to go public? Who are the investors?
Competition
Who are the top three competitors? You may need to segment the products/services if you apply to a specific business unit.
What is their source of competitive advantage – how are they unique and use that as a lever against their competition? Price, monopoly, etc.
Reputation
What do current or previous employees say about the company? Use LinkedIn and Glassdoor. Message an employee to request feedback. Understanding the culture is critical to evaluating if it fits you.
What do customers say about the company? Look for testimonials on the company website or reviews on the web.
What do industry analysts say about the company? Check Gartner, Forrester, or other industry advisory/benchmarking firms.
What do financial experts (e.g., economists, VCs) say about them?
Is there any significant litigation active against the company?
What is the reputation of the CEO and other C-suite leaders?
Culture
What is the organization's purpose or mission statement? Understand the WHY
What are the values?
What are the principles?
Current State
What are the current priorities? Growth, cost cutting, consolidation, etc.
What are the most pressing business issues at this moment? This will help you position your value proposition as a potential solution.
Interviewer Research – who are you speaking with?
You must understand whom you will speak with and demonstrate that through your answers and questions during the interview. The people we work with significantly influence our professional growth and future opportunities. As you talk with the interviewer, think about if this is a person you can learn from. If the interviewer is the hiring manager, you will want to understand their leadership style and if they have a track record for developing talent.
LinkedIn Profile
Name
How long have they been in their current role?
How long have they been working at the company?
Career progression of previous jobs at the company or previous companies
Shared connections – where appropriate, get feedback from a shared connection
Understand what they write or read about, including newsletters and voices they follow
Education
Affiliations
Recommendations – these will all be positive, but get an idea of how other people describe the interviewer
Geography – have they lived in locations where you have as well?
Job responsibilities – understand what they do in detail and how they may be measured, compensated
Web, Social, and Industry Presence
Do they have a personal website?
What topics are they posting about on social channels?
Listen to at least one podcast or video to understand their style and personality. There may be a technical topic they have recently written or spoken about that could come up in the interview.
Has he or she presented at a recent event?
Do a quick search to locate other facts relevant to the interviewer and this job.
Job Fit Analysis – why this job and why you?
Why this company?
What about the company characteristics above makes this a target?
Do the culture and values align with your values and identity?
Is this an organization you admire?
Is this an organization where you can accelerate your learning and growth?
Do the company policies, such as remote working, vacation policy, etc., align with your needs?
Is this company a fit at this point of your career given the other requirements you may have, such as stability to raise a family or high-risk returns for people who are seeking adventure and a dynamically changing environment
Why this job?
Looking at the job description, what about this job aligns with your career direction?
Assess each responsibility of the job description and rate your readiness to perform it, including if you have similar experience from a previous job.
From the analysis above, highlight the responsibilities that will be growth areas to expand your skills through doing the work and through mentors. You want to ensure growth and not target a job where you have nothing to learn. This will constrain your career trajectory.
Location
Does the geographic location align with your non-work needs and interests?
What is the company’s position on working remotely?
If the company has multiple work locations, does the location for your job limit or improve visibility to key leaders and activities?
Technology Research
Gaining insight into what technology is used within a company can help you position your skills and experience.
What cloud platform(s) does the company use to run the company?
Are they multi-cloud by choice or through acquisition?
What type of SaaS business applications are used, such as Salesforce for CRM or Microsoft 365 for collaboration
What ERP or financial systems are used?
Does the company use cloud data warehouses like Snowflake, Redshift, or Databricks?
What master data management system is used?
What data catalog and data governance solutions are used?
What type of data governance model is in place?
Who leads the data governance function?
Who are the people that hold key technology leadership positions, such as CIO, CDO, CISO, CAO, and Chief Data Science Officer?
What emerging or in-production technologies is this company discussing and making the news?
Questions for the interviewer – is this job a fit for me?
Interview the company and hiring manager (or individual contributor) as intently as they interview you. A successful match requires a fit for both you and the organization. Your curiosity will show your self-awareness by ensuring you are clear on the requirements for the job and company culture. Your direct manager significantly influences your growth and success within the organization.
What are the top 3 priorities for this role?
Use to determine if your skills and interests align with these priorities
What are the most important skills for this role?
Determine if there are critical skills you do not have or skills you have an opportunity to learn
Describe what success looks like in this role; are there formal frameworks such as OKRs to measure success?
Get a sense of how formal the performance review process is and the culture for managing business outcomes and your contributions
What is the most significant challenge for this role?
Learn about challenges that may impact your ability to be successful in this role, and determine if these challenges align with where you want to grow
To be successful within the company culture, what non-technical competencies are required?
What technology platforms and tools are used in this role?
Determine if there is compatibility with your interests and learning plans. For example, if the company uses desktop tools and on-prem infrastructure, and your development is to expand hands-on expertise in cloud technology, then it would not be a fit
How would you describe the data culture? Are leaders committed to maturing data capabilities and literacy?
If leaders are not behind in competing on data and building a strong data culture, then it’s not a fit
Is there a published career path for technical IC’s and leaders with levels and expectations?
Provides insight into the maturity and robustness of processes to develop and reward talent
In addition to learning on the job, are there programs to learn through mentorship, development programs, training, and tuition reimbursement?
Evaluate how committed the organization is to developing its employees.
Does this role require travel?
Determine if this aligns with your travel preferences
What are the things I would learn after starting this job that are significant reasons why I may not want this job? For example, a poor culture, etc.
Uncover the nasty and often unspoken issues that you will deal if you take this job. You need to know these in advance before accepting the job.
Questions for Hiring Manager
How many years and teams have you managed throughout your career?
Determine if they have the chops to support your development and the clout to negotiate and influence other leaders throughout the organization
What is your management style?
Identify green and red flags; what is the opportunity to learn from this person?
How many members are on the team?
Get a sense of how many people you will be collaborating with and learning from
Is the team remotely distributed? If so, how often do you collaborate online or in person?
Gain insight into how the team collaborates and if it’s a culture of holding excessive meetings or not
What are you most looking for in the person who fills this role?
How would you describe the company's financial health (if privately held)?
You did want to join a sinking ship or a company that is not in a position to reward your achievements with cash and stock
Ask about negative themes on company review websites such as Glassdoor
See how they respond. Do they merely discount it, or do they acknowledge the issue and describe what they see being done to address it
Potential Interview Questions
Use the STAR technique to answer behavioral interview questions. Remember to be specific and provide concrete examples in your responses.
S - Situation: Describe the context or background of your situation.
T - Task: Explain the task or objective you were given.
A - Action: Detail the specific actions you took to address the situation or task.
R - Result: Share the outcome of the situation or task and any relevant insights or lessons learned.
Using the STAR technique, you can structure your answers in a clear and organized way that showcases your skills and experiences. Here's an example of how to use the STAR technique to answer a question:
Interviewer: "Tell me about a time when you had to resolve a conflict with a coworker."
S: "I was working on a group project with a coworker, and we had different ideas on approaching a particular task."
T: "Our task was to create a marketing campaign for a new product launch."
A: "I scheduled a meeting with my coworker to discuss our ideas and perspectives. During the meeting, I listened actively to their point of view, and I shared my own perspective as well. We were able to come up with a compromise that incorporated both of our ideas into the final campaign."
R: "As a result of our collaboration, our marketing campaign was well received by our supervisor, and we were able to launch the product successfully. I learned the importance of active listening and compromise in resolving conflicts with coworkers."
Example Questions
Why are you a great fit for this role? What sets you apart from others?
Review the job description for the skills they seek and reinforce your top 2-3 skills with examples from previous jobs to demonstrate your competency.
Why this company?
Using the analysis you conducted above, deliver a compelling confident set of reasons that show did your homework, and you are self-aware
What are the top strengths that you will bring to this job?
Review the job description and describe how your strengths will be used to perform the work tasks and deliver impact.
What are 1 or 2 weaknesses, and how do you manage them?
Select a weakness and how you used your self-awareness to work around it, delegate tasks, or how you overcame it through learning and development.
Tell me about a time when you made a mistake, or experienced a failure, such as a project that was not delivered on time, did not deliver the expected value, etc.
We all make mistakes, and it’s an integral part of our development. The most important points are what we learned from this mistake or failure and how we use that to ensure it’s not repeated.
What are your most successful achievements in your career to date?
Select 2-3 bullets with strong, tangible impact statements from your resume. Showcase how these business problems and solutions are relevant to the job description. Use the STAR technique to explain how you have the strength and mindset to overcome future obstacles.
Tell me about a challenging business or technical problem you were faced with and how you went about solving it.
Use the STAR technique to showcase your analysis and problem-solving skills
Why are you seeking to transition to another role at this time?
Summarize the high-level experiences from your current job and how they were pivotal to developing your skill set. Explain why this role is an ideal fit (using the fit analysis from above).
On a scale from 1-10, how would your previous direct managers rate you?
Refer to your list of prepared references and show confidence with answers that reinforce your competencies.
Readiness on Interview Day
Here is a list of things to remember as you prepare for the interview day.
Energy – get your energy up before the meeting.
For online meetings, consider what is within view of your camera. You may want to use a background image to show a professional image.
Ensure you have the latest version of the live meeting software.
Find a quiet, private location for the interview discussion.
Use a wired internet connection to reduce bandwidth constraints.
Dress appropriately for the role and be aware of your body language, such as how you are sitting (or standing)
Resources
38 Smart Questions to Ask in a Job Interview by Amy Gallo (HBR.org)
How to Answer “What Are Your Strengths and Weaknesses?” (HBR)