Personal Narrative

You must be able to clearly and confidently present a project you have worked on.

A staple question of technical interviews:

“Tell me about a problem you’ve worked on. What was the problem? How’d you solve it? What was novel about your solution?”

This question will likely be aimed at something on your resume¹1. So don’t include projects in your resume unless you have worked extensively on them!.

ST/AR Method

The typical method is:

1. Situation: What was the project for, who was involved
2. Task: What was the objective/goal
3. Action: What’d you do, how’d you do it.
4. Result: Was the project completed, was there any awards/recognition/grade.

We’ll separate this into:

1. Pitching the problem (roughly corresponds to ST)
2. Presenting the solution (roughly corresponds to AR)
3. Effective technical communication (soft skills) (corresponds to all of STAR)

Remember: Practice ST/AR on every project in your resume, your whole resume is fair game.

Pitfalls for ST

The underlying question is always “who cares?” Which is why communicating the problem is so important.

Failing to Communicate the Problem

Takeaway: You must communicate the problem first.

A common mistake is jumping straight into the solution before the problem is understood.

• You need intermediate steps to go from high to low level.
• Keep your explanations tailored to the person’s technical background.²2. You need to practice with different levels of technical background.
  • If you don’t know, you can ask the interviewer if they want to go more deeply. Remember, this is a conversation.

Pitfalls for AR

This is your chance to convey how exciting/awesome/elegant/creative your solution is.

In the Weeds

Trying to sound smart (e.g., using big words, trying to be super technical) is not helpful.

The Chronology

Takeaway: Nobody cares about the dead-ends and things that didn’t work.

• If you sound complicated, you’ll sound like you write complicated solutions.

Getting to a solution often requires doing a lot of hard work and pursuing wrong paths. A common mistake is trying to convey all that hard work by speaking chronologically.³3. e.g, “In version 1 we did, but due to…, in version 2 we did,…”

Keep it simple and elegant.

Appropriate Visual Aids

Visual aids are a luxury; but if you have access to a whiteboard, you should use it!

• You should practice writing on a whiteboard to illustrate technical concepts.

Eye Contact, Speaking, and Projecting Excitement

Takeaway: Try to turn the presentation into a conversation.

• Make eye contact.
• Read your audience and adjust.
  • Remember, you can’t adjust if you aren’t looking at them.
• Don’t leave your audience behind in the dust.
• Be excited⁴4. If you sound bored of yourself, so will your listeners.

Answering Questions

Takeaway: You need to answer questions tactfully.

Do not accidentally belittle the audience.

Tips:

1. Acknowledge the person asking the question
   • The asker should feel good for asking
2. Be sure you understand the question
3. Refer to your previous work
4. Make sure you answered the question

Remember: If someone is asking a question, it’s because they want to know more.

Soft Skills: Group Work

Interviewers are interested in how you work as part of a team.

This leads to questions like:

• “What are some challenges you’ve faced when working on a team?”
• “Describe a large project you’ve worked on as part of a team.”

There are some added subtleties when talking about group work.

Ideas:

1. Describe the division of labor,
2. How effective collaboration was achieved, and
3. Communication.

Positive team-experience conveys that you are an effective team player.