Comments by "SsjC" (@ssjcosty) on "Don't Get Down-Leveled or How to Tell a Good Story (From a Principal at Amazon)" video.

  1. Very useful, thanks! I have been downleveled and downright rejected after a few interviews, but there the problem wasn't that I didn't have the skills or the experience, it was that I hadn't really prepared for the interviews (with practised answers etc.).
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  2. Another problem with this is that it's focused too much at being a good communicator. You may have been a stellar senior engineer for many years, but if you have anxiety or you're bad at crafting narratives, or you're on the autism spectrum, then these kinds of interviews may be unsuitable for accurately assessing your skills.
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  3. I'm currently in the same position as you were. I've been a Senior then Software Architect, and I am currently going for Lead roles, but I'm struggling to answer behavioural and management questions, and on occasion I even struggle on coding and system design tests, due to not enough interview prep.
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  4. The U-shaped story example takes much longer time than the STAR-shaped one though... Some interviewers become very impatient when an answer to a question takes too long. What would you recommend here?
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