Behavioral Interview Questions
Behavioral interview questions ask you to recall specific situations and how you responded. They reveal your people skills, critical thinking, and values. Some common behavioral engineering manager interview questions include:
- Tell me about a time you influenced a team without formal authority. What tactics did you use and what was the outcome?
- How would you go about building relationships with engineers you manage?
- Describe a situation where you had to resolve a disagreement between team members. How did you approach it?
- Tell me about a time you mentored or coached an engineer to improve their skills. What improvements did you see?
- Give an example of when you had to deliver difficult feedback to an engineer. How did you handle it?
- What is your approach to managing underperforming engineers?
Prepare 2-3 examples from your experience for each of these areas. Focus your answers on the actions you took, your rationale, and the results. This shows the concrete steps you would take as an engineering manager to lead, develop, and support your engineers.
