Start Here: Behavioral Interviews (for EMs, Senior/Staff Engineers, PMs)

Start here.

If you’re prepping for behavioral interviews (EM, Senior/Staff Engineer, PM) at Meta/Amazon/Netflix/Google and similar companies, this is the stuff I wish someone handed me upfront.

I’ve spent ~20 years in tech, a big chunk of that in big tech, and I’ve cleared the kinds of interview loops most people are currently grinding. I’m not here to “inspire” you. This is a Café Regulars corner: practical notes, patterns, and examples you can actually reuse.

What you’ll find here:

• What interviewers are actually listening for (not the question they asked)

• The mistakes that kill otherwise good answers →

  • https://www.coffeeisnotastrategy.com/p/behavioral-interview-mistakes-part-1

• Are mock interviews worth it? What’s useful vs a waste of money →

  • https://www.coffeeisnotastrategy.com/p/faang-mock-interviews-worth-it

• How to make your stories sound senior (scope, decisions, trade-offs, metrics)

• A simple structure to build answers fast without sounding rehearsed

If you’re new, read the first two links above and you’ll already be ahead of most candidates.