Last week I launched a series sharing authentic behavioral interview responses from successful candidates at big tech companies.
In Part 1, I shared an answer for a Learning/Growth mindset scenario. I loved the overwhelming response. Many people reached out appreciating the article, and I continuously look for hints on what can be made better.
One of my LinkedIn connections messaged:
"Prasad, thank you for your latest article. I'm preparing for my AWS interview, and these real-world examples are incredibly helpful in understanding answer structure.
However, I've heard STAR format responses should be kept to one minute, while your example would take about five minutes to deliver.
How do we balance sharing all the details versus keeping the answers short?"
In actual interviews, you don't read the full written scripts - you tell your stories conversationally. You have to adapt your stories based on the interviewer's reactions and questions.
You should be more strategic - sharing enough to get the interviewer interested and then filling in more details as the follow-up questions come up and the conversation flows.
In this article, I will focus on three things:
Sharing a real example of a Customer Success story in STAR format
Keeping the answer short, sharing just enough with the interviewer for them to decide which areas they would like to ask follow-up questions about
Providing a free interview preparation worksheet with an example for you to develop clear, compelling STAR format stories for your next big tech interview.
Let's get started!
👉 Question
“Tell me about a time when you went above and beyond customer expectations.”
Before diving into answer, first, let me share why this question matters. Interviewers ask this to evaluate:
Your customer-first mindset
Problem-solving abilities
Initiative and proactiveness
Ability to deliver exceptional results
Here's a real answer that worked (following the STAR format).
✅ Answer
The candidate has 10+ years of overall work experience and 3+ years as an AWS Cloud Engineer/Architect and has applied for a mid-senior level position at a Big Tech company.
Here is the answer they prepared!
☀️ Situation:
Last year, when I was working for an Insurance company as an AWS Cloud Engineer consultant through Accenture, I discovered that they were spending too much money using VPC Interface endpoints without sharing them between all of their VPCs.
🔧 Task:
I identified and highlighted the issue to the client, promising to find a solution that would help them reduce the cost of VPC Interface endpoints by sharing them among all the spoke VPCs while ensuring no disruption to services.
🎤 Action:
I led a comprehensive cost optimization project, collaborating with the network team to utilize an existing shared-services VPC. Working with them, I created a new set of VPC interface endpoints in this VPC and implemented Route53 private hosted zones and Route53 resolvers to share the DNS records for the VPC interface endpoints across other VPCs. We then carefully deleted the existing VPC Interface endpoints in a way that prevented any downtime for production workloads.
⛳️ Result:
This change resulted in monthly savings of up to 7,000 euros for the customer just from sharing VPC Interface endpoints. It helped me earn greater trust from the client. Additionally, this project enhanced my expertise in complex Network and DNS challenges, adding valuable technical experience to my skill set.
💡Analysis
It's a strong answer that takes only about 60-90 seconds to deliver.
The clear articulation of the situation, task, action, and result provides a compelling narrative that highlights the candidate's proactive problem-solving approach and business impact.
The answer demonstrates the candidate's strong technical skills and ability to identify and solve complex challenges - all without going too deep into details.
It leaves the interviewer enough room to ask questions in the areas the interviewer would like to get more information on.
That's where the conversation begins between the interviewer and the interviewee. The more prepared the interviewee is, the easier it would be to handle the follow-up questions.
Follow-up Questions
Here are potential follow-up questions the interviewer might ask to dive deeper into the candidate’s experience:
Technical Deep-Dive Questions:
"Can you explain in more detail how VPC Interface endpoints work and why having separate ones was causing higher costs?"
"Walk me through the technical implementation of sharing DNS records using Route53 private hosted zones."
"What were the key considerations in ensuring zero downtime during the migration?"
Project Management Questions:
"How did you plan and execute this migration without impacting production workloads?"
"How long did the entire project take from discovery to implementation?"
"How did you get buy-in from different stakeholders for this change?"
Cost Analysis Questions:
"How did you calculate the potential cost savings before implementing the solution?"
"Were there any additional costs involved in implementing this solution?"
"Did you explore any alternative solutions before deciding on this approach?"
Risk Management Questions:
"What were the main risks you identified in this project?"
"What backup plans did you have in case something went wrong during the migration?"
"How did you test the solution before implementing it in production?"
Learning and Growth Questions:
"What were your key learnings from this project?"
"What would you do differently if you had to do this project again?"
Free Interview Preparation worksheet
Ready to strengthen your behavioral interview skills?
Use the FREE Big Tech Interview Preparation worksheet worksheet to develop clear, compelling STAR format stories for your next big tech interview.
The key is structuring your response using the STAR format to create a compelling narrative, while sharing just enough details to give the interviewer context, rather than overwhelming them.
This approach leaves room for follow-up questions, allowing the candidate to dive deeper into areas the interviewer wants to explore further.
Interviews have time constraints, so it's important to keep your answers focused and to-the-point. If your initial response takes too long, say around 10 minutes, then it becomes more of a monologue instead of a conversation. Also, interviewer may have limited opportunity to follow up and dig deeper into areas they want to explore further.
That said, don't oversimplify at the expense of providing relevant details. The preparatory work you do to have comprehensive stories will be essential for handling any follow-up questions the interviewer asks.
The goal is to strike the right balance - provide a concise but complete response initially, while being ready to expand on key points as needed based on the interviewer's follow-up questions.
New to Behavioral OS For Techies newsletter? Join 10,000+ subscribers to elevate your tech career with essential behavioral skills
