{"id":18358,"date":"2025-11-28T10:32:45","date_gmt":"2025-11-28T10:32:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.oreateai.com\/blog\/how-to-an-interview-questions-and-answers\/"},"modified":"2025-11-28T10:32:45","modified_gmt":"2025-11-28T10:32:45","slug":"how-to-an-interview-questions-and-answers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.oreateai.com\/blog\/how-to-an-interview-questions-and-answers\/","title":{"rendered":"How to an Interview Questions and Answers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Let me start with a confession: I once showed up to a Starbucks interview wearing a full suit (complete with a paisley tie I borrowed from my dad) while the manager wore flip-flops. I spent 20 minutes robotically reciting memorized answers about being a &quot;team player&quot; until she gently asked, &quot;You know we\u2019re just hiring baristas, right?&quot; Spoiler: I didn\u2019t get the job.<\/p>\n<p>But after a decade of fumbling through interviews (and later hiring folks myself for my small tech startup), I\u2019ve learned it\u2019s less about perfect answers and more about <em>connection<\/em>. Here\u2019s what finally clicked for me:<\/p>\n<p><strong>1. The \u201cSTAR Method\u201d isn\u2019t just corporate jargon \u2014 but don\u2019t sound like a TED Talk<\/strong><br \/>\nI used to roll my eyes at this advice. Then I bombed a project manager interview by rambling for 7 minutes about a \u201cchallenging situation\u201d without ever mentioning the actual result. My wife (bless her) made me practice stories like I was explaining a movie plot to a 12-year-old. Example:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Situation<\/strong>: \u201cWhen I coordinated our food drive during COVID\u2026\u201d<\/li>\n<li><strong>Task<\/strong>: \u201c\u2026we had 24 hours to reroute donations after our freezer truck broke down.\u201d<\/li>\n<li><strong>Action<\/strong>: \u201cI called 3 local U-Haul shops, promised to feature them on our Instagram, and got a van donated.\u201d<\/li>\n<li><strong>Result<\/strong>: \u201cWe fed 200 families that weekend \u2014 and U-Haul still sponsors us.\u201d<br \/>\nShort, human, <em>specific<\/em>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>2. Research the company like you\u2019re stalking their Instagram<\/strong><br \/>\nNot just their \u201cAbout Us\u201d page. Find the <em>vibe<\/em>. For a startup interview last year, I noticed their CEO kept posting about pickleball. I casually mentioned my obsession with the local rec center\u2019s tournaments mid-interview \u2014 the CTO lit up and spent 10 minutes talking paddles. Got the offer. Tools I use:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>LinkedIn \u201cAlumni\u201d filter to find shared connections<\/li>\n<li>Glassdoor reviews (sort by \u201ccons\u201d to avoid rose-colored glasses)<\/li>\n<li>Their competitors\u2019 TikTok accounts (yes, seriously)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>3. Your \u201cweakness\u201d isn\u2019t \u201cbeing a perfectionist\u201d \u2014 get uncomfortably real<\/strong><br \/>\nMy go-to used to be \u201cI work too hard\u201d until a hiring manager deadpanned, \u201cSo\u2026 burnout risk?\u201d Now I say: \u201cI default to solving things alone. When I missed a deadline redesigning our volunteer portal solo, my team taught me to flag blockers sooner. Now I send Slack check-ins every Tuesday.\u201d It\u2019s vulnerable, shows growth, and \u2014 bonus \u2014 secretly compliments their culture.<\/p>\n<p><strong>4. Ask questions that make <em>them<\/em> sweat (politely)<\/strong><br \/>\nInterviews are a first date. You\u2019re sizing them up too. My favorites:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cWhat\u2019s something your team disagreed on last month, and how was it resolved?\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cHow do you celebrate wins here? (Besides the generic pizza parties\u2026)\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cWhat\u2019s one thing you\u2019d change about working here if you could?\u201d<br \/>\nAt my current job, the director laughed and said, \u201cOur office coffee tastes like burnt rubber. We\u2019re working on it.\u201d Instant rapport.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Oh \u2014 and that flip-flop Starbucks manager?<\/strong><br \/>\nWe laughed about it years later when I stopped by for coffee. Turns out she\u2019d wanted someone who\u2019d geek out about latte art, not recite mission statements. Lesson learned: Interviews are just conversations with stakes. Prep like crazy, then talk like a human.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Your homework tonight<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Record yourself answering \u201cWhy this role?\u201d on your phone. Watch it once. Cringe. Try again.<\/li>\n<li>Find one niche thing about the company (their ESG report, a weird holiday party photo) to reference.<\/li>\n<li>Practice your handshake in the parking lot (10\/10 managers notice dead fish grips).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>You\u2019ve got this. And if you blank mid-interview? Channel my post-suit shame and just say, \u201cCan I take a breath and restart that?\u201d Spoiler: They always say yes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Let me start with a confession: I once showed up to a Starbucks interview wearing a full suit (complete with a paisley tie I borrowed from my dad) while the manager wore flip-flops. I spent 20 minutes robotically reciting memorized answers about being a &quot;team player&quot; until she gently asked, &quot;You know we\u2019re just hiring&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1752,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-content"],"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oreateai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oreateai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oreateai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oreateai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oreateai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18358"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.oreateai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18358\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oreateai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oreateai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oreateai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oreateai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}