Top Lessons from 600 Interviews: Secrets to Stand Out and Succeed

600 Interviews Later: The Secrets to Interview Success

Over the last 18 months, I have had the opportunity to coach over 600 individuals ranging from new grads to VPs, within Tech and outside of Tech in 11 different countries. While their individual goals differ, I’ve noticed some common patterns among those who performed better in interviews and those who did not. Whether you are looking to make a career pivot after corporate burnout, working to get promoted internally, or just looking for a new role in 2025, this guide is for you.

Top Lesson #1: Focus on deep research before each interview

One of the core areas that I work with my clients on is deep research. Usually, candidates prepare for interviews by doing a basic skimming of the company details and the requirements of the role. While this is certainly better than no preparation, in this competitive job market it is not enough. Some of the main ways you can set yourself apart as a candidate is by gaining a clear understanding of:

• How does the company make money?
• How does the role you are applying to help them do that?
• Why is the role open? What would the impact be to the hiring manager/department/company be if the role remained open?

By thinking through some of these key questions in advance, you can enter the interview with a clearer picture of what they actually want and how best to position yourself accordingly.

Top Lesson #2: Position Yourself as the Solution

Now that you have a clear understanding of the why behind the role, the next important step is to position your background as the solution. One of the key mistakes that I see candidates make in the interview process time and time again is present their background as a laundry list of bullet point items. Instead, think deeply about what OUTCOMES the company likely wants from this role and focus on talking about how you have helped drive outcomes like that in the past.

For example instead of saying “I managed a team of 5.” You could say, “One of the main goals in my current role is to achieve X outcome, here is how I have done that managing my team of 5”. This approach highlights to the interviewer directly how you can help them achieve what they need.

Top Lesson #3: Follow the How/When framework for maximum impact

Another key challenge that a lot of people face when interviewing is difficulty in telling impactful stories. It can be hard to piece together every single component of a STAR pattern story on the fly especially when you may already be feeling nervous. One of the key patterns that I work with clients on is what I call the How/When framework. Here is how to use it.

Most candidates over focus on the STAR framework. Personally, I think it works great if you want to work at Amazon but it has too many parts. It is easy to get lost in the structure. Specifically, most candidates struggle with the story part and give an answer that sounds like this: “One time at my company, we were working on some project and there were some people involved, things happened and this was the result….”

Instead, focus on explaining how you think about the concept GENERALLY using the How/When framework, then provide a specific example. For example, if an interviewer for a Product Manager role asks you “Tell me about a time when you had to make a product decision based on data?”, You could answer, “That’s a great question, as a PM, it is important to make sure that we have clear objectives and use the right data to run experiments. Here is an example of when I did that…..”

Top Lesson #4: Ask impactful Questions

When it comes time to end the interview, another area I see people struggle with are the questions that they ask at the end. Some of the most common errors are asking things like “What is the company culture like?”, “What are expectations for this role?” or questions along those lines. While these aren’t bad questions per se, the issue is that you will likely not get an honest or useful answer and it doesn’t highlight anything about you. As a powerful alternative, I work with clients to develop power questions that are designed to uncover information about the company and the role while also positioning their background. Some examples are:

• “In my first 90 days in this role, I would want to achieve x, y and z. What else do you think would be important to focus on in this role?”
• “I saw the announcement about X recently, what do you see that meaning for this role/team?”
• “If you could give one piece of advice to someone joining this role now, what would it be and why?”

There are many others, but these types of questions yield much deeper info that the standard questions asked by most candidates. This HBR article provides some additional great info as well.

Putting it all together

Through my work with over 600 coaching clients, I have seen these techniques transform their interview skills to help them land the roles they want both externally and internally. I hope that these techniques provide a useful guide for you in the 2025 job market and beyond!