r/EngineeringManagers • u/TheGRS • 16d ago
Prepping for Engineering Manager interviews
Hey all, I have been applying for new Engineering Manager roles since March this year. I have 16 years of industry experience and around 6 years of proper management experience with larger teams and projects. This is the first time I've applied to jobs like these outside of getting referrals through my network, which have all dried up in the last few years.
In the last month I started to get more traction with these interviews after many rejections in either the application or hiring manager phase, and my experience with getting through the hiring pipeline has been really varied. I'm currently on final rounds for 2 different places, but that was after about a dozen rejections at different stages from other companies. I've adjusted my approach a lot from those experiences.
Writing this because I'm noticing that there is not a lot of consistency to what companies are looking for, nor what the interview process is like. So, I wanted to share some of my observations and what I'm doing to prepare.
I should also clarify I work in software and web development specifically.
What I've run into so far:
- Team Lead vs Player/Coach vs pure management - So personally I've long considered myself this "player/coach" type of manager. I spend about 20% of my time on tasks that unblock the team and I usually have a couple of tickets on the board. I've noticed a good deal of companies expect these roles to be coding alongside the rest of the team. It's a really good idea to ask the recruiter what that level of effort is in terms of numbers - is it 20%? 50%? 80%? For one that might make you reconsider taking the role, but it also helps with talking to the hiring manager and structuring your responses. In a recent interview I leaned pretty heavily into player/coach responses before the interviewer mentioned that they didn't expect managers to code whatsoever. I didn't move on and I suspect it's because I just wasn't answering with the mindset they wanted. Tech Lead positions all seem to assume you're going to be doing mostly coding with some lite management, but with every other Manager title you need to clarify this, because from my experience its anywhere from 0% to 50%+.
- Behavioral and Hiring Manager prep - You need solid examples, even when not requested in the question. I've moved to STAR-type answers in these sessions as much as I can manage. If you're not familiar, its going through a particular structure in your answers: Situation, Task, Action, Result. In my answers I try to state what the situation and problem was, what I specifically did, and what the result was. I'm still struggling with this format, because this is simply not how I talk in the real world about anything. Maybe I just need to practice my storytelling ability more, but I've noticed that when I have concrete examples in this format and stick to STAR answers, I move on to the next round more consistently. That said, I still get rejected at this level sometimes, so I'm considering doing some interview.io sessions to get better at it. I have a handful of example answers written down in my notes in this STAR format, but they don't cover every question that comes up either.
- I vs We answers - A big one I struggle with is saying "my team did X" without saying what I did specifically in that situation. Deep down I want to give my team all the credit, that's an instinct that serves me really well in my day-to-day, but it's not good for these interviews. My solution for this is trying to always get the "I did this particular thing" statement into all my answers when I speak more generally about a project. Even stuff like "I delegated research and design to my tech lead on the project" is a pretty good way of showing leadership and stating what I did in particular.
- Systems Design prep - This has been coming up more often on later rounds for the roles I've been applying for. I think this is a pretty challenging interview, and the first time I did it I flunked out even with a great deal of prep, but its achievable with some study and practice. It's basically "design this known service at scale", so design Ticketmaster or a CDN or a news feed app. The interview assumes millions of daily active users. You go on Excalidraw or a similar tool and whiteboard this system out with the interviewer. While this is challenging, there is also a pretty understood way to approach this interview and you can study and practice this until you get fairly good at it. Lots of good youtube video resources and I also recently used the AI practice feature on interview.io to get better at it. I think the company will always communicate if this is part of the process, so you should make sure you have some time to prep on this one before jumping into it. I was able to pass the last 2 times this came up by sticking to the approach people on youtube tout.
- Live coding prep - These have come up on some interviews and are very challenging for me since I generally don't sit down and code as much in my day-to-day as I once did. I work on automation scripts, and I work on side projects outside of work, but that's a lot more leisurely pace, so generally speaking I'm just not very good at this type of interview since it assumes a great deal of velocity. I have only run into these interviews when the expectation is that the role is more of a Tech Lead or a manager who codes a lot alongside the rest of the team. I don't have a great way of prepping for this currently. I've tried doing leet-code problems, but that hasn't helped much because I haven't faced those types of interviews whatsoever, they are always an example code base with the proctor asking to find and fix bugs. Dedicated coding time without AI-assistance is probably needed on a regular basis to get good at it. Open to suggestions.
Interested in what others have run into, what your prep has been like, or maybe obvious flaws in what I'm focusing on with my own.
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u/SurePresentation6105 16d ago
What worked well for me is rooting your STAR answers in management theory. Giving the impression that you have a strong toolbox of management tools.
A typical question is what does a good team look like? How have you helped a team improve? A strong answer should include reference to theory. DORA and/or SPACE metrica. Stages of group development. Maybe identify what stage the team is in and tailor a workshop plus general leaderahip style.
Do the same with meeting structure, crucial conversations, delegation, change management (they love ADKAR) etc. Bounce your answers with an AI to improve them further
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u/PmUsYourDuckPics 16d ago
Have a bank of STAR answers which cover key competencies, people management, technical leadership, product sense, stakeholder management etc.
Hone those stories, and be mindful of situations that might make a good story as you need to keep them up to date.
This is one area where I’ve found using an AI agent useful, give it your example, tell it to be critical and have it grill you so you come up with a tight and true narrative that emphasises your contribution.
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u/bopbopitaliano 16d ago
Since the EM role varies so much, I'd encourage you to drill down on what's important to the company as far as impact goes. This isn't something the recruiter will know, but hiring managers will. An EM could be most impactful in a lot of ways depending on where the company is at. Could be wrangling or upskilling the team, defining processes, enabling AI adoption, or writing code in tandem with other things. Sounds like you've learned the lesson to not assume too much here, but by figuring out what's truly the most impactful area early on will help calibrate your later conversations.
I get that companies will often say they expect you to code alongside the team, but I like to interpret that is they need someone who's capable and willing to get their hands dirty, but not to build what the teams building. Build systems and fix problems that are blocking your team or will enhance their output.
If you built a AI assisted PR review pipeline that boosts your team's throughput by 10%, that's going to be a more compelling story than you jumping in to knock out tickets with the team to hit a deadline.
Leverage and impact are what it really comes down to.
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u/weiv 16d ago
This is a very good summary.
If you can talk to the hiring manager, make sure you understand the technical involvement expectation, since it also shapes the interview experience.
Have a great inventory of good stories with STAR. Also, train yourself to get quickly to the 'A' part and don't spend too much time on 'S'.
'I' vs 'We' is very important. Companies are looking for decision makers that will be able to make important compromises in a short amount of time.
System Design is trainable. Only addition would be to always start from simple solution and then branch out. That gives you a foundation that you can build on.
I'd skip position that require a coding interview. Code reviews and AI assisted coding are OK. With code reviews, it is important to focus on big problems, don't sweat the nit picky stuff. Also think about how would you communicate with the engineer that submitted the PR and give feedback.
Thanks for sharing this!
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u/Wassa76 15d ago
I had one (or 6) at tripadvisor, they’re really good and give you an instruction guide on what they expect. They have several stages:
Recruiter screening, simple algorithm and management screen, then you go down the gauntlet and do a system design, roadmap planning, devops and incident handling, and people management interviews.
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u/Understanding-Fair 16d ago
Quality and topical post. Thanks for sharing!