Sample Answer
I’m targeting a senior IC or team lead role where I’m still hands-on but also accountable for shaping direction and developing people. In my last position I led a pod of 6 engineers on a high-visibility initiative that impacted about 2 million users and roughly $15M in annual revenue. I owned the technical approach and roadmap, but I also ran sprint planning, did 1:1s with two junior engineers, and coordinated with product and ops to keep expectations aligned. I don’t want a pure people-manager role yet; I’m most effective when I’m designing systems, unblocking complex work, and mentoring while still writing code 40–50% of the time. So roles like senior engineer, staff-like IC, or small team lead on a critical product area are the best fit for where I am right now.
Keywords
In your resume you note improving or optimizing [a process, KPI, or metric]. What specific baseline metrics did you start from, what steps did you personally take, and how did you verify that the improvement was due to your changes rather than external factors?
On your resume you mention working on a cross-functional project (e.g., involving multiple teams or stakeholders). Describe a situation from that project where priorities conflicted—how did you navigate the trade-offs and what was the final outcome?
Walk me through a recent multi-channel digital marketing campaign you managed end-to-end. How did you set objectives, choose channels, allocate budget, and measure success?
Based on your hydrology and irrigation engineering background, explain how you would estimate the irrigation water requirement for a kharif crop in a semi-arid region of Gujarat. Walk me through each step: from reference evapotranspiration estimation, crop coefficient selection, effective rainfall calculation, to arriving at canal discharge for a given command area.
In your civil engineering studies, what specific design coursework or project work did you complete related to irrigation channels or canals (e.g., design of lined/unlined canals, distributaries, minors)? Describe one such design in detail, including how you determined discharge, permissible velocity, section dimensions, and lining choice for Gujarat-type soil and climate conditions.