# Present Your Background, Project, and Role Expectations ## Scenario In a recruiter screen for a software engineering role, you are asked to introduce yourself, discuss one project from your resume, explain your compensation expectations, and confirm whether you can work from the office three days per week. Answer with facts you can support; do not invent experience, results, or compensation data. ### Part 1: Give a concise, role-aligned introduction How would you introduce your current work, strongest relevant skills, and reason for considering this role in about one minute? #### What This Part Should Cover - Your current professional focus and the engineering work most relevant to the role. - One clear theme connecting your experience to the opportunity. - A short, specific reason the role interests you. - A distinction between facts you personally know and details you still need to learn. ```hint Choose a through-line Select two or three supported facts that form one coherent story rather than reciting your full resume. ``` ### Part 2: Discuss one resume project in depth Choose a project you can defend under follow-up questions. Explain the problem, your individual contribution, an important technical decision, and the outcome. #### What This Part Should Cover - The user or business problem and the project's relevant constraints. - What you personally owned versus what teammates owned. - A technical choice, the alternatives considered, and the tradeoff you accepted. - A verifiable outcome, or an honest description of how success was evaluated if no metric is available. ```hint Optimize for defensibility Choose the project with the clearest evidence of your judgment and ownership, not necessarily the largest project. ``` ### Part 3: Handle compensation expectations How would you discuss compensation without anchoring on an unsupported number or confusing base salary with total compensation? #### What This Part Should Cover - Whether the recruiter is asking about base salary, total compensation, or both. - The role's level and work location, because both can affect the range. - A request for the employer's approved range when it has not been shared. - Any researched range you choose to provide, its source, and your flexibility across the full package. ```hint Align the definitions first Clarify the compensation components before giving a range, and only cite market information you actually checked. ``` ### Part 4: Address the office schedule How would you respond to a requirement to work in the office three days each week? #### What This Part Should Cover - A direct and truthful yes, no, or conditional answer. - Any material commute, relocation, scheduling, or accessibility constraint. - Whether your response is a preference or a hard limitation. - Questions needed to understand the policy, such as office location, fixed days, and expected start date. ```hint Separate preference from constraint State constraints early enough for both sides to evaluate fit; do not promise logistics you have not verified. ``` ### What a Strong Answer Covers A strong response is concise, specific, and internally consistent. It separates personal ownership from team work, supports claims with evidence, treats compensation as a multi-part discussion, and answers the office-policy question honestly. It also leaves room for targeted questions when the recruiter has not supplied enough information. ### Follow-up Questions - Which part of your introduction would you change for a hiring manager rather than a recruiter? - What project detail best demonstrates your personal engineering judgment? - How would your compensation response change after the level and approved range are known? - What office-policy detail could materially change your answer?