Senior Engineer Behavioral: Team Culture, Steering a Team and Starting Projects

In a behavioral round with a director for a senior software engineer role, the questions covered the traits you like and dislike in a team, how you lead a team in a better direction, and how you go about starting a new project. The conversation was fairly short, so each answer has to be concise. ### Clarifying Questions - For leading a team, should the example be one where you were the manager, or one where you led as a senior engineer without formal authority? - For the new project, should it be one you proposed yourself, or is an assigned project fine? ### Part 1 — The team you want, and the team you avoid Which characteristics do you like in a team, and which do you dislike? Give an example of each from your own experience. ```hint Dislikes through their effects Describe a trait you dislike by what it caused and what you did about it, rather than as a complaint about people. ``` #### What This Part Should Cover - Specific traits tied to how work gets done, rather than generic adjectives - An example of each, including what you did when a team lacked what you value - Awareness of your own effect on the culture you describe ### Part 2 — Leading a team in a better direction Tell me about a time you led a team toward a better way of working or a better technical direction. What was wrong, what did you do, and what changed? ```hint Show how you brought people along Explain the evidence, the proposal and the steps that won people over, not only the outcome you wanted. ``` #### What This Part Should Cover - A concrete problem whose cost you can state - How you built agreement and handled disagreement, with or without formal authority - A measurable result, and what you would do differently ### Part 3 — Starting a new project How do you get a new project off the ground? Walk through your approach using a project you started. ```hint Before the first line of code Think about what you settle first: the problem, the people who care about it, and how you will know it worked. ``` #### What This Part Should Cover - Problem framing, stakeholder alignment and success measures before building - Reducing the biggest risks early, for example through a design review or a prototype - Planning in milestones, communicating progress and adjusting the plan ### What a Strong Answer Covers - Concise STAR-shaped answers with concrete examples at senior scope - Consistency across the three answers: the traits you value show up in how you lead and how you start projects - Ownership of outcomes, including mistakes, without blaming others - Influence beyond your own code: mentoring, cross-team alignment, decisions with explicit trade-offs ### Follow-up Questions - What would your current team say you should change about how you work? - Tell me about a team with a trait you dislike that you could not change. What did you do? - A project you started turned out to be the wrong bet. How did you notice, and what did you do?