Behavioral Questions: Showcasing Your Experience & Collaboration

Leadership & Influence

Tell me about a time you had to lead a team.

• Beyond Leadership

  They're also looking for initiative, team alignment, ability to manage ambiguity, and whether you step up when nobody asks you to.

• How to Demonstrate it

  Talk about a time you proposed a plan, assigned tasks, helped team members resolve blockers, and kept everyone on track. Highlight how you responded to unexpected problems.

• How to get the skills/knowledge/experience

  • Lead a team project in college where there's no pre-assigned leader (e.g., group assignment, case competition, or a campus fest activity).
  • Join a startup as an intern and offer to coordinate product work across interns.
  • From your previous job: describe moments when you led planning, communication, or delivery even if you weren’t the official “manager.”

Tell me about a project that required you to influence people who did not report to you.

• Beyond Influence

  Interviewers are looking for stakeholder management, persuasion, patience, and an understanding of others’ incentives and constraints.

• How to Demonstrate it

  Share how you got someone (e.g., a developer or designer) to contribute by understanding their concerns, showing what's in it for them, and building a shared goal.

• How to get the skills/knowledge/experience

  • Collaborate with students from other departments (e.g., CS + design) on a prototype or submission to a product challenge.
  • Take part in open-source or student-led startup projects where roles are fluid and influence matters.
  • From your previous job: show how you got buy-in from someone in another team (tech, support, design) without having authority over them.

Tell me about a time you had to get your leadership/executives to buy into your vision.

• Beyond Vision Buy-in

  They're testing strategic thinking, confidence in communication, clarity of thought, and understanding of business priorities.

• How to Demonstrate it

  Describe how you structured your argument using user insight, impact potential, and trade-offs. Mention how you addressed questions or pushback.

• How to get the skills/knowledge/experience

  • Intern at a startup and offer to present feature or product suggestions to founders.
  • Create a 5-minute pitch for a feature idea and present it to a mentor or PM in mock settings.
  • From your previous job: explain how you pitched an idea or process change and got a green signal from your boss or leadership.

How do you motivate other people/a team?

• Beyond Motivation

  They’re assessing how you build energy and commitment without relying on authority—through shared purpose, recognition, or just being reliable.

• How to Demonstrate it

  Use an example where the team lost momentum and you helped revive it—by suggesting a new plan, celebrating small wins, or stepping up to unblock someone.

• How to get the skills/knowledge/experience

  • Organize a campus hackathon team, and focus on keeping spirits high across the 2–3 day stretch.
  • Volunteer to be team lead in a course project and keep morale up with check-ins and visible progress tracking.
  • From your previous job: describe how you helped people stay committed to a tough or boring project.

Describe your leadership style.

• Beyond Style

  They’re trying to gauge your self-awareness, adaptability, and whether your natural style will work in their team context.