Grading Advice No. 5: Strategy
Google, mid-tier tech, and startups like to ask strategic questions. They are particularly stressful questions for candidates because they can never know what the interviewer is looking for. Additionally, sometimes they want a 5-minute answer, but other times they want a 30-minute answer.
Also, there is a high probability that an interviewer will use their own company as a baseline, which means the interviewer will have a hard time removing the unintended bias they bring to the table.
Now that you understand what might be stressing the candidate out, let’s think about how to grade them if you are doing a strategy mock.
Do they sound structured?
Do they have a framework for sharing their thoughts? Does the framework feel natural or forced?
Do they waste time on unnecessary details?
Do they think about both the company and the user? Or just one of the two?
Did you get lost and start to zone out?
Do they show insights?
Do they surprise you with a strategic observation you hadn’t thought of before?
Can you quickly bullet point 3 main concepts they addressed?
If you feel they have talked about how to think about what is right for the company and the user, they probably got a passing score. If they seemed to be structured but covered details that didn’t add a lot of value, it is okay to give a less favorable score.
Levels matter. I expect a stronger answer for L6 and above. I am more forgiving for L4 and L5 candidates because they often haven’t had the opportunity to set strategies for their products.
