Job Search 11: Breaking Down & Sorting Stories
Breaking Down & Sorting Stories
The market is tough, and so I am going above and beyond preparing for my Amazon interviews. I have: listed all my stories, sorted, deduped, practiced verbally, written long form and reached out to old engineering partners to job my memory on technical challenges.
For some of you, this is a bit overboard. For me, it is a sign of the times. I can’t risk it. I need to know my stories backward and forward. But most importantly, I need to make sure I don’t repeat stories, as that is a deal breaker.
What I did:
Wrote the stories list out by hand (paper everywhere)
Entered into spreadsheet
Tag each row based on company, project, short name and description
Sorted
Removed duplicates
Killed weak stories
Ranked stories that could be used for multiple principles
Required making difficult prioritization call on which leadership principle gets the best story
Determined story for written submission requirement
Making sure it had sufficient twists and turns
Wrote out key stories (still doing now)
Helps me think about all the important details.
Was this overkill? Maybe/Maybe not. We shall see.
Follow my Interview Advice blog in the coming weeks for breakdowns of my stories. I will share how I wrote out my stories in detail to prepare for the interview.
Feeling overwhelmed with the process. I have been writing this blog each week since I started my job search. This is 11 which means I have been at this 11 weeks, or 77 days or 2.5 months. Job searches are lengthy affairs.
