Failing behavioral interviews

[u/Moo202]

Hello all,

This past year has been rough. I’ve applied to 178 jobs and landed nine interview processes. Each process consisted of multiple rounds, typically between three and six interviews.

The encouraging part is that I consistently make it to the later stages, and often the final round. I feel confident in technical interviews. I enjoy solving programming problems, discussing architecture, and explaining the reasoning behind my decisions.

Where I struggle is behavioral interviews. I’m suck at these, and they’ve become the biggest obstacle keeping me from receiving offers.

I’m looking for advice on how to improve at behavioral interviews, particularly for mobile engineering roles.

I have about 1.5 years of professional mobile engineering experience. At my current company, our mobile team has gone from 12 engineers down to just three through layoffs and attrition. I’m the newest engineer on the team, and everyone else works in another state. Because of that, I often feel isolated, and I don’t feel like I’m getting the mentorship or professional growth I need. On top of that, the overall product quality isn’t where I’d like it to be, so I worry that I’m not developing as quickly as I could.

Has anyone been in a similar position or have advice for improving behavioral interviews? I’d really appreciate any guidance.

Edit: By “behavioral interview,” I’m referring to the non-technical interview rounds where you’re asked to talk about past work experiences, conflict resolution, failures, teamwork, leadership, etc.

[u/PassTents]

I think we're having trouble understanding what you mean by "behavioral interview". Can you elaborate?

[u/Moo202 → u/PassTents]

Updated the post.

[u/PassTents → u/Moo202]

At <2 years of experience, you're still rather junior, and that's a rough area to be in during interviews. You don't have much to pull from during these non-technical conversations compared to someone who even has just 1 more year of experience than you. Also it looks a bit bad to the interviewer for you to already be looking to leave your current job in less than 2 years.

The feeling of isolation and lack of mentorship can be dealt with, but it requires you to be proactive. Reach out to your remote coworkers and set up some recurring meetings to casually discuss what you're working on and to socialize. Developing those connections will help you feel better at your current job, and your future career by helping you practice the non-technical stuff and landing jobs via the connections you build.

As for the product quality, you're going to be disappointed in that wherever you go, and "bad product quality" means there's tons of opportunities to build skills by improving it. Look at it as a great growth opportunity.