Solid and Vague examples in interviews

Are you giving Solid or Vague examples in your interviews?

How are you answering behavioral or situational questions?

Behavioral: “Tell me about a time…” (Past experience)
Situational: “Tell me how you would handle XYZ” (Future/forward-thinking experience)

✅ Solid examples are specific.

· They include who was or should be involved (your, your manager, your teams, stakeholders, etc.)
· They include the scenario or problem
· They include the steps and/or processes taken to handle or solve the scenario or problem
· They include the results
· They include the lessons learned
· Bonus: they include what you could have done differently or improved (aka insights)
· Gives the interviewer a sense of YOUR work


❌ Vague examples are…well…vague.

· Avoids stating the parties involved
· Doesn’t describe the scenario or problem
· No framework on the steps taken
· No real results or insights
· Doesn’t answer the question
· Leaves the interviewer thinking you may not have the skills for the role
· OR leaves the interviewer thinking that it’s not YOUR work or example (aka maybe your example is what a coworker did and you're describing their story)

I could give a lot of interviewing advice, but I think this is my favorite. I can’t tell you how many times a hiring manager or interviewer will tell me they are passing on a candidate because they didn’t have any examples to present.

So if you’re prepping for interviews, make this a priority! 💥