# Preparing for Interviews: 3 Practical Tips!

## Метаданные

- **Канал:** Jeff Su
- **YouTube:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OD2HWGTzPA
- **Дата:** 03.06.2020
- **Длительность:** 7:03
- **Просмотры:** 9,049
- **Источник:** https://ekstraktznaniy.ru/video/3843

## Описание

In this video I'll be sharing 3 practical tips for interview preparation with Google! 

Answering "Tell me about yourself" is important yes, but you can fully leverage your answer to influence what questions the interviewer asks next. This way, you have strong "pre-prepared" answers to those questions as well!

Case interview questions are an integral part of interviews (not just with Google) nowadays. And having a strong synthesis can save an otherwise weak answer. 

Doing research is obviously key before any interview. But what are some specific strategies or tools you can use? 

TIMESTAMPS
00:00 Intro
00:13 How to influence the interviewer
02:46 How to structure a strong synthesis for case interview questions
05:19 How to do your research and "cheat"

ASK ME QUESTIONS DIRECTLY
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RESOURCES I MENTION IN THE VIDEO (no affiliates):
101 Intro to Case Interview Questions: https://youtu.be/6R5bT4cJh0A
Case Interview Secr

## Транскрипт

### Intro []

- Hi everyone, my name is Jeff and I'm a product marketer at Google. Today, I'm gonna share three practical tips that I found useful during the interview process. I'm gonna leave the time stamps right over here so feel free to skip around as needed. Let's get started.

### How to influence the interviewer [0:13]

Tip number one, nail the tell me about yourself question. This standard opening question is designed for the interviewer to ease both of you into the interview. I mean, you two just met. Your answer to this question will set the tone for the rest of the conversation yes, but more importantly, this question gives you an opportunity to influence what the interviewer will ask next. You do this by simply mentioning one key highlight per experience you bring up. Take me for example, I'm in marketing right now, I was in the sales team before, and I was a consultant before that, right? So my answer might look like something this, "Hi, I'm a product marketer at Google. A recent project I worked on is called Starna Android China that's driving 200% revenue year on year. Before this, while as account manager in the sales team, I created YouTube videos on how to optimize Google Ads account to better engage my clients. Finally, when I was in management consulting, the toughest project I worked on required me to travel for six months straight, but it all paid off in the end because we were able to pitch a follow-up engagement. " In this oversimplified example, you might remember the highlights that I mentioned. The 200% year on year growth, creating YouTube videos to better engage my clients, traveling for six months but having it pay off. So with all these highlights, it's very natural for the interview to then follow up with additional questions. "Oh Sarna Android sounds amazing. What was your exact role in this project? For the YouTube videos, other than viewership, what other metrics did you take into account? How is your team able to successfully pitch the follow-up engagement? " Congrats, if you prepared strong stories for each one of those highlights, you just did yourself a huge favor. To wrap tip number one up, a common mistake I see a lot of candidates making is walking through their entire life story when asked, "Tell me about yourself. " "Ah yes, my name is Jeff, I'm from Hong Kong. I went to school in the States for high school, then I studied finance and consulting in college, and then I was in management consulting out of New York City for a bit, and then I was in sales, and then now I'm in marketing. So do I get the job? " While an answer like that isn't necessarily wrong, you're not taking full advantage of the question to have a stronger start. Therefore, a good rule of thumb to have is to start with your most current and relevant experience and move backwards. If you're a young, working professional, definitely stick to the latest two to three roles that you've held. If you're still in college, this would definitely be the most recent internship experiences, leadership experiences, and extracurricular activities that you've been involved in, probably in that order.

### How to structure a strong synthesis for case interview questions [2:46]

Tip number two, having a strong synthesis for case interview questions. Google, like 90% of tech firms, incorporate some version of the case interview questions throughout its application process. If you're not familiar with what case interview questions are, I highly recommend you read Victor Cheng's "Case Interview Secrets. " Victor is a ex-McKinsey consultant and he breaks down case interview questions in extremely easy to understand way. He also provides a lot of free resources such as business frameworks that I'll link down below. The main takeaway I got from the book that is applicable to all case interview questions is that having a strong synthesis is crucial to performing well. A synthesis is basically a summary. You take the different pieces of information that you've uncovered throughout the case interview question and combine it into a cohesive and coherent conclusion. Of every memorable example that Victor gave in his book was a hypothetical scenario where he came home and found his house on fire. Scenario number one, the babysitter runs out of the house and says, "Oh my God, Mister Cheng, you'll not believe this, but the house is on fire. I think we should get out of here, the fire is spreading really quickly. I told the kids to run out, I ran out first, there's smoke everywhere but we should definitely just leave right now. " Scenario number two, the babysitter runs out and says, "Mister Cheng, I recommend we leave right now if you wanna survive the fire. Number one, the fire is currently moving at a speed of five feet per second. At our current running pace, we should be able to outrun it. Number two, the fire is already out of control, therefore we should not waste any more time trying to salvage anything in the house. Number three, your wife will kill you if the kids are harmed in any way. Therefore, I think we should make a run for the main road right now if you wanna survive. " Yes, the hypothetical example is a bit extreme but I think he makes a solid point and it was pretty memorable. I mean, I read the book like eight to nine years ago and I still remember it very clearly almost word for word today. As you can see, a strong synthesis, or summary, is usually structured with one action oriented recommendation right off the bat, followed by three data proof points that backs up that recommendation and then the action is emphasized again at the end. And Victor recommends interviewees practice this in their everyday lives. So all of those years ago when I first started dating my fiance, I did exactly that. It looked something like this. "Honey, you should apologize to me for the following three reasons. Number one, you failed to make a logical argument. Number two, a quick Google search showed that I was correct. Number three, where you going? What do you mean you're breaking up with me? I'm just trying to get a job here. " True story.

### How to do your research and "cheat" [5:19]

Tip number three, do your research and cheat. So I'm not sure whether you've ever cheated I certainly have never not cheated on a test before. But going on company review sites, such as glassdoor. com, certainly felt a little bit like cheating to me. There's so many interview reviews for tech companies such as Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, Tencent, ByteDance, that chances are, you will see many real and recent interview questions that were asked to interviewees. For example, if you're interviewing for the account manager position based out of Mountain View, all you have to do is sign up for glassdoor. com, search for the role, account manager, search for the company, Google, search for the location, let's say Mountain View, and boom, there's your question bank. Yes, the questions may not all be the most updated and yes, not all are 100% correct, but this should definitely be a good place for you to start. And I think this is a perfect place to add a disclaimer that my personal opinions do not reflect those of my employer. If you're still watching this now, thank you. Feel free to drop a like, subscribe, but maybe something more practical, share this video with someone that you think might benefit from these three tips, someone interviewing at Google, someone interviewing with tech firms, someone interviewing in general. If you'd like to read an article where I expand on some of these tips, I'll link the Medium article I wrote down below so feel free to check that out. Finally, let me know down in the comments section whether you found these three tips helpful and let me know what other topics you'd like me to talk about. For now though, that's it, have a great one, and stay safe. (light music)