6 Tips for Senior / Principal Interview Prep

Senior, Principal, and Staff-level software engineers have to interview for jobs, just like anyone else. I assume you already know you need to be good at system design and architecture.
Here's six less obvious tips on how to prepare for more senior interviews, based on my 30 years of experience interviewing and being interviewed in big tech, at companies like Microsoft, Amazon, Google, and Oracle.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
00:00 Introduction
00:31 Overview
00:59 No New Skills
02:06 Shake The Rust Off
03:17 Process and Opinions
04:13 Tailor Your Resume
06:46 Know Where You're Going
08:50 Scope Discussions
11:19 Summary
12:42 Outro

[@DoesNotMatter85]

A real gem of video for aspiring senior engineers.

[@SunsetofMana]

Another great video! Thanks!

[@fcq731]

Love the suggestions!

[@clarmso]

Thanks for a video on senior and above positions! There's definitely not much materials on those levels. Some knowledge could be oral history or company-specific at the moment. I am currently reading "Staff Engineer" by Will Larson at the moment. Please talk about more on senior and above positions in the future. I'd be great to hear about aspects of the topic from different individuals.

[@TheDeliberateEngineer]

thanks for watching & the suggestion!

[@beepdotboop]

Great video and great tips!

[@TheDeliberateEngineer]

Thank you! Glad it is useful!

[@malik641]

Thanks for another video, John. Great content! How much do you value learning persuasion skills for interviewing?

[@TheDeliberateEngineer]

Thank you for watching! For interviewing, I haven't really considered persuasion skills. The closest I would come is precision questioning, which I think is helpful for both interviews and work.

[@gabrielvrldev]

Great video! 👏

[@TheDeliberateEngineer]

Thanks, glad you enjoyed it!

[@seinfan9]

The biggest takeaway here is to not drill into the weeds of the work you had to do and keep it at a high level discussion. Makes sense they'd want someone to demonstrate that they are thinking of the big picture for projects.

[@TheDeliberateEngineer]

Too bad I didn't learn that lesson 10 years ago :)

[@mbw365]

Great overview and approach. It would be great if you took a real job listing for this level and walked though how you would personally apply this advice to the listing. Designing the senior engineer interview, if you will.

[@TheDeliberateEngineer]

Thanks for watching and commenting, and for the suggestion!

[@aminababneh5964]

What's next in your life John? and out of the big 4 companies you have worked for which one was the healthiest in your perspective?

[@TheDeliberateEngineer]

I'm pretty sure I'm retired, so I guess more videos, reading, and writing. I think Google was the best company to work at. I like the variety and environment at Microsoft better, though, especially post-2000.

[@aminababneh5964]

@@TheDeliberateEngineer Oh I am seriously happy that you get to decide how to spend your time now. I will not complain about you doing more videos for sure. I will make sure I try some of those other companies myself as well.

[@funicon3689]

just get cracked