Project-based Data Science Interview Questions: How to Explain Your Projects with Confidence!

[@thudang2597]

Hi Emma, I just can't thank life enough to let me stumble upon your channel. I've been binge-watching your videos to prep for my screening interview. The videos just bring so much clarity to the topics that I'm so afraid of talking about, such as DS topics like A/B testing and behavioral topics. I'm so so thankful and I look forward to your great great content every week!

[@jeoffleonora4612]

Oops, just realized how bad it was when I presented my project. Huge thanks to Emma! Otherwise I will never know my mistakes.

[@neopineaapl]

Went to a couple interviews with STAR method, I found it difficult to impress the interviewers. Your method makes so much sense that I will definitely try it out next time. This is a hidden gem channel; it deserves a million views.

[@sinnottboy]

I was preparing some notes for a potential question like this before watching your video. After watching this I’m completely revising my answer. Your videos bring so much clarity to each topic you cover and I’m really feeling good about my upcoming onsite thanks to you! Keep up the good work!

[@sinnottboy]

Btw, I got the offer!

[@anama9068]

@@sinnottboy congrats! I'm also preparing for a data scientist interview. Would you recommend this structure for answering?

[@ddss3006]

lol... I had the same doubt about STAR but kept using it because that is what everyone recommended... Glad I found your video and I plan to give it a try! Thanks for sharing!

[@kylehuang7926]

When you said do not use STAR i was like, what???? at the end i got what you said, it is all about consise and attractive. Thanks Emma :P

[@emma_ding]

Your are so welcome! I have used the STAR method before and it was not successful so I came up a different way to do it. Hope it helps :)

[@zbear404]

You saved me from using the STAR method! Thanks a bunch! I'll drop by again to comment on whether or not I got my internship!

[@dallalstreet1775]

i was applying for interview !! thanks Emma now i realize how badly i explained

[@jessieshao1397]

Thanks for the video! I basically live with these videos recently.

[@jiayiwu4101]

8:40 Almost think I am the friend you talked about in this funny story..... Wish I saw this video earlier!!! The best video for DS about project description!! Thank you!!

[@AmanSingh-xk2lv]

This is an interesting way to do it, thanks!

[@daniellewang3620]

Wish I could watch this video before my interview. I used the STAR method to talk about my project. I thought I talked about everything but my interviewer still asked me questions like what were some challenges you had? Did you find something interesting? Thanks for sharing all those awesome videos!

[@emma_ding]

Glad it was helpful! Good luck with your interviews Danielle! Let me know how it goes!

[@jeromeeusebius]

Thank you Emma. This was a great video. A lot of people recommend the STAR method but it does have some issues as you mentioned in that there may not be time to describe important parts of the project. The proposed approach is stepwise and leaves room for probing for continuation with the interviewer.

[@emma_ding]

Totally agree! Thanks for the comment jeromeeusebius!

[@kangxinwang3886]

Hi Emma, just wanted to say thank you for providing such good contents, I have onsite interviews next week and these vids are life saver ;)

[@EvanZamir]

Thanks so much for these videos. It helped me get past the screening interview for FB!

[@emma_ding]

That's awesome! Good luck with the onsite!

[@SuperLOLABC]

Hey Emma, how do I show "impact" if all my projects are for university coursework or personal projects? I can just say what the project can be used for, but I can't show any numbers like you did in your example. What do you suggest I do then?

[@jaromeleslie2747]

Good question. I'm curious about this as well

[@aok1425]

I would say, if the project has results (e.g. performance on supervised learning model), use that. Otherwise, your "impact" is that you completed the project. The interviewer will know that since the project was for school or personal, there might not be "impact".

[@tianyifang6601]

The impact may not be a certain number, you can talk about what you've learned from it and you hope in the future you have the opportunity to make a real impact.

[@yij9010]

hated star method

[@徐宁远]

Great insight, especially the parts discussing why STAR does not work

[@wayneshih2646]

Very insightful! agree with that as a data scientist you need to present the projects and yourself in an efficient way, and not just follow the STAR method.

[@杰奇]

Kinda spoiled by Emma's concise and informative videos. Credit to Emma丁.

[@haitingyou7087]

Thanks for sharing, your video really helps me find out the reason why I failed the interview again and again.

[@saishastech8023]

Nicely explained 👍 joined you 👍 stay connected 👍👍

[@shirinnajdi1951]

very useful video. Thanks.

[@yuewang9534]

It is super helpful! Thanks for the video!!!

[@281019641]

Thank you for the enlightening video Emma, it always happens when I am describing my projects, I forget to structure the content. And although I tell everything it's sounds very random to the interviewer. I will use the STAR method and hopefully after enough practise get better at it.

[@nien-thingchiang1169]

Thank you so much for your sharing! It is really helpful :)

[@lydiamai6861]

Thank you Emma for your practical video.

[@hameddadgour]

Great content. Thank you!

[@jiayiwu4101]

3:26 I am a little confused by this part. If the interviewer wants more context, what does context might be, is it about 2-3 challenges you talked about at 3:35?

[@emma_ding]

Context could be technical details, background knowledge, assumptions, etc. Challenges are the difficulties or something meaningful you have done in order to achieve your goal.

[@guilad7130]

Thank you, this has been eye opening.

[@Amanda-zn3su]

super helpful as always! thank you so much!!

[@gauravkamble9702]

Very insightful Emma! Initially I was sceptical when you told not to use the STAR method, but when you explained your point, that made a lot sense. Thanks for sharing, Emma 😊

[@emma_ding]

Happy to hear this and glad it was helpful! Thank you for your comments Gaurav!

[@gauravkamble9702]

@@emma_ding Keep sharing posts like these, Emma! Lots of love and support from us 😊

[@emma_ding]

Thank you so much!

[@mikemihay]

Great video! Keep up with the good work!

[@deepadas4585]

I like your framework, Emma. It makes sense to me. Thank you for sharing. I did have a question. How about times when the company shares material before the interview where they have shared they want us to follow STAR method? How will that be seen?

[@emma_ding]

Interesting question! I never got such a specific suggestion. If it happens, I would suggest clarifying with the recruiters on what kind of questions to follow STAR method.

[@huaguo314]

Thank you, It helps a lot

[@dycast646]

小姐姐真美，光顾着看右下角了。lol

[@cyril_jq]

Great video

[@fabianantony4976]

Thank you Emma

[@echogao696]

Hi, I was wondering if you could elaborate a little on how to choose the best project to talk about? I am freshly out of school, and almost all of my projects were school assignments. They are just not very impressive and none of them cover all my skills. (ex. In a summer job I did data mining, data cleaning, validation, setting up an update pipeline, and making a descriptive dashboard, and then I left the team. And all my school work start with a clean dataset and end with overly specific methods and predictive results) I find myself struggling to find the most appropriate project to share in an interview. Do you have any tips on that? Thank you!

[@emma_ding]

Ideally great projects, as mentioned in the video, should have impacts, challenges, and collaboration with other people. Since you don't have a ton of experience, most interviewers wouldn't expect you to have super impressive projects. But you can think about, pick, and improve your articulation of your summer/school projects from those perspective.

[@himanshujoshi5918]

Hi Emma, This is a great video you have made. I have cleared many interviews using the same framework. It's very important to mention the impact and quantify it as most of the interviewers are looking for folks who were able to help business using Data Science/ML. I take many interviews and see this missing in many candidates. I agree we need to structure our story about the project based on the time available and interviewers interest. You are doing great work. Keep it up Regards, Himanshu

[@emma_ding]

Thanks for sharing Himanshu! I appreciate your feedback and thank you for the compliments!