The 7-Day Interview Prep Plan
- Day 1: read every page on the company site. Every one. Take notes.
- Day 2: research every interviewer on LinkedIn. Note common ground.
- Day 3: draft 6 STAR stories covering leadership, failure, conflict, teamwork, ambiguity, impact.
- Day 4: prepare 3 questions per interviewer, plus 3 general questions.
- Day 5: mock interview with a friend. Record it. Watch it back.
- Day 6: prepare your "tell me about yourself" 60-second answer. Rehearse aloud 10 times.
- Day 7: sleep, hydrate, arrive 10 minutes early, breathe.
The STAR Framework (Done Right)
STAR is Situation, Task, Action, Result. Most candidates over-invest in Situation and Task. The signal is in Action (what YOU specifically did) and Result (what specifically moved).
Rule of thumb: 15% situation, 15% task, 50% action, 20% result. If your story is 90 seconds long and 60 of them are context, you are burning the interviewer's attention.
- Situation: 1 sentence. "At [company], the [system/team] was [broken state]."
- Task: 1 sentence. "I owned [specific outcome] with [constraint]."
- Action: 3-4 sentences. First-person, specific, technical detail.
- Result: 1-2 sentences. Metric with a number. Second-order effect if you have one.
Questions to Ask Them (That Aren't Boring)
- "What's the hardest problem this team is not yet solving well?"
- "If I were extraordinary in this role in 6 months, what would I have delivered?"
- "What made the last person in this role successful, or unsuccessful?"
- "How does the team make decisions when there's disagreement?"
- "What's the one thing about working here you'd change if you could?"
Skip these
Don't ask about PTO, remote policy, snacks, or perks in the first round. Those are offer-stage questions and asking early signals the wrong priorities.
Virtual Interview Rules (Non-Negotiable)
- Camera at eye level — a stack of books beats a laptop on a desk
- Light source in front of you, not behind you
- Wired ethernet or 2 metres from the router — no coffee-shop wifi
- Test the meeting link 30 minutes before, not 30 seconds before
- Close every tab and notification. Airplane mode on the phone.
- One pen, one notebook, one glass of water. Nothing else on the desk.
The 24-Hour Follow-Up
One personalised email per interviewer, within 24 hours. Reference something specific each person said. Attach an artifact if you have one — a doc, a diagram, a Loom — proving you kept thinking after the room.
This is the single highest-leverage act between the interview and the offer. Most candidates skip it. That's why it works.