Interview questions for soft skills

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What is the most challenging technical problem you've solved, and how did you approach it?

• When working on a high profile on-prem to cloud migration
• Challenges included:
• Ensure seamless migration with minimal downtime
• Managing dependencies between diff services
• Coordinating with multiple stakeholders
• How I approached it:
• Planning and Analysis
• Thorough assessment, workshops and setting clear milestones etc.
• Proactive updates to the team and stakeholders
• Testing and validation
• Multiple dry runs
• Dev environments
• Execution during a maintenance window
• Monitoring

How do you stay current with new developments in the IT field?

• Continuous learning and certs
• Google cloud blog
• Community engagement - stack overflow, reddit r/devops
• Google cloud next, AWS re invents
• Hands on practice
• Google cloud documentation
• Communication within our team at rxt

How do you handle disagreements within your team?

• Create a safe environment
• Active listening
• Open mind
• Find common ground
• Data driven decision making
• Document decision
• View disagreements as opportunities for growth and learning

Describe a time when you introduced a new technology or process that improved your team’s productivity.

• Identified Opportunity
• Came across is on the Partner advantage portal
• Research and Evaluation
• Sandbox testing environment
• Talking to senior engineers and getting their opinion
• Implementation
• PoC
• Training sessions to other engineers and workshops
• Started using it with one customer with those who were well versed in it
• Results
• Reduced deployment time
• Continuous improvement
• Feedback from team members

Can you describe a time when you helped mediate a conflict between team members?

• Situation
• Initial separate meetings
• Joint meetings navigating pros and cons
• Exploring solutions
• Test risk at smaller scale
• Resolution
• Outcome

Have you ever taken on a mentoring role? How did you support your mentee?

• Regular meetings and check ins
• Provide points of contacts
• Explain based on my experience
• Active listening
• Come up with a plan

Describe a situation where you had to lead a team through a difficult project.

• Terraform migration project
• Stakeholders difficult
• Research on terraform
• Analysis and through assessment
• Plan
• Meetings and effective communication
• Workshops, documentation
• Seamless handovere

Describe a time when you faced a significant setback. How did you recover and move forward?

• Legacy and compatibility issue, or knowledge when customer team member was leaving
• Identify the issue
• Be transparent with stakeholders
• Come up with an approach that everyone is happy with
• Learning experience

How do you see your role contributing to the company’s overall success?

• Experience
• Leveraging FF
• Teamwork and individual working
• Continuous improvement

How do you ensure effective communication within your team, especially when working on complex projects?

• Set clear objectives and roles
• Open communication channels, regular meetings, chats, standup etc.
• Active listening
• Regular updates and transparency
• Documenting decisions and actions
• Encourage feedback and collaboration
• Celebrate achievements

Describe a time when you had to explain a technical concept to a non-technical stakeholder. How did you ensure they understood?

• Understanding the audience and their roles
• Several Knowledge transfer sessions, doing demos
• Continuous check ins to make sure they understood and encourage any questions
• Use analogies and visual aids
• Addressing concerns proactively

Can you provide an example of a situation where you had to learn something new quickly to complete a project?

• In my role, I’m continually thrown into the deep end wit projects and having to learn something new
• Terraform migration project, fabric fast
• Intensive learning and research
• Hands on practice
• Asking team for their expertise and having sessions with them
• Making it clear with the customer that I may not have the knowledge entirely but am proactive learning and trying to pick it up

What do you value most in a workplace environment?

• Open communication
• Collaborative culture
• Opportunities for growth
• Work-life balance

How do you handle feedback and incorporate it into your work?

• Opens and receptiveness - open-end
• Active liste3ning
• Seeking specifics
• Reflecting on feedback
• Action plan
• Implementing changes
• Seeking followup
• Gratitude and acknowledgment

What are your long-term career goals, and how do you see this position helping you achieve them?

• Senior engineer within the next two years
• Technical expertise
• Client facing
• Continuous learning
• Networking and industry exposure

Pressure and Stress

• Prioritization and organization
• Time management
• Mainting perspective
• Healthy work life balance
• Effective communication
• Adaptability and flexibility
• Seeking support

Strengths

• Communication
• Developer mindset
• Adaptability

Weaknesses

• Delegation
• Prioritizing learning new tools and technologies

Pay

• Remote or hybrid role/flexible working
• Team and my role within the team - big team or small team
• Opportunities for professional development
• AWS and other clouds
• Can you give an insight into some of the projects the team has worked on
• How is success measured in this role

Links

https://youtu.be/HzuBg__6b9E?si=tV4OS6hE7ohHr3Bu https://youtu.be/wIjK-6Do6lg?si=tUsEoH_1-GWy0COg https://youtu.be/JUXPcVdWo1I?si=5jFbpX4UG4OoRlu1 https://youtu.be/IV30jAw7dxA?si=0g8iDNV_WOcuuOxx https://youtu.be/WOHFlwYV210?si=P1O-fx3WgnRBqlOs https://youtu.be/xPmV9lJqnTQ?si=DEaK7p-YC1cWUq6N https://youtu.be/2nFunbg11GM?si=fv7FNK2bGigculDD https://youtu.be/gWi0SfObb4o?si=rFVLCkNktLpzZc4P https://youtu.be/GzYDwIFtxII?si=bWspyFYkX-6TCr4G