Behavioral Questions and ALP Flashcards
Give an example of a time you exhibited Learn and Be Curious.
Learning is the primary way through which I find myself able to tackle a wide variety of problems, experience will tend to make solving old problems quicker and easier. Curiosity is what fuels effective learning, and the secret is that there are always things to be curious about.
For example, growing up I was fascinated by every aspect of music…
Tell me about a time when you were not able to meet a time commitment.
We were porting elements of a legacy code base to AWS
I was tasked with porting a particular piece of ML code to Lambda
As I was working I discovered that a particular set of calculations would benefit greatly from updating with new metrics that we began tracking. This would require a couple days of extra work as I did the background work necessary to rope in those metrics and update the scripts.
Pitched this to my manager with some justification and some initial research. He gave the go-ahead for the extension. A notable accuracy increase in a couple of metrics that the users were happy with. This is the type of snag that I think is always exciting to run into, an opportunity to improve user experience at the cost of just a couple of days of development.
Describe a long-term project that you managed. How did you keep everything moving along in a timely manner?
Senior year, engineers work on a Capstone project. I took the lead of a group of 5 fellow Cyber Engineers on a project we developed, which was a system to counteract a particular type of attack on image recognition systems.
This was a year long project with a group of very busy people who had a relatively diverse skillset.
Very fortunate to work with a group of very talented individuals who all had their own set of interests that complemented each other well. As far as the time management aspect goes, the most helpful thing I’ve found is to keep people working on things that they are suited for. So, every time we gathered to discuss status, the roadmap, and plan, a big focus was on ensuring that people were having success and enjoyment from their share of the responsibility.
As a result, we finished the implementation of our project about a month ahead of schedule, and were able to spend extra time on putting together a really cohesive presentation, write-up about our methods, and some ease-of-use features for future potential users of our project.
Difficult things share load
Give me an example of a time when you set a goal and were not able to meet or achieve it.
Rochester REU - Failed to allocate time/resources to accomplish it
S: Had to find summer occupation
T: Applied for Rochester REU
A: Failed to do an extensive amount of background research, assumed it was like any other job application (need to really kiss butt, talk about wanting to research there, etc.)
R: Learned a lot about expectations for pitching yourself for a large undertaking like an REU, no interview to sell yourself. Ended up doing freelance work instead, where that knowledge helped me land several gigs
Tell me about a time you had to quickly adjust your work priorities to meet changing demands.
S: At Radiance Technologies, we were developing a particular type of analysis for a particular piece of technology. I was originally tasked with putting together a quick proof of concept as we explored this technique. However, we then got word that our hardware testers were ready with data NOW so the proof of concept would have to wait until after we had attempted to analyze some actual data with our technique.
T: Quickly had to develop a system for storing the test data in a particular format.
A: Wrote a piece of Java software and set up a database that was easy to use for our testers that stored the data correctly in the database.
R: Got that up and running within a week and into the hands of testers who were successfully able to post their results into our database. I left Radiance shortly thereafter.
OR DL -> TPKB
An example of when you had to push back to HQ or challenge a decision
Technical presentation simplification
S: We had to pitch our initial research and results to our customer to secure future funding. The standard at Radiance was to essentially blend documentation and presentation slides
T: Had to put together this presentation
A: Pushed back hard to have minimal slides that outlined main points and communicated the specifics verbally while also providing well constructed documentation.
R: Compromised by having a documentation slide every few slides after covering big ideas that was left during any questions asked by customers. Did get further funding.
Tell me about the toughest decision you’ve had to make in the past six months
S: Needed to be around family for connection and mental health reasons and future potential reasons, sacrificed some activities for covid related reasons.
A: Moved to Colorado
R: After settling we have been much happier, and are currently seeking out our next location in Denver.
Tell me about a decision you regret
Not trying hard in Calc IV
Tutoring to fill holes in knowledge
S: On track team. Never had to try hard to learn material in Math class
T: Had to learn Calc iV while travelling 3 days a week. Didn’t hink I had to put in the hours
A: Failed a test, hard. Put together a study plan to catch up
R: Ended up passing the class and taking those strategies further to dramatically improve my GPA above what it ever had been.
What did you do when you needed to motivate a group of individuals
Senior design - Choosing good tasks, collaboration on draining/tedious tasks
Tell me about a time when you stepped into a leadership role
Everyone left as we went remote, LI req changes
OR
Senior Design
Do you collaborate well?
Music
Collaboration evolution
Splitting up to have our own responsibility
Take turns being in the driver’s seat and being a supporting/questioning voice
Learning when to push back/challenge someone to think bigger/present out there alternatives - Take advantage of different perspectives
Describe a situation when you negotiated with others in your organization to reach agreement.
Colors? Something about reprioritizing while simultaneously throwing a bone to one party
Ralph eyes on technical capability, sticking to a very aggressive timeline
Eve prioritizing usability
We’ve all had to work with people that don’t like us. How do you deal with someone that doesn’t like you?
Joe doesn’t like Sila, wasn’t happy with me taking responsibility on the backend
Made sure to loop him in on decision-making without putting too much responsibility on him.
Eventually, built a level of trust
We all make mistakes we wish we could take back. Tell me about a time you wish you’d handled a situation differently with a colleague
Trying to impress Drew instead of collaborating with him at Radiance wrt ctmc implementation
The last time you had to apologize to someone
Poor handling of wedding planning situation, better communication
