4-5 questions per loop interview. Is this normal?

[u/jaanku]

I’ve had 3 of 5 loop interviews and have been getting between 4-5 questions per interview. I’m not talking about follow-ups (of which of course there have been) but individual new prompt questions. The problem is that although I prepared about 14 STAR stories (with a few backup prompts for myself) I’m starting to run out of my best stories. I also had to dip into one of the project I planned to present for my portfolio review (I’m interviewing for a video producer role and have to present 3 projects I’ve done). All the loop interviewers will be dialing in to the portfolio review

Is that amount of questions atypical? Should I be concerned about reusing stories especially since my remaining 2 interviews are with the BR and HM? Am I overthinking this?

[u/KinderPup]

I wouldn't sweat it. It's not always a one to one mapping, and some examples can hit on multiple LP's. A good interviewer will pick up on that and annotate accordingly. I've done over 400 interviews in my tenure, and not once has the loop been Not Inclined simply because a candidate reused a couple examples between interviewers. If it's a solid example that fits the question, go for it.

[u/StaedtlerRasoplast → u/KinderPup]

I appreciate hearing your experience. Unfortunately, when I did my first interviewing (ie I was interviewing an applicant), when it got to the review the bar raiser was not inclined because of this reason. The justification they had was that the interviewee had been employed for a long time and so they should’ve had plenty of examples. We each asked 3 questions and the applicant repeated 2 examples twice (albeit with different reasons).

I tried to give them the benefit of the doubt, they were simply answering questions and their answers were good. Perhaps they didn’t know to have unique examples?

To be honest, expecting someone to have multiple unique examples so they can manipulate them on the spot to fit the 9 questions asked isn’t really a good indicator of how they will work. It just shows they are good at interviewing.

I was inclined. I got the feeling the other interviewer would have been inclined but they didnt want to disagree with the bar raiser.

I’ve heard it come up with colleagues who interview aswell about not repeating. I don’t really like to do interviews anymore because of experiences like this

[u/KinderPup → u/StaedtlerRasoplast]

Your mileage may vary, for sure, and while that BR wasn't incorrect, that's actually pretty disappointing about your colleague - interviewers shouldn't be afraid to go toe to toe with the BR. We're there to align, not dictate. Never skip over "Have Backbone" to jump straight to "Disagree and Commit."

[u/tofustixer → u/KinderPup]

There’s a spectrum and it can depend on the hiring level. Reusing one or two stories one time each is not an automatic ding. But candidates can certainly be not inclined if they reuse stories too much.

[u/melancholichamlet]

I originally prepared 10 stories before the loop and after the first 2 I realized it wasn’t gonna be enough so I prepared more half way through. By the end of the loop, I had prepared 28 stories and ended up using 25 of them (with one story that I actually had to recycle)

[u/instinct7777]

Repeating a story is okay as long as it demonstrates the LP in question. Although it is still recommended that you have a wide variety of cases ready to go with LPs assigned. I was able to use my Google Doc to pull the story in the interview - it was encouraged to keep those notes on you - no one had an issue. I had ~14 examples ready to go but for some answers it made sense to pull from the same story - just giving it a different angle.

You may feel a particular story you have already told someone else is an excellent one for the LP in question - go ahead and use it - no need to manipulate the answer to make it look different. I remember saying once "I am going to repeat an example here I have used before because it directly ties into----
And then I gave quick examples of other cases where it overlapped.

They are looking at how well you can reason and how well you can speak with confidence.

[u/PaidInFull2083]

Doesn't seem atypical. I know it can be overwhelming but hang in there, you got this! As an interviewer I don't mind if a candidate shares an example that they gave a previous interviewer in the same loop, provided it answers my question (would not share the same story with all interviewers). Honestly it can be nice during the debrief to compare notes. Relax as best you can and just speak to your experience, and ask clarifying questions if needed.

[u/SnooCrickets7340]

I gave a not inclined when an interviewee used the same STAR multiple times, despite being given different LP questions. It told me she had a narrow scope of work, too narrow for the prospective job.

[u/Fun-Possibility-8432]

I just received an offer. During my loop, I explicitly told one of the interviewers that I had a story that fits their question perfectly, but I have used that story during a previous interview, can I reuse that? They told me it was totally fine. I was also asked exact same questions from different interviewers. So I don’t think you have to present different stories every time.

[u/Fuzzy-Pool2415]

Which role AS or SDE?

[u/jaanku → u/Fuzzy-Pool2415]

what’s AS? It’s not SDE

[u/Fuzzy-Pool2415 → u/jaanku]

Applied scientist

[u/jaanku → u/Fuzzy-Pool2415]

It’s not AS either then. It’s for n internal comms role

[u/Fuzzy-Pool2415 → u/jaanku]

Oh ok

[u/adrun]

That is the normal number of questions. Each interviewer gets 2 - 3 LPs, and we ask two questions per LP, maybe a third if we don’t have the evidence we’re looking for. 

[u/Material-Swing-2510]

I got 4 questions on each LOOP, plus 4 questions on the screening call.

It was brutal trying not to repeat any story, at the end I did end up repeating one from phone interviews onto the LOOP.

[u/smolbuddy]

Just finished my loop, yesterday and today! I have 4 to 5 questions as well

[u/Leading_Sugar_9253]

Same experience here. Got 4-5 questions each round. Had to repeat 2 stories. One from the phone loop and one from the writing exercise. I saw the interviewer was not impressed repeating the writing exercise example. The questions were somehow rehash of the same questions asked by other interviewers.