{"id":73,"date":"2023-12-20T15:53:18","date_gmt":"2023-12-20T23:53:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leenewman.us\/posts\/?p=73"},"modified":"2026-04-17T07:13:40","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T14:13:40","slug":"behavioral-interview-strategies-6-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/leenewman.us\/playbook\/behavioral-interview-strategies-6-8\/","title":{"rendered":"Quality Over Quantity: Simplifying Your Story Library"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

This is Part 6 of my 9-part series: The Behavioral Interview Game Plan<\/b>. [View the Full Series Roadmap]<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

One of the biggest hurdles in <\/span>tech behavioral interviews<\/strong> is the feeling that you need a different story for every single question. But here\u2019s something I always tell the people I coach: it\u2019s much better to have a few “Super-Stories” that are rich in detail than a dozen short ones that are hard to remember.<\/span><\/h3>\n

By combining your wins, we can drastically reduce your mental load<\/strong>. You\u2019ll have fewer stories to polish, and the ones you do keep will show a much broader range of your skills.<\/p>\n

How to Combine Your Wins<\/h2>\n

Let\u2019s look at how we can merge our examples from the previous post. Instead of ten separate stories, we can create seven \\<\/strong> that hit multiple points at once.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
The Quality We\u2019re Highlighting<\/strong><\/td>\nYour New “Super-Story” Title<\/strong><\/td>\nOriginal Scenario<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
App Maintenance<\/strong><\/td>\nPartnering to build the Dynamic Island content<\/strong><\/td>\nI updated our photo notifications to support the Dynamic Island.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Bug Resolution<\/strong><\/td>\nImproving the codebase while solving a high-priority bug<\/strong><\/td>\nI solved a high-priority production bug where images with spaces in their names weren\u2019t displaying.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Clean Code<\/strong><\/td>\nImproving the codebase while solving a high-priority bug<\/strong><\/td>\nI DRY\u2019d out the code and refactored our image-sorting logic.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Cross-Functional Collaboration<\/strong><\/td>\nPartnering to build the Dynamic Island content<\/strong><\/td>\nI partnered closely with our UX designer and Product Manager to define the Dynamic Island content.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Debugged Code<\/strong><\/td>\nImproving the codebase while solving a high-priority bug<\/strong><\/td>\nDebugged issue in production build where spaces caused images to disappear from the image selection screen.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Efficient Code<\/strong><\/td>\nImplementing sorting with Big O in mind<\/strong><\/td>\n(Keep as individual story)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Focus on Quality<\/strong><\/td>\nImproving the codebase while solving a high-priority bug<\/strong><\/td>\nTook the time to refactor WET code to increases test coverage and fix a production issue.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Individual Ownership<\/strong><\/td>\nLeading the the technical design for our new SwiftUI image selection screen.<\/strong><\/td>\n(Keep as individual story)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Interface Builder<\/strong><\/td>\n[Hypothetical] Coming up to speed on legacy XIB implementation of the image upload screen.<\/strong><\/td>\n(Keep as individual story)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
iOS Best Practices<\/strong><\/td>\nAdvocating for switching to SVG assets to ensure our UI stayed crisp on all devices.<\/strong><\/td>\n(Keep as individual story)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

The Result: More Impact, Less Stress<\/h2>\n

Before we combined these, we had ten different things to remember. Now, we\u2019re down to seven<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Not only is this easier for you to manage, but it actually makes you sound more senior to the interviewer. It shows that you don’t just “fix a bug”\u2014you fix the bug while<\/i> improving the codebase and focusing on quality. That\u2019s the kind of “multitasking” that top tech companies love to see.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s Next?<\/h2>\n

Now that we have our refined list of stories, we\u2019re going to give them a professional structure. In the next post, I\u2019ll walk you through the STAR(L) method<\/strong>, which ensures you highlight your results and your growth in every single answer.<\/p>\n

Want to learn how to condense your experience into high-impact “Super-Stories”? Let\u2019s chat<\/a>. My behavioral interview coaching for tech<\/strong> helps you find the common threads in your career to make your preparation seamless.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is Part 6 of my 9-part series: The Behavioral Interview Game Plan. [View the Full Series Roadmap] One of the biggest hurdles in tech behavioral interviews is the feeling that you need a different story for every single question. But here\u2019s something I always tell the people I coach: it\u2019s much better to have a few “Super-Stories” that are rich in detail than a dozen short ones that are hard to remember. By combining […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-73","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-behavioral-interviews","category-interviewing"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nOptimize Your Behavioral Interview | Lee Newman Coaching<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Stop trying to memorize 20 different scenarios. 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