Behavioural Interview + Bonuses

Hi! My name is Artem. I work as a Data Scientist at MegaFon (a platform for secure data monetization OneFactor). We build credit scoring, lead generation and anti-fraud models on telecom data, and also do geo-analytics.

In the previous article, I shared resources to prepare for the design of machine learning systems.

Let's remember what sections the interview process for the position of Data Scientist consists of:

A typical interview process through the eyes of Dall-E 3

In this article, we will look at materials that can be used to prepare for a behavioral interview, as well as some other materials that were not included in previous articles.

Notes

I will provide links to materials not only in Russian, but also in English. If the same resource has a version in Russian and in English, I will provide both so that the reader can choose the appropriate option.

A large number of resources will be in English, so knowledge of English is a must have not only for working in the IT specialty, but also for preparing for an interview. Often, the original version (in English) is easier to read than the translation, because it contains many terms and names that are established and, if poorly translated, only confuse the reader.

For books, I will attach links to publishers (if possible), so that you can choose where to buy them yourself. For technical literature, I recommend using electronic versions of books, because you can always highlight an important passage, leave a comment, and quickly find the information you need.

By default, resources in Russian come before resources in English (where they exist).

Most of the materials in this article are free, but there are some paid ones (marked paid). I recommend buying them only if you clearly understand that you do not want or cannot spend your personal time independently searching for information.

I have highlighted my favorite materials ⭐.

Content

Behavioural interview

It is vital for an employer to assess how well a person will fit into the company during the interview process, as employees who fit well into the culture have higher job satisfaction, excellent performance, and are more likely to stay with the company.

Behavioural interviewing is a proven way to assess a candidate’s motivation, characteristics and cultural fit. It reveals a person’s ability to adapt, communicate and grow. Unlike technical interviews, there are no right or wrong answers because candidates are asked about how they handled various work situations.

Courses

⭐ Groking the Behavioral Interview

This course will give you the tools to thoroughly prepare for behavioral and cultural issues.

⭐ Rock the Behavioral Interview

A course that covers various aspects of behavioral interviewing to help you prepare for your interview.

Questions

This section will contain a lot of material to prepare for an Amazon interview because behavioral questions are the core of the Amazon interview process, no matter what position the candidate is applying for. This means that the process is streamlined and the material can be very useful to study.

⭐ Popular HR questions

This table will help you prepare for the interview so that you don’t have to remember and come up with an answer from scratch every time.

How to use:

Copy the table to yourself
Read the questions and explanations
Enter your answers
Start communicating with employers
Please complete your answers.

⭐ Awesome Behavioral Interviews

This repository contains tips and resources for preparing for behavioral interviews: the author first shares general recommendations, then discusses several templates for answering questions, and ends with a list of questions with sample answers according to the STAR template. Finally, there are questions to ask the interviewer.

Amazon Behavioral Interview Questions (+ answers, method)

In this guide you will find:

Examples of questions dedicated to each Amazon's leadership principle
Ways to answer them
Ideas and advice from former Amazon interviewers
A practical plan to help you get a job.

Amazon Behavioral Interview Questions Guide

After reading this guide, you will learn:

Answer to the question “What is behavioral interviewing?”
Amazon's Leadership Principles and Sample Questions for Each
How to answer questions using the STAR template
Final tips for preparation

41 Behavioral Interview Questions You Must Know (Best Answers Included)

The article provides the most popular questions that may be asked during a behavioral interview. The questions are divided into groups (Problem Solving, Working on a Team, Biggest Failures, Leadership, Personal Stress) and advice is given on how best to answer each of them.

The 50 Amazon Behavioral Interview Questions with Answers

The 10 most frequently asked behavioral interview questions at Amazon, along with suggested answers to help you prove you're the right candidate for the job.

Behavioral Questions Answered

A repository of answers to questions and tips on how to pass behavioral interviews.

Mock interviews and tips

Mock interview with Valery Babushkin

Mock Interview or mock interview – This is a simulation of a real interview, which is conducted with the aim of practicing self-presentation and communication skills necessary for successfully passing the selection for a position.

In the following episodes, Valery interviewed several people with different backgrounds and provided feedback:

Issue 1: Technical Director Kirill Cherepanov
Issue 2: Artur Kuzin, Kaggle Grandmaster, Head of Deep Learning. Formerly Head of Computer Vision Platform
Issue 3: Daria is a Lead Data Analyst and Product Analyst

⭐ Episode 07: Intro to Behavioral Interviews

In the video, the author discusses how behavioral interviews work. This will help you understand what such interviews are all about and how you can remain sincere during an interview without hurting yourself.

⭐ Dan Croitor

The author regularly shares tips in his videos on how to prepare for and pass the behavioral interview stage.

⭐ Tips for answering a few tricky behavioral interview questions

This article provides tips to help you prepare for a behavioral interview.

How to Answer Top Interview Questions by Self Made Millennial

A playlist of 12 videos to help you prepare for a behavioral interview.

Telegram posts

Hands-on advice from experienced Data Science professionals:

Bonuses

In this section we will look at resources that did not fit the topic of any of the previous articles, but it would be wrong not to include them in the series of materials.

Questions for preparation

In previous articles, I shared materials for studying Data Science and preparing for interviews, but I hardly touched on the topic of questions for preparation and numerous articles where authors who received an offer share advice. Therefore, in the repository Data Science Resources a special section has been placed Interview Preparationwhich contains the following information:

Questions:
- Data Science
- Machine Learning
- Deep Learning
- SQL
- NLP
- Programming
- Behavioural
Tips
Articles with advice on how to best prepare for an interview, pass an interview, handle rejections, etc.
Resources
Preparation materials from other companies
Courses
Preparatory courses
Other
Materials that did not fit into other blocks

Mathematics

Knowledge of mathematics (linear algebra, probability theory, mathematical statistics, A/B tests, etc.) is necessary both at work and during interviews, so in the repository Data Science Resources a special section has been placed Mathwhich contains the following information:

General
Materials that are difficult to classify into other sections
Linear Algebra
Books and articles on linear algebra
Probability and Statistics
Courses, books, articles, videos, websites, repositories and other materials on probability theory and statistics
A/B Tests
Articles, roadmaps and links to various resources for learning A/B testing

Let's sum it up

If you haven't read it yet, I recommend reading the block Learning How to Learn from the first article, as it contains tips on how to remember information.

The materials collected in this article will be useful in preparing for interviews at various positions in Big Data MegaFon.

And if you are just starting your career in Data Science, then pay attention to internships in large companies, where you can not only improve your knowledge, but also get cool experience in applying theory to practical business tasks. At MegaFon, an example of such an internship is an accelerator (write to the email with the subject line “Internship in Big Data“), which is used every year by Data Scientists, Data Analysts and Data Engineers to find their first job.

By the way, we have a telegram channel Career at MegaFonwhere new vacancies and company news are published almost daily!