I'm interviewing with MBB as an experienced hire with about 1 year of experience at a tier 2 firm (first job after school). Is it okay if all of my behavioral interview stories/examples are from my experiences in the same role at the tier 2 firm? I can pull experiences from college as well, but because I'd be considered an experienced hire, I thought I shouldn't. I've also only been on one project during my time at my firm.
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Is it okay to exclusively use experiences from one job during my behavioral interviews?
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Hi there,
Simple answer: Yes.
Elaboration: The most important thing is to give good, deep answers that show your talents and skills. So focus on this, and don't worry about the context. I've heard great stories from people running family businesses, leading hockey teams, overcoming family emergencies, as well as dealing with tough stakeholder relationships on a consulting project.
One more point: Another reason why this is ok is that, in general, an interviewer evaluates your story in real-time on the spot. They don't consider the context of stories you've told to other interviewers the same day or in other rounds.
Hope this helps. Reach out if you'd like more.
Best,
Allen
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Hi there,
Yes, it's ok given your background.
You can include a couple from college as well.
Additionally, when you start each story you don't have to explicitly flag that it's the exact same role. Just say “I was working on x” or “I had x team member”. No need to specifically call out that it's all from that 1 year!
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I would do the following
Use your current job experience for 60% of answers and use college experience (clubs/societies/volunteering/competitions etc.) for the remaining 40%. Since you are a very recent college grad it really will not look bad at all if you use experiences from college for PEI.
Best,
Udayan
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Hi
considering your limited experience, it is ok to have examples from your college as well, prepare examples (if any) from your professional experience as a backup. Some interviewers, in rare cases, might explicitly request that.
good luck
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It's ok if all your answers come from your 1 year work experience. It is also ok if one of your answers comes from your college experience, although work experiences are in general preferrable to studying experiences.
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It is ok given your level of experience. You also do not have to talk about it as the same role. Given it is the same job, they will know you have been in the same role. However, you can talk about experiences from different projects as different experiences. It is completely valid to bring in some experiences from college and extra curriculars.
One general piece of advice is answer the questions directly, do not try to force fit stories to what the interviewer is asking.
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That's okay as long as there is some variety to showcase the range of your experience & skills.
Its always good to bring in some examples from personal life, university etc to demonstrate how you continue to evolve, learn and transform as a person.
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