Master the Behavioral Interview as a Senior Engineer
Shine Garg
Ex-Staff Engineer turned Career Coach
This course is popular
3 people enrolled last week.
Take the guesswork out. Select and deliver stories that convey Senior impact.
You walk out of a behavioral interview knowing you have strong experience, but unsure how it landed. Maybe you rambled, froze, or gave a surface-level answer. The ambiguity and unclear expectations leave you anxious about rejection or being down-leveled.
This course removes that ambiguity.
Gain the confidence and peace of mind to ace behavioral interviews without memorizing answers or making them up on the fly.
You’ll learn how to:
✅ Decode what behavioral questions really assess
✅ Select the right story in < 30 sec
✅ Use the STAR++ framework to convey senior-level thinking
✅ Deliver answers confidently, like a peer
✅ Ask strategic questions that reinforce your seniority and reveal real work culture
This course distills the interview judgment I developed over 15 years, including:
Upleveling from Senior to Staff
Securing an additional $500k in equity after a single behavioral round with a VP
Advancing directly to a Meta E6 onsite after an initial behavioral interview
Join live instruction on my frameworks, guided exercises, peer practice with feedback, and a practical handout mapping common behavioral questions to hiring signals and anchor stories from my career to model your own answers.
What you’ll learn
Decode what hiring managers really evaluate. Consistently select, structure, and deliver stories that articulate Senior-level impact.
Demystify how interviewers use these interviews to: 1) assess how you work 2) predict your future success 3) gauge partnership potential.
Decode the question behind the question to speak directly to what hiring managers are looking for in your answers.
Identify the four key Signals and Traits that behavioral interviews implicitly assess, e.g., Innovate and Impact.
Map your work experience to these key Signals and Traits instead of preparing disconnected answers to every possible question.
Select the right story in less than 30 seconds.
Scrap the traditional, limited STAR (Situation-Task-Action-Result) framework for storytelling.
Leverage an enriched storytelling structure that makes your impact and role-suitability compelling—using examples and a practical checklist.
Deconstruct confidence into its four essential pillars.
Uncover the common pitfalls in storytelling that weaken your delivery.
Prepare for follow-up questions in advance to break the "ad hoc answer" cycle with a reliable method.
Reinforce your seniority when it's your turn to ask questions about the team and work.
Uncover the 'real' work culture to make the right decision for your career.
Solidify the necessary and sufficient steps to prepare effectively, so you’re not starting from scratch every time you interview.
Learn directly from Shine
Shine Garg
Ex-Staff Engineer turned career coach for Senior through Principal Engineers
Who this course is for
You're a Senior Software Engineer or a mid-level engineer looking to up-level to Senior through interviews.
Other job titles: See FAQs
You're a Senior IC in adjacent functional roles like AI/ML, Frontend, Infrastructure, Mobile, SRE, etc.
You struggle with selecting the right stories, structuring them to convey impact, answering follow-up questions, or managing nerves.
What's included
Live sessions
Learn directly from Shine Garg in a real-time, interactive format.
Solo and group exercises during class
Write answers to real behavioral questions and practice with peers in small groups to give and receive feedback.
Behavioral interview question bank
A curated set of common behavioral questions mapped to hiring signals, so you know what each question is really testing.
STAR++ story checklists
Practical checklists for each component of the STAR++ framework to help you structure clear, complete, and compelling stories.
Anchor stories as examples
Real, Senior-level examples from Shine’s 15+ year engineering career to model strong behavioral responses.
Strategic closing questions
Direct questions you can ask that reinforce your seniority and uncover the real workplace culture.
Peer learning environment
Practice with other Senior engineers and learn from how others approach the same questions.
Lifetime access
Go back to course content and recordings whenever you need to.
Maven Guarantee
This course is backed by the Maven Guarantee. Students are eligible for a full refund up until the halfway point of the course.
Course syllabus
Week 1
Feb
28
Live class with Shine
Discover why behavioral interviews are crucial and, your cohort's challenges
Identify impactful stories using The 4“I” Signals Framework for Senior Engineers
Effectively craft your stories: Your story, your success with STAR++
Confidently narrate your stories: Interview like a peer, not a candidate
Do your homework: Stand out through preparation
Takeaways, resources, and closing
Extended Q&A (~30 mins)
Free resource
Position Your Technical Work for Promotions and Job Offers
Why your work is often undervalued and how to change that
Demystify why technical execution alone fails to communicate seniority. Break the perception of being "too operational."
How to uncover the key context that gives your work meaning
Uncover the tactical and strategic context of your work to accurately reveal the highest complexity you've worked at.
How to use context to advocate for your impact and growth
Position your work so it lands powerfully in performance reviews, promotions & behavioral interviews for steady growth.
Schedule
Live sessions
3 hrs
Live class with Shine to master the behavioral interview as a Senior Engineer
Sat, Feb 28
6:00 PM—9:00 PM (UTC)
Self-guided practice (optional)
1-3 hrs
Apply the frameworks from the class to your own interview stories using the provided handout. This helps you pressure-test your answers and prepare intentionally rather than leave it to guesswork.
Testimonials
Shine’s STAR++ framework helped me structure and articulate lessons from my 20-year career, making my experience relevant and compelling to interviewers.
Anonymous Client
Staff Engineer @ Private Consulting FirmShine coached me to pace my storytelling, read the room, and manage nerves while still covering the most important details of my stories.
Abhishek Waichal
Engineering @ SalesforceShine’s behavioral interview coaching clarified the impact of my technical programs, strengthened follow-up answers, and helped me secure an offer after months of searching.
Anonymous Client
Senior Technical Program Manager @ Big TechShine’s coaching shifted how I approached storytelling: from focusing on my role to clearly demonstrating organizational impact and results.
Jeswin Godwin
Staff Software Engineer @ DatavantShine’s signal-based approach to storytelling refined my behavioral interview answers and supported my transition from a laid-off Senior Engineer to a Staff Engineer.
John Vandivier
AI + Engineering @ Gusto
Full testimonial from a job search client
See all testimonials on http://linkedin.com/in/shinegarg/details/recommendations
Frequently asked questions
$250
USD