Engineering Manager Mock Interview (with Square Director of Engineering): Time You Made a Mistake

Rahul Thathoo (Director of Engineering, Square) sat down for an engineering manager mock interview and answered the question, "Tell me about a time you made a mistake."

He draws analogies between managing and comedic improv. Using a "yes, and" response to feedback and suggestions instead of "no" led him to make dramatic changes in his leadership style.

Chapters -
00:00 - Introduction
02:23 - Question
02:29 - Answer
05:33 - Follow-up questions
11:59 - Interview analysis
13:15 - Tips

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[akalrove]

Love the "Yes And" framework and candid interview. It was refreshing to hear honest answers.

[shwe]

It resonates with me a lot… My experience overshadows my professional empathy when responding to juniors with ideas… I am definitely going to try this “Yes, Let’s try…” model going forward.

[pdomicioex]

I had the same problem and I started to fix it at the end of the university days when I realized this negative standard response to change and new ideas. My initial procedure to stop it was first explain people that I had the problem but that I would come up with a solution in the the or next day and make them aware.
After a time I was able to be positive andget excited when people dropped new ideas

[hernanvelazquez]

I think you missed the chance to ask some more very interesting and practical questions to a DIRECTOR.

[francisd]

5:35 didn't answer question, just went off on a zigzag

[achilles]

Contradictory statements, he said he was in a team which constantly asked others for features and dependencies and on top of it he said "no" to whatever was asked of him 😳

[joshmartin]

"I was looking for work a while back and decided to apply for a position at a company. During the initial interviews there were several red flags, but I decided to go ahead and continue with the process, and now I'm talking to you."

[SivaBhargavRavella]

Very candid video. Great stuff. Thanks for publishing

[gameplayer]

A little too high level and academic in the answers. Would have loved for the interviewer to help drill down into more details.

[VinayKumar-vpqf]

How can someone in director role use the "a" Slangs in an interview 9:25

[vidhoo]

I feel you are in depression for a while and then you have self realisation because you have strong mindset which saves you. IT happened with me too because I don't want to give chance to speak non-sense in front of me

[alkingsona]

Sorry to say - No energy, no passion and it’s not even clear to understand him.

[bazscott]

Yes, and… is called plussing and it comes from Walt Disney originally not from improv

[madhanraj]

I will neither hire him nor work in his team.

[L____IIII]

No titles? What nonsense. How does anything get done?

[balakrishnanganesh]

Looks more artificial mock and these doesn't show real life scenario

[ScrambledLegz]

What I took from this is he believed he needed to change his attitude so that he could climb the ladder but he didn’t really believe it.

Not a great example of an interview. He may be technically capable to pass interviews on that alone but he failed the behavioral module.

[findmewalle]

Worst mock interview. Didn't learn anything from this

[WeilongYou]

Yes And doesn't impress, just a dry language trick