Hi, it’s Austen here, ex-Meta Hiring Committee Chair and author of Mastering Behavioral Interviews. I’ve created a number of new resources for you recently:
In conjunction with Hello Interview, I’ve produced a video master class covering much of the content from the book. If you’re not a member of Hello Interview, you should be. They have the best system design content around and now they have the best behavioral content around :)
So many people ask me for coaching, so I took all the context from the book and my coaching sessions and built a downloadable AI copilot that guides you through behavioral story selection, construction, and delivery, allowing you to customize for your specific target companies. It’s part of Premium Access on my website, which also includes a print copy of my book and any future premium content I will create!
Speaking of that, I’ve started recording the audiobook version of the book. If you purchase Premium now, then you’ll get a print book, access to the copilot, and immediate access to the audiobook as soon as it’s ready.
Ok let’s get to the conversation I had with Gilad…
Manager roles are obviously full of more behavioral-ish actions than IC roles, with more communication, organizing, leading, more ambiguity, etc. so it makes sense that candidates for those roles would get more behavioral rounds and that they’d be scrutinized more closely.
To help you prepare for leadership interviews, I recently sat down with Gilad Naor of Management Deltas to discuss what makes people management interviews different and how to master them.
Gilad is a former Senior Engineering Manager at Meta, and formerly at Amazon, and he’s worked with hundreds of candidates preparing for their loops. His mentoring program, Management Deltas, helps ICs and managers ace their interviews and accelerate their careers.
Check out the video conversation we had, our second one from Stanford’s cactus garden:
Here’s what stood out to me from our conversation.
What Makes Manager Interviews Different
Breadth of competencies :You’re evaluated on engineering competence, leadership, more extensively on communication, and execution management
Unique dimensions: Executing large multi-month projects, influencing without authority, leading with authority, and growing the organization
Philosophy over just stories: You need frameworks and guiding principles, not just examples of when you’ve done things.
Story Selection is Still 90% of the Work
Two-pass approach: First brainstorm all stories, then filter for genuine challenge
Ask yourself: “What specifically made this hard?” If you can’t answer, find a better story
Best stories show you bending the curve: not inheriting a problem, but navigating nuance (e.g., a formerly great engineer struggling vs. an obvious bad hire)
Show propagation of learnings: How did you apply lessons beyond just that situation?
The Greatest Hits
Here are some topics to prepare specifically ahead of your next manager behavioral:
Managing low performers
Building organizations (hiring, coaching, promoting)
Cross-functional collaboration/conflict
Leading large projects (execution, structure, communication)
Your approach to one-on-ones
Handling Long Stories in Short Interviews
I’ve talked a lot in the past about how to structure long stories, so I asked Gilad about how to handle that frequent situation for managers:
Start with a “menu of options”: Give a high-level overview, ask which part to expand
Watch for subtle signals: “Got it” or “okay” often mean “wrap it up”
First 10-15 minutes are for identifying the interviewer’s style
Proactively pause: “Let me stop here—would you like me to go deeper or move to another area?”
Avoiding Pitfalls
The “It Depends” Problem: Interviewers may project their recent painful experiences onto your story. Defuse this by:
Acknowledging the risks of any approaches you took
Explaining what you considered and why you chose your path
Not just saying what you did, but what went through your head
The AI/Cheating Concern: Interviewers now weight follow-up questions more heavily than initial answers
Keep initial answers short
Shift content to the back-and-forth dialogue
This shows you can actually think, not just recite
Make It Real - Name people (anonymously) and places. This...
Builds authenticity
Helps your own memory for follow-ups
Makes the story memorable for the interviewer
Don’t Ramble: Pause, choose a structure like CARL (Context, Action, Results, Learnings), then speak
Looking Forward (2026 and Beyond)
Be ready to discuss how do you bring AI into management (not just engineering).
Organizations are flattening: how do you scale yourself as a leader?
Thanks for checking it out! More video content is coming, with the next installment all about what to do as a new joiner to Meta. I know, it’s not interview content, but people always ask me…
Great conversation!
I've spent 25 years managing engineers, and the point that stuck with me most is that "it depends" is often the only honest answer to a management question.
I'd also add that many candidates who struggle already have a framework in place, they've just never had to say it out loud and under pressure. Asking them to walk through a few stories is often enough to make their thinking visible.
Thanks for sharing this.