The Halo Effect
Leveraging lists and psychology to communicate scope quickly in Behavioral interviews
🙋♂️ Hi there, I’m Austen, a former Senior Engineering Manager and Hiring Committee Chair at Meta where I did over 1,000 interviews and trained 100s of interviewers, setting interview structures and picking questions. Subscribe to Mastering the Behavioral Interview to get tips and resources on preparing for the most underrated SWE interview type.
Telling compelling stories and efficiently summarizing what you’ve accomplished is critical for mastering Behavioral interviews. Once you’ve chosen the right stories to tell and expanded on the behaviors you took during those projects, it’s time to focus on delivery. Here’s a tactic to help you communicate scope quickly, even when interview time is tight or your breadth of experience is more impressive than depth:
The Halo Effect: Responding with Lists Makes You Seem Accomplished
This tactic leverages the psychological principle called the Halo Effect. When used effectively, it helps you appear as a strong candidate with broad competence and communication skills.
The Halo Effect and Lists in Behavioral Interviews
The Halo Effect is a psychological principle where a positive impression in one area influences perceptions in other areas. Coined by psychologist Edward Thorndike in the context of military leadership, this phenomenon also affects how people evaluate each other in the workplace, influencing decisions about hiring, promotions, and collaborations. For example, someone perceived as organized might also be seen as more competent, even if the evidence doesn’t fully support that.
By listing accomplishments or steps succinctly in a Behavioral interview, you can harness the Halo Effect. Communicating a breadth of achievements fosters the impression that you’re highly capable, which can positively influence the interviewer’s perception of your overall competence and communication.
Example: The Halo Effect in a TMAY
One of the first places you can employ the Halo Effect is in the Tell Me About Yourself (TMAY). Learn more about structuring your TMAY in my other recent post.
Here’s the beginning of a TMAY we can work to improve:
❌ In my last role, I led the implementation of a design system that reduced UI development time by 30% and ensured consistency across the product.
Before that, I worked on a customer feedback platform where I integrated a machine-learning model into the frontend to provide real-time insights.
I also improved the CI/CD pipeline by identifying a set of needed tests after talking with the senior engineers and stakeholders from different departments. I also developed front-end features, like search filters, ads management features, an upsell for new customers. And I refactored and improved backend APIs, helping us move from a monolith to microservices in our NodeJS codebase. Oh and I collaborated with PM, design, and the CEO to identify new requirements for a series of holiday sales over the Black Friday weekend…
This is simply too detailed. It’s good that we’re opening with the two big projects with solid business impact, but the laundry list of smaller projects is distracting—the interviewer is likely to lose focus, awash in minutiae.
Ok, why not simply remove the smaller projects? We could but then we’re missing out on communicating the breadth of our experience.
Instead of removing them, let’s employ the Halo Effect to communicate our scope using lists:
✅ In my last role, I led the implementation of a design system that reduced UI development time by 30% and ensured consistency across the product.
Before that, I worked on a customer feedback platform where I integrated a machine-learning model into the frontend to provide real-time insights.
I did a wide variety of other projects too: improving the CI/CD pipeline, a number of front-end features, a backend refactor, and a decent amount of stakeholder management.
This concise summary communicates a lot of scope without burdening the listener and creates the impression that you are a versatile engineer. It also “sign posts” for the interviewer, allowing them to choose from a wide variety of areas to probe further, gathering more of the signal they need to make a hiring decision.
Pro Tip for New Grads: Work done as an intern or projects completed in coursework often aren’t very meaty in themselves, but if you string them together in a list, they give the impression of competence.
Example: The Halo Effect During the (A)ction Part of a Response
When following the STAR (or CARL) response format, the Action section is where you detail what you did. If a deep dive into your actions isn’t appropriate—perhaps due to time constraints or the relative simplicity of the project—a list can tell a story while giving you a halo of organizational and execution skills:
✅ To build the search filters, I started by consulting with the product owner, collaborated with the designer for initial ideas, discussed the technical approach with my senior engineer, developed a first version, gathered user feedback, added tests, and launched the final version.
Even if all these steps took a total of a week in a small organization, listing them gives the impression of a structured and robust process.
Example: The Halo Effect When You Don’t Have Great Stories
Sometimes, you won’t have a single standout story that fits the interviewer’s question. However, you might have several related or smaller stories. A list can help you leverage these collectively to create a positive impression.
For example, if asked about times you resolved a conflict and you have a number of shallower examples, you could try this approach:
✅ I’ve dealt with conflicts in several contexts, including with product leaders, other engineers, and my own manager. Let me tell you about the time I navigated a conflict with a product leader…
This signals that you have a breadth of experience while inviting follow-up questions. If the interviewer is interested, they might ask about the other scenarios, giving you an opportunity to share more stories.
Other Ways to Leverage the Halo Effect
Beyond lists, here are additional strategies to harness the Halo Effect in your Behavioral interviews:
Warm Introductions: Greet interviewers warmly and positively. First impressions and positivity matter, especially in US-oriented cultures.
Enthusiastic Responses: Show genuine excitement about your past projects and future opportunities.
Dress the Part: Dress slightly better than the role requires to convey professionalism and effort.
Optimize Video Setup: For virtual interviews, ensure your camera, lighting, and background are professional and polished.
Positive Framing: Avoid the Horn Effect (the negative counterpart to the Halo Effect) by speaking constructively about others, even when discussing conflicts. For example, frame criticism as learning experiences or opportunities for collaboration.
Using the Halo Effect intentionally in Behavioral interviews can make your accomplishments shine, even when time or depth of experience is limited. By summarizing with impactful lists and presenting yourself positively, you’ll leave a lasting impression on your interviewer.