[joatmon-snoo]

My perspective is skewed because I'm a uni student, but although there's really good stuff here, a lot also sticks out to me as the kind of advice I'd be giving to someone who just wants something to pay the bills, not someone who wants to do something they really want to do.

The high volume apps and crapshoot stuff - 100% yes.

Stuff like template cover letters? Nuh-uh. I have a structure that I stick to - hey, saw you guys are doing X and I think X is cool and wanna help y'all build it up, blablabla - but it's not a fill-in-the-blanks template.

> Additionally have a good set of STAR questions ready and memorized. [...] Tell me a time when you disagreed with a manager… those types of questions that we all hate, but you MUST know them and be familiar with them.

I can spot a memorized behavioral from a mile away, and it is without fail a terrible move. I mean, yeah, go through the questions, jot down a note about that time Alice did that thing or you had to help Bob out with that other thing in case you blank out when you get the question, but don't come up with an answer and memorize it. The point of these questions is to demonstrate that you're cognizant of team dynamics and the need to manage and navigate them.

[jacalata]

No, you can't spot a memorized story. You can possibly spot a poorly memorized story. It's the difference between learning a speech off by heart and knowing the material backwards.

[vonmoltke]

Without probing questions, no. On technical matters and some interpersonal matters, though, you can use a variation of 5 Whys to quickly drill down on certain decisions or details. The only way to pass that is to actually know what you are talking about.

[jacalata]

Exactly. Memorize the incident, what you want to convey about it, and how to emphasise your angle on it. Don't rote-learn a single telling, and don't blow it off and think "ok I'd talk about that time I saved the orphans, next!"so that in the interview you're all "I was on my way back from preventing a bank robbery...wait no, it was a mugging...and i went past the orphanage on 5th Ave, or 6th, you know the one?"