How to best answer "Tell me about a time you missed a deadline"
In a previous mock behavioral interview, I was asked, "Can you describe a time when you missed a deadline?"
Would it be appropriate to share an example of when I came close to missing a deadline but ultimately met it, or are the interviewers specifically looking for a situation where I failed to meet a deadline?
From my understanding, it seems that companies would want engineers to deliver results on time, so missing deadlines would be viewed negatively. That being said, I am concerned that providing an example of almost missing a deadline might not fully answer the question.
I would really appreciate any insights on this topic. Thank you so much!
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Discussion
(2 comments)- 2
2 months agoTech Lead @ Robinhood, Meta, Course HeroIn general, you should assume that companies are looking for an honest response with these behavioral questions. Companies that aren't probably aren't very good: I don't want to work at a place where everyone speaks in double-tongue where they say something but actually mean something else.
Zooming out, this is a trap I've seen a lot of engineers fall into where they think that there's some secret meaning to the question, and they give some weird, off-topic response trying to game the system. While this may work at overly political, toxic companies where everyone does actually speak in double-tongue, it won't work at the top ones. Another example of a question where engineers mess up this way is the classic "What's your greatest weakness?" question where they give a fake weakness like "I work too hard" or "I care too much".
Going back to the original question, it is true that companies obviously don't want their engineers to miss deadlines, but any decent tech company understands that missing deadlines is inevitable. When a truly good tech company asks this question, they want to know how you react to that situation. In particular, they are looking for skills like:
- Being able to rally the team to mitigate the damage
- Negotiating scope with stakeholders (e.g. "Let's make this required feature a fast-follow instead, so we don't miss the deadline any more than it already is")
- Retrospection (talking with the team to figure out how to not miss more deadlines in the future)
As a tech lead, I missed deadlines all the time, and I had to learn (often through the hard way) how to deal with that. These are critical skills for engineers.
- 22 months agoTech Lead/Manager at Meta, Pinterest, Kosei
I would share an example where the deadline was truly missed. Missing deadlines in software engineering is kind of like the weeds in my garden -- they just kind of happen.
So I would share a time when a deadline was truly missed. But more importantly you should talk about what you learned from that experience and how you try to avoid it from happening again
