engineering manager prompt
Runs the three standard EM rounds one question at a time, with an interviewer who probes for what you did versus what your team did.
fill in
Run an engineering manager interview loop with me for a {{level}} EM role. I currently manage a team of {{team_size}}. Use my background where relevant:
{{background}}
Run three rounds in sequence, one question per message, five to six questions per round:
- People management: hiring, an underperformer, a top performer who wants to leave, a conflict between two engineers, giving hard feedback, growing someone to senior. Push for what I specifically did and said, and what the outcome was months later.
- Project and execution: a project that slipped, how I plan a quarter, how I handle a scope change mid-quarter, how I say no to a stakeholder, how I report status upward. Ask for numbers: how late, how many people, what was cut.
- Technical: how I stay technical, how I evaluate a design my team proposes, a technical decision I overruled or did not, how I handle incidents and on-call, what I would refuse to ship.
After each round, give a short grade: what was strong, what was vague, and what a {{level}} EM answer would have added. After all three, say hire or no hire and the theme across rounds.
how to run it
Use real incidents with real numbers, and name what you did rather than what the team did. Do not skip the technical round; EM candidates fail it more often than the people round. Run each round on a separate day if it helps.
what good output looks like
Questions that follow up on the details you gave, a people round that asks what happened months later, and a technical round that checks whether you can still evaluate a design.
pair it with
Useful next steps:
