Get weekly-ish tips on interviews, resumes, networking, salary negotiation, and how to break through the noise in a crowded market. I’ve worked in product, GTM, strategy and ops roles at Google, Microsoft, and Salesforce, hired and developed high-performing teams, coached 100s of job seekers (without insider connections) into roles that changed their lives. The problem is that most career advice is outdated and comes from folks who’ve never hired, survived an 11-round interview loop, or worked in the roles you’re applying to. I write the advice I needed, but couldn’t find. 👉🏾 Not another boring newsletter. 2,000+ job seekers are already reading, so join our community. Subscribe now.
“You were great... but we went with someone else”
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Today, I'm going to show you the four levels of an interview answer (and why most people never get past Level 1). 👋🏾 (You probably know me from one of my freebies (resume templates, interview prep, questions to ask your interviewer), or maybe from social media. 🙏🏾 Whether you're job searching, planning to start, or just want to stay on top of job market trends, thank you for being here! 🆘 Back by popular demand: I’m offering standalone resume rewrites and LinkedIn revamps for a limited time. These are normally only included in my full coaching program, but if you’re on a budget, or just need help with your personal branding, here's your chance. I asked the following question to 10 different clients during mock interviews: "Describe the most complex project you drove." Most answers got stuck in Level 1 or Level 2. Level 1: "I did a thing."1️⃣ “I built a process for teams to submit data requests to track everything in one place.” 🧠 Why it’s surface-level: It describes the action, but not the pain point, complexity, or the outcome. Sounds reactive vs. strategic. Level 2: "I had a reason to do the thing."2️⃣ “I built a process for teams to submit data requests because we kept getting a high volume of random asks and it was hard to prioritize. There wasn’t a consistent way for people to request support, so I made a form to streamline everything.” 🧠 Why it’s still lacking: There’s some logic and reasoning, but no sense of scale, who was involved, what made it hard, or how it made things better. Level 3: "I had a reason to do the thing and it drove impact."3️⃣ “I led the rollout of a centralized intake process for data requests across 10+ teams. The analytics team was getting overwhelmed by pings and non-urgent asks, making it nearly impossible to prioritize or track work. I met with stakeholders to understand the business needs, built a form-based intake flow, and partnered with team leads to define service levels. Turnaround times became more predictable and cross-team planning improved.” 🧠 Why it’s stronger: It shows size/scope, consensus-building, and clear impact (even without hard numbers). It’s structured, tactical, and tells a mini-story. It also paints a picture of what would continue to happen if a fix wasn't put into place... but, we can still do better. Level 4: "I had a reason to do the thing, it drove impact, and here's what I learned."4️⃣ Add this to #3: "The tool itself wasn’t the hard part, it was shifting the behavior. People didn’t want to lose the convenience of just asking. So I focused on relationship-building and shared examples where the process helped teams get faster answers. Systems have to be designed around the people using them." 🧠 Why it's memorable: It captures the problem, the process, and the thought process that shaped the solution. That’s what makes it stick. The secret to interviewing well is walking the line between rich detail and brevity. It's a hard balancing act, but can be learned with practice. Start simple. Pick a question that stumped you and rehearse it until it's sharp, deep enough and under 5 minutes. Always anchor back to this: What would've happened if I didn't do 'the thing'? What's an interview question that recently stumped you, or you're struggling to answer well? Reply and tell me! I read every email.
P.S. Not sure how your interview answers are landing? I offer 1-hour sessions to help you get clear, confident, and out of your own head.
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Ratna | @jobwhisperer
Get weekly-ish tips on interviews, resumes, networking, salary negotiation, and how to break through the noise in a crowded market. I’ve worked in product, GTM, strategy and ops roles at Google, Microsoft, and Salesforce, hired and developed high-performing teams, coached 100s of job seekers (without insider connections) into roles that changed their lives. The problem is that most career advice is outdated and comes from folks who’ve never hired, survived an 11-round interview loop, or worked in the roles you’re applying to. I write the advice I needed, but couldn’t find. 👉🏾 Not another boring newsletter. 2,000+ job seekers are already reading, so join our community. Subscribe now.