jobyssey/.claude/skills/job-application-assistant/07-interview-prep.md

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framework_version: 1.0.0
---

# Interview Preparation Guide

<!-- SETUP: STAR examples are personalized by running /setup based on your actual experience -->

## STAR Format

Structure answers as: **Situation** (context), **Task** (your responsibility), **Action** (what you did), **Result** (outcome).

Keep answers to 1-2 minutes. Be specific. End with what you learned or would do differently.

## Ready-Made STAR Examples

<!-- These are populated by /setup from your actual experience. Below are templates showing the format. -->

### 1. [PROJECT_NAME] ([SKILL_DEMONSTRATED])
**S:** [CONTEXT - what was happening, what was the problem]
**T:** [YOUR RESPONSIBILITY - what you specifically needed to do]
**A:** [WHAT YOU DID - specific actions, tools, methods]
**R:** [OUTCOME - measurable results, adoption, impact]
**Use for:** "[QUESTION_TYPE_1]", "[QUESTION_TYPE_2]"

### 2. [PROJECT_NAME] ([SKILL_DEMONSTRATED])
**S:** [CONTEXT]
**T:** [YOUR RESPONSIBILITY]
**A:** [WHAT YOU DID]
**R:** [OUTCOME]
**Use for:** "[QUESTION_TYPE_1]", "[QUESTION_TYPE_2]"

### 3. [PROJECT_NAME] ([SKILL_DEMONSTRATED])
**S:** [CONTEXT]
**T:** [YOUR RESPONSIBILITY]
**A:** [WHAT YOU DID]
**R:** [OUTCOME]
**Use for:** "[QUESTION_TYPE_1]", "[QUESTION_TYPE_2]"

<!-- Add more STAR examples as needed. Aim for 4-6 covering different competencies. -->

## Common Tough Questions

### "Why did you leave [previous company]?" / "What's happening with Sonr?"
> [DRAFT - edit in your own words] In 2026 I pivoted Sonr from a consumer identity product to B2B white-label wallet infrastructure and wound down consumer operations. The pivot validated the technology (passkey wallets, MPC signing, DID identity) but also clarified that I want to go deep as a builder on a larger platform rather than run fundraising and company operations. [Add: current status of Sonr, what you're keeping alive, availability.]

### "You don't have [specific skill/experience]."
> [PREPARE YOUR ANSWER - acknowledge the gap, bridge to adjacent experience, show willingness to learn]

### "Where do you see yourself in 5 years?"
> [PREPARE YOUR ANSWER - show ambition aligned with the role's growth path]

### "What's your biggest weakness?"
> [PREPARE YOUR ANSWER - genuine weakness with concrete mitigation strategy]

### "Why this company specifically?"
> Customize per company. Must reference: specific projects, company values, market position, or team structure. Never give a generic answer.

## Questions You Should Ask Interviewers

### About the Role
- "What does a typical week look like in this role?"
- "What would success look like in the first 6 months?"
- "What's the biggest challenge the team is facing right now?"

### About the Team
- "How big is the team, and how do you divide work?"
- "What does the development/project lifecycle look like, from idea to production?"
- "How do you onboard new team members?"

### About Tech & Growth
- "What's your current tech stack for [relevant area]?"
- "Is there room to grow into more architectural or strategic decisions?"
- "How does the team stay current with new tools and methods?"

### About Culture (use these to prevent disappointment)
- "How would you describe the team culture?"
- "What does professional development look like here?"
- "Is there flexibility for remote/hybrid work?"
- "What's the balance between development/new projects and maintenance work?"
- "How would you describe the leadership style in this team?"
- "What do people who thrive here have in common?"

## Phone/Video Interview Tips
- Have STAR examples written out (use this file)
- Keep a glass of water nearby
- Smile when speaking (it changes your tone)
- Ask for clarification if a question is vague
- It's OK to take 5 seconds to think before answering
- End with: "Is there anything else you'd like to know about my background?"

## After the Application (Best Practice)

### Follow-Up Etiquette
- **Don't call to "stand out"** or to learn more about the role post-submission - this risks a negative impression
- If the employer specified a timeline, respect it and wait
- If no timeline was given and significant time has passed (2+ weeks), a brief call to ask about status is acceptable
- If you have genuinely new, relevant information to share, a short follow-up is fine

### Thank-You Notes
- When you receive any update (interview invitation, rejection, or status update), send a brief thank-you message
- Express appreciation for their time and the process
- Keep it short (2-3 sentences)

## Roleplay Guidelines
When the user asks for interview practice:
1. Ask which role/company to simulate
2. Start with easy warm-up questions ("Tell me about yourself")
3. Progress to role-specific technical questions
4. Include 1-2 behavioral questions using the competencies from the job posting
5. End with a tough question or curveball
6. After each answer, give brief feedback: what worked, what to sharpen
7. Suggest which STAR example would work best for each question

## STAR Candidates (Complete Manually)
<!-- Added by /setup Path A from CV/LinkedIn material. Fill S/T/A/R before using. The interview gap list in documents/cv/docs/.interview-queue.yaml lists the unknowns (numbers, terminal states) worth nailing down for each. -->

### Gasless onboarding via mempool-level WebAuthn validation
**Source:** CV - Sonr appchain project
**What happened:** Designed custom Cosmos AnteHandlers that validate WebAuthn passkeys at the mempool so new users never see seed phrases or gas fees.
**Why it matters:** system design, trade-off reasoning (vs. paymaster / relayer / session keys), security thinking
**S/T/A/R stub:**
- Situation:
- Task:
- Action:
- Result:

### Operating a 4-node geo-distributed testnet at 99% uptime
**Source:** CV - Sonr experience
**What happened:** Ran validators in SF/NY/VA/Asia with 4+ environments and KMS-secured profiles on Kubernetes, Terraform, Ansible.
**Why it matters:** reliability, incident handling, infra ownership, "tell me about an outage"
**S/T/A/R stub:**
- Situation:
- Task:
- Action:
- Result:

### Token economics with 6 PhD economists (Prysm Group)
**Source:** CV - token-economics project
**What happened:** Directed DPoS token design and translated economic models into L1 state-machine logic.
**Why it matters:** cross-functional collaboration with non-engineers, turning ambiguity into spec, stakeholder management
**S/T/A/R stub:**
- Situation:
- Task:
- Action:
- Result:

### Replacing Matrix auth with passkey wallets in Beam
**Source:** CV - beam-chat project
**What happened:** Built a drop-in replacement for the Matrix authorization server using WebAuthn + DIDs; led a 6-engineer team.
**Why it matters:** leading a team, integrating with a protocol you don't control, UX vs. decentralization trade-offs
**S/T/A/R stub:**
- Situation:
- Task:
- Action:
- Result:

### Motr: Go-to-WASM cryptographic enclave in Web Workers
**Source:** CV - client-sdk project
**What happened:** Isolated MPC signing and UCAN issuance in a WASM enclave so keys never reach the main thread.
**Why it matters:** security architecture, performance constraints, API design for other developers
**S/T/A/R stub:**
- Situation:
- Task:
- Action:
- Result:

### Onboarding 120+ first-time blockchain developers at DevNet
**Source:** CV - ecosystem-devrel project; HackFS 2022 talk
**What happened:** Ran hackathon workshops (PennApps, CalHacks, HackFS) and SDK support within 48-hour windows.
**Why it matters:** communication, mentoring, developer empathy, "explain something complex simply"
**S/T/A/R stub:**
- Situation:
- Task:
- Action:
- Result:

### Space Bolt to 15,000 DAU
**Source:** CV - BriteTwist / spacebolt project
**What happened:** Built and grew an endless-runner game to 850k downloads with a custom GIF-replay API and social leaderboards.
**Why it matters:** product sense, growth, shipping as a solo developer
**S/T/A/R stub:**
- Situation:
- Task:
- Action:
- Result:

### Hobsons self-serve tooling: days to minutes
**Source:** CV - Hobsons internship
**What happened:** Built monitoring + dashboard that let sales answer customer QA themselves.
**Why it matters:** impact as a junior, identifying the real bottleneck, internal-tools work
**S/T/A/R stub:**
- Situation:
- Task:
- Action:
- Result:

### Leading the 2026 B2B pivot
**Source:** CV - Sonr experience
**What happened:** Ran customer discovery and repositioned the platform as white-label wallet infra (open-source Privy alternative) while winding down consumer ops.
**Why it matters:** decision-making under uncertainty, handling failure/change, business judgment
**S/T/A/R stub:**
- Situation:
- Task:
- Action:
- Result:

### Pre-incorporation file-sharing prototype to a YC interview
**Source:** CV - decentralized-airdrop project; user-confirmed
**What happened:** Built a libp2p/Flutter P2P file-sharing app nights-and-weekends alongside Leidos; it earned a Y Combinator interview and became Sonr.
**Why it matters:** initiative, persistence, "tell me about something you built outside work", founding story
**S/T/A/R stub:**
- Situation:
- Task:
- Action:
- Result: