AT&T · Primly Community

AT&T behavioral interview questions and values: what they're actually looking for

hardware_hugo · 5 replies

Went through AT&T's behavioral interviews twice over the last two years (once for a business sales role, once pivoting to try for a tech program manager position) so I have a decent sense of what they're looking for.

The behavioral rounds at AT&T are much more prominent than at pure tech companies. You can expect a dedicated behavioral round plus behavioral questions woven into the hiring manager interview. Probably 40-50% of the total interview time is behavioral.

The values they return to again and again:

Customer obsession. Seriously, almost every question I got had an implicit "and how did this impact the customer?" angle. This is a B2C consumer company at its core. Even for technical roles, they want to see that you think about end users.

Stakeholder alignment / cross-functional work. AT&T is a massive organization. They want people who can work across silos. Any example where you navigated disagreement or got multiple teams moving together is gold.

Driving through ambiguity. They use that exact phrase. Most of the behavioral prompts I got were STAR-format: "Tell me about a time when you had to make a decision without full information."

Questions I actually got (paraphrasing): Tell me about a time you had to push back on a stakeholder's request. Describe a situation where you missed a deadline. What happened and what did you do? Tell me about a project where the scope changed significantly mid-stream. Give an example of when you had to work with someone who had a very different communication style. Tell me about a time you improved a process.

What didn't work: Generic answers. The interviewers were experienced and they'd follow up with "and what specifically did you do" if you kept it vague. You need a real story with real specifics: a number, a timeline, an actual outcome.

The interviewer for my PM role specifically said they use a structured scorecard, so each question maps to a competency. You don't get to pick which competencies they score. Just be ready for the full range.

5 replies

apm_aisha

That list of questions looks really similar to what I got for a project coordinator role. The cross-functional stakeholder one tripped me up because my examples were all from small companies. Definitely prep examples with some org complexity if you have them.

consultant_cam

The "missed a deadline" question is almost always in there at large legacy enterprises. They want to see ownership and corrective action. If you try to say you've never missed a deadline they'll look at you skeptically.

marketer_mei

Good call on the customer obsession angle. I've interviewed at a few telcos and they all have some version of this. It's one of the ways they differentiate from pure SaaS companies in their employer brand. Lean into it.

firsttime_mgr

Did they ask any management or team leadership questions, or was it mostly IC contributor scenarios?

ae_andre

For the PM role they asked one leadership question but framed it as "tell me about a time you led without authority" not anything about direct reports. Seems like they calibrate to the role level.