What-If Scenarios With the Manager

What they ask

The final step is an open discussion with a manager about mindset. It is built around your past experience and a series of what-if questions rather than technical content. Reported examples of the shape:

• What if a client changes scope in the last week of a sprint?
• What if a reviewer rejects your pull request and you think they are wrong?
• What if the deadline is fixed and the estimate is twice the available time?
• What if you discover a bug in production that you caused?
• What if you are assigned to a stack you have never used, starting Monday?
• What if a teammate keeps missing standups?

Alongside these: what you liked and disliked in your previous roles, why you left, and what kind of work you want more of.

What they look for

• Calm, structured answers: clarify, propose options, communicate early.
• Client awareness. They deliver for external clients, so "I would tell the client" needs to be followed by how and when.
• Honesty about mistakes and what you changed afterwards.
• Whether you would enjoy agency work: many projects, changing stacks, direct client contact.