What does Steve Huynh recommend when an interviewer asks about your specific contribution to a project?

Steve Huynh recommends moving from the biggest scope you can claim down to your own scope while using the word I as much as possible. His Azure example starts with being on the launch team, narrows to a team doing capacity planning and procurement, then names a personal contribution: a system that verified procured hardware was ready to assign to customers. He says this top-down framing leaves ambiguity in the right places without overstating your role.

• Huynh once interviewed a Microsoft candidate who claimed to be responsible for the entire Azure launch, a claim he calls ridiculous.
• Interviewers cannot verify contribution details, which tempts candidates to exaggerate.

▸In their words

“The best way to do this is to go from the biggest scope you can to your scope.” Steve Huynh · at 4:52 — open in the transcript →

Source: our own transcription of the episode. The full conversation is on A Life Engineered (2026-10-21). Read the whole episode summary →

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