I bombed my first technical interview. Here are 3 things I would’ve done differently.
So, I failed. It was glorious.
TLDR version: Don’t get bogged down by failure, schedule the interviews when you’ll be well rested, and practice DSAs until you become a Jedi.
About a week after I graduate from Flatirons Software Engineering bootcamp, I get contacted by a recruiter on LinkedIn. I’m not exactly flattered considering I was more than likely one of many individuals this recruiter reached out to, but the absence of any other opportunities made this one shimmer. So after a short phone call, my very first big boy real life technical interview was scheduled. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t really know what to expect; I wasn’t expecting to do well. Although I’m fluent enough in Rails and ReactJS to develop basic applications, I haven’t had enough practice with DSAs to confidently pass a technical interview. Here are a few things I learned about this particular failure.
I failed. And its okay.
In fact, it’s more than okay: it’s absolutely necessary. We all have failed in the past. None of us skipped the crawling phase and went straight to running. None of us learned to socialize without being the center of a few (or maybe more than a few, don’t judge me) social faux pas. None of achieve greatness overnight. In fact, people whom we idealize and equate success with have failed far more than we have. More often than not, however, we tend to magnify their successes without giving recognition to the necessary blunders that their success is owed to.
The more you fail, the closer you get to success.
Schedule your technical interview conscientiously.
As I’m sure you’re aware, DSAs (and programming in general) is a bunch of mental gymnastics that take a great deal of concentration. If you, say, work an overnight shift and the interviewer proposes to have the interview the morning you come back from work, don’t be afraid to ask your recruiter or interviewer to schedule it at a better time.
You do no one any favors by being a tired wreck during your technical.
In addition, there are habits you can inculcate to develop or improve focus. A healthy diet, a consistent exercise regiment, and mindfulness/prayer/meditation are all proven ways to boost concentration. Also, caffeine in moderate (and by moderate, I do mean moderate) amounts is proven to boost alertness and attention.
As my favorite Disney villain says, be prepaaaaared!
As a beginner at data structures and algorithms, I am far from qualified to give advice, other than passing down whatever advice more experienced programmers gave me. It’s all about practice. DSAs require a thought process only constant repetition provides. Believe me, I understand the desire to yell at your computer when you swear what you have should work but it just won’t.
Like any other skill you learn from the ground up, patience is paramount. You do yourself no favors by beating yourself up for having skills you have not yet cultivated.
As for resources, I’ve found AlgoExpert to be very helpful for the more science heavy concepts (the lecture on big O notation is particularly helpful). In a pinch, Leetcode is great, too. The most important thing I try to remind myself of is quality over quantity. It doesn’t matter how many you do if you just gloss over problems you don’t understand.
I firmly believe that failure, like DSAs, is a skill. The more you practice it, the better you get. So, fail and fail well.