I bombed a Google video chat interview one time. That was a Tuesday. On Thursday, I flew out and bombed an in-person Amazon interview.

Amazon in particular was brutal. It was five hour-long interviews back-to-back with only ten-minute breaks between. The first forty-five minutes were spent on a behavioral portion, which is my strength, and the last fifteen were spent whiteboarding coding algorithms, which is not. I just don't perform well in that environment. When I have a hard problem, I like to go for a walk or take a coffee break to digest it before I dive in and start declaring variables.

But that isn't possible in a technical interview. You just have to sit there in that energy and feel foolish as your mind goes blank.

"Uh, sorry, I just need a minute. Uh, so, if I have... Okay, let me start over."

Believe me when I tell you I did that shit not once but five times that day. That'll crush anyone's spirit.

I walked out of the building feeling like an idiot. Feeling less-than, and wondering if I was even in the right profession. Never mind I already had a great job where I worked alongside super talented engineers. Never mind I was on a great team that relied on my input and my expertise. No, I was worthless because I struck out on an interview for which I wasn't properly prepared and for a culture I probably wasn't a very good fit for anyway.

It's easy to go down that rabbit hole. But listen: Don't. Tech interviews are hard, and finding the best jobs takes grit. Like a well-designed application, you must be resilient.

I tasted a lot of failure that week, but after I was done feeling sorry for myself, I picked up the pieces, and some funny things started happening. Fueled by determination not to experience that helplessness again, I spent hours each night studying the algorithm problems from Cracking the Coding Interview. Devoted to making my resume as impressive as possible, I took on extra responsibilities at work. Hell-bent on giving myself as many opportunities for success as possible, I reached out to recruiters and started applying for jobs. I talked to managers. I took phone screenings. I completed coding assessments. I got better.

I looked up one day, and I had passed first-round interviews with multiple companies. Whoa. I was having to turn opportunities down. And this from the same jackass that bombed Amazon and Google in the same week. I wasn't different now. I just had a different attitude, and I found a great job in the city I wanted, for the salary I wanted, and I moved to start my new life.

Look, the fact is that many of the best engineers I know probably couldn't just walk in cold and pass a Google or an Amazon interview. The skills to interview well and the skills to do good work don't always necessarily overlap. Interviewing takes preparation, it takes practice, it takes luck, and it takes time.

So if things aren't going your way, don't get down on yourself. Don't beat yourself up. And don't quit. You'll get 'em one of these days.

So, without further ado, here's my advice for this week:

1. Read Cracking the Coding Interview by Gayle Laakmann McDowell
2. Promise yourself that you won't give up. Keep that promise.
3. Treat each interview not as a test of your value, but as an opportunity to build your interviewing skills. They're the ones spending money to give you this experience. Appreciate it.
4. Sometimes things don't work out when they should've. Sometimes they do when they shouldn't've. Either way, you learn, and you get better.
5. Finding a job is a job. Take it seriously.
6. Don't turn down an interview without a great reason. See #3 above.
7. Prioritize culture. You'll have to work with these people.
8. Study, study, study.
9. Practice, practice, practice.

Anyway, I hope this helps. Ping me with any questions or concerns, and feel free to add me on LinkedIn.

Love and success,

Ricky

Welcome to a new series I've called Hacks for Getting Hired. Its purpose is to give some advice to younger software engineers who might find themselves testing the job market.

Too often, I find that recent graduates--and even junior developers--really have no idea where to start finding their next positions. They don't understand how much work it takes, and they don't understand how to prepare, and as a result, their job search can become a super negative experience. The fact is that even when you are able to get them, tech interviews are hard, and if you've ever completely bombed one, you can walk away thinking you're not good enough--or that you're not smart enough--to succeed in this field.

My mission is to reassure you that this is baloney, and that through education and diligence, I believe anybody can make him- or herself hirable.

This article is about keeping your head up.

Photos by Steve Halama on Unsplash