Confidence after Interviewing
Posted by Rough-Yard5642@reddit | ExperiencedDevs | View on Reddit | 24 comments
I recently did a job search, and successfully got a good offer. Frankly more than I was hoping for when I started out. However, I interviewed with around 5 companies, and ended up with only a single offer. 3 times I was rejected after tech screens, and 1 time I was rejected after the onsite. My coding rounds were the weakest link.
I started grinding Leetcode around the time I started the search, and definitely felt I was getting better after a couple weeks, but in the end 4 rejections has rattled my confidence a lot. Now when I'm at work and stuck on a problem, I wonder if I'm actually just slightly too dumb to figure it out, and perhaps dumber than those around me. Prior to all this, I really had only been getting good feedback at work, and have had overall good career progression. But now, there is a nagging feeling that I'm a fraud. After all, what kind of engineer fails 4 coding rounds? In some ways, I would have preferred getting 4 offers, all weaker than the one I got. Even though I'd have been left with less $$, I wouldn't feel so down.
I'm wondering if any of you guys have had a similar experience. I figured this would be a sub where others have been in the same boat.
No_Structure7185@reddit
i never had to do leetcode stuff in interviews. does it really represent sw development well? is practicing leetcode really make someone a better dev? or is a good dev automatically good at leetcode?
Happy_Breakfast7965@reddit
It doesn't represent software development well. But some companies use it in their hiring process. Therefore, of you want to apply there, you have to play by their rules.
No_Structure7185@reddit
yeah, sure, but what i want to say is that being bad at leetcode doesnt make you a bad developer. bc they said they feel like an imposter now.
Happy_Breakfast7965@reddit
I'm quite good experienced developer and I'm not very good at leetcode.
If I spend 1-2 months grinding leetcode, I become OK. But in 3-6 months I forget all that details.
I agree, leetcode is not an indicator of software engineering competency.
However, leetcode demonstrates competency on coding level. And also it's a standardized meausure of coding capabilities: - Are you able to solve these kind of tasks? - Are you able to invest efforts into studying how to do it?
IMHO, these are main questions that it answers.
Rough-Yard5642@reddit (OP)
IMO it’s only loosely correlated with the actual job. However, is usually framed as a “we want to see your problem solving skills”, so then after not passing some of those rounds it feels like “well I guess I can’t solve problems that well”.
No_Structure7185@reddit
i also tend to feel like an imposter. what helped me is not evaluating myself for 3 years and only collecting data until then. and then you will notice that this one thing doesnt matter. especially bc this leetcode stuff is expected to be already practiced by the applicants.
so dont put too much weight on this one thing. if you can solve your work problems, then you can solve the problems you need to be able to solve.
Chemical-Plankton420@reddit
It’s a barrier for entry. Since you need to practice them for hours without pay, it demonstrates to employers that you don’t value your time.
hibbelig@reddit
In this job market it seems to be normal to send 50 applications, maybe more. Congratulations on finding something after only 5.
Rough-Yard5642@reddit (OP)
I would have been ok if my resume was just rejected a bunch of times. It feels worse to actually have had interviews, and not passed the majority of them.
Dragon_ZA@reddit
Chief don't forget that each role posted will have tens if not 100s of people applying, of which they can only pick one. You're not the best engineer in the world, but you're a pretty good one if you can land something in a handful of interviews. Don't let it shake you.
hibbelig@reddit
I’ve also seen reports from people with lots of rejections after interview.
Spiritual-Theory@reddit
The hiring process is broken, it encourages rejection even for good candidates, they'll have no idea what they missed out on. And it's likely they already had a candidate in mind for some other reason, they can only pick one. Don't take it personally at all. And cool you found a good role!
xmBQWugdxjaA@reddit
No-one passes every single interview.
Even Manchester United don't win every game they play (or maybe Man City is a better reference nowadays!).
Failing some interviews is a good thing as it at least means you are applying for the right level of roles.
danger0usnight@reddit
Man City is not a better reference nowadays
xmBQWugdxjaA@reddit
But they just beat Man U.
TigOldBooties57@reddit
Might help to explain wtf a "coding round" is but whatever it is, it's not meant to be a proxy for real work. You're supposed to fail because it makes the recruiter's job easier.
eebis_deebis@reddit
Coding rounds are preliminary screenings that filter you out if you can't solve an algorithm puzzle in a programming language. It's been industry standard practice to use these tests as the number of applicants has ballooned. It started with google/microsoft even back before 2016 and everyone else being bombarded with candidates decided to follow suit.
vibes000111@reddit
I thought you were going in a completely different direction based on your title and the opening sentence.
I recently got an offer after many more applications, intro calls and interviews than you,. and it felt great! I ended up not taking it but
I got a confidence boost from the fact that I got an offer
learned a lot about how to position myself and talk about my experience so far and rewrote my resume - it might seem weird to do it based on a offer instead of on rejections but interviewing with this company showed which parts of my resume work and are attractive and which aren't
learned a lot about what I'm looking for in a company, what my thresholds for a good offer are, how to manage recruiter communication
I thought I already knew these things from previous job searches and from all the failed applications in this one, but somehow getting to the end of the process in this case really levelled things up for me in many ways.
I think your own expectations for what % of interviews you should pass is off if getting one offer from 5 interviews seems low to you, it's a great performance overall.
ninseicowboy@reddit
Awesome. How many apps and interviews?
BeenThere11@reddit
Leetcode problems need dsa and theory.
Most of it is not needed in real.
Optimization is rarely required.
Even if I failed 100 out of 100 , I know my code works , is readable and maintainable and is extensible. That's all that matters.
texruska@reddit
The bar at most places right now is higher than before. I've had a lot of interviews recently, but struggled to get through the first couple of rounds
Michaeli_Starky@reddit
Leetcode has very little to do with actual practical software engineering skills. I conduct a lot of code interviews (technical ones) and would never ask anything from leetcode. There are much better ways to assess skills and knowledge.
Idea-Aggressive@reddit
Congratulations! It’s very hard at the moment and most don’t share feedback. I know about teams who were formed without having to go through those tests and make candidates life’s difficult. Recently I was told about a team who were only hiring Spanish devs, end up finding out they were sharing the tests beforehand to friends. It’s a known company YC. What you’re feeling happens to everybody! It’s a good sign you’re humble about it
beb0@reddit
Some engineers fail 5