I feel as though your story has more to it than simply flubbing code tests. Are there other factors beyond coding skills that an employer would see as a negative? Are you applying only for positions in a particularly competitive region, skill niche or business vertical? etc
Ask HN: What do you do if you can't pass technical interviews?
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Re: Ask HN: What do you do if you can't pass technical interviews?
#12Looking at your portfolio -- are you applying for video game jobs or generic Big Co software engineer? Or pretty much anywhere you can find / that reaches out to you? Try for something outside of your experience, or even something you might think is "beneath you", selling yourself as a new college grad eager to grow your experience and be part of a team. Also consider applying for SDET jobs after learning some basics about in-vogue testing philosophies. Other than that, I second the advice that it's just a numbers game, keep trying as long as you're able, and if you can up your job search into a full-time activity (i.e. 8 hours a day spent on job search) that's even better. Once you get your foot in the door, even as an engineer-in-test, you can start transitioning within the company more easily as well as continue looking elsewhere without the stress of "I need a job now to pay bills."
Re: Ask HN: What do you do if you can't pass technical interviews?
#13Study and practice. I failed a bunch until I decided to prep. Try these tips. http://kelukelu.me/interview/prep.html
I have a whiteboard. I have been studying. I have been practising. But over and over I make a few tiny errors in front of an audience and sink my chances. I think I must just be broken.
You are not broken, or at least no more broken than everybody else. You do have a characteristic trait that makes you underperform in certain types of interviews. It sounds like you’ve got a good way to manage that for day-to-day work.
The good news is that interview performance is not a reflection of how you’ll perform at your job. Think about it – how representative are the interview situations you’ve described? Jobs aren’t like that.
Don’t start flipping burgers just yet. There’s good advice on this thread – two basic ideas.
First, you can get better at the “Google/Facebook/Twitter” whiteboard interview by practice and hard work. No matter how much you think you suck, you can get better.
Second, there are thousands of companies with software jobs all of over the US that don’t use the whiteboard approach to interviewing. You have to look for them. They might not be software companies per se, but have developer groups that provide useful line-of-business software that make their internal users happy.
Don’t give up. You can do it.
Re: Ask HN: What do you do if you can't pass technical interviews?
#14Position yourself in a lower position than you think your worth is. If you think you are an intermediate level developer, position yourself as a junior developer who's eager to learn.
If you set lower expectations people are more likely to be impressed.
If you set higher expectations, people are more likely to be underwhelmed.
Re: Ask HN: What do you do if you can't pass technical interviews?
#15Stop prepping and putting all your hopes on each interview. Start getting out there and doing real interviews for practice. Apply for software engineering positions everywhere. Even places you have zero interest in working. See what different kinds of companies have to offer and how they hire.
A few things will happen. 1) You'll get good at interviews. 2) You'll stop caring so much about failing interviews which will combat your anxiety. 3) You'll find there is a wider range of jobs available to software engineers than the kinds you've seen so far.
Re: Ask HN: What do you do if you can't pass technical interviews?
#16Here's some advice.
Avoid companies with stupid hiring policies.
It seems that these guys want you to code like they do, and they'll eventually find someone "close enough" - eventually. After wasting many man hours of interview time. You don't want to work with these guys.
You want to find a company that appreciates you for the developer you are, which appears to be someone who knows his own limitations and has ways of mitigating those limitations.
You have no idea how much that is worth. Simple mistakes like forgetting api parameters, the occasional typo and off-by one errors gets all of us. Especially in a high stress environment like an interview.
I feel that a common "you're not technical enough" to be a lazy excuse, or to replace a poorer one such as "your face didn't fit", you are too bright and will show us up, or "we liked another candidate better".
I feel your pain with the interview process. I'm a contractor and I hear lots of bullsh*t all the time from agencies and recruiters. Stick with it, and do a side project that proves to yourself that you're worth it.
sockpuppet account for obvious reasons.
Re: Ask HN: What do you do if you can't pass technical interviews?
#17Buy a bottle of Bourbon, Chips and a nice movie.
Re: Ask HN: What do you do if you can't pass technical interviews?
#18Here's some advice. Avoid companies with stupid hiring policies. It seems that these guys want you to code like they do, and they'll eventually find someone "close enough" - eventually. After wasting many man hours of interview time. You don't want to work with these guys. You want to find a company that appreciates you for the developer you are, which appears to be someone who knows his own limitations and has ways…
FYI my understanding is that a sockpuppet has a connotation of an alternate account used to create a false sense of consensus. Generally people call anonymous accounts "throwaway".
Re: Ask HN: What do you do if you can't pass technical interviews?
#19Study and practice. I failed a bunch until I decided to prep. Try these tips. http://kelukelu.me/interview/prep.html
I have a whiteboard. I have been studying. I have been practising. But over and over I make a few tiny errors in front of an audience and sink my chances. I think I must just be broken.
By the way, I tend to be quite good at these "whiteboard" style problems and I always make mistakes. Every single time. I get the impression that most interviewers would find it weird if you didn't, because they didn't get to see you think critically about something you've never seen before.
A seriously underrated skill (which you can practice) is keeping calm when you make a mistake and reasoning out loud, under pressure. When you hear yourself saying, "Oh wait, that won't work because..." is when you know you're on the right track.
Re: Ask HN: What do you do if you can't pass technical interviews?
#20Do you enjoy coding? If so, don't worry. Just keep practicing.