Ask HN: How to stay interview ready in 2020?

#1

Post by iCHAIT » Mon, Sep 21, 2020, 6:52 AM UTC

With numerous companies laying off due to COVID-19 situation and overall uncertainty in the job market. How do you stay interview ready and prepared? Also, there have been numerous times I am contacted by companies for interview opportunities. And every time I find myself in a position where I'm totally unprepared for it and feel overwhelmed by the number of things I need to study in a very short span of time.

How do you guys stay interview ready and well prepared for when the chance comes?

Re: Ask HN: How to stay interview ready in 2020?

#2

Post by ram_rar » Mon, Sep 21, 2020, 6:55 AM UTC

Simple, ABC - Always Be Coding!!

Re: Ask HN: How to stay interview ready in 2020?

#3

Post by sebmellen » Mon, Sep 21, 2020, 6:57 AM UTC

ram_rar wrote: post #2

Simple, ABC - Always Be Coding!!

If you need a more structured way to do that, https://leetcode.com/ is a good choice.

Re: Ask HN: How to stay interview ready in 2020?

#4

Post by gregjor » Mon, Sep 21, 2020, 8:37 AM UTC

I optimized applying for jobs and interviewing out, so I don’t waste time with that. My last interview was in 2003, and that was a formality because the CEO was a former colleague and mentor. I have been working steadily and lucratively since then.

If you want to go through the grind applying for the same jobs as thousands of other people, by all means prep for interviews on leetcode or whatever. That’s an example of Goodhart’s Law, optimizing for the wrong thing. If you want to always have a job make yourself indispensable. Contribute value to the business that you can measure in some way other than git commits. Find jobs through contacts, friends, colleagues, referrals.

Most jobs aren’t advertised. Put another way most companies will hire someone who can add value and solve problems. Be that person.

It’s not managers who created the clown show of tech interviews and Byzantine hiring processes. It’s us, the programmers who did it to ourselves.