How to Fail Technical Interviews or: How I Learned to Love the Bomb

Tech interviews are incredibly difficult. Showcasing hard skills in front of other people you’ve never met with a timer on feels like a skill in and of itself. And it probably is. But why? Why is there this other hurdle that pretty much every job in the industry requires such an arduous, draining task, especially after all the time (and money) it takes to go out on a limb and better yourself by stepping into a new career path? There are countless articles and blog posts out there with tips on how to ace the interview and land your first job, but I found a lot of them super vague and, most of the time, obvious. Show up on time. Be curious. Study the company. After hundreds of hours learning how to code, applying to “mirage-jobs,” getting some interviews, networking more than I did when Facebook debuted in high school, I still failed. The checklist was filled, but I still left empty-handed.

Failure is humiliating. But it is natural. Failure is personal. But it is not a personal attack. Failure is debilitating. But it’s not forever. I’m convinced that among the infinite noise crowding your mind during the misery of rejection, there is always something to glean from losing. The three main “steps” I have now developed (I know how a system based on the planning for failure sounds) to help my mind and spirit stay on track are typically as follows:

Walk Away

Give yourself some time to be upset. Like I said, it’s natural. For as long as you are financially, temporally, or personally able — step away from the computer and applications. Go do something you like. Give your mind room to breathe. The last thing you want to do is retaliate with emotionally charged cover letters and applications that could potentially hurt your chances for other opportunities. Learn to accept that failure. Denial and/or anger could not only destroy you personally, but also will continue to hinder the whole job search process as a whole.

Ask for Feedback

A lot of jobs usually have a feedback feature built in to their hiring process. But for whatever reason, sometimes you’ll get a rejection with absolutely no reasoning. This can be even more crushing. So ask. Reach out to the recruiter or even someone who you may have had contact with and see what it was exactly that you were missing. And obviously explain it is for your benefit in your continuing job search. In general, employers are happy to answer this question. And they should be. If they don’t respond, it isn’t that you aren’t good fit — they aren’t a good fit for you.

Get Back on that Horse

Give yourself all the time you need. Seriously. You’ve earned it. Like I said before, this process is excruciatingly tough. But you still need a job. And they’re not naturally occurring, unfortunately. Go forward with the time you’ve spent recollecting, the feedback or ways to update your approach, and the feeling that you still did gain something from this. Because you did. Failure is learning. And you already did a whole hell of a lot of that to begin with.

All this to say, no approach will be perfect. Nothing is written in stone with this sort of thing. But being able to zoom out of the initial struggle to view the problem as objective will at the very least ease the loss. So go ahead. Bomb a few. You’re bound to at some point. Just know it can be as much a part of a plan as it isn’t.