The only way I found to get over this is to interview more and get successes. Interviewing without success is draining but interviewing with success is draining and rewarding.
I’ve done over 500 technical interviews. I only started interviewing more seriously in 2015. (I had done less than 10 before then) It took me years to get more comfortable with interviewing. It’s all about knowing the gauntlet and what you’re getting into. The mental warfare of interviewing is almost all in prep and once you’re in the interview - it should practically be autopilot.
This takes hundreds of hours of prep (usually outside of work hours) and a lot of dedication. This is the industry now for many of the more competitive positions. (FAANG-etc, more known startups, anything in SFBA)
Get on leetcode. Solve 20-30 easy problems to get your confidence up and familiar with it. Start doing the problem sets that are targeted at special types of problems (binary search, dfs, graph traversal, dp, backtracking, etc.) Do mock interviews once you’ve solved 40 mediums without looking at the solution and at least 15 hards. (Might be helpful to just look at solutions of a lot of hards to get some pattern recognition going) Use whatever service you want for that - they’re usually free.
Interview with companies you don’t care about. Get offers. Figure out what you’re doing wrong. Practice more. Start interviews with companies you want to work at and some others that will give an offer you can leverage in talks. Schedule onsites - get offers. Don’t schedule more than 3 onsites a week unless you have endurance. I’ve done 6-7 in a week - wouldn’t recommend. This was when they were in person too. Driving from one office immediately to another to grind was intense. Wouldn’t recommend - tbh.
Get your target offers. Get them to compete for another. Maybe pay for advice as to get salary band info and what you can do. Accept whichever you want - don’t burn any bridges here. Let them know you’ll keep in touch if things don’t work out - if things at new place suck - go to other places.
Repeat until you’re FI. Probably RE because this toxic grind set is unbelievably taxing.
Nights and weekends. Often I used my vacation time to do all the onsites.
Sometimes I had to just quit my job and commit to job searching full time. I’ll be doing that again this year. The problem with some jobs is that they’re too intense to really give you ant energy or time to interview elsewhere. Quitting becomes the only option at that point.
Hey, I just quit my job to go interview elsewhere! My job was too intense to study while working and I was a bit burnt out.
Deciding to leave was really hard, but then I realized that grinding leetcode and interviewing would be more fun and interesting than my current job.
Now I’m realizing I really suck at these problems. I think I’m going to start a blog chronicling my struggle and triumph. I hope to help others who are just starting the grind, it’s a bit discouraging at first. I have 10 YOE, but am a n00b here. It’s pretty fun and reminds me of old times.
Usually startups but I’m not talking like 9pm. I’m talking like starting at 6 or 7pm.
I mostly meant that in reference to prep but some startups will interview on weekends too. They’re a lot more flexible - obviously. It does mean your own WLB will likely suffer too though.
Alternatively - quit your job and interview for American jobs while visiting Europe if you perform better at night. ;) (I am planning to do some of this but not because I perform better at night but because I am burnt out and need change)
I’ve done over 500 technical interviews. I only started interviewing more seriously in 2015. (I had done less than 10 before then) It took me years to get more comfortable with interviewing. It’s all about knowing the gauntlet and what you’re getting into. The mental warfare of interviewing is almost all in prep and once you’re in the interview - it should practically be autopilot.
This takes hundreds of hours of prep (usually outside of work hours) and a lot of dedication. This is the industry now for many of the more competitive positions. (FAANG-etc, more known startups, anything in SFBA)
Get on leetcode. Solve 20-30 easy problems to get your confidence up and familiar with it. Start doing the problem sets that are targeted at special types of problems (binary search, dfs, graph traversal, dp, backtracking, etc.) Do mock interviews once you’ve solved 40 mediums without looking at the solution and at least 15 hards. (Might be helpful to just look at solutions of a lot of hards to get some pattern recognition going) Use whatever service you want for that - they’re usually free.
Interview with companies you don’t care about. Get offers. Figure out what you’re doing wrong. Practice more. Start interviews with companies you want to work at and some others that will give an offer you can leverage in talks. Schedule onsites - get offers. Don’t schedule more than 3 onsites a week unless you have endurance. I’ve done 6-7 in a week - wouldn’t recommend. This was when they were in person too. Driving from one office immediately to another to grind was intense. Wouldn’t recommend - tbh.
Get your target offers. Get them to compete for another. Maybe pay for advice as to get salary band info and what you can do. Accept whichever you want - don’t burn any bridges here. Let them know you’ll keep in touch if things don’t work out - if things at new place suck - go to other places.
Repeat until you’re FI. Probably RE because this toxic grind set is unbelievably taxing.