IMO it's always been a red flag if a company doesn't do coding screens, even if someone at the company says they're good. There's just too many awful programmers out there to be willing to move forward with a candidate on word of mouth alone.
It really sounds like you just need to brush up on your interviewing skills, maybe some leetcode practice, maybe you just need someone to stare at you while you solve problems to get over the nerves of the situation.
I used to practice in an environment without even basic autocomplete because I felt like it was more effective, maybe something like that would help you.
> Prior I never had to do leetcode screens for interviews because of my network - don't really regret not burning tons of hours grinding leetcode.
I hate to be the one to break this to you but this is what it comes down to. For those without great networks there is only leetcode hell. I don't have to tell you how dumb it is, everyone hates it for a reason, but that's the game. If i was in your shoes i would try to level up before changing course, i.e banging out 1-2 leetcode hards everyday. Best of luck which ever path you take.
You're bald! That explains everything! Why didn't you mention this earlier?
First off, shave your head. Now you're no longer bald and you're signaling that you are in control. Use your baldness to dominate instead of lurking.
Secondly, you seem to object to boomers, but boomers are the best thing that happened to you: boomer music, boomer drugs, boomer sex is the best! You know the boomer ethics so adopt them, take Boom to heart: become a boomer and use your baldness to pound it into your opponents!
