Tiny interview update

[selenay]

You know that thing where you think an interview went well but then you start replaying it in your head and finding all the ways you did tasks badly (OMG, why did I make my solutions so complicated??) or answered questions badly and it no longer feels like you did well? In fact, you probably bombed it totally and they're just searching for the polite way to turn me down?

That. That's how I'm feeling right now.

I mean, maybe the good feeling was right and I shouldn't second-guess but...maybe the second-guessing is right. Maybe I really did come off like an incompetent idiot who shouldn't be allowed near a stapler, never mind a lot of really cool database technology. At least I remembered to admit when I hadn't done something before (streaming ETL, totally new) and emphasise that in the real world, I'd research it a lot to find a good solution. And that only happened once. Then I wittered vaguely about possible solution ideas anyway, which probably didn't do much for my credibility. The rest of the time I *thought* I knew what I was talking about, although currently I'm half-suspecting I just repeated "I am a fish" over and over and they were too polite to say anything.

At least it's a learning experience and I will be better prepared for the next one of these I do.

Let's hope there is another one and this wasn't the *only* interview I'm ever going to get.

My brain. It's a fun place to be right now.

Comments

[emmzzi]

it's all numbers. 100 applications = 10 interviews = 1 offer kind of thing.

Just keep appying until you get one. And maybe this was the one you got :)

[selenay]

It'll be a miracle if it was, but an awesome miracle :-)

And that's a good thing to remember. I keep reading about people who get 5 interviews from 7 applications leading to 2 offers, which makes me feel like I'm already a failure because I'm closer to your numbers so far.

[emmzzi]

anyone can get an offer in outbound telesales, for example. Plenty of (to me) shit jobs are easy to get. Harder to stay in and do well in though!

also ignore anyone on a graduate milkround; it's not the same.

Last pro job I had about 150 applications and interviewed 4. Didn't even read all the cvs. Just enough to find 4 candidates. Because I need a person, not the best person.

Keep gping...

[selenay]

Fair point, a lot of those people aren't in tech or they're graduates with five million internships who obviously were always going to get all the offers in the world and I have no idea how long they actually stayed in the job.

I did get complimented on my cover letter standing out, so I'm not totally messing up that stage of the process :-) At least my CV is getting noticed and put in the interviewing pile. That's a good step, right?

And I've got time! I just need to keep going and try not to second-guess myself quite so badly. Being a perfectionist does not mesh well with job hunting.

[emmzzi]

being tenacious is more the thing...

[selenay]

Tenacious is me :-)

[raven]

Sweetheart, hush. You did great. If you didn't do great, nae bother, you'll do great next time. Pretty sure you did great.

[selenay]

*smoosh* I'm just being utterly paranoid, aren't I?

Of course, I'm still waiting for someone to notice that I'm clearly unqualified and should be fired from my current role, so maybe it's more impostor syndrome than real paranoia.

[raven]

Impostor syndrome is the worst! Luckily you're super not an impostor. <3

[lilacsigil]

Job interviews are so undermining to any shred of self-confidence you had left after the application process!