Ask HN: Failed interview, feeling unemployable and depressed – what do I do?
Dear OP,<p>I&#x27;d like to share some of my experiences with what you&#x27;re going through. Bear with me, it might get a little long.<p>I&#x27;ve been planning to move to SF for since 2 years ago and came here to look for jobs in January 2015. I was hit with a brick when I realised that the interview process is so different to what I have come across.<p>I have 15 years of website programming as a full stack developer and each time I had an interview in the early stages I would feel useless and inadequate of my skills. I wasn&#x27;t prepared for all the questions they asked. Overseas it would be asking about my experiences and checking my past work but never puzzles, coding challenges, coding assessments and the likes. I have experienced the full range of coding challenges from your cryptic short ones, matrices, algorithms, data structures and week long real world challenges.<p>Some of my worst experiences include:<p>1. a technical interview from a recruitment firm asking me questions about type juggling (<a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;php.net&#x2F;manual&#x2F;en&#x2F;language.types.type-juggling.php" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;php.net&#x2F;manual&#x2F;en&#x2F;language.types.type-juggling.php</a>), when I didn&#x27;t know them asking me &#x27;are you even a programmer?&#x27; and then hanging up on me.<p>2. being cut short at an onsite interview because I didn&#x27;t know how to whiteboard a solution and them telling me that &#x27;there&#x27;s no point in continuing the interview&#x27;.<p>3. being treated like shit, given the run around, getting ignored or never getting replies after I did their coding challenges and assessments (seriously it&#x27;s not that hard to just give a reply if you don&#x27;t want to continue with the recruitment process). Hey, I took the time to do your coding assessment the least you can do is provide me some professional courtesy.<p>4. doing a coding challenge with a time limit and the company giving me the run around and finally telling me that they couldn&#x27;t get the program to run even though I have a live version of it and sent them instructions. They then told me that they would&#x27;ve preferred for me to ask questions rather than take it upon myself to try to solve the problem.<p>My skill set is quite diverse and isn&#x27;t just in programming and I normally avoid applying for the &#x27;big 4&#x27; because I know that I will never be able to do their coding assessments and challenges. I have failed more interviews that you can think of. I have roughly spent the last 1.5 years trying to get a job here in SF and I have had some of my lowest moments in my professional career.<p>Being rejected, not knowing how to answer interview coding questions and not being able to whiteboard will hit your confidence hard. I will admit to that. There were lots of times when I questioned myself whether I was a good programmer or not, whether if and when I get a job that I would be able to perform the tasks that were given to me or not.<p>From some people I have talked to, the interview process has changed dramatically in the US, especially in SF. This wasn&#x27;t the case a few years back. (correct me if I&#x27;m wrong)<p>I have always thought that the coders in SF and Silicon Valley would be of a higher calibre as this is the mecca of the tech world, just like if you want to be a movie star you would have to go to LA to make it big.<p>Think of it as your audition, sometimes you pass, sometimes you get a callback but more often than not you fail and won&#x27;t get a callback. It&#x27;s just how the game is played. Remember the saying, don&#x27;t hate the player, hate the game. And these type of interviews aren&#x27;t going to change anytime soon, so I have learnt to accept it and roll with the punches.<p>1. Be prepared, but understand that you only know what you know.<p>2. You can&#x27;t prepare for every coding challenge (but the ones I have experienced most are matrices, data structures (hash tables, trie, etc), fetch JSON payloads and array&#x2F;string manipulations.<p>3. It is just an interview and nothing else.<p>4. Think of the positive in each failure, what can you learn from it, what you can improve from it and hopefully use it next time.<p>One thing I have learnt is that just because you don&#x27;t know how to answer these coding questions does not mean you don&#x27;t know how to do your job. You have to find a company which is willing to see past that and hope that a company will see you for who you are to the company and not what the company wants you to be.<p>------<p>As for your mental side. I also suffered from mild depression because of an unrelated issue a while ago.<p>Please, please, please talk to someone. Your family, friends and support network is the best way for you to get over it. When I had my problems, some of my friends stayed with me for 1 week without leaving my side to make sure I was ok. I had my mum and girlfriend then, now wife fly back to see me and make sure I was ok after just leaving the week before (I was living in Japan at the time and they were in Australia).<p>There are people out there who can help. Hotlines and the such where people will talk to you and help you out. (I&#x27;m not too sure of them in the US, but other comments have got numbers for you).<p>Your wife will understand the situation, talk to her, make sure she knows how you feel. Don&#x27;t keep it closed and bottled up. My wife supported me trying to find a job in the US for the last few years. I have been back and forth from US to Australia 4x in the last 1.5 years trying to get a job here in SF and yet she still supports me. Even through arguments, I know she still loves me. Your wife will do the same for you. <i></i>That&#x27;s why she is with you right now.<i></i><p>------<p>Good luck.<p>Please DM me on HN and I can give you my email address or phone number and we can catch up if you&#x27;re in SF.<p>PS. I&#x27;m still looking for jobs just in case anyone is wondering.