this post was submitted on 06 Feb 2025
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just bombed an interview (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 1 day ago* (last edited 15 hours ago) by pugsnroses77@sh.itjust.works to c/cs_career_questions@programming.dev
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applied internally to a role thatd be a nice pay pump. its a data role with a strong emphasis on python and sql skills. i studied my ass off on data concepts anticipating questions like "how would you start solving xyz problem" or "how would you find business insights on zyx" and the first question is "whats the difference between a dict and a list in python?" or hell, even a leetcode-like question. i like to think im decent at USING python and sql, but not having used them in a current role in ~2 years, these google-search-esque questions threw me off guard. i fumbled making up answers for a few but some i straight up had to say i have no fkn clue. so todays been a bit of a demeaning experience! has anyone else ever had an interview where they asked questions like that?

edit: thanks to yall for being supportive, this is the kindest comment section ive had. im still recovering from the embarrassment of these guys thinking I probably lied about having these skills lol. part of my difficulty is that ive been on a rotation program at work and have spent almost the last year on a cyber analyst position and it didnt hit me how much I forgot to code! so now I'm applying to some cyber roles too, wish me luck!!

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[–] MajorHavoc@programming.dev 10 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Don't be too hard on yourself. A great interview explores the limits of your experience with the interviewer. That ideally includes some questions you simply cannot answer.

I have, very rarely, interviewed someone who had every answer I was looking for. In that case, she went on to build the entire team. But usually I don't need someone with all the answers, but just someone with enough experience to do the job while growing into it.

So sometimes missing some questions still lands you the job, and just informs my training plan for after I hire you. It's hard to tell right after the interview which way it went.

And sadly, I don't know for sure, until I've interviewed every candidate, so I rarely can give meaningful feedback right after the interview.

Also, if you were honest and communicated clearly, you likely grew your professional network, whether you get the job or not.

All that to say - you might not have bombed, after all.

[–] pugsnroses77@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

this is very kind, thank you!

[–] some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 5 points 1 day ago

Aha, something I didn't mention it my sibling post about interviewing for DreamJob™: once I was on the team and on the other end of the interviews, the theme from my manager was always to see how the candidate thinks and solves problems. He always stressed that they don't know our tools and processes. It was less about getting the right answer and more about demonstrating that they'd have the ability to do the job once we onboarded them.

There was a guy who I congratulated on his first day joining our department who was surprised. He told me he thought I disliked him in the interview (I actually wrote him a solid post-interview review, he was great). That was back when I thought it was a good strategy to be stone-faced in interviews and before I got enough wisdom to just be casual and approachable. Maybe you interviewed with a dickhead like the old me who didn't know any better yet!