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If you are trying to break into tech and get a good job, you'll know that rejections are a huge part of it😅. I've had multiple job rejections(like 40 rejections), some were hurtful and some I was just numb when I saw the email. I've also had a few failed interviews and out of all those interviews, two of them stood out to me and thought me very valuable lessons.
In this #4articles4weeks challenge Week 1 article, I'll be sharing notable lessons from those failed job interviews.
The Interview Experience.
Before I discuss the lessons, I'll talk about these two interview experiences. The first interview was for a Network Security intern at a company in Lagos, Nigeria and the second experience was for a Marketing Associate at a big tech company.
First Interview.
The company was looking for an NYSC intern to work in the Network Security department. Sidenote: NYSC is a mandatory 1-year service for all Nigerian Graduates.
So I sent my CV in December and was called for an IQ test in January. I was successful at every stage of the interview until the technical interview stage.
Remember I said this was for a network engineering role? Well, the company brought a software engineer to interview me!
The software engineer had no knowledge of network security and asked me if I'd written any code, and I said yes. I was still a code newbie at the time and barely knew anything about data structures and algorithms, I told him that my python knowledge was like 5 out of 10. The interviewer was extremely rude and condescending to me, even going as far as laughing at me during the interview when I was blank. So, obviously, I failed the interview and later called my friend to vent and cry.😅😅
Second Interview.
As I said earlier, the second interview was for a marketing associate. Firstly the interviewer basically ghosted me and it was rescheduled twice. This was actually very disappointing as I felt the rescheduling process could've been handled better. When I eventually had the interview, in my mind it went really well and the interviewer was very friendly. Afterward, I followed up and never heard back, it's been over 3 months. So I assume I failed and cried my eyes out😪😪.
Lessons Learned.
1. Don't say you know a concept unless you have a good understanding of it.
It's always so tempting to say you know something when asked in an interview, just to impress them. This will just cause headaches for you. Please be very honest in your interview, it will be very disappointing if you get the job and can't perform what you claimed to know. If asked about something and not sure, say that you're not familiar with it but willing to learn.
2.Watch out for the red flags!🚩🚩
To be honest right from when the interviewer ghosted me it was a red flag. I've also seen a few employees from that company leave in under 6 months. Any company that feels okay wasting people's time is bad news. It shows that the culture at the company is poor, especially when the number of employees leaving the company is a lot. So who knows, maybe me getting rejected from that big tech company was a blessing 😅
3.Don't beat yourself up after a rejection.
I cried a lot after failed interviews but later I realized that those failures don't define me. There were points where I sat down and asked myself if I was dumb, I felt so so bad! I realized that it was an opportunity to get more knowledge and improve upon my skills. After the second interview flopped, I took more courses on content marketing and started working toward improving my writing portfolio and personal brand.
Conclusion
In conclusion, failing interviews suck and can make you feel horrible. This doesn't define you and from every failure, there's a lesson that can be learnt.