What I Learned from 5 Experienced-Hire Interviews (Including the Rejections)
While preparing to change jobs, I interviewed with 5 companies from application to final round, got rejected by 3 and passed 2. I learned more from the process than from the results, so I'm writing it up.
1. About 80% of technical questions were predictable
Ultimately, they dig into the experience you put on your resume, so if you prepare an answer to "why did you do it that way?" for every sentence you wrote, you can cover most of them.
2. Describe projects as Situation-Action-Result
At first, I just rambled on about the tech and got rejected. Later, when I switched to the order of what the problem was, what choice I made, and how it turned out, the reactions changed.
3. It's better to admit what you don't know
If you fudge it, follow-up questions keep coming and you do worse. It was much better to say, "I didn't know that part, so at the time I looked it up like this."
4. Questions to the interviewer matter more than you'd think
Asking what the team is struggling with, rather than salary or benefits, makes you look like someone who's genuinely interested.
5. A rejection might not be about your skills
From what I heard later, there were cases where the position disappeared because of organizational circumstances. You don't necessarily need to blame yourself for being rejected.
Good luck to everyone preparing to change jobs.
10 answers
Agreed, especially #3. I once tried to be vague and got hit with five follow-up questions in a row—I completely lost it lol.
Well, I'd say #1 is a bit case-by-case. The predictable 80% just means you got lucky and ended up in a domain you're familiar with; if you go into a field you've never seen before, that 80% all disappears. If you're an experienced hire, you often get deeper, probing questions instead, so just preparing resume bullet points alone won't cover it.
I also interviewed at seven places last year and went 2–5. But what I really relate to is the last sentence. For the one where I made it to the final round and got rejected, I later heard through someone I know that the headcount had just been closed. After finding that out, the time I spent beating myself up dropped dramatically. Now I'm at a better place, and getting rejected back then actually turned out to be a case where the timing worked in my favor.