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I have a whiteboard. I have been studying. I have been practising. But over and over I make a few tiny errors in front of an audience and sink my chances. I thi

by Kapura 11y ago

I have a whiteboard. I have been studying. I have been practising. But over and over I make a few tiny errors in front of an audience and sink my chances. I think I must just be broken.

kelukelugames 11y ago
Then practice more rigorously. Do it in front of friends and film yourself.
- hnuser123 11y ago
  This is especially hard to do if you're in a more senior position and tend to take more interest in solving better problems than small algorithms problems.
prodigal_erik 11y ago
Keep trying. Every interviewer has their own standards, and I for one don't recommend against people for minor mistakes when they're on the right track.
GFK_of_xmaspast 11y ago
If you're just stressed an anxious, try practicing mindfulness or try practicing taking a bunch of pills beforehand.
steve_g 11y ago
You are not broken, or at least no more broken than everybody else. You do have a characteristic trait that makes you underperform in certain types of interviews. It sounds like you’ve got a good way to manage that for day-to-day work. The good news is that interview performance is not a reflection of how you’ll perform at your job. Think about it – how representative are the interview situations you’ve described? Jobs aren’t like that. Don’t start flipping burgers just yet. There’s good advice on this thread – two basic ideas. First, you can get better at the “Google/Facebook/Twitter” whiteboard interview by practice and hard work. No matter how much you think you suck, you can get better. Second, there are thousands of companies with software jobs all of over the US that don’t use the whiteboard approach to interviewing. You have to look for them. They might not be software companies per se, but have developer groups that provide useful line-of-business software that make their internal users happy. Don’t give up. You can do it.
x1798DE 11y ago
By the way, I tend to be quite good at these "whiteboard" style problems and I always make mistakes. Every single time. I get the impression that most interviewers would find it weird if you didn't, because they didn't get to see you think critically about something you've never seen before. A seriously underrated skill (which you can practice) is keeping calm when you make a mistake and reasoning out loud, under pressure. When you hear yourself saying, "Oh wait, that won't work because..." is when you know you're on the right track.

by Kapura 11y ago

I have a whiteboard. I have been studying. I have been practising. But over and over I make a few tiny errors in front of an audience and sink my chances. I think I must just be broken.

kelukelugames 11y ago

Then practice more rigorously. Do it in front of friends and film yourself.

hnuser123 11y ago
This is especially hard to do if you're in a more senior position and tend to take more interest in solving better problems than small algorithms problems.

prodigal_erik 11y ago

Keep trying. Every interviewer has their own standards, and I for one don't recommend against people for minor mistakes when they're on the right track.

GFK_of_xmaspast 11y ago

If you're just stressed an anxious, try practicing mindfulness or try practicing taking a bunch of pills beforehand.

steve_g 11y ago

You are not broken, or at least no more broken than everybody else. You do have a characteristic trait that makes you underperform in certain types of interviews. It sounds like you’ve got a good way to manage that for day-to-day work. The good news is that interview performance is not a reflection of how you’ll perform at your job. Think about it – how representative are the interview situations you’ve described? Jobs aren’t like that. Don’t start flipping burgers just yet. There’s good advice on this thread – two basic ideas. First, you can get better at the “Google/Facebook/Twitter” whiteboard interview by practice and hard work. No matter how much you think you suck, you can get better. Second, there are thousands of companies with software jobs all of over the US that don’t use the whiteboard approach to interviewing. You have to look for them. They might not be software companies per se, but have developer groups that provide useful line-of-business software that make their internal users happy. Don’t give up. You can do it.

x1798DE 11y ago

By the way, I tend to be quite good at these "whiteboard" style problems and I always make mistakes. Every single time. I get the impression that most interviewers would find it weird if you didn't, because they didn't get to see you think critically about something you've never seen before. A seriously underrated skill (which you can practice) is keeping calm when you make a mistake and reasoning out loud, under pressure. When you hear yourself saying, "Oh wait, that won't work because..." is when you know you're on the right track.