I got my current job on the back of it! I don't interview particularly well (interviews are a lot of about first impressions, and I make a [ranging from poor t

I got my current job on the back of it! I don't interview particularly well (interviews are a lot of about first impressions, and I make a [ranging from poor to] indifferent first impression), and especially used to struggle with interview exercises that require you to think on your feet. For e.g., read this case study, present your analysis of the client's requirements, and draw up a technical design, all within about an hour. During my interview process for my current employer, I had come across one such exercise, and in the follow-up interview, was challenged on some of my poorly thought through responses. I was a bit too exhausted then to play games, and said outright that I struggle do that sort of thing well under time pressure, especially one that's not representative of a real-life work situation where we've usually got more time than an hour to analyse the situation, prototype various approaches, and eventually arrive at a refined solution after a few iterations of build-validate-redesign. The interviewer then basically wanted to know how I could prove that I was capable of structured thought, careful analysis, and reasonably cogent writing. At this point I spoke about a few blog posts that I'd done, and he wanted me to email links to them after the interview was done. A few days later I got a call saying that they were happy to extend me an offer. I met the above chap who interviewed me some time later over a few drinks, and he told me that it was the blog posts that had changed people's minds about hiring me. I've been happily employed there for nearly 5 years since, so I'd say it all worked out really well! (Although I did stop writing blog posts for mostly laziness-related reasons...)