"Luck Is What Happens When Preparation Meets Opportunity" - Seneca IMHO, the key point here isn't so much about making the best out of a bad situation, it's th

"Luck Is What Happens When Preparation Meets Opportunity" - Seneca IMHO, the key point here isn't so much about making the best out of a bad situation, it's that if you just stay cooped up in your comfort zone, the breadth of your preparedness isn't going to be nearly as wide as if you dabbled with things outside of your comfort zone. You don't need to cram interview questions to get into big Bay Area tech companies: I did it without even knowing leetcode was a thing. But I gained similar preparation by working on an open source project. One of my best interviews involved a super in-depth discussion about some algorithm, and it went well because I just happened to have had implemented the thing in my OSS project and I knew from experience the trade-offs of different approaches in gory detail. Regardless, I never thought of that project as a drag. It was always a product of love. Looking from another angle: Had I merely tried to make lemonades out of lemons, I'd certainly have mastered the technical skillsets that I used to use in my first job, but those skills turned out to not be the ones that carried me to where I am today. In fact, in hindsight, I had a lot of misconceptions about what preparation meant (e.g. I was too focused on specific technologies and too narrow-minded in some regards). The one thing that has served me well was the idea of broadening my horizons. You never know which seemingly useless obscurity is going to be a defining part of your journey.