Smart people who are out of work quickly become neurotic. The interview process is an exercise in humiliation. Placing a neurotic person into a series of humi

Smart people who are out of work quickly become neurotic. The interview process is an exercise in humiliation. Placing a neurotic person into a series of humiliation rituals is a good way to make them more neurotic. A better way to get a job is to follow a lighthouse strategy; build something cool, present on it, then side step the humiliation ritual (have the employer agree that you are being evaluated this way). Or cheat, get access to the evaluation procedure before you are evaluated on it. Everyone has their favorite interview problem, and they like to brag about them (see comments below), find out what they are into, then train up on these problems before you engage with their humiliation ritual. As for therapy, instead I would recommend coaching (someone who works with salespeople), since they are good at rebuilding confidence after each humiliation. Remember, the interview doesn't actually evaluate you, don't believe its results, it's mostly a randomized process. I could come up with simple-seeming problems to stump most people, especially stressed out developers. The author of this post has lost her perspective, and her article is being posted by someone who makes money from the humiliation ritual. Knowing that you will become neurotic, look for work while you have work. If you are coming out of school, where everyone is single-tracked, know that the corporate world isn't fair. The corporate world is also disorganized, you could call someone within the software group and just ask them how to prepare for the interview, get creative.