[joshuakcockrell]

> But each failure kind of brings me down, and makes me think that I'm a bad engineer

First off, you are not a bad engineer for failing a technical interview. Over the past 3 years, I've applied for hundreds of roles across dozens of companies. I've been through dozens of interviews and I've got offers from (or worked at) Uber, Twitter, Microsoft, Tesla, etc. The side of the story I don't focus on is that I've had over 200+ rejections. Some after first rounds, some just after they look at my resume. Rejection is part of the game but you just need to push through it. Here's my advice.

- As other comments have said, it's definitely a numbers game. Some days you just don't mesh with your interviewer, others you know the answer to their coding question before they've even finished asking it. Just apply over and over if you want the best odds. You can't get too emotionally attached to any single interview opportunity. I've had to apply for ~50 roles for each offer I get. That's just the way it works.

- Practice a ton. It sounds like you are more worried about coding under pressure and thinking through the answer while you are in the middle of trying to explain your thought process to the person interviewing you. I recommend pramp.com You interview someone for 30 minutes over the webcam and then they interview you for 30 minutes. It's super convenient and gets you very comfortable thinking through problems on spot with someone else watching you. I normally do ~10 pramp.com interviews while I'm preparing for an upcoming interview. In person interviews with friends is good too but less convenient than just signing up online for a time slot.

Just remember that bad interviews don't make you a bad engineer. At the end of the day, no one will remember dozens of rejections, but they will remember the job you eventually land. Keep interviewing till you get an offer that you're excited about. Good luck!

[ddebernardy]

I commend what you did and where you're coming from but going through 200+ rejections is just soul wrenching, and it's probably not what the OP wants to hear. Something is very wrong in this industry if its hiring practices are so that someone competent needs to go through that many interviews (and rejections) before finding work.

[tannhauser23]

Honestly once you get into the groove the rejections really don't matter anymore. I've been rejected from companies that I forgot I even interviewed with - just gotta push forward and play the numbers game.

That said, getting rejected from a company that you had your sights on... that does suck, at first. But usually you can apply again in a year.

[joshuakcockrell]

> going through 200+ rejections is just soul wrenching

Yeah I've been through this many rejections total, and some of them have been pretty tough emotionally, but it only takes 25-50 before landing another really cool job I've been excited about. 200 rejections is pretty soul wrenching, but getting the other big companies on the resume makes it more than worth it.

[mlevental]

> Over the past 3 years, I've applied for 300+ roles across 90+ companies

not to bite on what you're saying (it's mostly accurate) but you've interned - the bar is much lower for interns than even junior devs.

>I've applied for 300+ roles across 90+ companies

i am interested in how you've managed to apply to multiple roles at the same company? is this across 3 internship seasons?

[jonathankoren]

Applying to multiple position makes perfect sense if the company is big enough with multiple teams. Google probably has like 10 distinct positions that's applicable to someone. Often times, candidates don't get shared across positions, so you're really at a disadvantage if you don't put yourself in front of as many sources / hiring managers as possible.

[joshuakcockrell]

> I am interested in how you've managed to apply to multiple roles at the same company? is this across 3 internship seasons?

A lot of companies will list the same roles across different teams. Applying to (or interviewing with) all the different teams helps your chances. I'm at Tesla right now and I applied for 15 different roles over the span of 3 years before they gave me an offer.

[mlevental]

but do you interview with the same company multiple times per season? isn't that like cheating? like taking basically the same test e.g. 10 times?

[joshuakcockrell]

Yeah, it's exactly like taking the same test multiple times! I recommend it :) In my experience, this only happens in the same season if it's the recruiter's idea. Google did this with me one time. The recruiter knew I just got rejected interviewing with one Google team, but she was incentivized to put me in the interview track with another team so I got two shots.