[tj0]

I'm five years into my career, and still experience this same kind of anxiety. Only recently did I revisit algorithms as I'm getting serious about my job search now, and am still super nervous.

Not to mention, having a family, I don't have a ton of time to study for the gauntlet decent tech companies put in place to vet candidates.

As for personal projects? See lack of time above. I'm lucky to get an hour a week to work on something I actually enjoy. Forget about building something unique/useful/worth public launch in any kind of reasonable time. Also, let's not forget the fun non-compete/anything you build while employed with X is owned by X clauses.

Hiring in general is broken. In tech it just seems amplified.

[bluGill]

Most jobs are who you know. So cultivate the kind of person who interviews well and will quickly be trusted to say hire you.

My first job all open positions went to Jon (last name hid), if he handed a name that person was called in, the interview was reverse, unless you really did something stupid you had the job, the purpose of the interview was to convince you to take it. If Jon didn't know anyone a head hunter was called for a 6 month contract, with option to hire if we liked you. So moral of this story is know Jon.

Where I work now we train people on how to put you at ease. It works okay, I think.

[tj0]

That's definitely something that seems to be reiterated often -- the power of networking is real. You'd think after hearing it since high school (some time ago, not gonna date myself lol) I'd actually spend more time nurturing the network I do have.

Luckily my current and last position didn't require any kind of mental gymnastics (my soft skills are great in terms of software engineers), but I'm still wondering what lies behind those gates kept locked by technical trivia and tricky buzzword algorithms that send CVs to the void before a human ever sees them.

My current situation is a bit different than previous (trying to transition tech stacks and job titles now) so the nerves are a bit different. The anxieties are just as real as before though, albeit the payoffs are higher with the new goals. Guess you could call em game day jitters.

Your interview process sounds improved over traditional corporate style interviews. My last employer had similar tactics (put the interviewee at ease, casual conversation), and it led to the best 18 months I've had in my career yet.