[umbs]

I have an experience that I vividly remember. Early in my career, I was very poor at giving interviews and would freeze on trivial questions.

In Summer of 2011 I interviewed at a storage company. A good friend referred me. The nervousness was so immense, I caught diarrhea on morning of interview. I was asked to reverse a linked list. It's a standard question that I practised few times. I would program in C language. But on whiteboard, I could not produce the solution. I just froze. My mind took off in so many directions, going over the solution I did at home. It started finding bugs (real or imaginary) in that solution. The question is a warm up question, yet I could not answer. I practiced it so many times and yet ... After ~10 mins, I broke down, literally. There was only one other instance in my life I broke down in front of strangers. I tried not to show. Took restroom break. Composed myself and produced a solution. I'm not sure it was correct.

Interviewer was gracious. Obviously, I did not get an offer.

I've improved greatly since then, but that was rock bottom in my interviewing world.