[bhasi]

This very thing happened to me recently in an interview. This was my first interview after not having actively interviewed for a few years now, so I was quite rusty. I was asked what some issues were that I worked on at an initial phase of the project and I blanked the fuck out and then instantly went into self-scrutiny and sweating as I spiralled into "oh crap I should really know this" and "this is making me look stupid" and wondering how I was coming across to the interviewer. I have some anxiety problems, that's there too - but point is that if you're not really prepared with answers to questions like these, it can seriously throw you off mid-interview.

[wpietri]

I'm sorry this happened to you.

And lots of good developers skew anxious! What in normal life counts as being overly careful or or overly sensitive is just good practice in coding.

That's why I think it's especially important to make interviews as low-anxiety as possible. They'll always be worse than the job, of course, but the closer you get them, the more you're likely to see how people will really perform on the job.

[muteor]

The curse of the engineer, always looking at the worst possible outcome :) I have to work hard not to bring this into my non-work life.