I've just blown a technical interview. Not like this though.

I've got lots of experience, know my languages inside out and have several launched products to millions of people. I did every problem in the recommended book (CtCI) and know data structures and algorithms well. I wasn’t prepared for the nerves though.

I interviewed at a large social network recently. 3 out of the 5 onsites went amazingly well. 1 was okay and the last one totally tanked. It wasn’t a particularly hard question, but I didn’t crack it immediately so started to panic.

What made it 10x worse was that the interviewer sat in complete silence, not responding to any of my ideas. I followed all the recommended strategies: Throwing out a brute force solution, discussing what you are thinking (incidentally, I said the correct solution very early on!), trying different data structures - but he said nothing and checked his phone.

When I got the call, I was absolutely devastated. I had put 3 months of preparation into this and it was all gone in 30 minutes. The recruiter couldn’t believe it as he thought I was a shoe-in. I told him about the interviewer and he was furious. He said he would pass that on as feedback, but there was nothing he could do - they have to respect the process.

I appreciate the humility in this article. As much as I want to blame the interviewer, the process, how technical interviews are broken, how that company isn’t all that, etc etc - the most fruitful thing I can do is learn what went wrong and how I can overcome it next time.

In repairing my shattered self confidence, I’ve found this very helpful:

“Doing poorly on your Google interview could mean a couple things, if you're a good engineer….Which of the two evaluations is more meaningful? A) A few hours with busy people who don't know you trying to guess how good you are, with only a few minutes of a problem they're familiar with as a probe. B) Years of successful performance in your career.

https://www.quora.com/I-felt-I-was-a-pretty-good-software-en...