After finding a job and some reflecting, I felt compelled to write this post. Why? Because almost everyone I know stresses out during the interview process.
dilbert.com
My greatest weakness is that I don’t know how many ropes you need to burn to make manhole covers square.
The short list of reasons why interviews suck
- Feelings of imposture syndrome and insecurities… fear of rejection?
- Time commitment and bending to other people’s scheduling constraints/inabilities
- Distracting financial situations, if not already working
- LinkedIn and obnoxious recruiters
- Lack of control during the process
amcnetworks.com
The long list of definitive benefits of interviewing
- Whiteboard problems, pair programing, take home challenges = new puzzles each day!
- Communication: learning how to market yourself
- Skills introspection: understanding strengths and weaknesses
- Catalyst for growth, pushing one’s boundaries applying for stretch roles
- Someone wants to pay for coffee/lunch and hear about your projects? Boohoo
- Validation that while explaining previous hacks/projects, people are genuinely impressed
- Check out the cool offices of growing companies
- Learn more about current initiatives and culture in the startup world
- That feeling of taking ownership of one’s career
- Swag!
mbecks14.deviantart.com
- Financial opportunity in the new job
- The feeling of focus to find a job with continuous learning, mentors and new friends
- Answer thought-provoking questions that shake and form one’s sense of identity
- Opportunities to ask them questions such as…
“how do you show employees that they’re valued?”
“if you could have access to anything, what data set would you want?”
“what would I be working on during my first week?”
My advice to anyone who’s suffered though tech interviews, don’t think of it as a burden. It’s a sort of a privilege. Even if every interview leads to rejection, there is always something to learn from the experience to be stronger for the future. Focus on the good stuff.
dilbert.com
Research tells us that lazy people find simpler solutions to complex problems.
punkrockpolly 
I had an interview once where I have been asked this question :
“why did you apply for this job?” (the most useless question to ask is the one that you already know the answer … I said to my self ). I answered naively ” I want to earn money, but if you like I can tell you that I’am really interested in working for you, and learning new stuff …”.I didn’t get the job finally (as expected) but I learned that this question is meant to teach you to be hypocrite whenever asked to be by your boss