Tech interviews are unfair.

I’m not a very successful candidate at tech interviews. In fact my all life failure ratio is possibly ~75%. But if we only consider 2018 onwards it has considerably improved. To < 20% or so. Which means I fail approximately one in 5 interviews this days.

My tech interviews’ story begins back in 2013.

I was happily working for a small startup in Salamanca, Spain (yes, that one, the nicest city in the world!) and I was in conversations with the bosses to even become the CTO! Surprised, right?

With about 5 years total industry experience! Better now? Cool, let’s continue.

So what did that mean to me? That I’m a top tier engineer and that tech companies all over the world would be fighting each other to onboard me as soon as I let the world know I’m open to switch jobs!

Alright, so life gives me opportunity. The company runs out of money.

I’m now unemployed. Cool. Time for companies to line up their offers. Right here, on my desk!

…

Zero offers. 3 interviews (Tuenti, Yahoo and Amazon). Zero offers. Not even a second phase opportunity! Of course. No feedback.

Picture it.

Honestly it took me a while to get rid of all my pride and arrogance and accept that I needed to improve, that I was not a rockstar. In fact I was probably just a ‘meh‘ engineer.

But I’m determined.

And kept trying.

And failing.

3 times at Amazon. Once at Booking. Once at Apple. Once at Spotify. And 8 or 10 more that I can remember. Not to mention the millions of times I was simply ghosted after initial screenings or submitting the CV.

Until I came across that green book. “Cracking the coding interview“.

Oh. Wait a second. Can interviews be prepared?

I literally squeezed that book. For 9 months. From beginning of 2018 or so. Every single page. Every single exercise.

And managed to get two interviews. Amazon and Spotify.

And got offered at both!

Can you believe it? I had finally made it!

But wait, there’s more! Facebook also offered a few months later!

Coincidence?

Hmmm… Maybe…

Then, working at Amazon I became an interviewer. After 30 or so interviews I started sensing candidates. I could tell whether they were prepared or not after 10-15 minutes. I could sense something in the way they communicated that clearly was the result of preparation. The same preparation I had gone through.

After conducting ~90 interviews that is clear. That sense was a very good predictor of success. Not only with me, but with the whole process. (Remember, there are 6 or 7 interviewers involved in a complete process)

The bad thing is that succeeding doesn’t depend on being a good or bad engineer as much as it depends on that preparation.

Interviews are unfair. But that’s a different conversation.

That’s why I want to help people like you, interested in succeeding at tech interview processes.

Because “It is good to learn from your mistakes, but it is better to learn from other people’s mistakes.” _ Warren Buffet

How does this work you say?

I run a 6 weeks long training. Very exclusive. 2 members max. That way I am sure that I provide full value.

During the training we cover all topics required to be successful at interviews. Identifying strengths and weaknesses. Individually. And doing a lot of practice. Teaching candidates to understand interviewer’s signals and language so you, as the candidate, know what’s going on.

You can understand what the interviewer is asking for so you can provide and ultimately have a smooth and successful interview.

I put all in with this cohorts so I carefully select who joins and who doesn’t. Because I want all members to also be fully committed to it. I don’t mean doing it full time. That’s up to you. Not needed.

I mean being committed. Which depends, but not exclusively, on the time you’ll put into it.

Committed? Then book my calendar below and let’s get this started!