About this time last year I flew to San Francisco to interview for a new product position. It was my first interview in nearly two and a half years. I was out of practice and nervous beyond measure. Ultimately, it wasn’t a good fit—part of that was likely due to the fact that I never allowed myself to really settle in. And this was all despite my own advantageous position with a great job and leverage.
Interviews are hard—they challenge you to distill your ideas and frameworks in their simplest form, they’re time consuming, and depending on where you interview, it might not always feel natural. Early in your career, it’s also easy to compromise on your own principles and attempt to fit yourself into the mold that you think a potential company is looking for.
(Note: Are you wondering if it’s time to look for a new job? Start with this article, instead.)
As I continued exploring opportunities and interviewing over the past year, I started to settle in a bit. Some days I lost my focus and ended up incessantly checking email and LinkedIn. I had to constantly remind myself to take a step back and breathe. It’s hard not to get too far ahead and trap yourself into a fixed mindset.
But one year later, I’m excited to announce that I’ve accepted an offer to move to Denver and join the product team at Snapdocs. While I wasn’t perfect during the interview process, practice over the past year allowed me to remain patient, find the best fit, and be myself throughout the interview process. As a result, I have an incredible opportunity that aligns with the problems I want to solve, the people I want to solve them with, and the ways I want to learn, grow, and help others do the same.
Here are six of the key lessons that allowed me to relax and find my new home while navigating dozens of interviews over the past few months.
1) Maintain a growth mindset
There’s a fine line between a growth mindset and arrogance. If you’re driven by ego, you’ll carry a sense of entitlement. But if you embody a growth mindset, you’re able to balance personal humility and an understanding that there’s no shortage of great opportunities out there for you.
There are multiple spots that could be a good fit. There’s no single place that will make or break you. If you’ve worked hard and developed a skill set that fits you, you will have options. There’s no need to act out of desperation. But just keep in mind, it’s up to you to discover strategies and build habits that create room for those opportunities.
A growth mindset is about having the calm awareness that there are opportunities out there. You still have to push yourself to take advantage of them. But they’re there for the taking if you keep your eyes open and prepare yourself to take the leap when an opportunity presents itself.
2) Never come unprepared
There is one thing, and exactly one thing, that’s entirely within your control during the interview process—preparation. Don’t trick yourself into believing that you can wing it or that you don’t need to prepare.
This is about identifying what’s within your control (internals) and what’s beyond (externals). Preparation is an internal that you have direct control over. You don’t have control over fit, timing, or who the hiring manager is. Focus on you. Don’t put yourself at a disadvantage because you ignored the one thing within your control.
If you miss out on an opportunity because it wasn’t a good fit, the company put a hiring freeze in place, or you didn’t quite hit it off with the hiring manager, that’s fine. It happens. But you should never sacrifice opportunities because you were unprepared. Research the company, read articles on them, ask the recruiters what the team is looking for, prepare for behavioral questions and case studies that you know are coming, keep a list of detailed questions you have, practice!
3) Be true to yourself
Authenticity matters. And if the place you’re interviewing at doesn’t care about that, I promise you don’t want to work there. There’s no reason not to be yourself. You want to work somewhere where the people respond well and are excited about the person you are.
Part of a growth mindset is looking for somewhere that fits you equally well. Don’t compromise on what’s important to you and your principles by attempting to fit yourself into the mold that you’ve imagined someone else is looking for you. Be you. It’s much easier that way.
When you pretend to be something you’re not, it’s impossible to keep up that facade for long. But when you start from who you are, you can sustain that indefinitely and you set yourself up for long-term success.
4) Know what you’re looking for
A big part of authenticity is knowing what you’re looking for and not compromising when it comes to the most important things. Before I started seriously interviewing during the past few months, I made a list of my ultimate goals, as well as my must-haves, nice-to-haves, and can’t-haves. Then I evaluated opportunities in these terms.
Ultimate goal:
Spend the next ten years pursuing big opportunities for accelerated learning where I’m able to work with talented people on challenging problems that have a real impact on people’s lives. My hope is to be able to write about and teach from these experiences later in life—either by growing into a leadership position within a forward-thinking company or writing/speaking full time.
Must-haves:
Skin in the game (out there taking risks and bigger swings)
Creative freedom
Authenticity and resourcefulness rewarded
Opportunity to teach and grow alongside others
Ability to shape both product and company
Nice-to-haves:
Advancing the discipline of product
Helping others grow in their careers and lives
Product leader in the top 10%
Compensation/bonus/equity
Edtech or fintech
B2C
Can’t-haves:
Enterprise (>1000 employees)
Low risk, low reward
Big company bureaucracy
Healthcare, insurance, or consulting
Elementary product culture
4) Aim for 90% and be happy with that
You won’t get through an entire interview process without saying at least one or two stupid things. Accept that. You’re human. As you’re reflecting on an interview, you might cringe at a couple of statements you’ve made. Give yourself permission to move on. I’ve said some really stupid things, the only way forward is to laugh it off and use it as a learning experience.
5) Beware of projecting
It’s going to happen. It’s impossible not to imagine what your life would look like in a new role or start looking at apartments/houses in a new city. When I felt things were going well during initial interviews with Snapdocs, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t search for Denver’s best neighborhoods to live in. But in those moments when I felt myself getting too far ahead, I had to gently bring myself back.
If you’re anything like me, you’ll have to do this hundreds of times each day. But what’s important is that you’re able to recognize when you start projecting and bring yourself back to where you currently are.
6) Don’t make irreversible decisions before you have to
New jobs are significant life events. Job interviews are stressful. But one of the cardinal rules of rational decision-making is never making irreversible decisions before you have to (small, reversible decisions, on the other hand, should be made quickly).
It’s okay to have a feeling. But you can’t make the decision to accept an offer, join a new company, or move across the country before you actually have the offer in front of you.
Allow yourself to be excited. But guard your peace of mind. You shouldn’t make massive life decisions before you’re actually faced with them and have the information that you need to effectively make that decision.