Spoiler alert: I learned nothing.
Every interviewer was nice and friendly. But most of the interviews had these awkward silences that I assume are normal(?). As an introvert, I never know how to fill these gaps in the conversation.
During and after each interview I felt like a fraud. And each rejection email was the confirmation of that thought.
The week after a rejection email is tough. My brain recreates the interview looking for mistakes and inserting thoughts that I will never be good enough to work in those places.
But thankfully, after the first week or so, I get a motivation boost where a lot of new fresh ideas come to mind. Ideas of how to get better, what topics should I learn or what startups should I launch next. So I never have to go through an interview process again.
Perhaps I did learn something. Instead of avoiding feeling like an impostor speed up the process and embrace it. Embrace that at some levels we are all impostors. This is good since it means that we are aware of things that we don’t know yet. So use this as a motivation to go and learn those things.
Follow me on Twitter as I continue trying to get better.