Is It Normal To Have Anxiety For Software Engineering Interviews?

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All right, folks. I'm driving home. We're going to experience dev subreddit. This topic is about interview anxiety. And um I didn't even read the whole post. Just kind of skim the very top part and they were saying, "Hey, does uh performance an performance anxiety for interviews, does that ever go away?" And so, uh, obviously I literally cannot answer this universally for every single person because that would be, uh, a bunch of But, um, I'll talk about it from my perspective at least. So, uh, just a friendly reminder, if you have questions you want answered on the channel about career development, software engineering, that sort of stuff, leave them below in the comments or go to codecame.com. Submit stuff anonymously that way. Happy to try my best to answer. And thanks so much for folks for submitting stuff because that's the whole reason the channel exists. Okay.

Um short answer is for me no. Um the anxiety does not ever go away. The end. Uh but in all seriousness um I I think that for myself I I have a lot of anxiety around like testing in general. So uh interviews are one example of that. talked about this before, but like even I've always found like any type of test like quizzes in elementary school or exams in, you know, high school and university. Um, I always felt like an incredible amount of anxiety going into that kind of stuff. Um, also like self-fulfilling prophecy kind of thing where it's like, you know, I'm anxious. It's it's like something you don't do often. Like this is a bit of a spoiler alert for where I'm headed with this conversation, but it's something you don't do often. And then uh I have anxiety about not doing it or having to do it, I guess.

And then like cuz I don't want to do poorly and then like having the anxiety means I don't perform as well as I I would like to and then like I have more anxiety about it next time, right? That kind of thing. But this has happened with I can I can literally, you know, remember being in classrooms and it's like pop quiz and I'm like, "Oh my god, like my life is about to end." Like I hate everything about this or, you know, in university having to study for exams. Same type of thing. And I knew they were coming, right? And interviews. I, you know, it's even like anxiety leading up to it. Um, and then you know even like an hour before the interview, like I'm I'm pacing. I'm like I don't nothing about this feels good. And it's interesting because like I don't feel like I didn't prepare for these types of things like for interviews.

I'm like I'm going to put in the prep work. Um, as a engineering manager I have to uh obviously you know do really well on behavioral interview parts. that includes like how to lead and grow teams uh how to do performance management, how to navigate, you know, uh projects of different scope um you know once it were successful failed. Uh I do have to do system design type questions. I do have to do unfortunately like lead code style questions. Why? Don't ask me. Um that's just how this goes. I don't think it's uh a smart thing to do. But I don't make the rules apparently. So, um, you know, I I prepare for these types of things means I have to put a lot more effort into things like lead code. Um, some of the more like behavioral stuff comes a little bit more naturally to me just because it's like it's just what I'm doing a lot more of.

So, I still, you know, uh, do practice questions. I still like rehearse things. still make my lists, like think about the different scenarios that I could talk about for different types of things. Um, so I still do all that prep work, but um I have a lot of anxiety going into those things and it's uh it's sort of always been that way. uh you know even in university when I had internships having to go interview to be an intern um at you know when I'm at that point I'm thinking like okay well it's it's got to be like almost entirely just because I'm I'm new to this right like I'm an intern I don't have any experience like it's just how it is right like and I'm not saying that you're not allowed to feel like anxious or whatever like I I definitely think you're allowed to feel whatever you want to feel, but I kind of chocked it up to like, oh, it's just got to be that.

Oh, buddy, what are you doing? You got to pick a lane. Um, and then like I sort of realized like that never really went away for me. And when I reflect on it, it's like yeah, like quizzes, exams, any type of test, an interview is very much the same thing. Um, I just feel nervous. Now, what's interesting is like, and I said I'm going to I have a particular angle. I I think I'm going to talk about this kind of stuff, but um if I think about some of the interviews I've been in and which ones like where the anxiety was, like how did that shift? Um I personally think that most of the anxiety is like it's like leading up to the interview, like right before So like literally in that last like hour right before the call I have to do and by the way this doesn't change if I have a like an interview loop of like five interviews or seven interviews each interview is like the hour before that.

So having multiple interviews in an interview loop is like horrible for me. um helpful if in terms of like looking at different you know angles of my skill set and stuff but horrible in terms of anxiety and I find that yeah like that hour going right up to it is the most anxious now if I sort of dissect the interview definitely my coding questions um I have the most anxiety during like the anxiety is there and it stays there, which is kind of ridiculous if I think about it because I've been programming for like two plus decades. I code literally every day. I'm filming this as I drive home. I'm going to, you know, uh, hang out with my wife for a little bit cuz I'm getting home from work and then I'm going to write some code. And I do this like every day. So the um the crazy part is like I code every day and I still have a ton of anxiety when I'm doing coding interviews.

Um system design questions I I feel less anxious during them compared to a coding interview, but I still have anxiety. And then behavioral ones, when I start talking, I I do actually feel like quite comfortable once I get going. Um, why? And I I think it's just because like that stuff is just it's almost like naturally just coming out of my face because like I said a little bit earlier, like that's what I'm doing all day every day are those topics that we discussed. Like tell me about a project that failed. Like usually it's me like the the part where I'm hesitating a little bit or having a little bit of anxiety is like did you already talk about this or is this the best uh topic to pick from? It's pretty rare for those ones where I'm like oh man I have nothing. Uh I think I think the most recent one I can recall where I'm like I don't think I have a a good answer.

like I'm trying to dissect what they're asked, like truly trying to get out of me. But the question, I'm going to butcher it. I apologize. Um, but it was something along the lines of like, can you tell me about a time where like you had to make a decision really quick with little information? Something something like that. And um, you know, the the business value or like the sorry, how do I say that properly? about the business value the um one of the the values of the company is like a bias for action right so like you don't get into analysis paralysis bias for action and so I knew that about the company and so when I was trying to think of an example of that I'm like this is like I'm I'm starting to panic cuz I'm like I don't think I have an

example of like like what am I going to say oh I just made a decision and didn't think about it like that's not what they're asking me right like that would be kind of silly uh and if I did have an example like that. Probably don't say it cuz you're going to look maybe kind of stupid. Um, so like what what do I say? Right? And I'm like, well, hold on. Like, you know, my brain's trying to tune into it. And it's like, okay, like what they're actually asking you for, regardless of the exact words that came out of their mouth and and what I heard is kind of like, can you tell me about a time where you had to, you know, have a bias for action? Right? It's not that you didn't think about it or didn't have any information, but like you had compared to sort of maybe normal operation, you had limited information and you still needed to move quick because of some urgency, some priority.

Okay. Like can I talk about that? So again, trying to like uh like usually I have some scenarios, but if um like sometimes there's a little bit of panic that that sinks in, but uh for those types of questions, a little bit more rare. So based on what I just said, it's like I think the reality is that if you're just more and more prepared and right, that stuff comes more and more naturally to you, then then you will have less anxiety around it. I said in every interview, regardless of what type it is, leading up to it, I have anxiety, right? Why does that happen? Well, I think it's because I don't interview that often. If I if I did, I would have a little bit more reinforcement that like, hey, look, like not getting the job is like not a terrible outcome. Sure, it's not, you know, you're not happy about it, but like you didn't die.

It's not like the worst thing that's ever happened to you was not getting the job. Like, it's okay. And you know what? Like, there are other opportunities that will come up in the future. I have evidence of that because I have done multiple interviews before, right? So if I kept interviewing and did it more regularly, I pro I'm assuming and I don't you know obviously not from my experience yet but I I think that that would improve for me or my anxiety levels leading up to the actual interview go down. Right? It's I have anxiety I believe because it's not something I do often. So that's the the performance anxiety leading up to it. Now if we think about the types of interviews like I was saying lead code I don't do lead code style ever. Ever. The only time I do it is if I have to prep for interviews and I only do it to prep for interviews because that's the only time it's relevant at all in my career.

I don't use anything remotely close to that ever in my in my entire career. So I'm completely out of practice until I need to interview. So if I you know to go back to what this person was asking about like for me it's not going away but if I wanted to improve it what I probably should do is practice some lead code when I don't need to be interviewing. I hate the idea of doing that truly. Like it really really bothers me because there is, you know, not many things I would rather spend less time on than lead code. Um, but if that's if that's a requirement when I'm interviewing, it would be probably more wise of me to spend more time on that when I don't have to be interviewing. Um because I think that then it would be like, hey, you know, you have tons of examples of doing this when it was a low pressure kind of situation.

Um you know, you've done this before. You might not know the question you're going to get, but you've been through the movements a lot, right? So shouldn't be that different. Now, that's not to say it's going to eliminate the anxiety, but I think if you can practice this stuff more, you can practice it in a way like imagine you get a lead code question and like I don't know like if your if your significant other is not going to hate you, like could you sit down with your significant other and like go through a lead code question and try explaining it to them? Uh my my wife would not tolerate that and I don't blame her. But um like that would be even closer to something real. If you have a friend that's a software developer, like could you go bother them to go do that?

I think I would probably have no friends left. Um but maybe that's a strategy to again to try and get it closer to the real thing, in this case the the interview experience and practicing it outside of the real thing. Um, and then on system design, I think it's similar. I do spend from like a a technical perspective, I do spend more time talking about what systems look like, but even, you know, I've I've mentioned this in previous videos, but like I find that sometimes system design interviews can can be a little contrived. Like they can kind of feel like they're just setting you up to trick you, which I feel like is stupid. like what's the what are you trying to accomplish when you're doing that?

But uh I've had you know system design interviews where I I'm walking through it like you know nervous going into it then once we start talking about it um you know interviewers like okay well you what about like how would you handle this scenario or how does your design uh navigate you know this problem and uh so I go to explain it or I go hey you know what like it doesn't like good call here's how I would adjust it and I feel like I can talk through it but that's because again like if we're doing architecture designs and stuff at work and even if I'm not the person designing it, I have to be thinking through this with people on my team, right? Someone's putting together a design for some system like, "Cool. I need to be part of that review process with them. What kind of feedback am I looking to give them?

Am I just like covering my eyes and saying, "Good job. Like, you wrote stuff. Like, let me let me check the box." Like, no. Like, what does security look like here? or like how does this scale like um like all these different things that we have to start talking about depending what the design is. But again, this is where it gets kind of interesting um in terms of experience and coverage because the reality is the systems and stuff that I'm working on at work, they might be completely different than the stuff that I have to go um do in like a an interview setting. Right. So, you know, I have not done a payment s like a distributed system with payments. I've never built that. Could I figure it out? Like, probably. I probably could. Can I, you know, practice that for an interview? Like, yeah, I have to.

I have to be prepared to do that. But the only time that I do that since it's not on the job and it's not what I do as a hobby is when I'm prepping for an interview. So I again you see the pattern, right? Like the only time I'm doing this stuff is prepping and that's not a lot of experience. So I think that's a big contributor to uh to having anxiety around this stuff. So finally getting on the highway here. I'm not going to talk about this for whatever Google says like the next 50 minutes of driving home in this Um, so I will move over a couple lanes and I'll summarize my my thoughts here in general. Um, sorry it's raining. No one can drive when it's raining. Even though it's Seattle, it's dark and it's rush hour. Someone better move over. That's all I have to say cuz I got to get in this fast lane.

Let's go. One more. Oh, you want nice. We did it. Not yet. Not yet. We didn't. Oh, boy. Now we did it. The person in front of me was trying to move into the lane I was in and they decided, and this is, by the way, what you should not do. They decided to stop in the fast lane to move over. That's how you die. And that's how you get someone else killed, too. So, don't do that. Okay. Uh, to summarize my thoughts on this whole thing is like, um, I think every individual is going to be different when it comes to anxiety around this stuff. I think some people test really well. I think some people are much more comfortable doing that kind of stuff. I think there are people that they they you know they don't mind doing lead code, right? I hate it.

I resent it. I don't want to do it. So, I I kind of resist it. Am I happy about that? No. I wish that I didn't mind doing it. I just think that it's stupid. I don't think there's value in it. I think it's stupid. And as a side effect, that bites me in the ass when I want to interview because the whole time, not only not only am I trying to solve this lead code problem, but I'm sitting there going, "This is so dumb. Why am I doing this?" So, it's not helpful, right? Um I acknowledge that as much as I don't like lead code. Uh we have to switch lanes cuz this person's uh literally stupid. Bye. Um on the system design stuff, same idea, right? You might be someone who um based on your experience, you're not really building or like responsible for building systems, distributed systems.

And like that's, you know, that's okay depending on what your job is, but if you have to to interview and you have to answer questions like that, you might be out of practice. So, you're practicing for that kind of stuff. If you're doing it more frequently at work, it's going to be a lot more natural. And uh obviously the same thing with uh behavioral stuff, right? If you're like a team lead or a tech lead, you're probably in a lot more situations where you're like responsible for projects. being able to talk about, you know, how do you work with other teams or like tell me about a time where you had like a conflict with another team. Like that that stuff comes up probably a little bit more frequently for you, which is great. Like you have more experience to draw on, more conversations to like to navigate.

So that's really helpful, but you know, if you don't, you have to practice more and more. And that's kind of the the closing thought that I'm just going to leave people with, which is you already know what I'm going to say, which is like you got to practice this stuff a lot. And I think probably, you know, one of the best ways to prepare for interviews is to to get more interviews. Um, I've heard more people saying this, but like obviously it's really challenging right now, right? Without a doubt. um there's people that are applying for jobs, there's tons of applicants, there's a lot of competition. So, it's way easier to just say this than it is like for it to be reality. But if you can get yourself in a position where you can be interviewing, where you don't like you're not in a position where you have to interview, but you're like, "Hey, this seems like an interesting job.

I would take this opportunity if I got it." If you're in such a position, it's helpful because you get more exposure to the interview process, more practice at it. Um, but I'm not, you know, that's not trivial. I think that's a probably a really difficult thing to do right now. But if you're unable to do that, um, I would say carving out time to practice this stuff, as much as you don't like doing it, like I'm kind of saying this for me too, right? like if I periodically spent some more time doing lead code, uh, as much as I hate it, probably would help my performance anxiety during interviews. So, that's my thoughts on this. I'd be super curious to hear from folks in the comments if you don't mind sharing like what's it like for you? Do you also have anxiety? Um, if you don't, did you do something that like changed that for you?

Um, I'd love to know, but my my thought is that you got to practice it and get more experience doing it to uh to feel more comfortable. So, thank you so much for watching. Again, friendly reminder, questions, leave them in the comments. Otherwise, go to codemute.com. You can submit questions anonymously. Otherwise, I go to Reddit and I try to look for interesting stuff to talk about. Of course, I got other YouTube channels. So, Dev leaders where you can check out my C and programming tutorials where trying to do a little bit more AI focused. so people can see how to build stuff using AI tools. Dev Leader Path to Tech is where I do resume reviews. You can get your resume reviewed for free when you send it in. And the Dev Leader podcast is where I interview other software engineers. And I do a live stream every Monday at 7:00 p.m.

Pacific, usually on topics from Code Commute. So, if you enjoy this channel, you can check out the live stream and we'll pick a topic and go through it. And I hope to see you there. So, thanks so much for watching. I will see you next time.