Vulnerability and Interviewing
Written by: Kriti Bhatia
Kriti Bhatia
Product Manager at Engage3 | Director of Product at WiD
I graduated from college three and a half years ago, and since then I have worked for four different companies. It might seem like a lot, but I believe this has been instrumental to my growth.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying everyone should quit their jobs every year and go explore. I realize I was fortunate enough to have the support system to make these decisions. This is the path that worked for me personally, and ultimately, I landed the job I wanted.
I spent five to six months interviewing with every company I could and spoke with as many people as possible. When I say every company I could, I mean literally every major tech company in the Bay Area. This helped me truly find a good culture fit, the right role, and an environment I could grow in. Here are my top three tips to help you in your own interviewing process, after my own arduous period.
A lot of people will advise you to have a structure in your day and have calculated moves, i.e. send X amount of cold emails on a daily basis or read XYZ and ABC book on interviewing. None of these truly helped; every day was different. It was difficult to add structure when opportunities to interview would pop up. This required me to innately determine what I needed for my mental and physical health. Some days I would wake up, go to the gym, and cook. Others, I’d stay in bed and cuddle with my dog because I felt drained from rounds of interviews the day before. This leads me to the biggest advice I can offer, which may sound cliché, listen to how your body and mind react in and after an interview. If you felt detached and as if you were just moving through the motions, that’s a signal you need to be listening to.
Looking back at my experience, there were opportunities that I deep down knew weren’t right for me, and am glad I didn’t just say “yes” to. When you are unemployed for a while and start having negative thoughts, you can drive yourself crazy. It can be hard to be aware and present. To battle this, I would write my takeaways, thoughts, and emotions in a journal right after the interview and look back at this when I needed to. This allowed me to process my emotions, and I highly recommend doing so.
Knowing that I had strength for networking was helpful, and I leaned into this skill. I networked the most I ever have had and realized the importance of quality over quantity. It doesn’t matter if you have 1000 connections on LinkedIn. Quality means you have people who can give you honest feedback and people who are in the same role, industry, and company you envision yourself at. Take out time to have conversations of value and truly connect with people, not for the sole purpose of getting a job, but for creating a support system for your career that is reciprocal.
I hope this gives you new insights into interviewing. I have always surrounded myself with friends and mentors who provide valuable advice and I hope to return the favour. It’s worth it to embrace change and uncertainty in order to build the career you want. Feel free to reach out and share your interviewing experiences! Happy job hunting!