I really thought hard about whether or not I wanted to post this. I wasn't sure how I wanted to go about tackling a topic like this. My experience in general was a little hectic and I wanted to try and collect my thought before posting. This has been sitting in my documents draft folder for about 3 weeks now. I decided I might as well tackle this for my writing challenge. I figured if nothing else, maybe you could use it as a learning experience. Hopefully it can also serve as a good discussion topic so that next time I interview, maybe I'll be a more prepared.

Before we get into it, let me provide a little bit of backstory. I am currently employed by Modis Engineering as a data center technician at a Google data center. I have been working there for a year. (my total experience is a year and 3 months, but more on that in a minute).

The first time I worked there, I was only there for 3 months (due to covid) and then it took me about 2 years to get hired back on. While I was there, my job was server maintenance (basically working on hardware components to keep the servers up and running). Before I got hired on with Modis, I had applied to work there 4 times and all 4 times, I didn't even hear back from them. I was starting to get discouraged. I began doubting that I had the skills to make it. Looking back on it now, my skillset was really lacking. I didn't have a computer science degree, or any degree for that matter, and no real work experience in IT. I was about to give up. I had convinced myself that I just wasn't cut out for the job. Then a friend of mine who works there told me to send my resume to a Modis recruiter and that's exactly what I did. I went through my interview with them, and I managed to get job. Well, that's the story, thanks for reading!

SIKE! I worked there for 3 months and that was around the time covid-19 started to really start getting bad in my area. Due to this, Modis had to let us go. I was crushed. I wasn't sure I would ever get to work there again. Fast forward 2 years and I get a call from my old Modis recruiter. They told me that they were going to start hiring again for the data center technician job and wanted to know if I was interested. I told them of course and I went through all of the onboarding and paperwork and I began working at the data center again. While I was working there, a full time position became available and I applied for it. Sadly, I didn't get the job. The good news is, I made it all the way to the end of the interviewing process. I did my 3 back to back interviews (I will refer to them as "The Gauntlet") but, I just wasn't quite what they were looking for at that time.

I had only been working there for about 6 months when I interviewed the first time. I didn't think I would get another chance and again the self doubt and imposter syndrome began to kick in. After another 6 months, a Google recruiter reached out to me and said they had an opening for a position that they thought I might be a good fit for and asked me if I wanted to set up a time to talk to them. I jumped on the opportunity. I did my first initial interview and then they set up my Gauntlet interview.

With the Gauntlet interview, it is three 45 minute interviews back to back with a 15 minute break in between each one. It definitely is the most mentally exhausting part of the interview process. On top of that, my interview got moved twice so I kept stressing about that. I am not the best interview taker. I wind up stressing myself out and worry about it. Especially when it gets closer to time for the interview to take place. This time was no exception. About 2 weeks before the interview, my nerves were on edge and I began to freak out.

I was worrying that I didn't know enough or didn't study enough and it just kept piling on. I crammed in as much studying as I could and just hoped that I would be asked about the stuff I had been studying.

The Day of the Interview:

I had my interview today and ohhh boy....Nerves really got the best of me. I missed several questions that I knew because I was so nervous, it's like my brain wasn't functioning. After the first interview, I was really starting to feel a little defeated. If I had to take a step back and evaluate what went wrong and what didn't, I would say that the worst part of the interview was my nerves. This really hindered me in a big way. Looking back on it though after it happened, I may not have answered every single question but, I at least I was able to answer a few of them. In my opinion, the interview seemed to be less about what I did or didn't know as was more of an exercise to how how I handled situations and how I worked through problems.

So, after a 15 minute break, I had my second interview. I would like to say that it went a little better than the first one but, I would be lying. I tanked the second interview way harder than I did the first. This interview was in a subject area that I am very weak in and, if I had to improve on one thing, it would be this area. It was so bad that I feel like he was about to cut the interview short. He talked to me for maybe 15 minutes and he said "Do you have any questions for me?" I knew I had to jump on this. What better way to improve in a weak area than to ask someone who is good at it. So I asked him if there were any resources or projects that I could work on that would help me grow my knowledge in that area. He mentioned a few things I could do and at one point he mentioned the linux terminal.

I'm no linux guru but, I understand how to use the terminal and navigating the terminal so I brought it up and he made some notes that I knew about linux and that interview came to an end.

The third interview was by far the easiest. Mainly because I am very much a "people person". I have no problem talking to anyone about anything and I tried to stress my love of person to person communication and the importance of that in a digital world. Not much to really say on this part. It was the one part that I actually felt confident on.

In Conclusion:

Overall, it's hard to tell how I really did on this interview. Interviewing for Google is very strange compared to the types of interviews I am used to. I personally think I tanked but, in their eyes, I might have done better (or they also agree I did bad lol). Right now I am just waiting around to hear the verdict and then I will go from there.

If there is any advice I can give you, it's this:

• Don't beat yourself up. You can't always know everything. Try your best and answer what you do know.

• Try and remain calm. This one is easier said than done. What I tried to do today was to put on some of my favorite relaxing music before the interview and do some deep breathing. It helped a little but but, I wound up stressing myself out more once the interview started.

• Be yourself. That's exactly what I did. I was just as genuine as I could be. No point in trying to put on a show. Just be yourself and everything will work out.

• Try and study ahead of time. This one was a little hard for me. I have ADHD and sometimes studying is impossible for me because I can't seem to focus on it. If you have the time, just try and brush up on what you think is your weak areas. I'd even recommend brushing up on the areas your confident in as well just as a refresher.

Time to talk:

So, I have marked this with the "discuss" tag because I am curious: What are some of your interview tips? You have a secret strategy that you use to prepare? What was one of your best interviews? What was one of your worst? Literally the floor is yours. Let's talk all things interviewing.