100 Interviews in 1 Year: Part II — The Interviews.

17 min readJan 8, 2024

In the previous article, I uncovered raw data and statistics taken from 100 interviews that I applied to between the years 2022 and 2023. Now it’s time to talk about the interview process itself.

In the following sections, I will unfold the most interesting parts and patterns I have witnessed, also providing hints on what to look for when you apply for a job yourself. This is going to be a looooong reading, so let’s start!

Introduction

To briefly recap some data from the previous article:

I applied for IT roles in 100 companies.
I received 65 offers.
I failed 16 interviews in the culture fit part.
I failed 8 interviews in the technical part.
The companies were from Czechia (62%), the USA (14%), Germany (12%), and other countries (Netherlands, France, Italy, Sweden, Canada, Denmark).

And some takeaways:

In many cases, the harder the interview, the lower the offer.
32% of companies were evaluated as toxic.
10% of companies could be a great place for innovative and talented people.

Why only 10%? The reasons are twofold:

I didn’t filter out job posts that looked suspicious at first glance. On the contrary, I wanted to explore if my presumptions were correct.
Many people experience something called the “normalization of deviance.” Individuals who have worked for one company for too long may lack a basis for comparison, leading them to tolerate situations and behaviors other people would find toxic and unacceptable — I’ve been there as well in 2013. To this day, I’ve worked for 12+ companies, which provided me with diverse knowledge about certain patterns.

Before you even apply

My students at the university often think that with their degree, they will receive dozens of exclusive offers with a top-notch salary, despite having little to no job experience. Indeed, in 2019, it somehow worked that way — companies massively invested in a workforce they didn’t even need. Now, after so many layoffs, it’s not on the agenda anymore.

It’s a simple equation — you do your job, the company pays you money, hoping that the value of your work will exceed their expenses = profit.

I experimented a lot with my CV (in some cases, I removed half of past jobs and projects to test if there will be differences). Here is what I’d conclude:

5 or more jobs on your resumé will get your foot in most doors.
10 or more jobs will give you a label of a job hopper, and interviewers will challenge this.
Sabbatical doesn’t look very good, as it indicates that you have been out of the industry.
School projects don’t count in most cases. Moreover, even if the role requires a university degree, don’t forget that many founders are university dropouts, having a quite negative attitude towards university education.
Only 16% of companies looked for further information (my webpage, YouTube channel, GitHub account). Therefore, it’s important to highlight your accomplishments explicitly.

Before you even apply for an interview, there is one thing that should become the #1 priority: make it crystal clear that you know who you are, what you want, and what you would like to achieve.

Why should the company hire you? How are you going to make them money? What is your approach, mission, vision, long-term goals? What is your superpower? What motivates you? Who inspires you?

Once you make this clear, it’s a lot easier to filter out companies that will not match your profile. Are you interested in innovation? Don’t go to corporates. Are you people-centric, customer-centric, project-centric? Do you prefer hierarchical or meritocratic structures? Do you want to grow together with the company, or do you want to grow your portfolio?

The more clarity you have, the more convincing you will appear. If you look for a 9–5 job with minimum responsibility, it’s fine, but don’t look for companies that put the word „delivery“ five times in their job posts. If you are a delivery-obsessed manager with fear-based managerial practices, it’s your karma, but don’t apply for jobs that resonate with servant-leadership or employee experience.

Job Application:

In IT companies, the interview process usually consists of these parts:

HR Round — introduction of the candidate, the company, the role, and salary expectations.
Tech Round — testing your technical knowledge and problem-solving skills.
Social Part — includes culture-fit and soft skill aspects, testing your personality and attitude. Sometimes it’s part of the HR round or the final interview.
Final Interview — discussing the offer, technicalities, and starting date.

Every job has a list of requirements, responsibilities, and a dedicated budget (approved long before the job was opened).

Is it possible to detect a toxic company only from the job post? According to my research, yes, but not always. For instance, if the post contains unrealistic expectations, it sometimes means that the department originally had good intentions in hiring a small team that would help with scaling and innovation, but the board only gave them a budget for one role.

It can be used as a good indicator that something is not right, though.

Example 1: Customer-obsessive company

Here is an example of a customer-obsessive company that was looking for a superhero with an over-boosted LinkedIn profile, excellent communication skills, and (as I later found out), resourceful political language.

Example 2: Fast-paced friendly company

Here is another example — a small and fast-paced yet very friendly company that was looking for a front-end developer. The description is short and well-outlined but doesn’t say much about the environment because it doesn’t need to — this is for the candidate to discover during the interview process.

Another takeaway is this: job requirements are more like a wishlist. If you think you can LEARN the job, you should apply anyway. Very often, I made it to the final interview even when I only fulfilled less than 30% of the requirements.

HR Round

In 16% of companies, the HR round was skipped — there was either no HR at all (and the interview was conducted by one of the founders) or, in worse cases, it was skipped on purpose. Three companies were in such a hurry to find a new tech lead that they went straight to the technical part. As I presumed, they didn’t care about my background or personality; they only cared about how fast I could lead a team of five to meet a tight deadline.

As for the companies where the HR round did take place, there is one takeaway I would like to highlight — it’s very important to do your homework. I did mine, and it helped me a lot to get one foot into the door. I checked their webpage, Facebook page, LinkedIn profile, I even checked the managers’ LinkedIn recent posts to figure out their attitude and personalities, so that I could execute the right strategy.

Here are some questions that helped me a lot to reveal the intentions and culture of the company:

Is it a replacement or a new role?

If it’s a replacement, what happened to the previous person? This question is very important to ask because if the person left due to personal conflicts, the companies may not be always honest with you. I figured that out when I searched for those people on LinkedIn and asked them this question myself.

Company values

Company values are very powerful if they are cherished properly. They give you a guideline on how aligned your expectations are; they are also enforceable if someone violates them. In my former job, we had transparency among our values, which had to be taken out after the acquisition since it became impractical to embrace it due to the vices of the new management.

Calendar

My favorite question — if I come to the office on Monday morning and open my calendar, what will I find? This initiates a fruitful discussion about respective responsibilities and expectations of the role.

One Thing You Would Change

Tell me one thing you would change about this company. It’s plain and simple, yet very powerful, as it uncovers a lot of details about the culture of transparency and the interviewer’s honesty.

I also ask about things like performance reviews, pulse surveys, favorite emojis, knowledge-sharing opportunities, opportunities for education and career development, birthday wishes, work anniversary, and many others — it all helps me get a bigger picture of how the company communicates, and how its people can learn and enjoy themselves.

Social Part

In this part of the interview process, the company would like to have these questions answered:

Is the candidate able to communicate with the stakeholders and within the team?
Is the candidate qualified for the role?
Does the candidate possess the required attitude and personality?
Will the candidate fit with the team culture?
Is the candidate mentally sane and won’t pose any security threat?

Every company I’ve visited had its own unique ways of conducting this interview. At startups, this usually took the form of an informal conversation about various topics, both work-related and unrelated. In bigger companies, however, it sometimes involved uncomfortable questions, sometimes even interrogation practices.

I have witnessed three main methods of asking questions:

SWOT method

Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats
Conducted in 7% of interviews
Example: Tell me three things you would improve about yourself.

STAR method

Situation, Task, Action, Result — behavior-provoking questions
Conducted in 15% of interviews
Example: Describe a situation when you had to take over a complex project and how did it go?

Hypothetical questions

Conducted in 13% of interviews
Example: What would you do if your manager told you that your vacation needs to be canceled due to an unexpected priority change?

I can honestly say that I didn’t like any of them. The SWOT method forces you to give away your weak points, the STAR method is past-focused and forces you to fit your responses into the framework in an unnatural way, and hypothetical questions indicate a dishonest environment. Moreover, hypothetical questions bring no value because people always gravitate towards the answer that would paint them in a better light — “What would you do…” always translates to “What do you think would be the right way to do…”.

This record demonstrates the absurdity of hypothetical questions:

And this is the part where I failed the interview:

Later on, I discovered that the answer they were looking for included a set of facilitation steps that would aim to establish trust and resolve the conflict with a person who doesn’t get along with me.

Of course! We all know what the right thing is, but is it worth the mental energy? Some questions are crafted in such a way that, in order to pass, you need to start playing their game. Which, to me, is not right.

So, how to get the right answers while keeping the candidate comfortable? To me, it’s when the interviewer prepares a list of outputs they need to collect, initiates a spontaneous discussion, and skillfully steers the dialogue in a way to get the desired outputs. Alternatively, they can use a donkey bridge, but never ask the questions from a list, like: “Tell me when you had to… blah blah.” Candidates want enjoyable discussions, not interrogation!

Disabilities

I did a few tests — in three interviews, I simply pretended that I had a mental illness — ADHD, schizophrenia, and auditory processing disorder. Surprisingly, I failed all three interviews, and the companies were very careful in wording the rejection email in such a way that there would be no relevance to what I admitted. Two companies staged absurdly difficult technical rounds, and the third one canceled the role due to unexpected budget cuts.

There is more — in January, I dislocated my knee, so I had to use crutches for three months. Even though a damaged knee doesn’t affect the ability to work on the PC at all, in almost every company, I was asked whether or not the damage was permanent. I suspect that this is linked to some kind of subconscious layer upon which people evaluate one another.

In conclusion, I would suggest that if you have any special needs that will require certain adjustments from the company, don’t mention them until your probation period is over, if you can hide it until afterward.

Survival is a nasty piece of business.

Psychological Techniques

Psychological tricks and interrogation practices are easy to detect, as they are typically executed by people who lack sufficient training.

Here are a few techniques I’ve witnessed during the interviews:

Fishing

This technique is used when the interviewer wants you to reveal potentially incriminating facts during a spontaneous conversation. They first establish trust by telling you some unimportant but private facts from their lives, expecting that you will reciprocate and possibly say something you would otherwise keep for yourself.
Example: “Yeah, I used to sell weed to my friends, hence my criminal record, but, you know… everyone has done a few missteps, right? … [waiting for approval/denial].”

Plurium Interrogationum

It’s a technique that manipulates the conversation by framing assumptions in the form of a question. It tests the interviewee’s emotional stability and conflict-solving skills.
Example: “Well, I would say that you are not that great team player as you say. What do you think of that?”

Mutt & Jeff technique

Also known as “A good cop and the bad cop,” a fear-and-relieve interrogation technique developed in the 1950s under the assumption that a sudden switch from positive to negative emotion affects the suspect’s critical thinking. However, this practice found its way into job interviews probably from reality TV shows where it’s present just because it adds to the drama. One person in the room encourages you with a friendly attitude, while the other constantly denies and challenges everything you say.
Companies use it to make the interview more entertaining, but it only stresses the candidate, and provides no value. I have seen this in eight companies, usually during a round-table interview.

Technical Part

Every company had quite unique ways of conducting this part — algorithms, short tasks, show-me-your-past-projects approach, homework, actual product tasks.

The biggest issue to me is homeworks (38% of companies gave me one). Homeworks are expensive. They rob you of your time, as well as the reviewers’. My question is: “Why should I bother with homework that would take me 8 hours when I can get similar offers from X other companies that don’t require any of this?”

I believe that the best way to test a candidate’s technical skills is to give them a real yet simple task on the product the company is developing. It helps the candidate understand how the product and the whole delivery pipeline work, and how the team cooperates. Six companies gave me this opportunity, and I’d definitely recommend it.

Salary Negotiation

You will never get what you deserve. You will only get what you negotiate. In almost all cases, I was asked about my salary expectations during the first interview, but the real negotiation started during the final part.

During the HR round, you have the right to ask for a budget first and set your expectations accordingly. My common strategy is to go slightly below the upper boundary because this will filter out all ambitious can-do-it-all individuals who always go for the highest option. Also, it will give you a platform for maneuvering in a later stage.

The prevalent patterns in the negotiation part are somewhat connected to the country of origin. My assumption is that it’s related to the business culture (and history) of the country. In some countries, you lay down your expectations, and the company either accepts it or offers you a slightly different value (or a raise to the expected value after a few months). In other countries, namely the Netherlands, this part is quite sophisticated — sometimes the meeting was explicitly labeled “salary negotiation,” and I was expected to provide strong arguments to support my request.

A successful negotiation should be bittersweet, where each side makes a few concessions:

If your request is smoothly accepted, it means that you should have asked for more.
If your request is accepted but the manager walks out dissatisfied, they will give you a hard time in your effort trying to meet their expectations later on.
If your request is accepted but leaves both sides with mixed feelings, it indicates that a good compromise has been reached.

Oddly enough, I received 65 offers, and there wasn’t any prevalent correlation between the job difficulty and the offered salary. A few times, even a front-end engineer job offer was higher than a tech lead offer.

Red Flags

If there is a red flag, it doesn’t instantly mean that the company is the worst place in the universe. The examples written below should only serve as a guideline for what you should look for and what conclusion you can make of it.

Bad Glassdoor Reviews

That’s something that comes to everyone’s mind, yet there is a catch— I actually worked in a company that got a few very bad reviews, yet most of them were from a marketing department due to the CMO being a poorly educated woman with a power-centric mentality; the engineering department operated under entirely different conditions.
While scanning the Glassdoor reviews, focus primarily on the department you will be working (if it’s a big company).

Parking Place

When I’m going on an interview in person, I always look at the parking place, if there is any, and the cars that are there. The reason is obvious. At one company, there were five parking spots, three of which were only for C-levels, and two were reserved for clients, leaving no spots for other employees.

Missing ABOUT US section on Web

If the company’s website states what they do but not who they are, or worse, it only shows a few paragraphs about the founders, it indicates a certain detachment from the people who work within the company.

Bad Recruiter

Recruiters reflect how the company is viewed by the community. Yes, I have seen bad recruiters in an otherwise great company, as well as very good and passionate recruiters in a toxic company. In startups, however, there is no excuse for doing a poor HR job.
Some recruiters read me a list of questions just because they had it on a paper someone else gave them. Other recruiters had poker-face the whole time I was interacting with them, which negatively affected my judgment.

HR is Managed by an External Agency

If there is no in-house recruitment team, the company shows no interest in leveraging company culture and community, which can be typically seen in resource-driven corporates.

Bro Culture

For people in their mid-20s who just graduated from school, it’s actually very good to be part of a culture that holds parties twice a month or goes outside for a drink every week. Yet, some cultures elevated it to a level when, in order to fit in, you will be required to do a lot of things in your free time.
It’s important to make it clear if these expectations match your lifestyle.

No Emoji Culture

Conway’s Law says that the structure of each software is a copy of the organization’s communication structure. I have seen companies that still use email as the primary tool of communication, which was clearly evident in the communication chaos that prevailed during meetings.
Emoji culture provided by tools like Discord and Slack is very important for leveraging communities within the company. It’s not enough for a transparent and clear communication, though it’s a good start.

No Budget for Education

No budget for education means that you will be either expected to learn new things in your free time or that you will not learn at all, and the company will get stuck in obsolete technologies.
Been there, done that. Done that. Done that.

Phone Calls

Phone calls are a practice of atrocious companies that still live in the 2000s. I know it’s the fastest way for recruiters to get the information they need, but it also indicates a lack of consideration for your time and privacy. Some recruiters called me up to three times a day because they forgot to ask about something earlier.
Also, an unexpected phone call, where the candidate is asked about past experience and salary expectations, will put them in a strategically unequal position because they will not have the chance to prepare themselves.
Meetings are the best option: they ask for my availability, I propose a time, they schedule a meeting, send me the agenda, and I have enough time for preparation.

Many People with “Had a Long Day” Syndrome

When you go to a company for an interview, keep in mind that the people you meet there will indicate the trajectory of your future journey. You can ask yourself a question: “Could this be me after a few years?” Is it a pleasant thought or not?

Many people with “Had the Best Day” Syndrome

Also known as “Good Vibes Only,” where happiness is the center of your identity. Yes, it’s great to be surrounded by positive people, but there is a sharp contrast between natural positivity and toxic positivity. I’ve seen this in a few startups, where everyone was smiling, but their eyes spoke otherwise. This left me with the feeling that I can’t simply afford to come to the office when I have a bad day. I love positive people, don’t take me wrong, but when it’s forced, you will know that something is just not right.

Do’s and Don’ts:

Lastly, let’s outline some remaining hints and recommendations:

If it’s not in the email, it never happened.

If you have an agreement (for instance, you would get a raise after 3 months), it has to be written in an email. I have witnessed several cases when the company tried to challenge it.

This is a good example of what the offer should look like.

Try not to talk about your weak points and failures.

SWOT questions try to unfold your weak points, but there is always a way to adjust the answer to your benefit. Keep in mind that everything you say will either increase or decrease your chance of success, and talking about your weak points may cut you off from your chance of succeeding.

Never say that money is your motivation, even if it is.

As I investigated, companies don’t want to hear this. Instead of talking about financial freedom, passive income, and a happy life for your kids, you will have a better chance when your arguments are connected to the company’s mission. For instance, “I want to help your teams become successful.”

Never tell the salary you had in your previous job.

If you answer this question, you will provide the interviewer with an argument that may work against you.
A job interview is about the future, not the past. You should be talking about your current value, current expectations, and current skills (gained from past experience).

Talk about your past responsibilities, not past titles.

Mostly it’s better to talk about your responsibility in your past companies, not the title the companies gave you.
I’ve worked in a corporate company where promotions took place only once a year. Therefore, some people who got the opportunity to take over a whole team, becoming team leads, had to wait up to one year to be officially promoted.

Final Thoughts

The business world is not black and white — there are no good or bad companies. What matters most is finding a company that aligns with your values and preferences. Even toxic environments, where employees are made accountable for their LinkedIn posts and public opinions, can become a welcoming space for certain individuals.

And so, regardless of what you take into consideration while deciding on your next journey, always stay true to yourself, and never forget who you are, and what you want to become. Trust in yourself and your instincts.