realized i've been preparing for interviews completely backwards

spent weeks grinding leetcode and system design questions, then completely blanked when the interviewer asked me to walk through a project on my own resume. the one thing i could've actually predicted.

i've been job hunting for about 3 months now and had maybe 8-9 interviews. every time i prep, i do the same thing — leetcode, mock technical screens, maybe reread some system design stuff. then i get into the actual interview and realize like 40% of it is just them asking about things i literally wrote on my resume.

"tell me about this API you built" "what was your role in this migration project" "walk me through how you handled X situation"

and i fumble through it every time because i haven't looked at some of these projects in months and i'm trying to remember details on the spot. meanwhile i could recite the optimal solution to two sum in my sleep.

the weirdest part is these are the most predictable questions in any interview. they're literally asking about a document i control. but i never once sat down and actually rehearsed talking about my own experience out loud.

ended up finding this tool called nxtinterview that generates questions based on your actual resume and lets you practice answering them. not affiliated with them or anything, just been using it the past couple weeks. feels obvious in hindsight but it's helped me actually sound coherent when someone asks about my background instead of just winging it.

anyway if you're prepping right now, maybe don't skip the most guaranteed part of the interview like i did.

the resume-based stuff is free to try if anyone else has been making the same mistake — nxtinterview.com