I recently read an article about interviews from JavaGuide, which was very well written. Here’s the link: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/LgBOVwIAZekevqGMuw_0JA The author summarized it in the Knowledge Planet, and I’m excerpting the summary below:

1. Don’t Wait Until You’re Completely Prepared to Start Interviewing

Start interviewing as soon as you’re about 70-80% prepared. Don’t procrastinate! You can start with non-target companies to practice, identify gaps, and build confidence. Don’t wait until you feel completely ready—it’s not realistic. Even with extensive preparation, you’ll likely encounter questions you can’t answer in interviews, and that’s normal. Six months of preparation isn’t necessarily better than three months. There are diminishing returns to human effort. Short bursts of high-efficiency preparation might be more effective than dragging it out. Taking the first step is hard, but once you do, everything else becomes much smoother.

2. Pay Attention to Your Resume

You must, must, must take your resume seriously. Continuously improve it, especially before submitting applications and after applying to many companies without getting interviews. Reflect on whether there are problems with your resume and ask others to review it. Even after landing a job, periodically refining your resume is a good way to summarize your past work and is well worth doing.

3. Encountering Questions You Can’t Answer in Interviews is Normal

During an interview, if you encounter a question you can’t answer, the first thing to do is quickly review your previous knowledge to see if you can find a breakthrough. If you really have no idea, you can sincerely ask the interviewer for some hints, such as sharing your understanding of the problem and where you’re confused. Don’t feel ashamed about asking for hints from the interviewer. As long as communication is fine, it’s perfectly normal. The worst thing is when you don’t know the answer but ramble on anyway—this makes the interviewer think you have issues with your technical attitude.

4. Take Every Interview Seriously

Treat every interview with seriousness. In this current environment, every opportunity is extremely precious, and many interview opportunities, once missed, won’t come again. Go into each interview in your best state possible. Moreover, you should review each interview afterward—the main purpose of review is to address your weak points, otherwise there’s no point in doing so many interviews.

5. Don’t Dismiss “Interview Questions” and Basic Problems

Never adopt the mindset that interview questions or basic problems are not worth studying. If you approach your review with that attitude, the results won’t be good. I actually think it’s very meaningful. Interview questions and fundamental knowledge are often needed in daily development. For example, thread pool rejection strategies and core parameter configuration—if you don’t understand these, using thread pools in actual projects will be confusing and prone to errors. Moreover, these basic problems are actually the easiest to prepare for. The really difficult ones are various underlying principles, system design, scenario-based questions, and diving deep into your own projects!

6. Organize Your Own Interview Notes

When reviewing interview questions, try to organize your own notes for easy review later and to deepen your understanding. Avoid directly copying long passages in your notes. Instead, focus on key points and organize them according to your own learning habits.

7. Don’t Fantasize About Finding the Perfect Job

“High pay, little work, and enjoying yourself” is almost every worker’s ultimate dream. But does such a job really exist? Maybe, but why would it fall to you? Among “high pay,” “little work,” and “enjoying yourself,” being able to satisfy even one is quite good. High pay usually comes with lots of work, little work usually comes with low pay, and “enjoying yourself” is a very subjective factor—you won’t know until you try, and you can adjust even after you start. It’s like finding a partner; it’s impossible to find someone who’s exactly what you want. That’s unrealistic! You need to learn to make trade-offs and accept imperfection—accept imperfect jobs and accept your imperfect self.

8. Work and Interviewing Don’t Have to Conflict

If you’ve decided to leave your job, prepare well for interviews. If you’re not leaving, take your current work seriously. Also, work and interviewing aren’t absolutely mutually exclusive. As long as you have the thought of leaving, you can find time each day to prepare no matter how busy you are. Take some of the time you spend on TikTok and gaming and use it for interview prep. Plan well—if you have plenty of time each day, compress your preparation timeline; if you have less time, stretch it out.

9. View Interview Failure Correctly

Interview failure is a very normal thing. “Passing an interview doesn’t guarantee an offer, and getting an offer doesn’t guarantee acceptance.” We might fail for all sorts of reasons. But never get discouraged after failing a few times. Summarize after each interview, identify gaps, and as you do more interviews, you’ll naturally improve and pass them.

10. Maintain Politeness and Humility

Interviewing you might not be a pleasant task for the interviewer, and you might not agree with some things they say. Regardless, try to remain polite and humble, demonstrating your character.