How to Prepare for a Technical Interview: The Mental, Confidence, and Stress Dimension
Tags: programming, webdev, interview
Published: 2023-09-30 14:52:00

If you are a software engineer who is looking for a new job, you probably know how challenging and stressful the technical interview process can be. You have to study a lot of topics, and be ready to solve complex problems on the spot. You also have to deal with the pressure of performing well in front of strangers who will judge your skills and personality, This can be very stressfull and axious situation for a candidate, specially if the job offer may can change your life.


## The mental side aka 80% of a technical interview 

many software engineers focus too much on the technical side of the interview preparation and neglect the most important thing: **the mental side.** 🧠 By mental side I do reference at confidence, anxiety, and stress management. These factors can have a huge impact on your performance and memory during the interview. 

<u>_some research done by National Library of Medicine_, </u>
are proving that In fact, research has shown that stress can impair your cognitive abilities, such as attention, reasoning, and problem-solving.
On the other hand, confidence can boost your performance and make you more persuasive and likable.

So we have seen the importance of the Mental and its advantage, the question now is how to improve my Mental side? 🤔 🤔

## PRACTICE, PRACTICE

All is about practice, when you practice, you gain in confidence on ourself, is like learn to talk with strangers, you can spend 80+ hours learning on youtube, reddit, ect how to talk to strangers, but if you don't put that in practice, it useless. 🫠

The same when you are preparing a technical interview, if you spend the most time solve  leetcode problems, and watching YouTube video on how to be ready on the day of the interview, you are on the wrong path!

_the question now, is how to practice to be advantaged the day of the interview?_

## Practice mock interviews with experts in the field

One of the best ways to prepare for a tech interview is to practice mock interviews with experts in the field. Mock interviews are simulated interviews that allow you to experience what a real interview is like and get feedback on your performance. By practicing mock interviews, you can:
 
1. Improve your communication skills and confidence by explaining your solutions and answering questions from interviewers.

2. Improve your stress management skills by exposing yourself to different scenarios and challenges that may arise during an interview.

3. Learn from your mistakes and improve your weaknesses by getting constructive feedback.

4. Gain confidence in your technical and problem-solving abilities

5. Learn the expectations and requirements of tech interviews

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## Help software engineers like me to make difference the day of the interview!

When I understood all these points, I knew, as a software engineer myself,   that I can build a platform that can help candidates to gain their confidence and prepare their mental side for this event.

With the today competition in tech space, all matter. And as I said the mental side is 80% of an interview, because if you are stressed you will forget all you have learned. 😥

I designed the platform to allow you to book mock interviews with engineers from top companies like Google, Amazon, Facebook, and more. You will be able to choose the type of interview you want to practice (e.g., algorithms, system design, front-end), the difficulty level, the language preference, and the time slot. You will also be able to get detailed feedback from your interviewer after each session.

the platform is still in development, but if you are interested in joining the beta testing program or getting notified when it launches. 
there is the beta landing page: https://planetviews.webflow.io

I hope this blog post was helpful for you. If you have any questions or comments, please leave them below or contact me here : touilsafoan@gmail.com 

 Thank you for reading!