I recently (in August 2025) switched roles: I went from a Staff Engineer role at the Economist to a Senior Engineer role at Octopus Energy. I had a lot of different interviews - so many in fact that I lost count and stopped keeping track. I was looking over the notes I kept for the interviews as preparation for this article and there were companies in there I had clean forgotten about applying for. All that to say that it can take a lot of interviews before you find a job that is the right fit. Interviewing is hard work and can be demoralising at times, so I wanted to write down what worked for me to give you some things to consider if you are also looking. I ended up in a job I really love and I hope you will too - wishing you so much luck in your search!

I want to add a caveat to this article: I was looking for a job from a position of safety. I still had a job and I was looking for the next step in my career. This advice is very much written from that perspective and may not work so well if you have been made redundant (sadly way too common these days) or are otherwise looking from a position that is less secure.

Just… start

It can be easy to put things off and talk yourself out of submitting your CV because you don’t feel suitably prepared or you want to do it “when the timing is better”. Spoiler alert: I never felt suitably prepared and I never felt like the timing was good. That time may never come, so sometimes you have to just jump in at the deep end and go for it. Remember the old saying: “done is better than perfect” and simply have a go.

You will probably need a few practice runs because interviewing is a skill in itself and if you’ve had a few years off from it, you may be rusty. I have heard of people who do an interview every six months even if they’re happily employed just to keep those skills ticking over and I can see why. I found my first few interviews tough - I would stumble over my words or say things that I thought didn’t show me in the best light because I was nervous - and getting practice really helps with that.

I found reflecting on how the interview went and writing some brief notes on what went well and what I could do better next time (like a little interview retro I guess?) was really useful for me.

Keep your application interesting

In this time of AI slop, I think it’s key to keep your CV and cover letter unique and interesting to make you stand out from the crowd. This approach certainly worked for me, though your mileage may vary if you are applying for an extremely competitive role, as recruiters may be using AI to filter your CV for the initial stages and I have been told that “pretty” CVs don’t work so well for this. Saying that, my CV is purple (my favourite colour), has my picture on it and is written in my unique style so it immediately gives recruiters an idea of what I am like as a person and whether I will be a good fit for their organisation.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t use AI for your CV or cover letter at all - I used ChatGPT to help me a little bit, because I found it so hard to make what I did in each role sound as interesting, varied and impressive as it was. Basically, I find talking about myself enthusiastically really difficult and AI is brilliant at it so I took advantage of that. Just make sure you reword whatever it spits out so that it sounds like you and remove anything ridiculous (because there will always be something ridiculous).

Make sure to mention any applicable extra-curriculars - if you go to meetups or conferences in your local town or city, mention it! If you have created your own tech setup to monitor your houseplants, don’t leave it off - I feel like that’s the kind of thing companies love to hear about. I mentioned the fact that I write a technology blog, I have AWS certifications and the fact that I am an active member of the Birmingham tech meetup scene on mine - I don’t know for sure whether it helped, but I feel like it might have given me a slight edge over other folks who don’t have those things.

Be authentic

Sort of related to the last point, be authentic. Not just in your CV, but throughout the process. Pretending to be someone you’re not is going to land you a job that is a terrible fit for you and for the company. Of course, we’ve all been in situations where we’ve had to take a job that was less than ideal because we needed the money, so no shade to you if you’ve had to be inauthentic in interviews because you were about to be made redundant or were otherwise struggling. I have definitely been there.

If you’re able to though, be your beautiful and unique self and find a company that appreciates not just what you can bring to the table technically, but also personality and soft skills wise. It will mean you’ll stick around longer and get more out of the job in the long term. Looking for work is difficult and almost like another job on top of your day-to-day, so ideally you don’t want to be looking again in six months or a year.

I wear who I am on my sleeve - I wear bright colours, have brightly coloured hair and many piercings and to be honest, find it difficult not to be myself even in interviews. While some may see that as a down side - I don’t look “professional” and if I feel strongly about something I will talk about it - I see it as yet another filter that helps me find companies where people like me belong. In my application for Octopus, I even mentioned my penchant for pink and purple and the fact that the octopus is my favourite animal, so being open and honest about your preferences can find you a job you love.

Don’t just go for the money (if you can)

I interviewed for jobs that offered a lot more money than what I was on previously and I interviewed for jobs that required a pay cut. I think it’s worth chatting with folks who can’t afford to increase your salary because you might just find your next dream role. I’m a firm believer in “money isn’t everything”, though I appreciate that I am in a privileged position and obviously, this is going to be personal for you. Perhaps you need more money because you have a family and supporting them in this time of financial chaos is just too hard. I completely get that and if so, ignore this bit of advice!

However, if you have the ability to take a paycut for a job that has an amazing culture and is a fantastic fit for you as a person, I would recommend it. I took a significant paycut in a previous role to get out of a situation that made me very unhappy and it was worth every single penny I lost. At the very least, higher pay isn’t necessarily an indicator of a good company - it can mean they value their employees or it can be an excuse for treating employees poorly. It’s worth bearing in mind that you spend 7-8 hours with your colleagues at work and in my opinion, there is no point sitting on a pile of money and being utterly miserable.

Do your prep

This one is obvious, but I found the interviews that went the best were the ones where I was able to sit for half an hour to an hour, ideally after work the day before, and write out my thoughts, questions and other interview prep beforehand. If the recruiter gives you ideas for what topics are coming up in your interviews, refresh your memory on those topics and make sure you understand them well enough to talk about them with confidence. I found it useful to write blog posts (my posts on hoisting and closures came out of this!), because I find I learn best about topics if I can digest them and teach them to someone else. Everyone has their own unique learning style though so use what you know about yourself - if you learn best by watching videos, do that and if you learn best by building something, do that.

I feel like I should mention the dreaded Data Structures and Algorithms test at this point. Some companies will want you to solve DSA problems that can be tricky enough to solve on your own in non-interview conditions, but become so much harder when you’re being watched on a call or have a timer ticking down in your face. So if you want to do these kinds of interviews, you will need to practice. Advent of Code is about to start and this is a brilliant vehicle for practicing these kinds of tricky problems. I used Structy to practice DSA for a while, though I must admit that I soon realised that I hate these kinds of problems and I would bow out of interview processes as soon as companies mentioned that they wanted me to do them, which brings me on to my next point.

Decide what you want (and don’t want)

It’s a really good idea to have a strong set of rules for what you will and won’t accept. Again, I appreciate that I was in a privileged position, because I still had a job and was in no rush to find somewhere new, so this may not apply as strongly to you if you are not. However, I would still make yourself a list of the kinds of things you want and don’t want as guardrails.

I’m not just talking about technical skills here, though that is part of it - if you are willing (or keen!) to learn a new language, framework or platform you haven’t used before, it’s good to be upfront about that. For me it mostly came down to culture and the kind of role I wanted to do. I knew I wanted a more hands-on coding role and I was feeling the pull back to the front end too. I knew that I wanted a strong mentoring element or the ability to do talks, because I love teaching, so I was looking for a culture that would support that.

Just as important is deciding what you don’t want. I knew that I didn’t want a culture that prized technical skills over the humans who provide them and the interview process often gave me a really good insight into that. I also wanted a company that valued their employees as individuals and I did not feel like Data Structures and Algorithms tests or contrived technical problems with giant red timers were conducive to that. So after a while, I pretty quickly said “no” to interview processes that required such stressful tasks.

Obviously this is deeply personal and some people might not mind (or even quite enjoy!) solving these puzzles under pressure, so it is completely about deciding what you are okay with (and not okay with). I found that it saved me a lot of time interviewing with companies that wouldn’t have been a good fit though and given that I was doing this whole process around my day job, that was invaluable.

Interview them

If you take nothing else away from this article, I want you to remember that it’s your job to interview them as well as letting them interview you. I know it’s tempting to think that you have to do your best to impress your interviewers, but ideally they need to do the same for you. Again, you may not have that luxury if you are in a position of peril so do ignore if so.

This is deeply related to the previous section in that, once you know what you want/don’t want, you can start thinking about what questions to ask your interviewers. I asked a lot of questions about culture because that is what I was interested in. Try not to be scared of asking slightly probing questions too - I know it’s intimidating, but this is your next role and this can be a very quick way to find out what makes the company tick. To give you an example, I have asked folks “have you ever had any rounds of redundancies and if so, how were they handled?” because it was important to me to know. The best interviewers had absolutely no problem being honest about this.

If you need inspiration for some questions to ask, here are a few of mine:

What is your favourite thing about working at [insert company name here]? - you will soon be able to tell whether people are loving their jobs or just riding it out until the next one comes along and that will give you a feel for what things are like at the company
How do you make sure your engineers feel safe? - psychological safety is of utmost importance to me and this one shows me whether it’s on a company’s radar and how they feel about it
What opportunities do you provide for personal growth? - no-one wants to be in a role where learning is deprioritised and I really wanted a role where learning was actively supported
How do you use AI at [insert company name here]? - a company’s policy on AI can tell you a lot about their culture in general
How is tech debt handled at [insert company name here]? - again, how a company handles tech debt tells you a lot about their culture in general; do they actively address it or is it just put on a backlog never to be looked at again?

I’m not saying they’re perfect and obviously these are highly personal to what I was looking for in my next role, but they might give you some inspiration for your own set of questions. I would also say, don’t just have the same list of questions for each company - they should be tailored for each role if you can. I found that I had a standard list of four or five questions I’d ask everyone and then I’d add in other, more custom questions too. It shows that you’re paying attention to the company and interested in what they’re up to.

If you have any favourite interview questions, I’d love to hear about them! Drop a comment with your suggestions

Don’t be afraid to say no

Related to the previous point, do not be afraid to pull out of an interview process for any reason whatsoever. This may only apply to people pleasers like me, but I still think it’s worth saying: you are not obliged to go through to the next stage just because you passed the previous one. If the vibes are off, if you are too exhausted from doing too many interviews at once or you plain aren’t interested in the role any more, you are allowed to bow out and that does not incur a black mark on your record or anything like that. In fact, I bet companies would rather know up front that you’re not interested, because interviewing is hard work for them too. Just be honest about no longer being interested (though maybe don’t tell them “the vibes were off”! you can use a more tactful excuse) and move on.

Take care of yourself

Interviewing is hard work and if you are currently still in a job, it will add extra strain and can almost feel like a whole other job in itself. Interviews often come in clumps and it’s easy to overbook yourself - I had this happen a few times and had to withdraw from otherwise promising-seeming interview processes because I had too much on and couldn’t cope. I was already pretty exhausted from my day job and adding interviews into the mix made me almost burn out a few times. So yes, be careful.

If you have any kind of self-care regime, make sure you stick to it. I am terrible at this by the way, so I am one to talk, but I feel like if I’d have continued to meditate, go for walks, eat well and all the other things I normally do to take care of my mind and body, things would have definitely been easier for me. It’s worth devoting some thinking time before you start in earnest to how you can best support yourself while you are going through this stressful period in life - after all, they do say changing jobs is one of the most stressful things you can do!

Tools I used to help me

Here are some tools I used while I was looking that might help you too.

https://www.linkedin.com/

Much as we might love to hate this social media platform it’s a necessary evil in the world of recruitment - most companies will put their job adverts up here and it is how I found and applied for my last three jobs. It’s a good idea to follow and put yourself down as being interested in working with companies that sound good to you, because it will make LinkedIn send you notifications about any new job listings they have. I’m not quite sure which setting did it, so I guess it’s best to try both if there’s a company you particularly like the look of.

I found searching on LinkedIn a bit of a nightmare because engineering jobs can be called so many things, so I saved searches for “front end developer”, “senior engineer”, “staff engineer”, “senior software engineer” and so on and so forth. It might be an obvious one but I thought I’d point it out just in case.

Welcome to the Jungle

https://app.welcometothejungle.com/

Not many folks have heard of this app, but I found it invaluable for finding technology jobs. Welcome to the Jungle used to be called Otta and is a tech-focused recruitment portal. You can really narrow down your search using some interesting preferences, even down to whether the company is female-owned or not. This one is particularly useful if you are looking for remote work or work based in a large city like London because it won’t let you narrow searches down to smaller cities, unfortunately. That was the only down side for me as I was ideally looking for something with a local (to me) office, but things worked out in the end as I got a remote role that I’m very happy with.

Structy

https://www.structy.net/

If you are going to be doing any data structures and algorithms interviews, I would recommend looking at Structy for brushing up on your technique. It has a generous free tier and you can optionally purchase a subscription to get access to more. You can choose JavaScript, Python, C++ or Java as your language of choice and course instructor, Alvin Zablan, is very good at explaining things in a simple, easy to understand way should you need that. I got this course pretty cheap in a Black Friday sale, but it doesn’t look like Alvin has reduced the cost of his course for Black Friday this year. Worth signing up for the free course and seeing if he does a sale at some other time though I guess!

Advent of code

https://adventofcode.com/

As mentioned above, this is a brilliant (and fun!) way to brush up your coding skills. If you feel like you need to get better at solving interview-style problems, I’d highly recommend giving this a go. Fair warning though: some of the problems are infuriating and will keep gnawing at you if you’re anything like me. Advent of Code 2025 is about to start as I’m writing this, but there’s nothing stopping you going back to previous years and trying those puzzles if you are reading this from the future.