I always beat the technical interview but never get the job. Why?

When we interview, we only look for two things: technical chops, and personality. If you're sure you're acing the technical parts, I'm assuming they do not like your personality.

Resumes only matter for getting an interview in the first place.

There's a duplicate and longer submission with more details here:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32115206

The submission I'm replying to seems to be the one that's picked up traction.

@nblasted: please don't make dupliate submissions. You have about 2 hours to make edits, that window seems to have passed.

Are you sure you beat the interview?

You may have got the reasons correct. Why not ask them, it won't hurt and they may not tell the whole truth if they even respond to you.

They may just be crappy companies you're happier off without too.

I hate to break it to you, but you didn't beat the tech interviews. If you had you would have gotten an offer.

Hard to say from the outside. None of what you said is a dealbreaker for me. (But a lot of people raise an eyebrow at gaps in the résumé). What are your languages by the way? A lot of us are hiring ;-)

I interviewed a guy once who was technically amazing. Successfully answered all technical questions, had certs, great resume. Within 15 minutes I knew I didn’t want to work with him. He was abrasive, demeaning (to his ex colleagues), blamey, short tempered. The interview panel was unanimous. Great technical chops, impossible personality. I think someone actually brought up the no asshole rule.

I know nothing of your personality so I’m certainly NOT calling you an asshome, but a large part of the interview is not the technical questions.

On the flip side, I’ve got a friend who successfully interviewed for a job he was under qualified for (at a FAANG company). I knew before he interviewed that he’d get the job because he’s the sort of guy I’d trust with a million dollar budget a new technology and an untrained team. You can just tell he’ll figure it out and come out on top. He told me his job in the interview was to make the interviewer like him within 5 min. Pretty solid advice.

Focus a bit on first impressions, the people part and make deliberate efforts to present as the kind of person they want to work with.

It is hard to have a valuable answer for you without knowing more information like:

What do you mean when you say “beat the tech interview”?

to what jobs did you applied? What were they asking specifically?

What kind of questions were you asked and how did you replied to them?

Ask for their feedback. In the meantime, treat the variables for your rejection as "Unknown unknowns". You don't even know what you don't know.

To find out, work on an interesting project. Build something that involves the whole tech stack you are targeting. You will actually find a lot of gaps in your knowledge. The idea should be something that you care about... that will keep you interested in seeing the final outcome if it is a large project.

You have to showcase your ability to work on large sophisticated projects and the confidence that you can get them done.

"Be So Good They Can't Ignore You".

May I please know what kind of technical interviews you've had? Have you tried sending a friendly email and asking the interviewers for reasons? Do they have issues with your style of solving the problems? Like, do you hole up and do it all by yourself or do you walk them through and ask clarifying questions along the way?

Even if the manager likes you, HR might gatekeep due to employment not being a perfect track record. Maybe sending HR an email thanking them for their help along your journey so far and asking why you didn't make the final cut may also give you some insight.

The key is called Emotional Intelligence. That book is one of the best about that topic: https://www.amazon.com/Emotional-Intelligence-Matter-More-Th...

why not ask the folks when they pass on you? completing the technical portion doesn’t mean you should expect an offer.

if simply asking them wasn’t obvious or seems too difficult or awkward, then that may be indicative of the problem.

Most probably they didn't like you dude.

asking for more $ than their budget probably... they will never admit it though.

maybe you have asked some questions twice?

Is it because I have a silly moustache?

Maybe you're weeded out by weed

background check? :)