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Mindful Job Search: Myths and Psychology of Interviewing

Summary

This episode continues the discussion on conducting a mindful job search, building on a previous episode. The host, Jonathan, emphasizes the importance of staying open to interviewing opportunities even while content in your current role, as this allows you to avoid making decisions under pressure. He argues that pressure leads to rash decisions and can put you at a disadvantage in negotiations, potentially attracting employers who seek to gain an upper hand.

Jonathan then shifts to debunking common myths about the interview process. He challenges the notion that job requirements are strict checklists, explaining they are often written to attract candidates rather than filter them out. He advises listeners not to be discouraged from applying if they don’t meet every single requirement, as the application process itself is low-effort and low-risk.

The host further dismantles the idea that interviews are purely a scrutinizing test of skills where the most skilled candidate always wins. He explains that interviews assess problem-solving, communication, and cultural fit, and that many processes lack refined grading systems. A key myth addressed is that not receiving an offer means you performed poorly. Jonathan outlines numerous external factors—like timing, salary expectations, or another candidate starting the process earlier—that can influence the outcome independent of interview performance.

Finally, Jonathan reinforces the statistical reality of job hunting: most applications do not result in an accepted offer. By entering the process without pressure and with the expectation of rejection, you can maintain clarity, learn from each experience, and improve your future chances. He concludes by encouraging listeners to engage with the Developer Tea community for further discussion on this timely topic.

Recommendations

Communities

  • Developer Tea Discord — Jonathan invites listeners to join the free Developer Tea Discord community to discuss episodes and get practical advice from other engineers on job-related issues.

Tools

  • Square CPOS APIs — Sponsored mention. Square’s APIs for managing point-of-sale systems, employees, customer data, invoices, gift cards, and loyalty programs. Developers can use them for free and participate in a hackathon for a chance to win $20,000.

Topic Timeline

  • 00:00:00 — Introduction to mindful job search and staying open — Jonathan introduces the episode as a continuation on mindful job searching. He recommends always keeping your eyes and ears open for opportunities, as they rarely align perfectly with your planned search window. He clarifies that being open to interviewing doesn’t mean actively trying to leave your current job; it’s a way to learn and gain clarity without pressure.
  • 00:02:02 — The critical rule: avoid job searching under pressure — Jonathan makes an explicit statement: do not search for a job under pressure. He explains that pressure, whether from time, money, or market conditions, leads to rash decisions you wouldn’t normally make. He connects this to fast vs. slow thinking, arguing job decisions benefit from slower, more deliberate consideration.
  • 00:03:47 — Why employers might want pressured candidates — Jonathan asks listeners to consider what it means if a hiring manager interprets your calmness as lack of interest. He suggests an employer who prefers candidates making decisions under pressure is likely seeking a negotiating advantage, as pressured candidates are willing to give things up. He advises that starting a relationship under such conditions is disadvantageous.
  • 00:04:48 — Transition to discussing psychology and myths of interviewing — Jonathan states the intent to discuss the psychology of interviewing, acknowledging the topic is too broad to cover completely. He mentions different interview rounds (tech, team, CTO) require different approaches, but first aims to address major misconceptions people have about the interview process.
  • 00:07:06 — Myth 1: Job requirements are strict and all-encompassing — Jonathan debunks the myth that job requirements are a strict checklist of skills tested daily. He explains requirements are often written to attract candidates, not just filter them. He advises treating them as compatibility points—having more is better, but not having all shouldn’t stop you from applying, as the initial application is low-effort and low-risk.
  • 00:09:19 — Myth 2: Interviews are purely skill tests where the best wins — Jonathan challenges the belief that interviews are a scrutinizing skill test where the most skilled candidate automatically wins. He explains technical interviews evaluate problem-solving, while in-person interviews focus on communication and connection. He notes many interview processes, especially at startups, are less refined than we think, often using simple thumbs-up/down judgments.
  • 00:10:49 — Myth 3: Not getting an offer means you did poorly — Jonathan addresses the difficult myth that rejection equals poor performance. He lists plausible external reasons for not getting an offer: someone else was chosen by one vote, timing, salary differences, or another candidate starting earlier. He emphasizes these factors have no bearing on your interview performance and encourages asking for feedback when possible.
  • 00:12:25 — The statistical reality of job hunting — Jonathan reinforces that it’s statistically unlikely to get an offer from any single application, purely due to numbers. Even with two other equally qualified candidates, you have a one-in-three chance. He mentions small practices (follow-ups, referrals, talking to recruiters) can improve odds, but the most important thing to remember is that most applications don’t end in an accepted offer.
  • 00:14:39 — Conclusion: Embracing the process without pressure — Jonathan concludes by tying the discussion back to the initial recommendation: enter the job search without pressure. Knowing that most applications end in rejection or a turned-down offer allows you to see clearly, handle rejections better, and learn from each experience. A mindful job search means expecting this outcome and understanding it improves your future chances.

Episode Info

  • Podcast: Developer Tea
  • Author: Jonathan Cutrell
  • Category: Technology Business Careers Society & Culture
  • Published: 2021-10-27T07:00:00Z
  • Duration: 00:17:32

References

Podcast Info

Transcript

[00:00:00] We are continuing our discussion on conducting a mindful job search in this episode.

[00:00:14] If you missed out on the first episode, make sure you go back and listen to it.

[00:00:18] In it I ask whether or not it’s even time to start looking for a job.

[00:00:24] Generally speaking my recommendation is that you should always have your eyes and your ears open.

[00:00:31] Very few opportunities are going to line up perfectly when you decide that it’s time to start

[00:00:39] looking. Most of the time opportunities are going to interrupt you. That’s again just a function of

[00:00:47] statistics. If you just have your open window for when you want to be looking and that window is

[00:00:55] only open for a couple of months, it’s very possible that a job that you would very much enjoy and be

[00:01:02] happy to leave your current situation for, you may miss. So I want to talk about this mindful job

[00:01:10] search. My name is Jonathan and you’re listening to Developer T. My goal on this show is to help

[00:01:14] driven developers like you find clarity, perspective, and purpose in their careers. In this episode I will

[00:01:20] assume that you have decided to stay open to interviewing. This doesn’t mean, to be very clear

[00:01:26] about this, it doesn’t mean that you are actively trying to leave your current job. Understand that

[00:01:33] there’s a difference here. It’s possible to both stay at your current job and continue interviewing

[00:01:41] for other jobs. Some people feel like this is a conflict but the truth is you can learn a lot purely

[00:01:49] through that interview process that can even benefit your current job. It can help clarify things for

[00:01:55] you as well. So I will assume you’ve decided to stay open to interviewing. Here’s another important

[00:02:02] reason why it makes sense to do this with your current job fully intact and that’s because I

[00:02:09] want you to avoid searching for a job under pressure. Very rarely do I make explicit statements like

[00:02:15] this. Do not search for a job under pressure. We mentioned this in the last episode but staying

[00:02:22] out of pressure situations does a lot for your job search, not to mention your mental health,

[00:02:28] but I want to focus in on this specific aspect to kind of build an argument for this for the

[00:02:34] first minute or two here. If you’re under pressure you are more likely to make a decision simply

[00:02:40] because you feel like you are running out of time. Think about this for a second. Our feeling of

[00:02:46] scarcity pushes us to make decisions that are rash and it may not necessarily just be time,

[00:02:53] it could be money, or it could be the sense that the job market is uniquely open right now and if

[00:02:58] you don’t take advantage of it then you might miss that opportunity. Whatever the case is,

[00:03:03] it’s possible that you will make a decision that if you weren’t under pressure you would never

[00:03:09] have made. You would not have made it and on the scale of fast versus slow thinking this kind of

[00:03:17] decision is definitely one that benefits from slower thinking. You might be tempted to believe

[00:03:24] the people you’re talking to will pick up on your calm state. They’ll see that you’re not

[00:03:30] like gunning for the job, you’re not trying to get it as hard as you can, willing to give things

[00:03:35] up. You might think that they’re going to read that as a lack of interest in the position or

[00:03:41] possibly a lack of motivation but I want you to consider the meaning of that interpretation. In

[00:03:47] other words, what does it mean if that person believes that? If the hiring person wants someone

[00:03:54] who is making a decision under pressure, why? Why would they want that? Generally speaking,

[00:04:04] someone who is making a decision under pressure is willing to give things up and for the person

[00:04:10] who wants that they are likely using this to gain an advantageous negotiating position. In other words,

[00:04:17] you’re less likely to get more of what you want out of your offer. Now aside from the

[00:04:24] fact that you are disadvantaged by this, you also probably don’t want to start a working

[00:04:30] relationship with someone who is trying to win you over through pressure but I want to back up

[00:04:37] for a second. Hopefully you agree at this point now that you shouldn’t be making these decisions

[00:04:42] under pressure. I want to back up for a second and talk about the psychology of interviewing. We

[00:04:48] aren’t going to cover the whole picture. There’s no way we could do that on this episode of the

[00:04:52] show. We could talk more about interviewing and intricacies and details of specific kinds of

[00:04:58] interview rounds and that kind of thing. What do you do for example in an initial tech interview

[00:05:05] versus when you’re meeting a team versus when you’re talking to let’s say the CTO or a VP of

[00:05:10] engineering. These are all completely different situations and your kind of interactions are

[00:05:16] going to be completely different in each of those rounds. I want to talk about some of the

[00:05:20] major misconceptions people have about interviews but before we do that I want to take a moment to

[00:05:27] talk about today’s sponsor Square. You know who Square is at least if you listen to this podcast

[00:05:40] you probably do and even if you don’t you might know them from their payment devices the little

[00:05:45] white card readers at farmers markets and the credit card machines and your favorite coffee

[00:05:50] shop. You’ve probably seen Square even if you don’t actually recognize the name. Square is

[00:05:58] already trusted by millions of sellers worldwide. They have APIs for running every aspect of a

[00:06:03] business and they’re now making them available to developers. With a simple rest call you can

[00:06:08] tap into Square’s enterprise grade customer point of sale APIs to manage employees, organize customer

[00:06:15] data, generate invoices and gift cards and even create loyalty programs and even better there’s

[00:06:21] no cost to developers to use these APIs. You can try out Square’s CPOS APIs today for a chance to

[00:06:28] win twenty thousand dollars. Twenty thousand dollars in the build what is possible hackathon

[00:06:35] that’s POS the bowl hackathon. For more information and to register go to sq.re

[00:06:44] slash cpos that’s sq.re slash cpos. Thanks again to Square for sponsoring today’s episode of Developer

[00:06:54] Team. Let’s talk about some of these misconceptions about interviews.

[00:07:06] One misconception job requirements are very meaningful and are going to be tested day in

[00:07:11] and day out. Hopefully hearing that if you already have gone through this process you’ve already had

[00:07:17] a job you hopefully you remember that you probably didn’t have everything on that job requirements

[00:07:24] list. It’s hard to find people who have every single item on that requirements list because

[00:07:32] it’s very unlikely that everyone has all of that experience. Even if they do have all of that

[00:07:39] experience it’s also much more likely that they have additional experience and they’re moving on

[00:07:45] to something beyond this particular job position. The truth is job requirements are often written

[00:07:52] to attract candidates just as much as they are written to filter candidates. Let’s think about

[00:07:57] this for a second. If your job requirements are written to attract candidates then it’s

[00:08:04] completely possible that there are a lot of extra things in those job requirements that aren’t

[00:08:11] necessarily meant to be all encompassing for things that you must have. Instead these are written to

[00:08:19] attract people to apply for the job if they have one or more of those particular requirements.

[00:08:26] Treat virtually all job requirements as match points or you know basically compatibility

[00:08:34] level up. If you have more of them it’s better but don’t let job requirements rule you out.

[00:08:42] If you don’t have all of the job requirements don’t let that keep you from applying for the

[00:08:48] job. Here’s the critical thing to understand. Applying for the job is a very low effort at

[00:08:55] least initially a very low effort process. Applying for the job the worst thing that can happen

[00:09:01] again is that you just don’t hear back and so if you don’t hear back because you don’t have those

[00:09:06] requirements that’s no big deal. It’s unlikely that that is the reason that you didn’t hear back

[00:09:13] but there’s very little loss in that. Another myth your interview is a scrutinizing test of

[00:09:19] your skills and as long as your skills are better than the next person you win.

[00:09:25] This is wrong on two dimensions. First of all that your interview is a scrutinizing test of

[00:09:30] your skills and secondly that as long as your skills are better than the next person you’re

[00:09:34] going to get the job above them. Interviews are a mix of many things. Technical interviews are

[00:09:40] usually intended to help determine how a person reacts to problems their skills in those technical

[00:09:47] problems and evaluate those. In-person interviews are much less about skill checking and much more

[00:09:53] about communication and they focus on connecting with the people you’re talking to but ultimately

[00:10:00] interviews are much less tactically managed than we expect them to be. A lot of this in my opinion

[00:10:10] is due to the way that we think about tests or that we think about for example acceptance criteria

[00:10:17] tests in school specifically. How we go through that grading process. Most interview processes

[00:10:23] are not nearly as refined as we might intuitively think that they are. Most of them don’t have a

[00:10:30] grading process especially when you’re talking about younger companies startups etc. Most of

[00:10:36] the time those interviews are judged with something as simple as a thumbs up or a thumbs down

[00:10:42] process with the interviewing committee. Another myth that you might believe about job interviews

[00:10:49] is that if you don’t get an offer you did poorly. This is probably the most intuitively difficult

[00:10:57] one to grasp is that this is a myth that if you don’t get an offer then you didn’t necessarily

[00:11:05] or you did poorly. You didn’t necessarily do poorly if you don’t get an offer. Of course that’s

[00:11:11] possible that you didn’t perform in that interview as well as you could have or as well as others did

[00:11:17] but it’s also possible that somebody else was chosen by one extra vote and the reasons

[00:11:25] could be difficult to understand. Something as simple as timing can cause your candidacy

[00:11:33] to be set aside in favor of someone else’s candidacy. Maybe somebody else is willing to

[00:11:38] take less money than you. Maybe you’ve already had that conversation and really they would like to

[00:11:44] hire you but that person is willing to take less money than you’re willing to take. It could actually

[00:11:50] even be that that person started the interviewing process before you did. There’s a different kind

[00:11:56] of timing but all of these reasons are completely plausible. They happen all the time and it has no

[00:12:02] bearing on how well you did in the interview. Most companies are not going to give you insight

[00:12:09] into the decision-making process why you did or didn’t get an offer above someone else

[00:12:15] but with that said it never hurts to ask for that feedback. Some companies are willing to provide

[00:12:20] that feedback. Now as you work your way through interviewing you should be aware that by the way

[00:12:25] it is statistically unlikely that you’re going to be offered a job for any given single application.

[00:12:32] That has nothing to do with your skills. It’s purely a function of statistics. If there are even

[00:12:38] two other people as qualified in all the areas as you are and the interviewing process is perfectly

[00:12:44] fair you still only have that one in three chance. In other words statistically you need at least

[00:12:51] two of those situations before you’re likely to get an offer. There are ways to improve these odds.

[00:12:57] Of course there are a ton of small practices that can be helpful. For example sending thoughtful

[00:13:03] follow-up emails or even a handwritten letter can help kind of bring you to top of mind.

[00:13:10] Follow the standard advice that you would expect to receive like arriving on time whether you’re

[00:13:15] virtual or otherwise and manage your presence in an appropriate manner. You know this might have

[00:13:21] used to have been called dressing for the job but now there’s a lot of considerations to make

[00:13:28] about what is appropriate for a given company for a given culture. If you can ask for personal

[00:13:34] referrals for someone who works at the company and if the company is working with a recruitment

[00:13:40] system or something like that take the time to talk in depth with those recruiters. All of these

[00:13:46] things are small things and it’s absolutely possible that everyone else that is in that kind

[00:13:52] of final round with you is also doing those things right. So even if you do all of this stuff

[00:13:59] the most important thing to remember is that as you go through your job hunting experience

[00:14:03] most job applications even with all of that effort do not end in an accepted offer.

[00:14:10] Now whether it’s because you decided to turn the offer down and it’s possible that they

[00:14:15] didn’t offer you enough money maybe you have thought about your current job versus this job

[00:14:19] maybe you don’t get the right feeling from the interviews that you had whatever the reason is

[00:14:26] you decide to turn down the offer. Maybe an offer never even gets provided maybe you get a rejection

[00:14:32] a job hunt will most often end this way in a parting of ways. Now if you know this going in

[00:14:39] and you choose once again going back to our earlier recommendation of not entering this

[00:14:47] process in a pressured situation if instead you’re entering in a situation where you don’t

[00:14:53] have pressure you’re much more likely to see things clearly you have little trouble in turning down

[00:15:00] offers or receiving rejections. This is all a part of the job search process and being mindful

[00:15:09] while searching for a job means expecting that most of your job applications are not going to end

[00:15:17] in accepting a job offer. A job search is very tiring you shouldn’t take this on

[00:15:25] flippantly you shouldn’t take it on under stress as we’ve already mentioned because it can

[00:15:32] absolutely take a toll especially if you are hoping to change your career and you run up

[00:15:42] against multiple rejections more than maybe you would have expected even when you’re preparing

[00:15:48] for it. This is a possibility and as you seek your jobs and as you learn about what your

[00:15:58] possible employers want from you keep in mind that each of these experiences is going to improve

[00:16:06] your chances in the future. Thanks so much for listening to this episode of Developer T

[00:16:11] about a mindful job search. If you are more interested in this discussion about mindful

[00:16:18] job searches which is a very important topic right now as the job market is incredibly active

[00:16:25] then please send me a message developert.gmail.com you can also come and talk to me in the Developer

[00:16:31] T Discord community head over to developert.com slash discord you can join that community totally

[00:16:37] free there’s a lot of discussion about these episodes and a lot of questions that people

[00:16:43] are facing practical issues in their jobs in their day-to-day jobs and you can talk about

[00:16:48] any of that stuff you know get advice from a bunch of other engineers and from me a lot of

[00:16:53] the time. Thanks so much for listening to this episode thank you again to today’s sponsor Square

[00:16:58] head over to sq.re slash cpos that’s sq.re slash cpos to join the build what’s possible hackathon

[00:17:12] this gives you a chance to win twenty thousand dollars and try out Square’s CPOS APIs.

[00:17:18] Thanks again for listening and until next time enjoy your tea.

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