I am writing this many weeks later after the events transpired, so this “thingy” would lose its emotional parts, but this may be for good.
I have had this approach to job hunting where I would choose a company purely based on values and then try to tailor my resume and tech stack to give me a better chance, as I am fluid about the programming languages I use. Being flexible opens many doors in the tech world.
So, recently I didn’t receive an offer from a company for which I had a very good feeling that we’ll be a good fit. I even spent a little more than a week designing my resume. Time which I now think was 100% lost, even more, I would say, than if I just purely played games for this period.
Yes - some companies like that candidates go for the extra mile and show that they really want the job, but this should be acknowledged with something more than the sugared-down “we need someone with more experience” that I got.
I have no issues to say that I was irritated for the next day or two, after all - I spent a few months specialising in the tech stack of this company. I could’ve used the time in a better way for my career, a thing that became evident when I applied to Uber after that.
I am perfectly aware that you can be the greatest candidate ever(not my case 🙃) and still not receive an offer. Interviewing can be crushing for anyone.
Main takeaway for me here is to not fall in this trap ever again. You can even read it other places — don’t prioritise too much on a single company, it can backfire.
Anyway, this experience may lead to a more detailed “lessons-learned” post in the future, so I’ll end it here. I just wanted to write this for historical reasons.