It was my second round interview for a position as a Python Developer Intern.
This is the farthest I've made it in the interviewing process with any company so far for my first internship. Computer Science majors have a notoriously high dropout rate, but actually the hardest part of my coding journey will be just getting my foot in the industry's door. It's possible I'll have faced quite literally triple digit rejections before being offered any first position as an SWE.
While many seemingly think this career path guarantees a job with the whole, "tech is the future" notion, it couldn't be farther from the truth. Entry level positions in the tech sector are oversaturated. The rates at which tech companies are hiring entry level engineers are recently down an absurd variable. With mass layoffs currently happening in the field, as well as new artificial intelligence technology rapidly advancing, it is easy to make excuses.
My interview went very well… that is… until the technical problem solving portion. I simply did not perform up to my own standards and inevitably failed. I was frustrated with myself for my mistakes. And my excuses for not performing my best, even though legitimate, held me back from showcasing my skills and competency at the cost of an exceptionally important opportunity.
Excuses are just that. 'You know what' happens. But if you don't do anything to stop excuses from happening again, then you cannot really call them excuses nor mistakes.
So how can one facilitate overcoming excuses? Developers and engineers can leverage their skillset to never make excuses again. Acumen, problem-solving prowess, patience, and a meticulous logical approach are fundamental for debugging. These are objectively important skills for any programmer. And equally so, important skills in the process of ending excuses because these skills extend beyond programming. The ability to identify and rectify issues parallels the process of overcoming personal challenges in life.
For example, before stepping in the ring, I was admittedly terrified. Fear of injury, fear of failure, fear of embarrassing myself. These excuses prevented me from sparring for a long time, from competing, from growing. However, debugging these excuses necessitated breaking down my excuse of fear into manageable parts and analyzing the excuse of fear itself. Instead of running from fear, I strive to embrace it. Instead of dwelling on my past experiences of pain, failure, and embarrassment, I learn from them. I have learned that my failures have a root cause of excuses. But by being honest with myself, by being determined to overcome excuses and errors, by maintaining a student mentality, I have overcome my excuses of fear in boxing ambitions.
While I have yet to compete, I have conquered my fear of sparring and continue to grow as an individual where someday, I will be successful in competition.