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Comment by rorrr | Hacker News Reader

One great way of doing this is to interview for jobs that you think you're not qualified enough for. I've gone to so many interviews over the years, that after a while it doesn't matter if some company X doesn't take you. You just stop worrying.

I have a couple of friends who never go to interviews, unless their skills match the job description almost perfectly. They rob themselves of chances to get more money, more experience.

"Son, let women figure out why they won't screw you. Don't do it for them." -- Shit My Dad Says

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You forget the impact interviewing has on you emotionally - if you fail x number of interviews, each accompanied by the typical deafening silence as to why, exactly, they don't want you, things start to grate pretty bad.

I think it's better to take a more balanced approach - interview until you have enough information to determine what it is you need to work on (even with their silence you can eventually work this out to some degree by examining what you were able to deal with well and not so much), then stop, go work on that, rinse and repeat until you're getting offers.

The whole concept of rejection therapy seems a rehash of the simple wisdom that you should have the balls to get out there and gather data, so to speak, on the things you desire rather than simply letting yourself rot in a less desirable situation out of fear.

However, I worry that people will lose sight of the fact that it's about actually challenging assumptions and treat it as some macho game. It's not smart to go out and get rejected, not think about why, then simply repeat the rejection over again.

> each accompanied by the typical deafening silence as to why, exactly, they don't want yo

In my experience, it has been pretty easy to ask why they don't want you. Some larger companies have policies about not telling you, but any small company probably won't mind answering a polite email with a reasonably straightforward answer. And in larger companies, you should be asking each individual interviewer for a business card to follow up with a thank you email, so you could reach out to them directly; they aren't as sensitive to the HR policies.

You get an email saying "We're sorry..." and you just reply "Thank you for the opportunity. If you don't mind, I'd appreciate any information you are willing to share about your decision. I'm always looking to improve myself and rely on your honesty to identify my grow areas. Thanks!"

What's the worse that happens? They reject you again by not giving you a straight answer? The whole point of learning to handle rejection is to take advantage of the fact that much of the time you can win just by showing up to the game.

Sure, I agree it's always worth asking and as I said the key is obtaining as much real-world data to go on, so if you can get it, the feedback is invaluable.

I have had many, many incidents where they have given very brief, obviously untrue feedback which seems likely to be the result of a careful HR policy.

In fact, I have in the past done exactly what you suggest and got a reasonable and very useful response :)

the value of interviewing for a job i'm underqualified for, even including rejection practice and promotion potential, probably isn't worth the time and effort.

I think you overestimate the time and effort involved.

a 1% chance to earn 20k more a year and learn new skills along the way is worth more than the $200/a few hours of my life a strict cost/benefit would indicate.

Agreed. You may also be ruling yourself out of consideration for future opportunities with the same company that you genuinely are qualified for, because you've created the perception that you're incompetent or just don't interview well. (Let's face it, it would be difficult to give good answers at the interview when you're clearly not qualified.)

I think you may be right for jobs you _are_ underqualified for, but what about all the jobs you only _think_ you're underqualified for?

You really have no way of knowing if you're underqualified or not from the amount of information about any particular job you might come across (on a job board or a company's website). Now obviously they may list a bunch of technologies you've never worked for, but even then they might be willing to let a smart person learn.

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