Anyone else feeling discouraged by the tech interview process?
I graduated abroad in Data Science & AI, I’m a U.S. citizen, have solid projects, an IBM certificate, and only a short bank internship abroad so I’m entry-level.
I understand the theory, tools, research, LLMs like ChatGPT/Claude, and how to build projects from scratch to delivery. But I’ve forgotten a lot of syntax, and I’m not the strongest at solving coding problems completely from scratch. In my internship, I did some genuinely cool work and understood it, but I relied on research/tools which is also how real work often happens.
My frustration is that technical interviews can feel 100x harder than the actual job. If I’m working, I can research, use Google, YouTube, documentation, AI, etc. But interviews expect me to solve everything from memory under pressure.
After applying endlessly just to get an interview, then facing these technical rounds, I’m honestly wondering if it’s worth (relearning hardcore problem-solving) just to pass interviews if I’m lucky to get any in the first place.especially when the pay may not even be that much better.
I recently got a sales position that I find more interesting and could make similar money, potentially more with commission. But I feel guilty after spending four years studying this field.
Has anyone else felt overwhelmed by the tech market/interview process and decided to take another path? If you did, do you regret it?
I still wish to give it a try out of guilt , but each day I hate the IT sector even more , okay I learned code , cloud, software engineering, problem solving , analytics and then? If i want to apply it myself I will underperform/produce than go use tools to help me anyway