Additional resources
- Beyond first-round interviews
- Resources beyond getting first-round interviews
- Why to organize now instead of later
Beyond first-round interviews
We’ve walked through the Unusually Difficult method of getting all the way from deciding what you want to do to getting a set of first-round interviews. A comprehensive guide on how to perform well in interviews in your chosen field and choose between your offers would take another book, but I want to make sure you’re as well-equipped as you can be to succeed. To help you there, here are my recommended resources for job searching, split up by category.
I constantly reevaluate this list, so if you come across something useful that I should consider adding, or have a bad experience that makes you think I should remove a resource from this list, please let me know at firstroundinterviews@unusuallydifficult.com. There are tons more career- and geography-specific resources I don’t know about, and I and the other readers will appreciate your help. I read every email and use them to make changes to the overall resource list.
I try to be very clear about my experience level with each resource, so you can gauge how strongly to weight my recommendation.
Resources beyond getting first-round interviews
Applicable to most careers
The resources in this section are general enough to help people looking into most career and industry paths.
Assessment interview improvement
Recording yourself: One of the most effective ways to improve at interviewing is to record your practices and phone interviews. It can be painful to listen to yourself, especially when you know your answer wasn’t perfect, but you should quickly be able to see a number of ways to improve.
Depending on your local laws, it might be legal to record both sides of a phone interview, or you might have to use a separate device to record only your audio without any of the other person’s voice. I am not a lawyer, so please check which strategies are appropriate for where you live.
I’ve used this in my own job searches and with more than ten clients, and find it very valuable.
College career office: If you attended college or graduate school, you might be surprised to find out that even if you graduated a decade ago the career services office has help for alumni as well. I recommend you look into what services they offer, since this can be a big help.
I’ve used this in my own job searches and with less than ten clients, and find it very valuable.
Figuring out which career to pursue
In Transition: My favorite book I’ve read on how to decide what career to pursue is In Transition. It’s certainly dated in terms of some of the tactics they recommend—but the underlying concepts are still very applicable.
I’ve used this in my own job searches and with more than ten clients, and find it very valuable.
What Color is Your Parachute: This is by far the most cited resource on how to figure out what career to pursue. I haven’t linked to this one because there are many editions of this book. While I have no reason to believe it’s not helpful, I have neither read this book nor used it with any clients.
Offer and salary negotiation
Fearless Salary Negotiation: This website has useful articles, free resources, and paid products on how to conduct offer and salary negotiation. I’m personally somewhat acquainted with the founder, Josh Doody, and believe he’s an expert with good intent. I have not purchased his paid material nor worked with clients who have.
Career-specific resources
These resources are probably only useful if you’re interviewing for jobs within a specific category or group of titles.
Case interviewing for general business roles
The Vault Guide to the Case Interview: This guide has frameworks and example cases for general business questions. It is especially useful for consulting or rotational management interviews.
I have used this book in my own job searches and used it with less than ten clients.
Product management
StellarPeers: A free resource for finding other PM job seekers to do practice interviews. I and less than ten of my clients have found it very useful.
Product Management HQ (PMHQ): A Slack community with active channels for interview prep and resume review. One-time $20 fee to join. Less than ten of my clients have found it useful.
Decode and Conquer: An eBook by Lewis Lin on PM case interviews. I have purchased and used it with less than ten clients.
Cracking the PM Interview: A commonly cited book for general PM interview help. While I believe it's helpful, I haven’t used it personally or with clients.
Developer / Software engineer
Interview Cake: Offers detailed coding interview questions with paid and free versions. I have not purchased it but directed less than ten clients to the free resources.
Byte by Byte: Offers coaching and free resources for coding interviews. I know the founder and believe in his intent, but haven’t used the paid materials.
Location-specific resources
These resources are probably only useful if you live in the specific area where they’re available.
San Francisco Bay Area
JVS: This Bay Area nonprofit offers free training and job support programs. Based on feedback from book buyers and one client, it’s highly recommended if you need more emotional support in your job search.
The Job Forum: A long-running Meetup hosted by the SF Chamber of Commerce with volunteer career coaches. I’ve attended one session and found it helpful for most attendees, though it is not focused on tech.