The depression hits those hardest who put their identity into what they do. Often, I don't realize how dependent I am on positive feedback until it hits. Lately, I've tried to remember in those moments that I am a diverse person and that if I looked in the mirror and saw the worst developer ever I would be OK

If you’ve been looking for a while I think it’s totally normal to get some deep depression regardless of how you identify. Interviewing is stressful and draining and feels incredibly arbitrary. Also, at least in the US, your employment is absolutely tied to your quality of life; unemployment benefits are a joke and you’re on your own after they run out. I’d be depressed as well.

Not saying I disagree with you though, I think identifying heavily with your job makes it even worse.

That's a good point. I probably put way more into my identity as a designer than I should or care to admit. Thanks, gives me something to think about and work on.

Hang in there dude, I think the coronavirus and remote working really messed with the traditional hiring process.

The fact that you are getting steady interviews speaks for itself that you have the design chops and experience. I think people don't know how to interview design candidates well as is, removing the physical cues you get from an in-person interview makes it even harder to assess a designer. Also, it could just be companies are flying by the seat of their pants and a lot have reduced workforce with this second wave of infections.

High probability it's not you, it's them and their broken process during covid-19. Keep your design skills sharp and keep building your portfolio and use this time to work on concepts that you are passionate about that haven't come up in a 9-5, that will help you until the right opportunity comes along. You got this!

Thanks, I appreciate the words of encouragement!

>I panic and put too much effort into trying to figure out what they want to see

My approach for take home challenges is this. Often I complete them and never even get any feedback from the firm beyond a form rejection letter. If that is going to be the case anyway I might as well make something I'm proud to have in my portfolio, even if it doesn't line up with exactly what they are asking for. That transforms the work from something that I'm doing for them to something I'm doing for me. I know that's hard when you are unemployed and have bills to pay, but if at the end of the day you have some work that at least meets with your expectations you can retain that bit of your pride.

This made me think, what if we post take home assignments on github. Along with company name and status - accepted/rejected. This is a testimony of your work as well as of hiring company - if code is good and you are still rejected, that is the red flag to developers.

This. Adding up, front-end engineering has an identity crisis now. A friend of mine is a web dev who started back in the days when Javascript was for form validation.

When JS frameworks and SPAs took over the web, he adapted himself. But being a UI engineer he cares about the craft's visual aspects, than the technicalities of JS.

Although he has a proven record of his works, he is now dealing with interview questions like "what are the problems with closures" and "when you do use function.apply()" and "immutability".

For a live design challenge I recommend slowing yourself down and asking for more input from your interviewers. If you appear relaxed and asking for input from others then you will seem more open to both collaboration and constructive criticism. My two cents and good luck.

Do you have a (substantial) GitHub? Why not mass-apply for positions and refer people to that instead of accepting laborious technical tests?