You nailed it. I was in a similar position not so long ago and I began to feel eerily hopeless. It was irrational. I got a lot of offers eventually. But damn it felt bad at times.

I’ll admit, most offers weren’t what I hoped for. The market isn’t great. I held out (with white knuckles) and eventually landed with a great team, product, and compensation. In the week that I accepted the offer, I had 3 others on the table. When it rains it pours I guess.

It took a while and it seemed impossible at times. But that’s life. You keep at it. You make it work. Whatever you do, don’t give up because you think it’ll be too hard. You need to push that envelope a bit and really test it before bailing for trucking school. Don’t let self doubt limit you; let reality do that.

I feel for OP though. I’ve never had a hard time finding work in my life. I’m the most competent and valuable I’ve ever been, yet it was a legitimate struggle. That feels very, very bad. Especially with a family to take care of.

But yeah, it’ll work out. It’ll take a lot of shitty interviews, a lot of applications and cover letters, self doubt, all of it. But you just have to do it.

Good luck!

that's a good point...i have this fear because i've had terrible experience interviewing. i've been closer to the edge than this before...

one reason I stayed at my previous place for 10 years was because i just couldn't interview well...i know better about modern interview practices, which is why i practice so much ( 2-3 hours per day). it feels so far away tho.

I understand, though I doubt you could possibly be worse than me at interviewing :) I remember once when I absolutely blanked out and didn’t answer a single question, when it was just simple questions in subjects that I knew very well. It was super embarrassing. Yet somehow I survived, and here I am doing just fine.

If I were you, I wouldn’t put off interviewing just to get better at leetcode. There are all kinds of interviewing styles, and I bet you’d get hired sooner than you think if you were to do the interviews parallel to practicing.

Wishing you the very best!

What are you referring to when you say "modern interview practices" and how are you practicing?

Leetcode

Well put. Thanks for explaining it succinctly.

> Whenever you need just one of something (job, relationship etc), it's going to look hopeless, right up to the moment that you get that one thing, and then you'd wonder why you ever worried.

Mad props. I’m old but never had that insight. Wish I had.