Hi all!

I am not really a long-story writer but I would like to share my story. Maybe it will be interesting for someone. Maybe someone will find it full of comic effects. But most of all I see leetcode as a community and I think you may help me with advice or just correctly formed question.

I am a Kyiv based software engineer with several years of commercial experience. And I find my current position pretty nice comparing to other possibilities in my country. But two years ago I started to send my cv to companies outside of Ukraine - UK, USA, Canada, EU, etc. I sent those CVs without even preparing for interviews. Did I expected that someone will hire me for my nice blue eyes (lol)?

Obviously it did not give results. The reasons were quite clear: acheivements were not really impressive, visa issues, probably low success rate for engineers from my country.

And almost one year ago I got a ton of emails with job opportunities from UK and EU in a 3 months. One company was from FAANG. To be honest I did not expect that someone will respond me at all. Since everything become very serious I started to prepare. I found that I didn't know a lot of computer science concepts - simple bfs and dfs were a struggle for me. Now I know how big this lack was.

I prepared a lot - thanks to Leetcode and everyone of you! As a result I've managed to get to final interviews. And now I'm wondering even more how I got there.

These two final interviews supposed to be my first onsite interviews with flight, hotel and office walk ever.
I've already chose nice hotel in Stockholm. I was planning nice walk trip on a weekend.
Bam! Corona! All onsite interviews become virtual. My first flight to Stockholm and London got cancelled. Ok, it's not a problem. Anyway I am interviewing there for relocation. I will be there anyway.

Interview that was supposed to be in Stockholm I passed successfully. Another one interview should be in two weeks.
Recruiter assigned a call with me to discuss my interview. He said that it was really cool, we really want to see you. He told me amount of stock units, explained that they have different stock options. I obviously said that I like that information a lot! When should I start?
But here is where the story of high confidence starts. I asked how long does the offer last? He asked why. I said that I am interviewing to the one of FAANG soon and I would like to know ALL information. Later one he asked me what company would I choose? FAANG or 2-tier company? I was really confident in that time and I said FAANG :)

Two weeks later I've got information that I failed interview in London based company. Several days later I've got information that Stockholm based company decided to move forward with another candidate.

That is how I failed two interviews almost at once. One I failed because of lack of knowledge, the second one I failed because of very high confidence :)

THAT job switching with relocation was SO close that these rejections were quite painful for the next several months. And now I understand that hiring process, especially with relocation from Ukraine, during corona virus is not that active at all.

Now I set goals on removing lack of knowledge, leetcode contests, self branding. I also finaly stoped to think that I am going to relocate really really soon.

That's probably all story.

As a conclusion I just want to wish all leetcoders luck and confidence as much as it's really needed!
And make sure you know how to answer on "what company would you choose?" :)