As I have mentioned in other posts, luck is a HUGE component of getting a job.

Referring back to this graphic, you can see that luck can be visualized as a "bonus" stat that can fill in those last few squares you need to secure your dream/first job.

Unfortunately, while the hard work is something you control, luck and privilege are usually out of your hands. Here, I just want to go over 3 of many roadblocks that you might encounter that can be chalked up to "bad luck."

1.) The Interview Anti-Loop

This theory is coined by Steve Yegge in 2008 and might apply a bit more to development jobs, but still holds some water even when applied to other professions. This can pose a potential challenge anytime your interview process consists of multiple sessions with more than one person.

I recommend reading his blog post for the full explanation, but I will provide a short TL:DR here.

The problem hinges on 2 points:

1.) You can't tell interviewers what's important unless they're specifically asking you for advice.

• This applies to design too because of the situational nature of the work. Designers may assign different weights to different skills and this is sure to vary even among designers who work together.

2.) Every "experienced" interviewer has a set of pet subjects and possibly specific questions that he or she feels is an accurate gauge of a candidate's abilities.

• These might be completely unrelated and even slightly opposing at times.

So what does this mean? A modified example concerning UX design might play out as follows:

Interviewer A always asks about research strategies and how you work with business stakeholders. Interviewer B always asks about detailed visual UI work and how you work with developers.

For any given candidate with both A and B on the interview loop, A and B are likely to give very different votes. A and B would probably not even hire each other, given a chance, but they both happened to go through interviewer C, who asked them both about general design process questions and iteration strategies while A and B both happened to squeak by.

According to Mr. Yegge:

That's almost always what happens when you get an offer from a tech company. You just happened to squeak by. Because of the inherently flawed nature of the interviewing process, it's highly likely that someone on the loop will be unimpressed with you, even if you are Alan Turing. Especially if you're Alan Turing, in fact, since it means you obviously don't know C++.

It basically means that seriously impressing one interviewer could cause the other to take some points off. You just had the misfortune to get caught in the Interview Anti-Loop.

If this happens, you will struggle, then be told that you were not a fit at this time, and then you will feel bad. Just as long as you don't feel meta-bad, everything is OK. You should feel good that you feel bad after this happens, because hey, it means you're human.