Interviews are hard. A challenging coding question can knock any smart engineer off of their “A” game. Staying mentally strong is the key to doing well. But when your confidence is shaken, how do you recover? Strike a power pose! Look big and strong, and you will feel big and strong.
But you definitely don’t want to power pose during the actual interview. The interviewer will think you are arrogant, rude, and impossible to work with.
The good news is you can still power up before the interview and ride the ego boost for the entire day. You can get an early start by Hulking out in the parking lot or doing a classic policeman pose on the elevator ride up.
Make sure you revert back to normal before reaching the lobby. You don't want to frighten the receptionist and other future co-workers.
The interview starts and you are kicking ass. And then someone issues a ridiculous challenge: invert a binary tree. What is an inverted binary tree and why the heck would anyone want one? You don't know, and you can't figure it out. You feel defeated and humiliated. You contemplate ripping these douchebags a new one on social media.
Don't burn the bridge yet! You can regain your composure and pass the rest of the interview gauntlet. Recover confidence by striking another power pose! Strut into the bathroom and flex in front of the mirror. Other people are around? Grab a stall. Stall is too small? Move to a bigger one.
Mission accomplished!