realized i've been prepping for interviews completely backwards

spent hours grinding leetcode and researching the company, then got completely blindsided by basic questions about my own resume that i should've seen coming.

had an interview last month for a backend role and i thought i was ready. knew the tech stack, prepped system design, even had answers ready for the "why do you want to work here" stuff.

then the interviewer goes "i see you worked on [project from 2 years ago]. walk me through how you handled the data pipeline there." and i just... blanked. it's literally on MY resume. i put it there. but i hadn't thought about that project in forever and definitely never practiced talking about it out loud.

same thing happened with a gap between jobs and a tech stack i listed but haven't touched in a while. all predictable questions. all things i could've prepared for if i'd actually thought about it.

the weirdest part is we all do this. we prep for the unknown (algorithm questions, random behavioral stuff) but skip the most predictable part of every interview — explaining our own experience.

anyway, i found this tool called nxtinterview that actually generates questions based on your resume and lets you practice answering them. it's basically mock interviews but focused on YOUR specific background instead of generic stuff. used it before my last two interviews and it made a huge difference just hearing myself talk through my own projects beforehand.

full disclosure: i'm just someone who used it, didn't build it or anything. but if you're someone who freezes when asked about your own work history, might be worth checking out.

anyone else completely whiff on resume questions they should've seen coming?