I just bombed a case interview at a consulting firm, and I’m done with this AI job interview circus. As a new grad in AI and data science, I’m exhausted from prepping for the insane variety of interview formats we face. It’s like no company knows what they actually want, so we struggle just to land interviews. And when we do, it’s a never-ending list of topics to study: DSA, ML fundamentals, deep learning, transformer architecture, LLM fine-tuning, RAGs, vector databases, SQL, MLOps, and the new agentic AI everyone’s hyping.
I’ve studied all of it, but still, I have zero clue what I’ll be asked. Then I learned this MBB-adjacent tech consulting firm uses case interviews. I was already burnt out and couldn’t bring myself to prep properly. I went through with it, but I absolutely tanked it. I could identify the business problem, but completely blanked on ML solutions.
The interviewer was nice, but I felt like I was drowning. She pivoted to fundamentals when she saw me struggling, but classical ML is so rare nowadays that I was rusty. I went in with zero expectations since I knew I didn’t prep, figuring it’d be practice. But now that it’s over, I feel completely burnt out.
I’m not cut out for this. It feels like the folks who made it in the 2010s pulled the ladder up behind them. Can someone please make me feel better?
The hiring bar is a joke, and I’m done with this circus. I just want a job where I can use my skills to make a difference, not constantly struggle to keep up with the latest trends.