Interview Prep Burnout
Burnout: exhaustion of physical or emotional strength or motivation usually as a result of prolonged stress or frustration
When preparing for PM interviews, too many people underestimate the need to include some stopgaps and breaks.
The interview preparation process is lengthy and filled with ups and downs. At times, you will get worse before you get better. You will burn out. Even if you take a break here and there, you will feel burnt out.
Some days you will feel you have it down. Then you get a question that stumps you or a blunt partner who gives you negative feedback that causes you to spiral, to question yourself.
In this article, I want to address interview prep burnout. In companion articles, I will address feedback, bias, and trends that impact how you approach PM interviewing.
What is Burnout
Burn-out Syndrome results from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. It is characterized by three dimensions:
feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion;
increased mental distance from one’s job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one's job;
reduced professional efficacy.
Replace "workplace" with “job search” or “interview” and replace job with "dream job" or "pursued job," and I bet you feel like I am talking about you mid-way through your studies, whether you are doing prep for three weeks, three months, six months or more.
Since you know it will happen, you need to give yourself permission to 'play hooky" or take 10 days off in a row. I go skiing or traveling, anything to get out of my head. I tell my clients to work hard for 2 or 3 weeks and then take 3 to 10 days off and have fun.
What happens when you burnout preparing for interviews:
You start making the same mistakes over and over.
You feel as if you have digressed.
You start discounting difficult-to-hear feedback.
You feel no ideas are original.
You don't sleep well.
You may develop nervous ticks or other physical manifestations of stress.
All of this is normal; if any of it is happening to you, consider taking a break. Buy a ticket to the beach or the mountains. Vent to your friends or coach. Most importantly, stop mocking and go have some fun.
Other articles in this series include: