Understanding Your Recent Job Interview Experience: Insights and Reflections

Navigating the hiring process can be both an exciting and challenging experience, especially when expectations don’t align as anticipated. Recently, I participated in an interview for a junior React developer role, and I wanted to share my experience, observations, and seek insights from the community.

Overview of the Interview Scenario

The interview focused on a technical task: designing a simple, accessible React form with specific validation and submission requirements. The challenge involved a scenario-based discussion rather than live coding, during which I was asked to verbalize my approach to building a form that included:

• Three input fields: first name, last name, and email, each required with placeholders and visual indicators.
• Character limit enforcement on the first name with a live character count.
• Accessibility considerations, such as appropriate labels and ARIA attributes.
• Client-side validation, including regex validation for email.
• Error messaging displayed underneath each field upon validation failure.
• Simulating a server response involving a JSON reply to check for existing email addresses.
• Handling asynchronous submissions and providing user feedback, like disabling buttons or showing loading indicators.

With only 30 minutes to plan and explain my approach, I focused on outlining a pragmatic strategy—starting with version control, understanding existing code structure, building a single React component for the form, managing state effectively, and implementing validation and error handling.

Key Points in My Approach

• Setting up a git branch to safeguard the main codebase.
• Analyzing the existing code to determine integration points.
• Designing the form component with React hooks, managing input state, and implementing validation logic.
• Ensuring accessibility through labels and ARIA attributes.
• Handling form submission with validation, error messaging, and simulated asynchronous server checks.
• Considering UX enhancements like disabling submit buttons and visual loading indicators.

Reflections on Outcome and Feedback

Post-interview, I received feedback that my technical skills weren’t considered deep enough, and I might struggle with the ongoing challenges of the role. The interviewers did not specify where my performance was lacking, and I was left questioning whether my limited professional experience was a factor.

In my view, I approached the task with a solid foundation, especially given my self-taught background and limited industry exposure. I believed I demonstrated good planning and a clear understanding of React fundamentals.

However, I recognize that in a real-world setting, depth of knowledge—particularly around complex validation, error handling, and asynchronous operations—is crucial. It