Job interview coaching

I'm a software developer, have been for around 20 years, and I hope your daughter finds a job in this field because it is wonderful to me, I can't imagine doing anything else. I do understand how it's frustrating, especially as I'm assuming this will be her first job. I remember my first attempts at my career and constantly being rejected - one good point I'll say though is that once you are through that hurdle, getting any other job is far easier, since you'll then have actual work experience to fall back on.

It sounds like her technical skills are absolutely fine, but having problems with what they call the "soft skills" (ironically the hardest skills for people like us). Others have mentioned teamwork and that is definitely important, since I would expect your daughter to definitely work alongside other people, both technical and non-technical - such as managers, but possibly designers, sales people and marketing (depending on the job).

I should also point out that a job interview works both ways - everyone assumes that it's the interviewer asking all the questions, but you are allowed to ask questions back. In fact I would recommend it, because it's showing them you are interested in them beyond just wanting a paycheck. And it also means you don't have to like them in return - if it doesn't feel right to you, you're not obliged to accept them. If your daughter is autistic, then I would recommend she thinks carefully about accepting any offer she does eventually get, to make sure she would actually be happy at a company. It would probably be more stressful for her to keep quitting and going over this whole process again and again because she wasn't happy to begin with.

In more practical terms, looking for some coaching sounds like a good idea. I have in the past volunteered as a mentor for CodeBar https://codebar.io/ which is a charity to help diversity in tech roles (sadly, there is still a large gender gap in this field, but it is slowly getting better). They do meetings in the big cities, but there is a virtual meeting group too. I suggest this because she might try it out and ask for a coach to help her with interview practice.

Another thing is I follow someone on LinkedIn called Jade Wilson, she works at Microsoft and has recently been diagnosed as autistic (maybe ADHD too). She's passionate about passing on what she learns by posting videos about technical subjects but also about interviews, you can find them here: https://www.youtube.com/@Jade-Codes/videos

I hope that is some help, and I hope your daughter gets a start with her career. 

Thank you so much for your message. Yes soft skills are the hurdle. Interestingly at the latest interview they gave some of the soft skills questions in advance but not all. She did prepare for the ones she got in advance but I guess was taken aback by the other ones. I will get her to practise. She does ask questions at interviews but I have noticed she only asks technical questions about coding, problem solving etc. She needs to show that she is interested in the team and people at the company and ask for example about the company culture. I will look at the links and pass on to my daughter. She has a beautiful mind that needs to be discovered. Thank you 

Thank you so much for your message. Yes soft skills are the hurdle. Interestingly at the latest interview they gave some of the soft skills questions in advance but not all. She did prepare for the ones she got in advance but I guess was taken aback by the other ones. I will get her to practise. She does ask questions at interviews but I have noticed she only asks technical questions about coding, problem solving etc. She needs to show that she is interested in the team and people at the company and ask for example about the company culture. I will look at the links and pass on to my daughter. She has a beautiful mind that needs to be discovered. Thank you