Not knowing nothing isn’t an excuse

One of the biggest excuses to not apply for a job or start a new challenge is that “I don’t have the skills needed” or “I don’t know nothing about the subject”, are this a real good excuse or just the fear talking? To think a bit about that I will tell you the story of my first job interview, but before that I want you to know that at the same time I think that I had to have a bit of luck, I also believe that any person with a lot of enthusiasm for the job that is applying for and with zero experience and knowledge (like me) could have the same results.

So, I had just ended my degree’s first year and had applied to an internship at a startup that I heard about in that talks at university. I was very interested in programming and that company wanted a software developer summer intern.

At first, I quit applying because I was overthinking and thinking that I would never be accepted. I waited some months after the talk to apply and one day I thought “I have nothing to lose, in the worst-case scenario I stay at the same position that I’m now”, so I applied.

I had a first interview that I thought that went well (except when I said that I could even work for free, but give me a break, it was my first interview), but at the same time, I didn’t create higher expectations because all programming languages that he asked me if I knew them either I didn’t know anything about them or I barely knew them.

One week later I didn’t receive the email that he said that he would send me. At that time I was thinking of giving up, so I would wait and do nothing if they didn’t send me an email was because they didn’t want me and that is fine. However, I never was good at waiting and I chose to do everything that was in my hands to get that opportunity, even being that annoying guy sending emails boring you to get some news. So I sent the email and a week went by and nothing, so I sent another email and that time I get an answer and scheduled with them a second interview.

At the second interview, I talked to the startup’s founder and I thought that I wasn’t going to stay, I was very nervous (he even asked me that and I said yes) and technically I didn’t know almost all the programming languages that he talked about and barely did a website with HTML and CSS. He asked me why I wanted to do the internship instead of going to the beach, and I could only tell him that I’m interested about programming and I would like to do something challenging with my summer (but I was so nervous that I said that in a much less confident way in the interview), but I was always sincere and showed my desire to learn and work.

One of the last questions he asked me was “If you get the internship, when do you see that happening?” and I answered “I have my computer with me, so I can start today if you want” (I think I stayed because of that answer). One or two questions later I was invited to start now, he presented me to the team, showed me my desk and I stayed in the company for a few more months because they liked my work at the internship.

After all that story, I think that the most important is having the desire and enthusiasm for the subject you want to work on, be that annoying guy that insist until he gets an answer when it is needed and always be sincere in order for them to know what to expect from you.

Even if you don’t get the job or the opportunity you want, you will learn about the skills you have to learn in order to be closer to get it and at least you don’t stay with the “what if” feeling, that is always worse than the feeling of doing something and staying the same as in the beginning. It’s always better to move and do stuff than staying still, if you do nothing you get nothing new also, if you do something new at least you gave yourself that chance.