In this blog post, we've compiled advice from dozens of Leopard members who shared their insights in the wins channel after successfully completing their job searches and finding their ideal positions. Our aim is for this collection of advice to remind you that you're not alone and that you'll get through this!

Positioning Yourself

Find Your Expertise

• “Really dig deep into what makes your technical and social expertise unique and find a place that fits those qualities and values that you offer. You will find a match.” - Kamilah Jenkins

• “Know your skill set and focus on your strengths.” - Gulnara Mirzakarimova

• “I defined what I wanted in advance, which really helped me identify which companies were a better fit than others.  It also helped me curate my questions to make sure this was a role, team, and company that was a fit.” - Lauren M Carter

• “If there are any unique skills you have, don’t be afraid to play them up. I emphasized how my background in design helps me execute frontend development and it worked well” -  Vanessa Paolantonio

• “Identify what you want out of a job.” - Amy Arlin

• “Tailor your resume/interviews by asking yourself "What kind of engineer am I?" - Ally T.

• “Cover letter I basically said “I know you’ll get a lot of applications for this role, but I know I’m a perfect fit because of XYZ." - Sarah Jennings

• “I paid close attention to what energized me during the job search. or work on something that I was interested in or excited about. This approach led to new connections, job leads, and learning opportunities.” Laryssa Husiak

• “Find what drives and motivates you. Once I was able to though, it really helped me figure out how to evaluate which opportunities were the most interesting to me” - Wren Hawthorne

• “Focus on what you can control and take it one day at a time.” - Sarah Shekher

Use Leopard’s Resume Guide

• “Follow the Leopard resume style guide. Before I updated my resume I was getting very few responses. After I updated it I got a lot of positive feedback and a lot of interviews.” - Marly Puckett

Applying And Deciding Where To Interview

Be Open to Opportunities

• "Definitely apply for jobs you're not 100% a fit for" -  Jade Iden

• “Making a post saying I was looking for a job is how I was able to reach those people and be given this opportunity” - Melissa Moy

• “Interview with companies even if you're not super interested in them (it's good practice anyways) because they may end up surprising you!” - Veronica Shei

• “I think keeping an open mind to opportunities is great, as it led me to personally reflect on how close I was living to my own values, and what I wanted to work towards” - Miran P.

• “Being open to trying completely a new industry and a new path and being flexible” - Kourtney Reynolds

• “Don't burn bridges even if the recruiter ghosts you” - Channa S.

• “If there is a job that you’re not really all that excited about, don’t feel like you HAVE to take the interviews or prescreens. Unless, of course, you don’t have a job and need income as soon as possible.” - Vanessa Paolantonio

• “Keep plugging along. The perfect job for you is out there - you just have to find it! (It took me 9 months to find a job!)” - Amy Arlin

• “Take as many interviews as you can” - Ally T.

• “Take the time to explore what opportunities are out there” - Wren Hawthorne

Take Care of Yourself

• "Take care of yourself, prioritize your mental health," - Ashley Eddleman 

• “Mainly to take care of your mental health as you persevere through your job search!” - Nichole Reyes

• “I wanted to quit at least 2 times during the 3+ month search. During those times I leaned on my friends and I pursued my hobbies.” - Christine Chapman
  “I'm coming back from a planned sabbatical and at first I psyched myself out with anxiety and self-doubt. Doing personal projects and making sure to take time for self-care helped a lot.” - Sarah Shekher

Interview Prep

Organize your Schedule

• “Create a schedule that works for you and stick to it. After some trial and error, I realized that waking up early in the morning worked best for me and time blocking on the calendar to keep me accountable and provide me with a sense of progress” - Karen Zapata

• “If you can, make a consistent schedule for both individual learning and job searching. I have a full-time job so I would get up early and study skills related to the jobs I wanted for about an hour before my job started. This also ensured that I had the energy to  get it done, rather than wait until the end of the day when I was inevitably emotionally burnt out from work.” - Vanessa Paolantonio

• “I study system design when I am brain-fried (usually in the evening) because it requires a lot of reading. I don't enjoy ds & algorithm much so I'd usually do that first thing in the morning/evening to get it out of the way.” - Molly Li

• “Filling my schedule with as many interviews as I could handle. This way, I detached emotionally and didn't put all my eggs in 1 basket, so to speak. I tried to limit technical interviews to 1 per day, and recruiter screening calls to maximum 3 in the afternoons” - Lianna Novitz

Practice How You Deliver Your Thoughts

• “I recommend practicing what you’re going to say over and over again to get the delivery more succinct.” - Mai Irie

• “Do mock interviews- they help get the nerves out of the way” - Gulnara Mirzakarimova

• “Practice interview questions. In the mirror.”  - Amy Arlin

• “Mock interviews help a ton.” - Tessa Jones

Take Notes

• “After an interview, write down all the behavioral interview questions you struggled with and brainstorm an answer for next time” - Christine Chapman

• “Spreadsheet with JD and dates and notes is helpful to keep track of people” - Channa S.

• “Take notes to commonly asked questions” - Lauren M Carter

• “Even if your first few interviews don't go as you hope, try to learn something from each one. I would reflect after my interviews and write down questions that I felt like I could've done better on and took time to think about how I could've answered it differently.”- Kelsey Kernan

• “I just looked at https://www.hellointerview.com/learn/system-design/in-a-hurry/introduction and took notes on key technologies https://www.hellointerview.com/learn/system-design/in-a-hurry/key-technologies. Taking notes on Doordash's real-time predictions platform the night before my interview. Doordash has YouTube videos on their system, explained by engineers.” - Lianna Novitz

Study and Practice

• “Attend study sessions -- be in the hot seat as much as possible!” - Alexandra Dobkin

• “Do a lot of practice interviews so you don't get nervous” - Annie Bae

• “Be very well prepared and practice for the interview. It took some practice to get into the right state.” - Sonya Liang

• “I did leet code because it is a good practice to solve problems fast. And I read books on system design, but for system design, I had a lot of real-life experience.” - Gulnara Mirzakarimova

• “I would also set aside about two hours per day on the weekend for studying—depending on what social activities I had planned.” - Vanessa Paolantonio

• “Studying the main Leetcode patterns with time/space complexity. Focus on the patterns and don’t beat yourself up if you didn’t recognize a specific pattern. Often, you need to have seen a problem with that pattern to recognize it later. I grouped Leetcode problems by pattern instead of doing them randomly.
  For system design, I wrote out designs in detail, like Messenger, Realtime ranking leaderboard, and payment systems”  - Kelsey Jones

• “Identify the weakest point of your interviews. Mine are the live coding sessions. So I spent an enormous amount of time on LeetCode, timing how long it took me to answer each question.” - Amy Arlin

• “It takes practice to represent yourself and your skills well and to know what sort of team and technical challenges get you the most excited” - Ally T.

• “Watch out for Leetcode and take-homes. look for tech screens that focus on practical skills.” - Ally T.

• “I used a combination of HackerRank and Leetcode to practice coding questions.” - Sylvia Lujo

• “I tried to be prepared for Algorithms, System Design, and Behavioral interviews. For algorithms, I really like the Design Gurus Grokking the Coding Interview course. For System Design, I used the System Design Interview book by Alex Xu and practiced whiteboarding the examples on Excalidraw” - Katty Polyak

• “I did do a lot of system design and “how the internet works” reading.” - Patricia Arbona

• “Find the time to practice and learn so that you can stay sharp.” - Wren Hawthorne

• “I'd do 1 Leetcode problem a day in Python. (From Leetcode 75 list). Neetcode.io is a great resource for solution explanations. hellointerview.com was also 100% helpful for my system design interview “- Lianna Novitz

• “I learned that my favorite strategy with Leetcode (esp if you haven't done it in a while) is to pick a topic (arrays, two sums, dynamic programming, etc), do whatever form of refreshing your mind on the subject and all it's nuances that work for you (I like to read, but some people watch videos about the subject, etc) and then watch a couple of video solutions before tackling them yourself. Get familiar with the patterns!” - Sarah Shekher

Do Side Projects

• "Do side projects to hone technical skills -  At my job, I was a lead and did less hands-on coding hence I was a little rusty. After building a side for the project for a few weeks, I was on fire and was able to navigate coding challenges. Lots of nuances were uncovered. My project was a whole new web app so I brushed up on some backend skills as well." – Nhi Dao

• “Coding fun side projects like Brain Dump” - Lianna Novitz

Pick Stories for Behavioral Interviews In Advance

• "Pick 1-2 projects to talk about that highlight your strength for behavioral and outline them in a doc so you can quick glance as a reminder during interviews. All the behavioral interviews are mostly the same. They want to understand if you're a company fit based on your past behaviors and sus out red flags." – Nhi Dao

Behavioral Interview Preparation

• "I only started to make progress using the ChatGPT Leopard bot. I uploaded my resume and asked it to generate 10 behavioral interview questions for me. Then I asked it to go through each of them one by one to help me craft responses in the STAR format. This was super helpful, as it would ask me a question, I'd tell a story, and then it would rewrite it into STAR format. I copied and pasted that answer into a notes sheet, to study and rewrite in my own words to rehearse." - Caitlin Woodward

• “Behavioral questions/answers - these I got from the interwebs which I answered in my own words in a STAR format” - Michelle Dotzenrod

• “I found Neetcode/Leetcode very helpful, but I really loved HelloInterview. It was the best with the AI questions.  It helped me hone my system design skills and my answers to behavioral questions.” - Lauren M Carter
  “For Behavioral interviews, I wrote out a few example questions I might get asked along with my experience framed in the STAR method.” - Katty Polyak

Reframed the Process

• "Reframed the process in my mind that the interviews were conversations, and that I was also interviewing them. I asked about as many questions as they asked me. I think my questions showed that I had an interest in the company. I think this helped me with my confidence, and to not be so nervous." - Caitlin Woodward

Narrate Your Thoughts

• "In the live coding sessions, I narrated my thoughts the whole time. It gave me natural moments to point out what I was skimming over, how I would optimize with time, etc. I believe if they're doing it right, they're purely just trying to see how you approach and solve problems. It doesn't have to be perfect, just as long as they can follow along." - Caitlin Woodward

• “I usually communicate my thought process out loud during the interview, even if I don’t have the solution to the question asked. Whatever solution I am considering for the given problem, I will think out loud so the interviewer can correct me if I am going completely off track” - Chaitanya Kola

Send Follow-up Message

• "Followed up every meeting with a quick message, along the lines of "Thanks for meeting me, I enjoyed our chat. Looking forward to (whatever the next step was)". After one of my technical interviews, I stepped away from the computer and my brain was flooded with a bunch of realizations about what I forgot/should've said. I took the opportunity to show off my written communication skills, and in my follow-up email, I said that I had fun with the exercise, explained a bug I just realized (clarifying that I would've caught it with proper testing and thinking time), and suggested one additional improvement. When scheduling the second technical interview, I asked for feedback based on the first one. They said they didn't have any, but they also included what they appreciated about me in the first one (specifically calling out how I talked through my thoughts). This was a major confidence boost going into the next one for me." - Caitlin Woodward

Make a Cheat Sheet About Yourself

• "I kept an open note that I called a "cheat sheet" - it was basically an outline about myself so I had an easy reference to check. I had a few sections with maybe 5-10 bullets each. Sections were:

  • History - How I wanted to tell the story of my career so far

  • Why I'm leaving - Highlighting what I like about my old company, how I want to phrase the answer to the question

  • In a week - just a list of various responsibilities I have in any given week

  • Culture - what I'm looking for in a company culture-wise, including a distinct list of values

• "I had it open during every interview but found I actually rarely referenced it during them. I think the act of writing the info out helped me feel comfortable with how to answer these questions if they came up. I'd review it between interviews." - Caitlin Woodward

• “One thing that really helped me during interviews was to have a copy of my resume and some pre-planned STAR style answers pinned to the wall in front of me to fall back on if I was drawing a blank.” - Kira W.

Research and come up with questions

• "Before every intro chat with a company I met, I did thorough research. I checked out their site, and relevant LinkedIn profiles, searched their name on Glassdoor/Reddit/Reviews, and everything I could find. For each position I was interviewing for, I had a dedicated note with a quick summary of what the company was, a link to the job posting, and then a section for questions I wanted to ask. These were divided into four sections: Software, Process, Company, and Culture. I had probably 5-10ish questions in each section. This allowed me to have the questions ready when the opportunity to ask them came up. And again, I think the simple process of doing the research helped me get into the right mindset for chats.

• Each question had a checkbox next to them, so I could mark them off as they got answered."  - Caitlin Woodward

• “Ask a lot of questions about the team, the role, the culture, and the mission,  this can show your interest in the job.” - Sonya Liang

• “Reading technical blogs and white papers by companies is very helpful” - Gulnara Mirzakarimova

Practice your case studies

• "A good idea is to write them down and make sure you've hit all the points you want to hit, and that everything is clear." - Lori Goldberg

List of Study Resources

• "Take advantage of the list of study resources (and contribute back if you find anything cool). There were so many helpful books, websites, guides, etc etc that I would never have been able to find on my own. There's also a lot of helpful columns on Leopard's blogs for tips on behavioral interviews and resume writing." - Lauren Centa

• “When I started this job search I was really struggling with how to sell myself, both in written communication like my resume, and also in interviews. ChatGPT definitely helped me refine my resume and that knowledge helped me everywhere else. I also basically copy-pasted an email template from the Leopard blog when I was negotiating” - Natalie Jane Edson

• “I received a bunch of great resources here on Slack that helped me prepare for interviews! I used:hellointerview.com, greatfrontend.com “ - Sylvia Lujo

• “I found chatGPT to be super helpful. If I had an interview in a different language or on a topic I was less familiar with, I would have chatGPT give me summaries of key information and practice questions.  I also used educative.io to do a course on system design that was quite helpful.” - Kelsey Kernan

• “Figure out what resources are available for you and how you can use them effectively. The library was so helpful as a free co-working space when I would have trouble focusing on the job search” - Wren Hawthorne

• “Coding Practice: Neetcode, LeetSync, AlgoExpert System Design: Learn in a Hurry, Delivery, Core Concepts, Key Technologies, Patterns, Redis Deep Dive, DoorDash System Example for Machine Learning “- Lianna Novitz

Vetting Companies

Don’t Be Afraid to Ask Questions

• “It’s always good to ask how your future manager will help support your growth, and their style of management” - Ashley Qian

• “Once you're at the offer stage, do your due diligence! These are good opportunities to ask all the questions you didn't have time for during the interview process” - Veronica Shei

• “Pay attention to what your interviewers say about themselves and their company. ask relevant questions, and don't be afraid to ask tough questions either!” - Ally T.

Ask Questions

• Ask lots of questions - if it seems like there's a question behind a question, clarify. Ask them what they're trying to understand. Sometimes interviewers don't ask good questions and you're both disengaged. This helped me a ton because it just uncovers a lot of topics to talk about and learn – Nhi Dao

• “For iOS roles, interview styles vary based on the company. Sometimes, recruiters say it will be an iOS-style interview, but I might get LeetCode-style questions. I still ask the recruiter what to expect, and 80% of the time, they are right.” - Chaitanya Kola

Leaning On Your Network

Study Buddies and Accountability

• "Highly recommend finding a study buddy!...it can also be really helpful to have someone that you meet with regularly." - Veronica Powers

• “Practicing with another Leopard job seeker helped me build confidence doing behavioral interviews.” -Maggie Sheldon 
  “It was so nice to commiserate with other software engineers about the job search. We have been meeting weekly online for the past 10 weeks. We also started weekly 2-hour coding nights, holding each other accountable for coding fun side projects.” - Lianna Novitz

• “Having a weekly 1:1s with my friend who was also laid off” - Laryssa Husiak

Don’t be Afraid to Ask for Help

• “Don't be afraid to ask for help or ask someone for some time to practice interviewing with, i think everyone here would be very open to help whenever they have time.” - Esraa Afifi

• “Don’t feel afraid to reach out to people for help” - Christine Cheung

• “I asked for help from my network AND strangers to make contacts where I had none. It paid off in spades. People are eager to help.” - Michelle Dotzenrod

• “I was really helped by advice and practice questions with EM women in my network who understand the gendered nuance and getting their advice on how to reframe my experience for interviews.” - Elia Grenier

• “I had a ton of emotional support from my support system, was very existential” - Patricia Arbona

• “When I was having trouble coming up with behavioral stories, reaching out to former co-workers helped jog my memory of the impact of my prior work” - Wren Hawthorne

• “Asking for help is a critical skill when you’re job searching. I asked my community to help me by encouraging me to get off the computer and go outside the apartment (coffee chats, brunches, thrifting, picnics, alpaca farm visits) Helping me prepare / mocks for job interviews, Writing LinkedIn recommendations, and referring me for jobs and Giving me resume advice and perspective on the job market (this was so crucial)” - Lianna Novitz

Referrals

• “Don’t be afraid to ask here, or on LinkedIn, or in any other backchannels you have access to, for an intro to someone that works for that company. If you can have a good conversation with a trusted insider, it can lead to a very strong referral, giving you a huge boost at the start of the interviewing process.” – Denise Yu

• “Referrals are incredibly helpful… Everywhere I interviewed I either had a referral, or a recruiter reached out and I replied to that, or once I reached out to a recruiter for a company I found on BuiltInNYC via LinkedIn.” - Tessa Jones

• “Lean on your Leopard network!” - Frances Jurek  and Jade Thornton

• “casual networking paid off for me” - Katie Claiborne

• “Referrals were my best friend in this process” - Emily Jaffe

• “Maintain relationships with old managers (if they were good). They’ll write better references / be a better-sounding board if you don’t only hit them up during job search time” - Veronica Shei

• “leverage your network as much as possible - people generally appreciate being reached back out to!” - Miran P.

• “stay in touch with your network. reaching out to my network directly helped with referrals.” - Gulnara Mirzakarimova

• “Lean on your support network” - Channa S.

• “Referrals are so important. recruiters are your point of contact within the company and can refer you or pitch you to the hiring manager.” - Molly Li

• “Spend a significant amount of time each week networking” - Amy Arlin

• “I kept in touch with my old boot camp teacher who knows me and is a veteran in the industry and could help me figure out if a company I had an interview with would be a good or bad fit for me.” - Patricia Arbona

• “Reaching out to someone who works there for a referral via LinkedIn.” - Sarah Jennings

• “I received my current offer six months after applying, thanks to a referral.”  - Laryssa Husiak

• “Connect with your network for opportunities, study groups, and other forms of support.” - Wren Hawthorne

• “My job search support group  (Never Search Alone), Job Search Community for Women and Non-Binary Engineers: Leopard.fyi Cold messages on LinkedIn for referrals and Less cold messages on LinkedIn to school alumni for referrals” - Lianna Novitz

• “Having a community and people cheering for you is crucial! Thank you, Leopard.FYI for helping me find mine!” - Sarah Shekher

• “Casual networking and community. Support network” - Celena Toon

Confidence, Impostor Syndrome & Mental Health

• "Know your worth, keep your head up, lean on the community when times get tough, and practice, practice, practice." — Allison Inouye

• “Trust your gut and be an advocate for yourself.” - Kimberly Brown

• “Being yourself is key and makes the interview process much more enjoyable.” - Katrina Schwark

• “Take the best offer, not the first offer. Don't forget you have value and learn to be comfortable with marketing yourself!” - Natalie Hanisch

• “You only fail if you quit. After every rejection, give yourself a moment, then get back on your feet and keep trying.” " Julie Lin

• “Keep learning, keep trying, when the right company comes along, it will happen.” - Krista Calderon

• “Don't compare to others, compare to yourself. The more things you learn, the more prepared you are, more likely you'll land a good position. You are growing no matter what.” - Rachel Gao

• “Always negotiate. The extra informational interviews after also give you more time to negotiate your offer / demonstrate your worth (of course, always do this graciously and emphasize that it’s more about the right career choice and not the money).” - Veronica Shei

• “It's okay to trust your gut and not continue interviewing if you're getting bad vibes” - Miran P.

• “Technical interviews are not a good representation of your abilities or self-worth.” - Channa S.

• “Pay attention to how hiring managers speak to you if they are not treating you like a person, that’s a giant red flag.” - Vanessa Paolantonio

• “Don’t give up. I’ve seen a lot of rejections which left me in tears but don’t let it determine your value or self-worth. The interview process is completely flawed but with perseverance, studying, and a bit of luck you can make it.” - Kelsey Jones

• “You really have to believe in yourself and trust that there’s an opportunity out there for YOU. Eventually, you’ll get there. “ - Molly Li

• “Just keep at it... it's exhausting and emotionally draining to keep interviewing, but you only need to find one company that appreciates you for who you are for it to make it all worth it” - Shawn Tabai

• “It gave me a lot of doubts about my abilities, and I questioned the validity of my previous successful job interviews and promotions. It really is about finding the right match." - Tessa Jones

• “Don't get discouraged! if a company made you feel bad or dismissed during the interview, that probably clues you into what it would be like to work with them!” - Ally T.

• “Try to stay patient if you can and just like anything else, interviewing is a skill that takes practice and will get easier as you go through more interviews.” - Kelsey Kernan

• “Keep on going even when things feel a bit dire and hopeless” - Wren Hawthorne

• “I found it really helpful to go over subjects I felt more comfortable with first. This helped me solidify confidence before tackling something difficult and new.” - Sarah Shekher

• “Don’t give up! I know interviews can be very stressful from my experience, but one failed interview doesn’t define you because bad interviewers do exist(and a lot). So don’t lose faith!” - Ruo Hong

• “Each interview I make some mistake which I know after the fact and I try not to repeat the same mistake.” - Chaitanya Kola

• “Don’t give up, and don’t take the rejections too personally. It’s really tough out there right now, but there is definitely a company that will take you as you are! Also, you are absolutely worth what you set your salary requirements to be!” - Celena Toon

Self-Care and Mental Health

• "Just keep going! Know your worth! Do lots of self-care throughout the process to help regulate your nervous system," - Candice Haddad

• “I definitely think taking care of mental health is huge during interviewing - there’s a lot of mental tools that can come up, so never feel bad about taking some extra time for self-care!” - Sylvia Lujo

• “Going to the gym twice a week and many many evening dance classes was how I de-stressed, I recommend some form of movement that brings you joy with some amount of social component.” - Elizabeth Viera

• “I also tried to take advantage of the flexible time to do some mid-week hikes, take a pottery class, and do more yoga and meditation!” - Elia Grenier

• “Prioritize your mental health. I did not do enough of this—I will admit—but I’m a runner so I made sure to exercise and go to the gym regularly.” - Vanessa Paolantonio

• “Practice thinking and speaking about yourself in positive ways. I have serious imposter syndrome as I’m a self-taught engineer who was a designer for a long time before switching careers. This can be very challenging but know that you deserve a great opportunity, doing what you enjoy.”  - Vanessa Paolantonio

• “Doing job-related things I enjoyed when I felt burnt out” - Laryssa Husiak

• “Water, don't forget to drink water. Going outside, even if it's only for 10 minutes to get Chick-Fil-A” - Lianna Novitz

Don’t forget to Rest

• “It's easy to feel guilty about taking full days off from studying or prepping, but your brain needs time to rest, and it will help you be more resilient in the long run.” - Raquel Silva

• “Remember to take breaks from interview prepping” - Renee Huang

• “I also took a total break for the holidays and January which helped my mental health during the slog, and moderated a Never Search Alone Job Search Council which made me feel less isolated in the search." - Elia Grenier

• “Meditate- I started doing a short breathing session and a short meditation before each interview from the Headspace app. It helped a lot to calm down” - Gulnara Mirzakarimova

• “Don’t be afraid to take breaks.” - Tessa Jones

• “I took some time for self-care and to disconnect. This stuff is nerve-wracking and is so emotionally involved. It really helps to unplug and do something you like to do or want to do to feel good and recharge.” - Sylvia Lujo

• “I took a few weeks off to decompress and spend some extra time with my kids. If every single job description I read sounded terrible, I knew I had to take a break” - Laryssa Husiak

• “To decrease the misery of the job search, I immersed myself in my hobbies of anime and video games! Don't ever feel guilty for taking breaks from the job search!” - Celena Toon