Failure is Success when it comes to Interviewing

My latest job search (2023-2024) was incredibly stressful and depressing. I failed at many interviews for many months. Only afterward did I realize that this slog was the only reason I succeeded at the end.

To protect my anonymity I need to use stand-in names here.

The most important realization I had is that the only reason I got an offer from Company A is that I prepared really thoroughly for 4-5 other onsite interviews, that had very similar content, but which I failed. Then, Company B was only interested in me after I got an offer from Company A.

So the months of painful slogging through interviews and failing them was the only reason I succeded at the end. It certainly didn’t feel like it at the time; it felt like I was a failure and I would never break out of this downward spiral. But in retrospect the only thing that enabled me to succeed was failing a bunch of times.