“Interview is tomorrow at 2 PM and I have not even prepared my self-introduction.”

Wednesday night, 11 PM. A friend sent me that message. He had received an interview invitation earlier that day for a product operations role at a mid-sized internet company — the interview was the next afternoon. The problem: he had spent the previous month wrapping up a project at work with zero time for interview prep.

You have probably been there.

You sent out dozens of applications. You finally landed an interview. You read Glassdoor reviews, memorized your self-introduction, and rehearsed your project stories. You felt ready.