I think my interview/offer ratio is somewhere below 1%. One factor that you probably guessed is I have very low social skills, well documented in my psychological evaluation that I did to diagnose my ADHD.
I started learning programming about as a preschool kid, in the 8 bits era, then did some Visual Basic desktop apps, C, .NET, embedded C payment devices, vehicle plate recognition systems, backend of payment systems, android programming, etc.
Changing that much was probably a bad thing, as a senior any position I attempt I’ll be competing with people that is focused on the same stack for years.
All the best positions ask for fluent english and my pronunciation is not that good, and I’m 44 years old now.
There is no chance I’ll move up to management because of said social skills.
I would advise 3 things: you know your limitations, start by being upfront and transparent with them. In my opinion its already pretty good that you have that understading and that you are working on it. Nobody is perfect, but if you are transparent and start with that, it shows great awareness and also confidence. Second thing is, try to show why do you love programming, Why is it your passion? (Assuming it is) Third, what can you offer? Eg, you might not be a very social person, but as soon as someone gives you a coding challenge you dig deep and figure stuff out on your own! You are independent,etc… (im just guessing, as an example)
(Just an example, very condensed). I would start the interview by saying: i know my social skills are not the best and apologies for my accent, but i am working on these things. Coding is my passion, i have been doing it since i was 8, and have developed in many different languages etc… i love coding because bla bla bla… in the end, i know im not the most social person and im working on it, but i can bring deep coding knowledge and expertise, etc, etc
I do that, and it saves me a lot of time with things ending on the screening call. I’m tempted to write all this stuff in my resume / linkedin so I don’t even waste time with the screening. It’s easier now I’m already employed, it will probably be harder when I really need another job