I think here you had your best point. Super important to read what the company is about.

I have been on both sides of the interview table those past few years.

I would have had some red flags if they were asking the same technical questions to me.

Of course, self-taught developers are slightly different.

You have to first determine if people who just did a boot camp for 6 weeks and expect to get a job or the others who are really interested.

Nervousness will never fade away, but the more interviews you have, the more comfortable you will be.

As an interviewer for a self-taught or junior developer, I care the most about their projects. If you can show a project you care about and is not total crap, it is good.

How you can stand out:

- if you have experience working in a team. Some self-taught developers only worked alone, and it can be quite a clash when they join a software team

- if you are already convinced by the value of automated tests

Recently when I interviewed few junior developers, it was how the promising candidate stood up.

She showed us her personal projects.

And then she explained why she liked tests so much.

Which is really rare for juniors.

I invite you to read my recent article about my job search.

https://loicma.medium.com/retrospective-of-my-2021-job-search-as-a-software-engineer-d29ad6bc769d

I am not a self-taught developer, but I think my experience can be relevant to you too.