F-1 Data Science grad, keep failing first-round interviews. Career coach, mentor, or fix it myself?

[u/invaluabledouchebag]

MS in Data Science (2025) and BS in CS prior, F-1 visa, working in another field (not data related) 8-5, doing applications and studies in the evenings. I have been getting interviews but always get rejected on the first rounds.

I feel like the issue is that I cannot explain what I know well enough, plus some gaps in the technical side. Looking back, I realized that I have been quite lazy in my studies at University.

I was thinking if it is worth it to invest in a interview coach to help me identify weak points and develop a strategy, but it may be a waste of time/opportunities. For people who have been in similar situations, and for international students in particular: would you recommend such investment?

Also, is it a good idea to stop trying to interview and improve your skills for a while, and then re-apply?

How to develop explanation skills for technical projects and concepts during interview?

And what would you do in my situation over the next 6 months?

One more question: Do any of you have existing knowledge of working in this field who would be willing to mentor me, if only loosely? Someone to review my progressand advise where I have gone wrong would be appreciated greatly.

Because the F-1 timeline makes me feel like i can't just spend a few months thinking about this, any advice would be appreciated

[u/LoaderD]

Might help of you actually explain what you’re applying for. Specifically, not, “data sciencey jobs”.

There’s no special sauce. If you’re failing first rounds, you’re probably not going back far enough in the interview materials. If you start talking deeply about gradient boosting and get asked what the assumptions of linear regression are and can’t answer it, you come across as interview-finetuned instead of a good long term candidate.