There is nothing wrong with career security.  You always need to make sure that brand 'you' is up to meeting the market's needs. But, when tech staff interview other tech staff, they sometimes ask the wrong questions. They often focus on finding questions that will prove that the interviewer is the truly smart person in the room (happens all the time!).  Or, asking questions that they could not work out themselves, and are hoping that you will have the answer (very common) .  But I suspect that one key problem was that you let the interviewer control the discussion.  Work your interview skills so that you control how the discussion will flow. In technology, a truly good interviewer will know that no one person knows all the answers.  They will not ask a specific question about some esoteric tech detail.  They will want to know how you solve a problem. How you approach a problem, etc.  It could be that you dodged a bullet - or you were just an arrogant fool.  Either way, it was a learning experience.