I recently attended a job interview where I was blindsighted with a bunch of knowledge-based questions on processes, threads, memory management, etc... The sad part was that I didn't perform as well as I wanted to by a long shot. However, the reason was that I simply forgot the specifics because I hadn't used the knowledge in a while at my current position.
I do a lot of OS stuff related to malware analysis and the scope of the jobis so huge that, for example, I may spend a few months on hardcore OS stuff, then a few months on higher-level scripting stuff, then a few months on research involving cryptography, etc...
Needless to say, the interviewers asked me a bunch of questions on OS stuff that I technically "knew" but I hadn't used it in a while so I forgot the function names and some of the details.
This brought up a difficulty that I would like advice on: How do you hammer knowledge into your head so that you do not forget it when it involves such a wide scope of topics? One of the reasons why I discovered this was an issue is that sadly after the interview, I reviewed some material for about 30 mins and it all came back to me and I found myself piecing it all together and thinking "omg I could have aced that interview" however, since I didn't know exactly what they would ask, I had no way of knowing exactly what to review. To address this, I've made myself flashcards to periodically go thru, and I've decided to create "refresher intervals" where I alot some time to just study.
Has anyone else experienced this, and if so, what is a good way to handle this situation? Thank you.