Bad interview stories

[mills]

Okay here's the deal, my friend and I are planning a short film that involves several things going wrong in a job interview. I need your help in giving me some of your bad interview moments. They can come from either side of the desk. Have you accidentally insulted the interviewer? Let me know. Has an interviewee answered "Stuff" when asked what he learned in school? Let me know. Thanks a lot.

[JFellows]

This is, sadly, 100% true - a mutual friend of Lukeman8's and mine is half Black and half Filipino. At a job interview for a retail sales place back in our high school years, he was asked about the importance of diversity in an organization. Unfortunately, this kid isn't the brightest in the world, and at the time of the interview he actually (and massively ironically) didn't know what "diversity" meant. He wasn't just confused about its application in the workplace - he just flat out didn't know what the word meant. I can only imagine the strained look on the interviewer's face.

[Merlin390]

Stress interviews - I have seen chairs cut so they didnt sit level and made it very uncomfortable.

[heftysmokes]

Tried to do an interview with a 103 temp and a horrible stomach flu...had to excuse myself so I didn't shit my pants while I sat there and ended up throwing up halfway out of the office...needless to say, I didn't get a job offer.



On the bright side, I didn't shit my pants.

[spiffykyle]

This happened less than a month ago.

I was interviewing for a position in a rotation program. I walk into the room and 2 ladies are waiting for me. The first thing they say to me is that they are having a very bad day and that they hate Houston.

So right away I'm thinking, "this is not going well."

Boeing does this "structured" interview thing for the first round and it never changes. 6 questions read from a form that the interviewers write down the answers on, all situational questions like "Tell me a time when....".

So a couple of questions in I finish my answer and they are writing stuff down. To fill the silence I try to make small talk, "So where are y'all from?"

They look me straight in the eye, and one of them says, "Mr. Ingram, please try to keep the conversation relevant to the questions at hand."

Still waiting to hear if I made it to the next round.

spiffy

[mills]

Good stories, keep em coming. I like the "Please try to keep the conversation to the matter at hand". I might use that.