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.

[JFellows]

Kyle - Your interviewers sound like a bunch of assholes as it is, but keeping people strictly to the point on structured interview questions is a matter of liability these days. With rejected applicants being able to sue an organization for damn near anything, interviewers, HR folks, etc are obliged to do things by the book and without any variations that would indicate any bias (however remote). Like I said, though, the demeanor of your interviewers suggests that they were just assholes to begin with.

[cigar no baka]

True story - I was interviewing someone for a travel agency position, and the guy had experience. One of the first questions I ask is "Based on your experience, tell me a little about what you would bring to this position that would make you a better choice for this position?".

The guy gives me a weird look, repeats the question as if I had asked him something profane, and then proceeds to ask me "What kind of question is that? Are you asking me if 'm going to bring some of my clients with me, no, that's not right, and I can't believe you'd even ask that question" and continues to fly off the handle.

So, I let him go, then said "OK, I think that's enough, we'll be in touch". He then gives me another wide-eyed strange look, gets up, turns and walks out without saying a word. Geez....

[spiffykyle]

This is really wierd. This thread starts up today and I recount my seemingly horrible story.

Now I swear I'm not making this up. At 1:00 today i got an email saying I was picked for the second round of interviews. Maybe they realized they were being bies to me after all.

spiffy

[The Korean]

About 5 years ago, I did a phone interview for a G.M. position of a small property with a major hotel company. The Regional Manager wanted to do a phone interview with me before a face-to-face. We scheduled it for early afternoon the next day. I call him at the proper time the next day. For the next 1.5 hours, he grills be about everything from why I felt I was born in the month of September to the weather outside. I knew it was going to be a fun ride when during the first 5 minutes he asked if I was working on said day, and if I normally spend company time towards looking or pursuing future employment. Through it all, I tried to remain calm, even when I was sure I was bombing this interview. At the end, he told me that he would speak to the HR for the region and hopefully someone would get back with me. I was sure I would never hear from them again, two weeks later they call and asked me for another interview with some more regional people, and compared to the phone interview, it was a party. I got the job.

After Katrina, I left the hotel business for a break(something about spending 57 days living in a hotel, working 20 hours a day, dealing with people who had just lost everything, and want to take out anger on someone). I also owned a lawn service busines that was doing good. My partner wanted to buy me out, since he was more devoted to it that I was, I sold my half to him. I started sending out my resume' to some companys, I got a response from a banking company looking for a manager for a internal office that was relocating due to the hurricane. I spoke with a lady on the phone and she went over the position briefly and asked if I wanted to interview, sure sounded good to me. I showed up for the interview tell the receptionist I had an interview with Ms. ForgotName, well she wasn't there yet. No problem, I'll wait. Thirty minutes later, she shows up, she tells me she is going to inteview me with a second person, no problem. We start the interview, I get a feeling somethings not right. I finally start asking some very pointed questions about the position, Ms. ForgotName tells me that I am interviewing for a entry level phone customer service representive. I remind her of our conversation and ask her to review my resume' that I can see in front of her. She remembers our conversation, but says that it had been filled two weeks prior ( I spoke with her two days before the interview). She apoligizes for the misunderstanding, and understands how I might not want to take such a pay cut, but asks if I would still like to be considered for the job. By no means do I think I am special or too good to do anything to pay the bills, but I was insulted by how clueless this lady was. Let's just say when I left, she was about to cry and my name and picture is on a poster to never allow me to open an account at that bank.

[HersheyWalker]

Did an interview downtown, parked at a meter with what little change I had in the car. Got to the interview. Had me wait a good 15 minutes, when the interviewer came in to interview, the first words out of my mouth was "How long is this whole process going to take?" The dude shot back with "Got anywhere better to be?" I sheepishly told him I was scared I'd get a ticket for parking. Needless to say, I didn't get a call back. Should definitely be in your flick.

Post your vid once your done!

[rsanz]

I was 19 and living in Aussie (Brisbane) during 1990 and needed a job so I placed an add in the paper "Able bodied young man looking for office, manual or farm work". I got quite a few replies and finally did get a pretty cool job but in the meantime I hit a few dead ends.

One was for a 'marketing and sales' job. I turned up for the interview and within a few minutes I found myself in a van with the(a) manager and a junior employee on my way to market and sell cheap arse pots and pans and clocks etc door to door in Surfers Paradise!

These guys were full of jingoistic sales and motivational talk all day until we stopped for a break in the early afternoon. While the manager was away buying some shit to eat, the junior shit peddler asked me 'what I thought of it so far?'

'Mate... it sucks!'

Turns out I didn't get the job (which was cool by me) and they didn't talk to me for the rest of the trip (which was also cool by me).

But at least they were kind enough to give me a ride back to Brisbane.

[mills]

shameless bump