Share Your Job Interview Pain

[Deleted member 68874]

Starts the interview with feeler questions. Reading books comes up, I get asked of what self help books I have on my bookshelf. I say they are silly nonsense and laugh. Needless to say the interviewer was very offended lol. Kept asking questions about how you learn new things or grow as a person if you don't read self help books haha.

Turns out the questions to the job interview were from a self help book.🤣

 

[RC0101]

Interviewer shows up late to the interview and then mentions to his manager after the interview that I was the one who showed up late. Amazing.

 

[ezidro3]

I went through 2 interviews for 2 different jobs like 2 weeks ago?

This was my first interview ever so I was really nervous, trying to prepare questions in my head, dress nice, etc. and when I get there, the dude is wearing a hockey jersey, asks me a bit about myself and my schedule and that was it. Less than 5 minutes I would say. Cool. Told me he'd call the next day to let me know if I got the job or not. The day goes by, nothing. Next day goes by, nothing, so I emailed him and asked him what was up. Didn't get the job. :/ Alright whatever, I had my next interview the day after.

This was a mild shitshow. They gave me a time period of 1-3pm to go to where the interviews were held, so I got there at 1:40 and there were a fuck ton of people which looking back on it makes sense because of the nature of the job (event that's happening this Summer with tons of temporary jobs needed for it). Got in the line and ended up waiting like 2 1/2 hours outside, and another 1 1/2 inside. Didn't get interviewed until like 5:45ish. Lovely. Anyways, it's a group interview with me, 2 other people roughly my age, and 2 interviewers. Both were nice and understanding of the long wait which was relieving. Got to a part where they specifically asked me a question and I completely borked my answer because I don't have any experience in the field. The interviewer was super nice and told me what I should've said and the interview kept going. Luckily it ended up not disqualifying me because we all got offered jobs in the end. Great.

Because of the nature of this job, it wouldn't be for very long so I was looking for another job that could cover the rest of my summer before I head back to university. Turns out the first job asked me for my schedule again and lo-and-behold they found a position for me. I did a shadow shift for them yesterday which was okay and should be formally starting in the next couple of days.

I might have to unfortunately drop the second job. I'm not sure both jobs can co-exist due to my schedule and theirs. We'll see.

 

[Midramble]

Not gonna lie, this thread makes me feel better about the interviews I conduct.

 

[Drain You]

Not gonna lie, this thread makes me feel better about the interviews I conduct.

Click to shrink...

Just curious from the opposite perspective, what feelings do you have going into an interview?

 

[Midramble]

Just curious from the opposite perspective, what feelings do you have going into an interview?

Click to shrink...

A whole lot of things. I know it's different for everyone but for me it feels like I'm somehow firing 99 people and hiring 1 so every interview is a struggle. Also tired by the end as I've spent weeks and dozens of hours talking with people, trying to get to know them, trying to cut through resume wording to get an honest feel for what they know, etc. In the last phase interviews when we include leadership from other departments they would work with I have to also act as an intermediary to lead the interviewee's answers to help them in the eyes of the other department which takes a lot of soft skills. I try to keep things light hearted but that can be hard as I know everyone there is 1 nervous because of what is on the line and 2 really wanting to just get this over with so they can get an answer. I can see why some interviewers end up falling into a more cut-throat mentality by the end but I can't find myself ever slipping into that. Add to all that the eventual risk that the hire themselves may end up being a different person when they finally enter the role and something goes down to the point of conflict later down the line, which looks bad on you.

I do wish systems were better automated for speeding up letting people know if they haven't got the role (which can take weeks to decide) for that it wouldn't be necessary to wait to tell people because you have them as backup in case the #1 backs out, or that interviews could all be in a single meeting instead of initial HR screen, then phone, then multi-department then offer, but that's how it goes.

I do; however, know too many people who half ass the process by asking unnecessary questions, setting up unnecessary meetings, dragging out meetings that aren't going to go anywhere, and are only in the process because they are forced to. Its an aspect of the process that makes it harder for everyone.

 

[Pokémon]

Fuck job interviews. To me they are psychological terror and I hate that most of the time they don't even reflect how good someone would be at their daily work. Someone might be the best worker ever but if they are really bad at presenting themselves they might never get a good job.

Especially 8D chess questions like this piss me off:

"If I asked you how Michael Jackson is important to this job...what would you say?".

Spoiler: Correct answer

He was a very influential writer about beer/whiskey

Click to shrink...

Fuck this shit.

 

[Drain You]

A whole lot of things. I know it's different for everyone but for me it feels like I'm somehow firing 99 people and hiring 1 so every interview is a struggle. Also tired by the end as I've spent weeks and dozens of hours talking with people, trying to get to know them, trying to cut through resume wording to get an honest feel for what they know, etc. In the last phase interviews when we include leadership from other departments they would work with I have to also act as an intermediary to lead the interviewee's answers to help them in the eyes of the other department which takes a lot of soft skills. I try to keep things light hearted but that can be hard as I know everyone there is 1 nervous because of what is on the line and 2 really wanting to just get this over with so they can get an answer. I can see why some interviewers end up falling into a more cut-throat mentality by the end but I can't find myself ever slipping into that. Add to all that the eventual risk that the hire themselves may end up being a different person when they finally enter the role and something goes down to the point of conflict later down the line, which looks bad on you.

I do wish systems were better automated for speeding up letting people know if they haven't got the role (which can take weeks to decide) for that it wouldn't be necessary to wait to tell people because you have them as backup in case the #1 backs out, or that interviews could all be in a single meeting instead of initial HR screen, then phone, then multi-department then offer, but that's how it goes.

I do; however, know too many people who half ass the process by asking unnecessary questions, setting up unnecessary meetings, dragging out meetings that aren't going to go anywhere, and are only in the process because they are forced to. Its an aspect of the process that makes it harder for everyone.

Click to shrink...

This was way more than I expected to get back in response and I really appreciate it because this is exactly what I wanted to know. Thanks for giving me perspective from the other side, I figured it was stressful on both ends of things. Reason I really ask, and this has gotta be kinda strange, but I've never had a job interview, extremely lucky for that.

Two things I hear my coworkers complain about the whole process. 1 at the very end of the long job posting that my work posts is "the name of our dog's name is Blank, include that in your email" so basically that was a test just to see if people actually read the entire thing which I have mixed feelings about, but also don't really care because I know I'd read the entire job listing top to bottom. 2 they guy that does interviews always asks " tell me the last mistake you made at work and why it happened. That also doesn't really bother me cause personally I know I'd be honest and be like "I can't remember". But my co workers complain about these things.

 

[refusi0n1]

had two go weird back to back
one went great i thought. had me do a damn powerpoint and present to 2 groups. one in the uk and one in the us. sucked it up and did it. got great feedback and totally sounded like i was the one. led me on for like 2 months from start to finish due to rescheduling on their end. ghosted.

during those 2 months had another. going good till i got one guy get all super defensive when i asked him what he felt were some deficiencies his team may have( you know so i could add how i could help with them). he got all heated and said I would be the deficient one🙄. after like 8 hours the coo or whatever (wouldnt be his direct report btw) shows up for his part of the interview and just flat out says i dont have experience (had been doing similar shit for like 10 years mind you) says he doesnt have time to hire someone that would be a "project." fair enough short and to the point but would have been nice to not spend 8 fucking hours there. find out later they hired some kid with no experience and one of the comments from the coo was "we can guide them along the way." dodged a bulltet project tanked hard.

i know what i went through is pretty common and no where near what others have gone through but it really has fucked me up to the point where i hesitate to apply for jobs. most likely a buildup of angst from all previous interviews and jobs and those two finally made me crack a bit

 

[CupOfDoom]

I've been struggling to get a tech job. One interview, the guy asks what my relevant experience is, I go over what things I learned in school might be relevant to the job, as I have no actual experience in the field. The interviewer then follows it up with "But what about your resume actually makes you qualified for this position?", safe to say I didn't get that job.

Another interview, got asked a technical question in part one, floundered it, part two the next interviewer starts by making small talk, asking about part one. I say that I found the question difficult. The interviewer then goes "oh......", implying that I should've found it easy.

The thing I especially hate about interviews is all the questions that seem simple but, I have no good answer to. "what is a time you made a big mistake at work, and how did you correct it?". I don't know... all my jobs have been simple, there have been no opportunities for big mistakes to be made. Or "Tell me a time you had a conflict with a coworker, and how did you resolve it?". Once again, I don't know, all the people I've worked with have been nice enough, I've never had a notable conflict with a coworker.

I get that interviewers are just trying to figure out my personality and, how I will act on the job but, it feels like there has to be a better way to figure it out without asking people to remember anecdotes under duress. Like, it feels like the thing they are screening for is not someone who will be good at the job, but someone who is really personable under pressure.

 

[Hoggle]

I've never had a conflict with a coworker. Hate that question. I work with my coworkers. Not going to fight with them and they all like me.

One I got asked today was "why do you want the role" so I explained that I love that type of role and it's what I have experience in so it seemed like the perfect opportunity when I applied. But they then said we don't just want someone that wants the role because they miss being upper management.
But I explained why I loved the role and it was because I love working with others and helping them to achieve. Which is what they said they were looking for.

I don't know. Fuck interviews. Stress me out and I always think I duck at them but then usually get the job. I'm just not going to think about it.

 

[DaleCooper]

i know what i went through is pretty common and no where near what others have gone through but it really has fucked me up to the point where i hesitate to apply for jobs. most likely a buildup of angst from all previous interviews and jobs and those two finally made me crack a bit

Click to shrink...

It's easy to point toward yourself when interviews don't pan out, even if you feel that you did your best during the interviews. I've been there myself lately. It's just mentally taxing because you don't know exactly what the company is looking for. And you have to deal with weird, stupid questions and processes that drag out.

I was applying for an IT management job and it's been two months now after the first online interview. I still don't have a real answer whether they want to continue with me or not. I have been in contact with the HR manager and the manager himself on my own initiative. And they just keep letting me on. It's really cringeworthy. But I take it as a strong indicator of the culture of the company.

 

[Jeff Albertson]

Anyone remember that old thread here or the old place when some guy went for an interview and they kept him waiting so he sent them a really angry email and left then instantly regretted it

 

[Deleted member 93841]

I once got one of those "fun" questions during an interview. They asked me which animal best represents me and why. My mind immediately went to house cats because they get to laze around all day. As soon as I said "house cat", I realised that telling them I'd like to laze around all day probably isn't the answer they're looking for. I think they noticed that I was struggling to come up with a reason, but in the end I answered something about people thinking house cats are lazy, but they're actually very efficient.

I don't know if they bought it, but I did get an offer.

 

[DaleCooper]

I once got one of those "fun" questions during an interview. They asked me which animal best represents me and why. My mind immediately went to house cats because they get to laze around all day. As soon as I said "house cat", I realised that telling them I'd like to laze around all day probably isn't the answer they're looking for. I think they noticed that I was struggling to come up with a reason, but in the end I answered something about people thinking house cats are lazy, but they're actually very efficient.

I don't know if they bought it, but I did get an offer.

Click to shrink...

I think these questions can be just as much about how you react as what you say. Like how do you deal with "silly questions", are you able to think up a creative answer, does this type of questions annoy you, and so on.

 

[tamago]

coming from korea, we conduct interviewees in small groups- i wonder if US has done something like this

 

[TarpitCarnivore]

I've been struggling to get a tech job. One interview, the guy asks what my relevant experience is, I go over what things I learned in school might be relevant to the job, as I have no actual experience in the field. The interviewer then follows it up with "But what about your resume actually makes you qualified for this position?", safe to say I didn't get that job.

Another interview, got asked a technical question in part one, floundered it, part two the next interviewer starts by making small talk, asking about part one. I say that I found the question difficult. The interviewer then goes "oh......", implying that I should've found it easy.

The thing I especially hate about interviews is all the questions that seem simple but, I have no good answer to. "what is a time you made a big mistake at work, and how did you correct it?". I don't know... all my jobs have been simple, there have been no opportunities for big mistakes to be made. Or "Tell me a time you had a conflict with a coworker, and how did you resolve it?". Once again, I don't know, all the people I've worked with have been nice enough, I've never had a notable conflict with a coworker.

I get that interviewers are just trying to figure out my personality and, how I will act on the job but, it feels like there has to be a better way to figure it out without asking people to remember anecdotes under duress. Like, it feels like the thing they are screening for is not someone who will be good at the job, but someone who is really personable under pressure.

Click to shrink...

Only thing I can offer here is to not look at things in the literal sense of "it must be for the job". Any previous experience can apply, regardless of it being tied to the field or not. I think the first thing with the resume was the person hoping to find any info on your previous work to indicate ability to work together, etc. The tech question stuff is garbage, but simple wording can move it more than "it was difficult". Again a mistake could be anything from past work, doesn't mean it's specific to the job.

All this stuff comes with repeated effort and practice, and you eventually figure out the game. Just remember the interview goes two ways and shouldn't be seen as a 1-way conversation. If you're reading body language from a response flip it back onto them. "The technical was a fun challenge, tried to work through it but wasn't able to finish it. Do you find there's good peer collaboration here for when those situations come up for you?"

 

[____]

This is just more of a funny story:

I worked at a call center called PRC. I made $9/hr (decent money back then, especially for a kid), but the environment was horrifying so I left one day during lunch and never came back.

Fast forward a couple years, I hear PRC is hiring for $14/hr a few cities away. I apply, get the interview and killed it. Until the lady tells me: "we'd love to hire you, you sound like the perfect candidate and you crushed your test. Problem is…. "

And she lifts papers on her desk to reveal a Manila folder. Inside it, are the details of how I walked out on the branch in the other city.

The shit eating grin she had must've felt priceless. 🤣

I tucked my tail and got right up outta there lmao.

 

[TheBryanJZX90]

About 15 years ago I interviewed at Koei Tecmo for a localization position that I wasn't really qualified for.

I was fine working in a Japanese only environment and had no real issues speaking the language, and I could produce pretty decent translations of text on a computer (in other words, when I had the ability to copy and paste words I didn't recognize into wwwjdic). But that interview was specifically designed to expose just how limited my Japanese ability was.

It started out OK just talking with the people in English and Japanese, but then I got taken over to one of the higher-ups offices, older Japanese guy, and he just hands me the daily newspaper and tells me to start reading. And whew that was brutal. I was getting stopped like at least once or twice every sentence with kanji that I either knew the meaning of but had forgotten the pronunciation, or that I just had never seen before, and would be stuttering and delaying until the guy either chimed in to tell me the pronunciation or to just skip it. I was acutely aware that I was going down in flames but there was nothing to do about it other than just keep going until he put me out of my misery and sent me over for the next phase.

The next phase wasn't really any better. It was another performance test, just handed a big worksheet and a pencil and told to translate all of the various Japanese texts in multiple different tones in English. I theoretically could have done pretty OK at this task, again if it was on a computer and I had access to dictionaries. Which to be fair I assume is what would have been the case for people actually doing the job. But without that it was very slow going and I wasn't making particularly compelling English text. Much of it was timed so I didn't even finish, but then the last section was untimed and they told me to take as long as I needed to make my best product possible, which at first I tried to do in the hopes that I could make up for the earlier poor showings. I was still plugging away at it when I noticed things getting darker and quieter in the periphery, and soon enough the cute HR rep who I had first spoken with stopped by to ask how much longer I needed since it was after the end of working hours. My failure now complete, I mumbled something about needing just a couple more minutes, finished whatever sentence I was in the middle of, and let the HR lady walk me out of the side entrance since the main doors were already locked.

I didn't get the job.

 

[Petruccis Biceps]

When I was going through interview processes early this year, I had this one company I had interviews with for a senior position:

• Two weeks after applying got a response for an intro interview, then they had to reschedule a week later.
• Got the intro interview done, moved on to next round which was a light coding exercise which was set up for a week and a half later.
• They rescheduled to a week later, and I passed that one.
• Moved on to the longer more in depth coding exercise scheduled for a week later, then got rescheduled for a few days later, then two more weeks later because the manager that was doing that interview went on vacation.
• Passed the 2nd coding exercise and then a week later I got a call from the hiring manager mentioning that the position I was applying for was being withdrawn but another senior position was available but for 20grand less than the first one.

Noped out of there, massive waste of time.

The thing I especially hate about interviews is all the questions that seem simple but, I have no good answer to. "what is a time you made a big mistake at work, and how did you correct it?". I don't know... all my jobs have been simple, there have been no opportunities for big mistakes to be made. Or "Tell me a time you had a conflict with a coworker, and how did you resolve it?". Once again, I don't know, all the people I've worked with have been nice enough, I've never had a notable conflict with a coworker.

Click to shrink...

Yeah these questions get asked often so what I did was just make up a bullshit story and just tell it every time its asked :P

 

[Huntersknoll]

I be me. I don't go in with a real plan. I want the person who is hiring me to know who they are hiring. The only thing I'll do is look up who is interviewing me on Linkedin and ask them some questions based on that. If I don't know an answer to a technical question I will say something like "I'm not sure but I know I can use google and other resources given to me to figure out the issue"

 

[El_TigroX]

After a 3 month, 14 interviews (5 round) process, I made it to the very end of a senior position. It was between me and one other person.

This was for a major company that makes phones in California.

At the VERY end, I was told that they sort of misguided me on a few things, and that they had also been in the process of hiring the person I would report to - so they told me I had one final interview and it was do or die.

Did all my prep work on this new guy, read through his background, got some additional information from the HR person about what he was really looking for. Go into the interview, it went well enough, but he had a very specific line of questions - and I answered them. I tried to dip into a few broader topics to show range, but he wasn't having it.

I didn't get the job, I was told I didn't have the experience in an area that I have LOTS of experience in... that even though I had those discussions in the 14 previous interviews, it didn't come up in this final interview because he was pretty clearly not interested in it. But apparently, that's what he didn't see in me. It was terribly frustrating, and I let the recruiter know that it was an unfortunate read or take. And then, I gleaned that he brought in a third candidate at the last second, someone he knew, and that was that. It has taken me months to recover from that sting.

 

[Jeffapp]

I may have wrote this in the interview thread but I had a interview where the guy was insane about arriving on the time that was set. Not 5 mins early but 9 on the dot you should open the door. Someone in the hallway told me about it before I went into the office suite. What's funny is he was on the phone for 10 mins so I had to wait

 

[RedMercury]

I gave a waffley answer to the question "What would you do if someone on your team was not able to pull their weight", I went down the line of like I would examine the workload compared to other team members to make sure they weren't overwhelmed, and meet with them to find out where they are struggling and how I could help, see if they are burned out and how much time off they have been taking, put them on a performance plan, and it was then switched to "all of that is fine, they just cannot do it". What I needed to say was I'd fire them, and I very much avoided that. I would do everything to avoid firing someone and I know my team, this would never be an issue so it was hard to conceptualize being in that situation, plus our company never fires anyone for performance.

Rececntly had an interview where they asked me about workplace conflicts and I just froze. Like, my mind broke for a solid minute. Fact is I've never had any conflicts and just didn't know what to say. I'm still cringing from the thought of that interview.

Click to shrink...

I didn't do great on this one either, I have never had a workplace conflict plus we are all remote, how much conflict could there be

 

[Lkr]

Anyone remember that old thread here or the old place when some guy went for an interview and they kept him waiting so he sent them a really angry email and left then instantly regretted it

Click to shrink...

I think I vaguely remember this because I was going through the ringer for interviews at that time lol
I HATE job interviews so much lol. i'm a nervous mess as is; my interview for my current job was fine because it was all phone/video interviews during covid lockdown lol. when I have an in person interview, the drive home is just me thinking about how badly I fucked it up

 

[TheodoreXGolbez]

All my technical interviews but the worse was Lyft due to my incompetence of finding a solution .

 

[TooBusyLookinGud]

Interviewed at EA years ago and they asked stuff like the 3 egg sky scraper question and the vending machine missing labels question. I hate Silicon Valley places that ask those kinds of questions.

Click to shrink...

I don't ask stupid questions like that. I focus on the attitude and problem solving skills with basic coding questions and build up. You can usually weed people out pretty quickly with basic straightforward questions. Complex and over the top questions make it difficult to truly assess someone because they are nervous and not thinking straight.

If you come in cocky and pompous, I have a set of coding question that'll bring you back to Earth.

 

[Deleted member 8257]

I applied for a senior manager position, and they asked a question I couldn't crack. It was something like "RustyNails is amazing at his job. If you become a manager of this team, how will you create more RustyNails in your team?"

 

[signal]

I had a 'screening interview' yesterday via zoom, except it was 30 minutes and pretty substantial. I then found out the second interview would be one of those 5 hour half-day multi-person interviews 🤮🤮🤮🤮

I'm actually not sure why though. A couple of months ago I was in a similar situation, except the screening interview was just an extremely brief phone call, and the job was more techy so as expected at least some of the secondary half-day interview would involve some programming demonstration. I asked and was told this would have none of that, so I honestly have no idea what the half-day will be spent doing.

 

[345]

i applied for the JET program while i was still in college and got to the final panel interview, where a japanese woman in her 60s or thereabouts asked "i see you're a vegetarian. what do you think of japan's whaling activities?"

...i don't remember what i said to that but they put me on the reserve list so i found another job instead

 

[Deleted member 93841]

I had a 'screening interview' yesterday via zoom, except it was 30 minutes and pretty substantial. I then found out the second interview would be one of those 5 hour half-day multi-person interviews 🤮🤮🤮🤮

I'm actually not sure why though. A couple of months ago I was in a similar situation, except the screening interview was just an extremely brief phone call, and the job was more techy so as expected at least some of the secondary half-day interview would involve some programming demonstration. I asked and was told this would have none of that, so I honestly have no idea what the half-day will be spent doing.

Click to shrink...

I did one of those half day interviews at Amazon for a Cloud Support role. If it's anything like that, it might be basic tech questions, personality assessment, lunch, etc.

I had fun with that interview at the time, but it's not something I would want to do again. Definitely not now that I'm in my 30s.

 

[Deleted member 3542]

My very first job interview in LA over a decade ago was stressful just trying to find a fucking parking spot and being ten minutes late. It was downhill from there.

 

[Thorakai]

I had an interview for a biology lab assistant position. I was struggling to find work post-BA, but somehow connected with an acquaintance that was able to help make a connection to this lab.

I chatted with the lab manager and it seemed to have gone well. I was supposed to talk to the Principal Investigator (PI) next but she was busy, so I then moved on to talk to some post-docs and again it went well. The post-docs showed me around the lab...and then didn't seem to know what to do after that so they handed me off to my acquaintance. It was clear the post-docs just wanted to hand me off to someone and get back to work. Acquaintance also left eventually and just left me by some lounge area.

The lab manager found me and apologized for the PI running late, he had me wait in a room for her to come talk to me. I waited over an hour in that room. She finally came-in only to apologize and say she had to go. I was left alone in room again, no real sense of who to talk to or how to follow-up. So I just left feeling humiliated and depressed. I "luckily" ran into the lab manager right as I was leaving the building, so I had follow-up interview with just PI scheduled. When the follow-up interview happen it was clear PI was looking at my resume for first time and basically said she was concerned I didn't have the skills or ability to success in the lab.

I hate how this interview will stay with me for rest of my life, because it happened in time when I was super insecure and scared about my future. I knew it was a horrible way to be treated, but it wasn't until I got confidence in myself and had more interview experience that I truly understood how fucked it it all was.

 

[Patriiick]

Interviews leave me nauseous. Fucking hate them and I'm surprised anyone has ever given me a job. If I had to do a phone interview I'd just skip it.
The interview for my current job is the only one I've ever aced because the manager was cool and the other lady who sat in on it was my mates Mum.

 

[The Albatross]

Not too much pain, but last year I was shopping around interviewing, and one rule I had is that I didn't want to take a live technical exam... Didn't want to do it, refused to do it, and I'm ... senior/principal these days and like, I'm not going to do a live coding exam in front of someone anymore.

Well I interview for this ed tech startup, and did the 3 rounds of interviews, did their self paced coding exam, and I get to the final round with the CTO, and... the CTO brings in another engineer, and has the engineer give me something to code in a sandbox, live, and I just said ... No, I said I'm not doing this. And he's like "well we're really excited to get you on the team, and this is really the last step," and I basically just noped out, said no, thanked them for the time, and disconnected. I wasted about... 8 hours on that interview between 3 previous interviews and 2 hours with the coding exam before.

I was salty about it, but also wondered what their offer would have been. Ultimately I'm glad I didn't leave... they ended up being one of the startups that grew too fast during the pandemic to accomodate increased demand around remote learning, and they ended up laying off 30% of their staff 6 months ago, one of the first companies to aggressively lay off and it was newsworthy at the time. I'm glad I didn't go further with it, still pissed I lost 8 hours of my life to a company that didn't honor our original agreement. Not really salty over it, but just inconvenienced and annoyed.

Wasn't that bad tho.

 

[1.21Gigawatts]

I was a working student at a place for a few years and because the job was something completely different than what I studied I planned to leave after graduating from university.
However, the head of product asked me if I could see myself staying full time and I thought about it and was fine with it. I still needed to have an interview for the full-time role. The interview went well because I pretty much knew what they needed for the role and knew the product in and out, as I had been working there for 2 years already.
About 2 days later I received a Slack message that I needed to send in my graduation certificate from school (at this point this was 8 years after I graduated). I sent it in and later that day the CEO accidentally posted in a basically company-wide slack channel that "team xy even has a "Realschüler"*, which was promptly deleted, but the damage was done.
Turns out that the CEO had a fixation on grades in school and types of school and wasn't happy with my school grades and argued that the team I would be on already has someone who "only" went to Realschule, which she considered to be bad, now adding someone who went to Gymnasium but had middling grades would be too much.
Ironically the "Realschüler" there was probably the highest performer on the team, she still thought less of him because of the school he graduated from a decade earlier. And she thought less of me because even though I went to the right school the grades weren't good enough.

Long story short, I didn't get the job and the HR team(2 ppl at the time) quit in protest (although there had been other issues leading up to this).
I didn't feel bad at first, because I had the aspiration to look for something in my field of study anyway, but I liked my colleagues and saw how bad they felt over this. The head of product even got me an interview at one of her friend's companies.

*Note: Germany has three types of schools. Hauptschule, Realschule and Gymnasium. The intention is to put a different focus depending on the children's abilities.

 

[Deleted member 93841]

Not too much pain, but last year I was shopping around interviewing, and one rule I had is that I didn't want to take a live technical exam... Didn't want to do it, refused to do it, and I'm ... senior/principal these days and like, I'm not going to do a live coding exam in front of someone anymore.

Well I interview for this ed tech startup, and did the 3 rounds of interviews, did their self paced coding exam, and I get to the final round with the CTO, and... the CTO brings in another engineer, and has the engineer give me something to code in a sandbox, live, and I just said ... No, I said I'm not doing this. And he's like "well we're really excited to get you on the team, and this is really the last step," and I basically just noped out, said no, thanked them for the time, and disconnected. I wasted about... 8 hours on that interview between 3 previous interviews and 2 hours with the coding exam before.

I was salty about it, but also wondered what their offer would have been. Ultimately I'm glad I didn't leave... they ended up being one of the startups that grew too fast during the pandemic to accomodate increased demand around remote learning, and they ended up laying off 30% of their staff 6 months ago, one of the first companies to aggressively lay off and it was newsworthy at the time. I'm glad I didn't go further with it, still pissed I lost 8 hours of my life to a company that didn't honor our original agreement. Not really salty over it, but just inconvenienced and annoyed.

Wasn't that bad tho.

Click to shrink...

Honestly, fuck companies that still make you do coding challenges or solve whiteboard problems. I never do well in that kind of thing, and especially not under pressure when people are looking over my shoulder. I vowed to never do it again.

And especially fuck companies who give you take-home challenges that you have to spend hours of your life on. If I'm going to spend several hours of my free time coding you something so you can assess my technical skills, you'd better pay me for my time.

 

[Charismagik]

I don't do well in interviews at all. My brain locks up and I can't recall facts on the spot when I'm stressed. My place does those STAR type questions and one they gave me for a reporting analyst role where they asked me something like "tell me about a time when a co-worker was no longer feeling passion for their role and how you handled it." I was like uh....what does this have to do with a reporting analyst role that has no interactions with people in that manner

 

[ty_hot]

I was being interviewed for a Google intern position, it was an Skype call about 10 years ago... Suddenly my bedroom door opens but I don't see anyone. A few seconds later I realize my dad is crawling on the ground (yup! on all 4) because he wanted to see the interview but not appear in the camera. Needless to say after this I couldn't think straight and they never contacted me again.

 

[littledipster]

Just finished 3rd round interview for a position at a new (better) company doing similar work but at a higher level. First two rounds were hiring manager and his team which went well and I felt good about. Last round today was with his boss and he definitely seemed less excited about my skills and experience than the others. It hasn't been a bad experience so far (I applied two weeks ago and had all my interviews scheduled for this week- very fast turn around and by all indications they are trying to move quickly), but I'm really hoping for good news. Current job/company is becoming unbearable and I absolutely hate the interviewing process

 

[Kelryin]

About 5 years ago, I interviewed for a Federally Funded Research and Development Center (FFRDC) cyber security engineering position. I signed in at one of their main offices and they gave me a schedule of all the people who will be interviewing me. The first was with the recruiter who talks about the company, verifies administrative items, and answers any questions about company benefits. The second is with a technical lead, where we just go over a few scenarios on how to harden systems and respond to network attacks. The third was with a senior manager in the company who asked some questions, which I guess was to get a lead on your personality (How would you deal with a troublesome employee? What's been the most challenging part of your professional career? Etc.) The last interviewer was the hiring manager and they went over functions they support and more details about the job.

Four interviewers in five hours with 2 break sessions, so it was pretty draining. But all the folks were pretty nice and didn't give a lot of pressure to make it feel like an interview. A couple weeks later, they presented an offer but I had to turn them down because it was 25% less than what I was expecting. I told them what my target salary range was and what I was asking was well within range for cyber security salaries in the area.

 

[Petruccis Biceps]

I was being interviewed for a Google intern position, it was an Skype call about 10 years ago... Suddenly my bedroom door opens but I don't see anyone. A few seconds later I realize my dad is crawling on the ground (yup! on all 4) because he wanted to see the interview but not appear in the camera. Needless to say after this I couldn't think straight and they never contacted me again.

Click to shrink...

Sorry but this made me laugh so fucking hard haha. I hope your Dad bought you a beer or something afterwards.

 

[Hoggle]

Four interviews down and I was told after this I'd need a fifth and final interview. So after so many interviews I went in with a "fuck it, you clearly need me as much as I need you" attitude and a few hours after I was told to forget the fifth interview and I had the job. Finally. I think telling them I'd been offered a position elsewhere helped me and I got a bigger offer than k was expecting.

 

[Deleted member 27921]

I had a job interview for a Teller position at a Credit Union once.
The interview was basic back-and-forth, as most customer-facing job interviews are more about personality and communication than skills.
Near the end of the interview, the guy hit me with the classic "Sell me this pen" routine and handed me a pen.
I looked at it for a few seconds and furrowed my brow.
"Something wrong?" he asked.
"Well, I've never bought a pen from a bank. In fact, I've never bought anything from a bank."
He ended the interview right there and I never heard another word from them.

Once, I had reached out to a Minor League Baseball team (AAA), showing interest in a video internship they were looking to fill. It was an unpaid position but I thought it would be fun and a good foot-in-the-door type of situation. It wasn't hard work - Set up a couple of cameras to capture different angles of the pitchers, then edit that footage for scouting purposes.
The hiring manager contacted me saying my resume looked good and he'd like to meet up. Great! He says the meeting would take place in Las Vegas, at the MiLB Winter Meetings. Neither myself nor the team were located anywhere near Las Vegas. We were both several states away.
I told him I could not get that time off from my current job and could not afford a trip to Vegas for an interview for an unpaid internship.
He responded with a terse "That's a shame," and went on to say that this would "reflect poorly" on me, should I ever try to find another job in this field.
Bad vibes all around.

Then there was the time I applied for a job at the local Humane Society. I figured I would be walking dogs or processing paperwork or taking photos of adoptable animals or working the cash register at their little pet supply store.
Went in for the interview and the first question was "On a scale of 1-10, how comfortable are you with handling animal carcasses?"
I said "One. Thank you for your time." Shook their hands and left.

 

[Hero_of_the_Day]

No real bad interviews. But, the one that pisses me off the most a decade later was target.

Had like three interviews in a row, all of them liked me and they sent me straight to my drug test to hire me. Problem was a snowstorm had started up and the facility had closed. I called the store immediately and told them and they rescheduled for a couple of days later, and thanked me for letting them know so that they didn't send anyone else. Took the test a couple days later no problem (I have never even smoked weed or been drunk in my life). A week later I got a letter in the mail telling me I failed to take my drug test in time and would therefore not be hired, or eligible to hire for a year.

Called HR multiple times and they gave zero fucks. Sucked cause it was college days when I needed a job, and it was close enough for me to walk to. And to add insult to injury, I got the denial letter for months. It was like a fucking joke that every once in a while, another copy would appear.

Fuck Target.

 

[Ionitron]

Recently got rejected from a job where I made it past a test, a presentation, and a couple of interviews and even got my references checked, just for them to go to other someone that already worked within the school with bad reviews on RateMyProfessor (job was at a community college). Made me think the whole process was set up already and was a grand waste of time for everyone aside from the person they intended to hire 😑 but you never know I guess.