Interview horror stories

[Anonymous]

I had an awful interview for a 6-figure role where my would be supervisor was obviously an insane tyrant she:

1. Made me take a timed grammar test with a number 2 pencil (no eraser) sitting in her office while she stared at me

2. Then had me interview my direct reports of which one started crying hysterically that taking this job was the worst mistake of her career and how she cries herself to sleep every night

3. Was then offered the job on the spot with "I don't really like you, but I need someone to do the work so I am offering you the role"

Umm...no thanks. I excused myself and said, the culture would not be a fit for me - and ran out of the building.

--

I had another interviewer (a VP) show up high on prescription drugs. She slurred her words then told me she was high. Then barely asked me questions and spend 45 minutes trashing the previous person who had the job.

"She just thought she was so smartt...wwwwith her MBA...you know that doesn't cut it. She's not smarter than me..." AWKWARD.

Then I got a rejection letter before I even made it off the 15 min metro ride home.

-
I went on 9 interviews at a giant Corp where the main guy kept saying "How are you going to compete with the guys (frat guys) from Dartmouth?" (These were my would be coworkers) Umm, I can play a mean beer pong too and they were my coworkers who had totally different roles.

So weird

[Anonymous]

Interview with a panel, who proceeded to insult my current company. Then acted like I was disloyal for applying for a new job to grow in responsibilities and like I was the world's first person to take time off of work to interview with them. Ridiculous. I will never apply there again.

[Anonymous]

Years ago, interviewed for a marketing position at a local performing arts center. Got to the interview and the HR person and the person who was currently in the job (who was moving due to husband's job) casually mention that the job included staying most nights to schmooze with members and for the performance and then cleaned up after various receptions, usually until around 11. And it was also a regular office job during the day. Um, what? No mention of this in the ad or the phone screen. I ended the interview and told them I was not able to comply with the requirements.

Weirdly, they kept trying to sell me on the job like that was no big deal. Finally, I just stood up and walked out and told them that that was a critical piece of information that should be shared with candidates up front.

Rhymes with Gulf Rap.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Years ago, interviewed for a marketing position at a local performing arts center. Got to the interview and the HR person and the person who was currently in the job (who was moving due to husband's job) casually mention that the job included staying most nights to schmooze with members and for the performance and then cleaned up after various receptions, usually until around 11. And it was also a regular office job during the day. Um, what? No mention of this in the ad or the phone screen. I ended the interview and told them I was not able to comply with the requirements.

Weirdly, they kept trying to sell me on the job like that was no big deal. Finally, I just stood up and walked out and told them that that was a critical piece of information that should be shared with candidates up front.

Rhymes with Gulf Rap.

Wolf Trap doesn't really rhyme with Gulf Rap.

Golf Clap would have made more sense.

[Anonymous]

I realize this is going off on a tangent, but do you really pronounce "wolf" in a way that rhymes with "golf"? To my ear "wolf" and "gulf" are much closer to a rhyme than "wolf" and "golf".

[Anonymous]

I'm in tech and the job description clearly detailed the various technologies, which I obviously knew or I wouldn't have applied. During the phone convo the manager started asking me about other technologies not listed (and frankly not related to what they listed they were using). It would like going to an interview for an English teaching position and being asked to supply the quadratic equation.

He seemed puzzled why I didn't know and got angry, telling me to "guess" and then berating me when I was wrong. He then told me that all employee's were put into rotation to be "on call" overnight which would start after I had been there for 8 days... Obviously I ran from that company.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I realize this is going off on a tangent, but do you really pronounce "wolf" in a way that rhymes with "golf"? To my ear "wolf" and "gulf" are much closer to a rhyme than "wolf" and "golf".

No words rhyme with wolf. It's like orange.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English_words_without_rhymes

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One interviewer once asked me what kind of name my last name was. I cut to the chase and told him it was Jewish. He looked perplexed and distracted.

A few minutes later he struggled to formulate a question. "Would your, um, Judaism, interfere in anyway with your duties? Would you need to leave or eat special food or have different things?"

I didn't even know how to begin to respond.

What the ??? What kind of job was this?

[Anonymous]

Years ago, I got called for a job interview by a company who saw my resume on monster.com. It was for a market research job in Texas, where I lived at the time. I wasn't really interested, but the company kept pestering me to interview and trying to sell me on the job. The HR rep had me do a phone interview and then brought me in for an in-person interview.

She was very focused on whether I could read words aloud in Spanish, which I could. She made me read her a page of print out loud in Spanish, and then proceeded to berate me because my accent was not authentic enough and I sounded too northern. Mind you, I am a Midwesterner who is not a native Spanish speaker, all of which she knew beforehand, not to mention she had heard my voice on the phone during the phone interview and likely knew I wasn't going to sound like a native speaker.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One interviewer once asked me what kind of name my last name was. I cut to the chase and told him it was Jewish. He looked perplexed and distracted.

A few minutes later he struggled to formulate a question. "Would your, um, Judaism, interfere in anyway with your duties? Would you need to leave or eat special food or have different things?"

I didn't even know how to begin to respond.

What the ??? What kind of job was this?

Community organizer.

[Anonymous]

I interviewed at a school (Burgundy Farms.) Upon my arrival, they just dropped me off in a kindergarten room w/out an introduction to the teacher, did not give me an agenda or any directions. NOTHING. During my time in the classroom, I was completely ignored. About 2 hours later I got up, and walked back to the main office. I was told that the interviewer/head of school was absent, and I could go home now. The icing on the cake was while at the school, I also slid down a flight of stairs (slippery carpet, old steps, dress shoes.) Luckily I did not really hurt myself, however, I had a HUGE black & blue mark for weeks. Oh, and I got quite lost on my way home.

[Anonymous]

These were all call-back interviews at law firms:

1. Old Boy Partner kept asking why I wanted to go school in City X, where there are too many minorities. Later, he questioned my order of Banh Mi as an appetizer. There might be fried dog in that.

2. Another law firm partner telling me that in his opinion, the most fun thing the summer associates got to do was break a strike. It was really awesome!

3. This occurred when I was interviewing interns for my government agency. The candidate suddenly realized he would be part doing work for our management team for the summer. "I'm sorry, that's not cool with me. I'm not a management tool." And he got up and left.

[Anonymous]

I was once interviewing for a job at my federal agency where I knew all three people on the interview panel very well - as in worked with them regularly (and well) for many years, and would continue to do so, regardless of the outcome of this interview. In the middle of one of my responses, the hiring official let out a huge sigh and rolled her eyes. We all had to pretend it hadn't happened and continue with the interview for another 30 minutes. Needless to say, I did not get the job (and I didn't want it after that, either)!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One interviewer once asked me what kind of name my last name was. I cut to the chase and told him it was Jewish. He looked perplexed and distracted.

A few minutes later he struggled to formulate a question. "Would your, um, Judaism, interfere in anyway with your duties? Would you need to leave or eat special food or have different things?"

I didn't even know how to begin to respond.

What the ??? What kind of job was this?

Community organizer.

Wow. I got nothin'.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I had an awful interview for a 6-figure role where my would be supervisor was obviously an insane tyrant she:

1. Made me take a timed grammar test with a number 2 pencil (no eraser) sitting in her office while she stared at me

2. Then had me interview my direct reports of which one started crying hysterically that taking this job was the worst mistake of her career and how she cries herself to sleep every night

3. Was then offered the job on the spot with "I don't really like you, but I need someone to do the work so I am offering you the role"

Umm...no thanks. I excused myself and said, the culture would not be a fit for me - and ran out of the building.

--

I had another interviewer (a VP) show up high on prescription drugs. She slurred her words then told me she was high. Then barely asked me questions and spend 45 minutes trashing the previous person who had the job.

"She just thought she was so smartt...wwwwith her MBA...you know that doesn't cut it. She's not smarter than me..." AWKWARD.

Then I got a rejection letter before I even made it off the 15 min metro ride home.

-
I went on 9 interviews at a giant Corp where the main guy kept saying "How are you going to compete with the guys (frat guys) from Dartmouth?" (These were my would be coworkers) Umm, I can play a mean beer pong too and they were my coworkers who had totally different roles.

So weird

Good gravy. I think you win with that first one.