Just tanked a job interview.

[sojourner]

So, I had an interview this morning for an IT position. I was feeling pretty good going in. I had done my homework on the company. The job listing itself matched my skill set fairly closely. It looked like cake.
Only, once in the interview we move to the technical questions and my mind goes blank. I swear I answered only about %30 of the questions and even those felt wrong. I have over 15 years of history in IT. This should have been an easy interview and now I don't know what happened. Oh well, guess I will continue the job hunt.

Anyone else have a job interview go horribly wrong in some way?

 

[Jetfire]

I interviewed for a job helping mentally handicap adults find jobs and assist them on the job for as much time as needed...no experience was required but I did have experience working with people of various handicaps from other jobs...but in the interview I was grilled by two ladies...one of which I went to school with...for at least 15 minutes and then I had to fill out a huge question and answer booklet about situations and what I would do in those situations and several of them were essay type questions...I really wasn't ready for that part. I didn't get the job and felt humiliated by the severe grilling I went through by those 2 young ladies.

 

[marillion]

Yep.. Been there, and have the tshirt to prove it...

The most recent was for a PR job with the county... High profile position. Lots of responsibility.. And, as I came to find out later, a total set up job... But that said, I tanked it because I stressed the importance of telling the truth when it came to media questions...

Had I done a bit more homework, I would have found that the previous position holder had been transferred away from the job because it was felt by the county manager that she did not do enough to deflect questions about a recent, rather controversial issue.. So it should have *pinged* in my brain when the first question was "What are your thoughts on confidentiality?" Totally blew it..

So.. despite having close to a dozen years of high profile, crisis communication oriented experience, the job went to a person who is a former TV reporter, has only a few years in PR under her belt and who generally has a bad reputation as a PR person. I know her and like her, but I wouldn't want her doing my job as I don't think she could handle it..

Well, turning lemons into lemonade here.. Shortly after she got the job, local media did a BIG expose on the county PR staff.. The new PR person makes almost 90k a year, more than even the County Clerk, and certainly more that most of the other administrative staff.. The county has something like a dozen different PR people and it has created quite a stir.. So I'm glad now, that I didn't get the job... What a noitmare!

 

[DonIago]

AFAIK I've never tanked an interview, though I think I actually did show up overdressed once.

OTOH, my mom went to an interview a few years back (she was in her 50's) and upon being asked where she saw herself in 10 years, she replied, "On the beach in Florida". I thought it was hilarious, and I can't imagine how the interviewers could have expected a serious answer under the circumstances, but apparently they were pretty straight-laced about the whole thing.

I love my mom.

 

[Satyrquaze]

I had an interview for a local gaming company a few years ago. It seemed like a dream job. I was excited at the prospect of working with people I knew. At the time I had been unemployed for 4 months, so I felt needed this job.

I also did my homework on the company and felt I had the right attitude going in, with the confidence to answer any question the interviewer threw at me.

I however didn't plan my morning out well and missed my bus...

I arrived at the company about a half-hour late for my interview and the interviewer was still nice enough to see me. And I feel I handled myself well in the interview considering I showed up overly late for it.

However, he didn't hire me... and really he would have no business hiring me. Hell, I wouldn't have hired me.

Luckily, a few weeks later a friend talked me up for another position and I've been here for almost 5 years.

 

[Spot's Meow]

I recently had an interview that didn't go very well because the interviewers didn't seem to understand the position themselves. They had created this new position that required specialist knowledge, but it was clear that they hadn't advertised in the right places or written up the description appropriately, because they really wanted a different type of specialist. This became clear as I started talking about my qualifications and they had to stop and ask me to explain everything I was saying. It was very difficult to explain in minutes the details of something I had to go through years of schooling to learn to do. It was all a mess.

 

[Ood Sigma]

I've done it before. To be fair, the technical questions were on Java which I was pretty inexperienced with. Fortunately it was a phone interview. Needless to say, they didn't call me in for a face-to-face.

 

[Kestra]

Not a job interview, but I went to a college interview once where the person insisted that my sis sit in on the interview (she had driven me there) and then proceeded to talk to her most of the time instead of me.

 

[Mr Awe]

Ages ago, before I really started my career but was trying to start, I had an interview for a great position involving research and statistics, just my thing. I bombed it. I knew that I knew the stuff and the area was right for me. In my case, I hadn't prepared as much as I should've because I was overconfident because it seemed like such a good fit. After that, I always prepared even if it seemed like a naturaly fit and that approach totally paid off.

Mr Awe

 

[Bears Discover Fire]

I interviewed for an internship with a photographer who told me that if I was stupid enough to attend the school on my resume, I was too stupid to work for him.

You know when career counselors tell you the worst someone can say to you is 'no'? They're lying.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

There was one job I didn't get because they were asking me absurdly technical questions about SQL minutiae (which, in real life, I would've just googled if it ever came up). Ah well. I got a good job anyway.

 

[Amaris]

I interviewed for an internship with a photographer who told me that if I was stupid enough to attend the school on my resume, I was too stupid to work for him.

You know when career counselors tell you the worst someone can say to you is 'no'? They're lying.

Did you tell him his face was out of focus?

 

[sojourner]

There was one job I didn't get because they were asking me absurdly technical questions about SQL minutiae (which, in real life, I would've just googled if it ever came up). Ah well. I got a good job anyway.

Yea, that's the type of questions I got. The stuff from experience I know doesn't come up in day to day work, and if it did, I could google in 2 minutes.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

There was one job I didn't get because they were asking me absurdly technical questions about SQL minutiae (which, in real life, I would've just googled if it ever came up). Ah well. I got a good job anyway.

Yea, that's the type of questions I got. The stuff from experience I know doesn't come up in day to day work, and if it did, I could google in 2 minutes.

I hate that shit.

The current job I have, they showed me some code and asked me what it did. I was able to explain that well enough. But they also have all candidates write a sample program (based on a problem description) so they can make sure you are a competent coder to begin with.

They also didn't ask me any brain teasers. I stay away from companies that do that sort of thing. I "get" that they're trying to grasp your ability to logically analyze a problem, but it also seems designed to trick you so you say something stupid and blow the interview.

 

[Davros]

I thought the interview for the job I have now went bad, but they hired me and love me.

 

[Ood Sigma]

^^ As part of a company that does ask its interviewees logic puzzles, I can tell you that we (or at least I) consider them more like bonus questions. If you can work your way through them, we're impressed, but if you can't, it's no biggie. The only time I had a negative opinion is when one guy made no effort, and then couldn't figure it out even after we spoon-fed him the answer.

The coding/technical questions are more important. If you claim to be an expert in C#/SQL/whatever and then can't answer basic questions about them, we realize you're embellishing your abilities. I usually ask a somewhat obscure programming question (about extension methods in .NET) that most people get wrong (they've usually never even heard of them) but the foundation for that question (writing a simple method) gives insight into their general programming skills.

 

[Maestro]

I recently completed the process for admission to Candidacy to be a pastor in the ELCA flavor of American Lutheranism. I had an initial interview a year ago, and I BOMBED. I was given a laundry list of things to fix and told I had to wait six months before they would render a decision. Some administrivia issues on their end turned six months into a year and I had my final interview with their committee last Friday. I felt really good about some questions, and wasn't sure about some others. Fortunately, they voted to admit me, so I must have fixed something(s) between Interview 1 and Interview 2.

 

[the 4th hanson bro]

Last year I had an interview one week after having my deviated septum repaired and my tonsils out. I tried to push it back to the next week but the interviewer was going to be out of town.

Having your tonsils out as an adult is quite possibly one of the worst things you can do. I hadn't really eaten for a week, couldn't talk well and was still taking vicodin. All things considered, I thought I fought through everything well enough. I didn't get the call for the next phase, though.

 

[DonIago]

^"Candidate is prone to hypochondria, may abuse PTO policies."



Maestro - What kinds of questions do they ask at an interview for...um...pastorship? "Do you believe in God?" (grin)

 

[Maestro]

Oddly, no, that one wasn't asked. I think if you're there, it's kind of a given. Since I grew up Catholic, one of the things that they asked me was to give a brief compare and contrast between the specifics of Catholicism and Lutheranism, mainly to see if I'd actually learned the difference or if I was a needy married man trying to circumvent the Catholic Church's celibacy rules.