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What's the worst interview you've ever had?

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    #81
    I was interviewed for a permie role and didn't get the job as I 'hadn't been involved in a project from start to finish', reasonable I suppose and it convinced me that I wasn't really out out for that type of role.

    Fast forward a year and I applied for a role that was a much better fit and different from the previous application.

    I sailed through the technical interview and plonked myself down to go through the management/business interview, only to discover that the woman who had rejected me the first time had moved companies and was on the recruitment board for this role.

    I didn't get that job either.

    It was then that I decided that the contractor gods had made their voices heard...
    "I can put any old tat in my sig, put quotes around it and attribute to someone of whom I've heard, to make it sound true."
    - Voltaire/Benjamin Franklin/Anne Frank...

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      #82
      Originally posted by MyUserName View Post
      I did not see the cv much but from what I understand the agent assured us he was a COM expert, we read his cv and phoned the agent to say that he clearly was not and the agent convinced us otherwise. I am not sure how but I do know it was our guy's first time interviewing anyone or dealing with agents from that side of the fence.

      I have had similar experiences:

      At university I had an interview and was asked what stats modules I did and I replied none. There was an awkward silence until they asked if I realised the job I was being interviewed for was a statstician. I was told it was for a computer programmer.

      At Bloomberg I got to 11 out of 12 interviews before being rejected as it was a Unix position and I had never used Unix.

      In Basingstoke I was interviewed and after an hour or they told me I was not a good fit as they needed someone with strong C# and ASP. Neither of which are on my cv.
      Are you serious! I start winging if the interview process is more convoluted that a telephone interview followed by a face to face, after that either offer me the role or tell me to p!ss off, I ain't coming back for 3rd helpings (never mind 12)

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        #83
        Originally posted by kal View Post
        Are you serious! I start winging if the interview process is more convoluted that a telephone interview followed by a face to face, after that either offer me the role or tell me to p!ss off, I ain't coming back for 3rd helpings (never mind 12)

        Yep. It started at about 9 and I left at almost 2 to return the next Monday for the remaining 2 interviews. One with the department manager (the one I lost it at) and one more telephone one with another manager in the US.

        The interviews took half an hour or so I think and were mainly people coming in pairs and asking you to write some code on paper to solve a problem they gave you. I got bonus marks for being able to explain to the HR girl multi threading issues and memory leaks in C++ in a way she easily understood.
        "He's actually ripped" - Jared Padalecki

        https://youtu.be/l-PUnsCL590?list=PL...dNeCyi9a&t=615

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          #84
          Originally posted by MyUserName View Post
          I got bonus marks for being able to explain to the HR girl multi threading issues and memory leaks in C++ in a way she easily understood.
          She lied to you. They're HR, they don't understand things..

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            #85
            Originally posted by MattZani View Post
            She lied to you. They're HR, they don't understand things..
            Good lord, I didn't listen to her talking (I assume she spoke at some point). I got my information from one of the other technical interviewers.
            "He's actually ripped" - Jared Padalecki

            https://youtu.be/l-PUnsCL590?list=PL...dNeCyi9a&t=615

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              #86
              Originally posted by MattZani View Post
              She lied to you. They're HR, they don't understand things..
              Are you sure he wasn't being interviewed by you, judging by your other posts on this thread it sounds like rejecting the poor bloke at stage 11 of a 12 stage interview would fit your warped desire to 'to mess around/have fun with your interviewees'...

              Comment


                #87
                Originally posted by kal View Post
                Are you sure he wasn't being interviewed by you, judging by your other posts on this thread it sounds like rejecting the poor bloke at stage 11 of a 12 stage interview would fit your warped desire to 'to mess around/have fun with your interviewees'...
                Nope, I'm not an HR person.

                Plus 12 stages sounds like a lot of work to me...I'd never do that

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                  #88
                  Once got rung about a contract requiring SAP. Pointed out to the agent on several occasions that I didn't know any SAP, hence it wasn't mentioned on my CV. She went off to check with the client who said this was ok as they were happy to teach me it.

                  Went off to the interview which seemed to involve him talking about SAP a lot. Other than this it seemed to go quite well so I was quietly confident.

                  Got telephoned the next day and told I hadn't got it due to not knowing SAP. I might have sworn at this point.

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                    #89
                    I went for a permie interview in the mid 80's, approx 50 miles from home. About a mile from the client my crappy car broke down. I stood at a bus stop in the pissing rain for about half an hour without a coat before catching the bus to the client's. When I got into the interview the room was roasting and I was literally steaming. The interviewer didn't even offer me a coffee, and I did the interview sniffing and coughing. Needless to say I didn't get the job.

                    5 years later I got a contract at the same place which lasted 6 years, so it turned out well in the end.

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                      #90
                      Worst Interview

                      I had an interview with a product and services company. The interview went quite well.

                      After the interview the pimp called me and here the conversation:

                      Pimp: XYZ are very impressed with your skills and experience.
                      Me: Great ! So whats the next step?
                      Pimp: I don't know
                      Me: Could you find out
                      <end of conversation>

                      The pimp did not get back to me. I emailed him 3 days later to which he replied he is still awaiting a response from his client. No communication after that.

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