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

[Unix]

Guess he got a stage fright!

[Jubber]

Is it me or are interviewers getting younger?

[CheeseSlice]

Not had any when I was interviewee but recently was involved in interviewing a contractor. He was so thick the interview lasted 2 hours as we had to explain everything to him in length, when we asked him to present on the whiteboard he revealed he couldn't write and ran out the interview having pissed himself crying.

It was probably somebody interviewing for a floor cleaning job who reception sent up to the wrong room.

Your interviewee would have been sat in a basement office full of mops and buckets being handed a set of blue overalls by the janitor.

[BrilloPad]

My worst one was the one at the hedge fund. Lest call then Crlue Best. Big issue was I got the job. Total misery. Only bright spot was a guy who had written stuff for spitting image - funniest guy I have ever worked with. When he was happy. He was unhappy every day after he had a drink the previous evening. And whenever there was a full moon. I joketh not.

[CheeseSlice]

before I started contracting I went for a permie interview where I was taken into a large boardroom with four people sat at opposite ends of a very large table. Before it kicked off a large projector screen on the wall lit up showing an image of a man who started asking me questions. He was being videoconferenced into the room from Scotland using some fancy two-way video system they had.

The interview went on for hours. It was truly grueling, with this guy going almost line-by-line through my entire CV asking me detailed questions about everything.

They never made a decision after all of that. Time wasters

[Eirikur]

Was invited 3 years ago for an interview for a year long contract in Norway. All expenses for the interview were paid so I decided to go.
Arrived just before 5 PM in the office, reported to the receptionist, who called the guy who was going to interview me, didn't manage to contact him and subsequently packed her stuff, left the office, switched off lights and left me sitting in the dark.
I managed to find a light switch and called the agency 15 minutes later asking wtf is going on. Agency got hold of the guy and was picked up another 15 minutes later, just seconds before I was going to walk out. Had the interview,which went well and was offered the contract, which I refused mainly because of this incident.

[CoolCat]

Had lots of interviews where one of the interviewers has clearly just been reading a manual and asks obscure questions that don't crop up in real life they just sit there in the manual. Mainly to try and impress the other interviewer. Generally a waste of time.

Interviews with the Indian outsourcers have been hilarious, one I just got up and walked out half way through the interview.

One time I found I was being interviewed by someone I had forced out of a previous place for sheer incompetence, anyways he hired me and I found out he was making just as big a Horlicks at this place so sadly I engineered his dismissal.

Lots of interviews by clearly useless senior managers who know a lot of BS but know the square root of nothing about anything but politics

[Antman]

There was an absolute classic here about someone who had an interview in canary wharf with some others. After the tests/interviews nobody got back to him he was left sitting in a room whilst everybody else had gone home (interviewers, receptionist - lights out, building in darkness)!

The end point is that just as much as there as some blaggers in the interview process, there are also some knob heads on the other side of the desk. For the contractor it's about as much as finding that out during the interview whilst they try to find out about you from your CV.

[Scrag Meister]

3 half hour interviews.

2 technical and 1 with the manager (non-technical)

Breezed the technical ones and the manager wanted to know how well I knew the company!!!!

"Failed to research the company and our business"

Both techies were keen but over ruled by the manager bloke.

[psychocandy]

Had a tech interview for contract once. Went well. Really decent guy interviewing me. All looking good.

Then, few days later, finance director wanted to see me. Guy was a total nobhead. Actually came up and said - I dont like contractors they're a waste of money. Then said I needed to convince him otherwise.

Became obvious he was just there to can the whole idea. In the end, they put it all on hold.

The original interviewer even contacted me to apologise for his FDs behaviour.