"Bad" Interviews That Resulted In A Contract: Your Experiences

**BrilloPad** · 3 August 2012, 11:43

Most of my best gigs have come after difficult interviews. The ones that have gone really well I did not get the gig.

**ThomserveBAS** · 3 August 2012, 11:44

What I found strage though was;

a) I was interviewed by a contractor (under NDA)
b) I only did 1 20 minute telephone call
c) I got an offer!
edit:
d) I thought I'd blown it

I certainly wasn't expecting that!

**bobspud** · 3 August 2012, 11:55

Never under estimate the other crap on the market... What you concider as a bad day could be very much better than the others.

Also the client could just be so far over the waterfall they would take a warm corpse if they thought it would help!

**captainham** · 3 August 2012, 12:04

Originally posted by bobspud View Post

Also the client could just be so far over the waterfall they would take a warm corpse if they thought it would help!

Page 5 from "How to big a guy up", I like it

In my experience, I've learnt that it doesn't matter how well/badly you think you've done, you really can't predict what will happen until you get that fateful phone call.

EDIT: Oh and congrats on the first contract! Was in a similar position myself recently, so I know the feeling well!

**kettlebellBA** · 3 August 2012, 12:16

Originally posted by ThomserveBAS View Post

What I found strage though was;

a) I was interviewed by a contractor (under NDA)
b) I only did 1 20 minute telephone call
c) I got an offer!
edit:
d) I thought I'd blown it

I certainly wasn't expecting that!

Well Done!!

Exactly the same process landed me my first contract - I nearly fell off of my chair when the call came through.

**Gentile** · 3 August 2012, 12:26

It's quiet out there right now, but at busier times I found that most contract interviews were "easy" in comparison to permie ones, at least where the ClientCo was serious about getting the work done. The vast majority of contracts that go ahead, you hear about them, apply, and interview that day or the next, then you hear back from the client on the same day as the interview, usually when you're on the way back home. Whenever there's more than a 24 hour delay in arranging the interview, that's invariably been a sign that they're not serious about engaging any contractor in my experience. The ones that are serious about it just get on with it, because they know they can bin you if you turn out to be no good. The tyre kickers and deadbeats treat it more like a permie recruitment process, with delays of weeks before they even deign meet you for the "urgent" work they claim to need done.

**SimonMac** · 3 August 2012, 12:28

I can never tell by interviews, sometime though if you are at ease and its too comfortable you drop your guard, the tough ones are where you make a name for yourself.

PS I believe you need to get over to General and post your first Boomed! thread when the contract is signed

**MyUserName** · 3 August 2012, 12:36

Twice I have come out of an interview thinking I had blown it and got the job (these were perm roles).

Several times I have come out of interviews thinking I had blown it and been right :-(

Including my favorite question when at round 9 out of 10 interviews for a place, this was the department manager and the one after was a phone interview with a guy in the US:

Him: "Do you have an Unix experience?"
Me: "No"
Him: "Oh, you do know this is a Unix job don't you?"
Me: "Yes but your colleagues explained that the exposure to Unix was actually minimal and I just needed to know how to code and use Eclipse"
Him: "Erm ... no, not really"
Me: "Ah ....."

The interview did not go on much longer.

Although another time I ballsed up a C exam and thought I was dead. I got the job and after a year or so mentioned it to the guy who interviewed me. He pointed out that although I did not do very well on the C exam I aced the C++ one and he checked my cv and noticed I have never claimed to be a C programmer so it was fine.

**Lewis** · 3 August 2012, 12:38

Originally posted by ThomserveBAS View Post

After the events of my week, I wanted to gauge opinion on when you thought you'd had a "bad" interview and then subsequently received an offer.

My story is I've been looking for my first contract for about 8 weeks now, and this week has been my busiest, with 2 FTF interviews and 1 telephone interview. Both of the FTF's went really well, and I'm actually starting to enjoy the interview process now, but weirdly, the telephone interview I had on Wednesday was a little strange - the role isn't exactly what I was looking for and the conversation with the contractor who interviewed me was laborious to say the least, but to my surprise I've had a call today from the recruiter offering me the contract!

Has anybody else had such an experience after an interview?

Totally thrilled at securing my first contract, as I was starting to doubt my decision to go contracting, but this has really made my day!

I had a similar experience ... I usually do very well in interviews but had a really difficult phone interview on one occasion, mainly because I had trouble understanding what the guy was really asking it was a very wierd call. I wrote it off immediately, but then I get the offer - good rate, prestigious company - but I didn't even know the location! So i asked to go and meet someone in the team in the location where I would be working, they were surprised. Anyhow it turned out to be the worst contract ever and one of only two I have ditched early in 15 years. Be warned .. if things seem not right at the interview process they may only get worse.

"Bad" Interviews That Resulted In A Contract: Your Experiences