What's the longest technical interview you've ever had?

[proggy]

Once I interviewed for a big bank and they waterboarded me for 3 days to see if I could handle the pressure. Didn't get it

[Normie]

Never had a technical interview, but have had a 4+ hour interview with a vetting officer. Think I would have enjoyed a technical interview more.

[MyUserName]

I did an 3 and a half hour interview which comprised of 8 different pairs of interviewers asking me technical questions which involved me having to write code on paper and give it them them and one pair which had a HR girl who thought I was awesome because I could explain the problems of memory fragmentation and Unicode character sets to her in a way she understood.

I had to come back the next week for interview 10 of 11 and prompty had a memory blank and fell flat on my face when I could not see the bug in some code ... the bug being two functions in a class had the same name and signature. They pretty much showed me the door at that point.

Found out later that they are absolutely horrific to work for and I was lucky not to get the job.

[OwlHoot]

What's the longest interview that you've had to secure a contract?

I'm not convinced that an invite for a half-day interview reflects positively on the hiring process and the role itself, especially bearing in mind the project is likely to have only few opportunities to develop something genuinely new.

Any thoughts?

Most of a day. An hour and a half in the morning, then back after lunch for round 2 - another hour and a half.

I had to devise and sketch a design for a remote monitoring and data gathering system they wanted, and my design based on inetd was reckoned the best. Ended up based there for over two years, on a pretty good rate.

At the other extreme, after applying for another contract I received an email saying start on monday, with no phone or on-site interview required!

[shaunbhoy]

I've never had one.

Janitors normally get taken on by word of mouth. You must wield quite a mean mop!!

[KaiserWilly]

Once I interviewed for a big bank and they waterboarded me for 3 days to see if I could handle the pressure. Didn't get it

Didn't do the dog thing with the collar and the cage?

[Spacecadet]

Didn't do the dog thing with the collar and the cage?

You're thinking of the NHS

[Zippy]

I did an 3 and a half hour interview which comprised of 8 different pairs of interviewers asking me technical questions which involved me having to write code on paper and give it them them and one pair which had a HR girl who thought I was awesome because I could explain the problems of memory fragmentation and Unicode character sets to her in a way she understood.

I had to come back the next week for interview 10 of 11 and prompty had a memory blank and fell flat on my face when I could not see the bug in some code ... the bug being two functions in a class had the same name and signature. They pretty much showed me the door at that point.

Found out later that they are absolutely horrific to work for and I was lucky not to get the job.

A well-known facilitator of wagers perchance?

[MyUserName]

A well-known facilitator of wagers perchance?

Yes, amongst other things. They combine news, finance etc into a BLOOMing big operation. I thought BERGer me I am glad I did not get that one.

[nomadd]

What's the longest interview that you've had to secure a contract?

My last one. Went on for 2.5 hours without a break.

I think they had planned 30 minutes, but they made the unfortunate mistake of asking me "Using the whiteboard and the various coloured pens behind you, please detail the last system you worked on."

I'd been at the previous gig. over two years, and had worked on the system from inception through to production. Once I got talking, I just couldn't find it within myself to stop - at least whilst they remained awake.

Did the trick though. They'd offered me a role before I'd even left the building (in retrospect, they probably just offered the role in order to see the back of me that day. )