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I had to take an hour long train ride to get there, after speaking with the HR manager for the last two weeks. This is a management position, so she really went over my credentials before asking me to come up to meet the president of the company.
Red flag. I should not be meeting the president of the company, not for a business of this size, but hey I thought I should still go up there and meet with him.
Took the train, then took a cab, met with HR. She and I talked for about 30 minutes. The president was not back from lunch yet, but she asked me to stick around so I could meet with him. "He knows you are here, has reviewed your resume and is interested." So I decided to sit in their conference room, answer a few emails etc. 20 minutes later I was summoned to his office.
I walk in, the guy eyes me up and down, nods his head, then turns his back on me to answer email. I watched him - he really wasn't answering anything, just making himself look busy. I thought, "F this guy, I could never work for him" but sat there with a Stepford Wife look on my face.
Eventually he turned around, pulled out my resume, and without looking at it asked, "SOooo, tell me what are you three biggest accomplishments. Tell me in 2 minutes or less." I was puzzled at such a BS question because what I do is very specific, usually in interviews we talk about nuts and bolts business stuff. But I answer him anyway, telling him about my "three biggest deals" that I have negotiated (which relates to the job).
Then his phone rang. He watched it until it stopped ringing, then turned to me and said, "You know you didn't have an appointment scheduled with me, right? (but I did, and took time off from my current job to go to this) I don't want to be rude, but I'm pretty busy. Wait outside for a moment." I walked out of his office, and he called in the HR manager. Moments later she walked out and said, "Thank you very much, we will let you know."
The end.
(I should point out, when I researched this company a few days before the interview, I saw they have been recruiting for this position for six months. I guess I know why!!!)
A hiring manager throwing a temper tantrum during a job interview because I have a university education. I left the interview perplexed and annoyed. But her supervisor got a 30 minute tongue lashing from me. They reap what they sow.
I had to take an hour long train ride to get there, after speaking with the HR manager for the last two weeks. This is a management position, so she really went over my credentials before asking me to come up to meet the president of the company.
Red flag. I should not be meeting the president of the company, not for a business of this size, but hey I thought I should still go up there and meet with him.
Took the train, then took a cab, met with HR. She and I talked for about 30 minutes. The president was not back from lunch yet, but she asked me to stick around so I could meet with him. "He knows you are here, has reviewed your resume and is interested." So I decided to sit in their conference room, answer a few emails etc. 20 minutes later I was summoned to his office.
I walk in, the guy eyes me up and down, nods his head, then turns his back on me to answer email. I watched him - he really wasn't answering anything, just making himself look busy. I thought, "F this guy, I could never work for him" but sat there with a Stepford Wife look on my face.
Eventually he turned around, pulled out my resume, and without looking at it asked, "SOooo, tell me what are you three biggest accomplishments. Tell me in 2 minutes or less." I was puzzled at such a BS question because what I do is very specific, usually in interviews we talk about nuts and bolts business stuff. But I answer him anyway, telling him about my "three biggest deals" that I have negotiated (which relates to the job).
Then his phone rang. He watched it until it stopped ringing, then turned to me and said, "You know you didn't have an appointment scheduled with me, right? (but I did, and took time off from my current job to go to this) I don't want to be rude, but I'm pretty busy. Wait outside for a moment." I walked out of his office, and he called in the HR manager. Moments later she walked out and said, "Thank you very much, we will let you know."
The end.
(I should point out, when I researched this company a few days before the interview, I saw they have been recruiting for this position for six months. I guess I know why!!!)
Anyone else have a horror story to share?
Wooow, talk about pretenders. What was that company supposed to do? Consulting?
My worst interview was when I didn't prepare for it. My mental state was off and I made pauses, lost eye contact, etc.
And this is gonna make you roll on the floor laughing and believe it cuz this sort of stuff you can't make up....
I applied at a Shakeys Pizza in Corvallis, Oregon (believe I was 20 y/o). Manager wanted to see 'if I had it or not' so he put me in a Shakeys apron and hat and escorted me to the 'dough room' to give me a taste of what I would be doing. He introduced me to 'Joe' and explained that I was to be shown how to roll the dough on the machine and then observed. LOLOL..I'm giggling already remembering this one...so 'Joe' explained how to dump the bucket of dough into the roller and how to turn the machine on and how to feed the dough over and over again back through the roller until it was a certain thickness. OK...got it? Yep...so 'Joe' dumped a bucket of dough into the machine and said 'go for it I'm going on break'....LOLOL... so...I turn on the machine, how hard could it be right? Wrong! The dough started feeding through the rollers and instead of feeding out of the machine it just sort of stuck to the rollers cuz 'Joe' never mentioned I needed to flour the rollers, or maybe he did and I just forgot...LOLOLOL... this was so 'I Love Lucy' it was unbelievable. So the dough just kept rolling and rolling and rolling and then it started to rise and it kept rising...I didn't think to turn off the machine so as I took off my Shakeys Pizza apron and hat and hung them on the back of the door...on my way out...I looked back and that machine was still rolling away and the dough was rising and rising...I just walked out the back door and split..LOLOLOL...I supposed the interview was over. I was so embarrassed by that episode I never had the nerve to ever go back into that Shakeys...top that one.
Koale
A hiring manager throwing a temper tantrum during a job interview because I have a university education. I left the interview perplexed and annoyed. But her supervisor got a 30 minute tongue lashing from me. They reap what they sow.
So you yelled at someone's supervisor for a half hour because they didn't like your education? Got time on your hands? They must have to not to have hung up on you!
I'm starting to figure out that the Internet brings out all kinds...
There was one that was just plain horrible for me.
I went in the interview first half went great, second half went horrible. They wanted to me to do complex math problems and take an hour long test. They never told me once that they would be doing this! So basically when they gave it to me I was like WTF?! Needless to say I bombed it (I am okay at math, but when put under pressure like that unexpectedly what can you expect?!). The test was on the computer so I saw my results right away and man was it bad. I was actually very annoyed they did that. I think they should have forewarned me and also it would have spared me the embarassment. I left their feeling crappy. Anyway I am glad I didn't get the job it wasn't for me.
At the interview as I was hired, the manager said, "And no bras." (It was the 70's and I think he meant "No - no bras" - as in you can't go braless.) I started laughing and could not stop.
I still break out in a sweat thinking about this one.
I was young, inexperienced and not sure what I wanted to be or do so I answered an ad in the Sacramento Bee (this was 40 years ago) for a "Financial Account Executive". It sounded like an cool job where I could wear a suit and tie and impress people. "What kind of salary?" I wondered; certainly six figures for such an awesome sounding job as "Financial Account Executive".
I had been very sick for several weeks prior. Walking pneumonia and it was horrible. Never been so sick anytime in life before or since.
So I get called for an interview when I found out it's trying to collect payments for Household Finance Corporation. Worse yet pay was fifty cents above minimum wage but I needed the job.
So I show up and they give me a Mickey Mouse test after which I sit down for the actual interview. I started coughing heavily. Could not stop. Vomiting in public, dry heaves, bathroom... from here it was all downhill.
I wasn't offered a job, it probably had something to do with the public vomit, which was a good thing that happened to me.
I had a telephone interview, on a cell phone, and I was asked all these long winded perfomance based interview questions, like by the end of the question asked I did not even remember the beginning of the question. I answered stupidly, and was ready to just bag the whole thing, after all, if I did not even know the answers to the interview questions, forget about the job. Note: do not use a cell phone for phone interviews.
I showed up for a marketing position interview and was asked for my portfolio. Huh? Marketing, not graphic arts or even advertising. Although I do have some graphics experience, it wasn't on my resume, required in the ad for the job, and a portfolio was never requested.
The witch with a capital b who was interviewing me had backhanded comments about my suit which was brand new (ie stylish) Ann Taylor (ie classic design). She left the interview room three times to take phone calls and kept asking the same question over and over when she came back in--it was like that movie "Groundhog Day."
Then I was taken to meet with several executives in the company who kept asking really technical questions that made no sense for a marketing position. Did I know how to determine the ph levels in soil? What was the difference in composition between the types of soils on a tylical golf course in Florida, and how would they compare to a golf course in Bermuda? It was like I had stepped into another dimension, as if they were confused as to the position they were interviewing me for.
They never called back, and frankly it didn't break my heart. Just genuinely a bizarre experience.
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OK, here's mine...
