I’m sure many of us have interesting stories to share about our interview experiences… either as an applicant or as an interviewer. While we might run into unavoidable circumstances sometimes… at other times it’s something rather stupid that we could’ve prevented. Last but not the least you may even have fallen prey to staged routines and mind games.
So do you have any stories to tell? Share your experiences, encounters, and “What was I thinking” and “What were they thinking?” narratives.
Re: Interview Debacles (Fiascos, Problems & Mind Games)
I’ll start with a few stories as an applicant:
A few years back I was being interviewed for an instructor position at a community college. I step into the room with the interviewer and extend my arm to shake his hand… what’s next? I knock over his water pitcher all over him – yikes! :o
Luckily, the guy was cool – in more than one way I suppose… the rest of the interview went well and I got the job.
In my last job, I was called for an interview out of town and I was supposed to get there at 3:00 p.m. I left enough slack time to allow for any problems in getting to the place and would’ve gotten to the location around 2:00. At 1:00 p.m., I get a call on my cell phone asking me where I was and that the recruiting committee was waiting for me. 
Apparently, the assistant had emailed me “3:00 p.m.” and put in “1:00 p.m.” in her outlook meeting schedule. Needless to say, I was really anxious going into the interview at 2:00 p.m. even though the assistant admitted to her mistake. These were busy people and their schedules had already been disrupted.
Once again, I was lucky to have an understanding bunch of people… they realized that I had rushed to get in and asked me if I wanted a glass of water. I took 5 minutes to take a breath and a sip of water and went on to my audition presentation and the roundtable interview. Things went well and I got the job.
Re: Interview Debacles (Fiascos, Problems & Mind Games)
interesting 
ps. may ALLAH SWT get me good job as well 
…so i may also share mine 
Ameen
Re: Interview Debacles (Fiascos, Problems & Mind Games)
^ inshaAllah :k:
Here are two encounters from the other side while interviewing candidates…
My colleague and I were supposed to be interviewing applicants for a Business Analyst position. The interview was scheduled almost 10 days in advance and the time for the interview was 11:30. The guy comes in for the interview and before my colleague or I could even start… the guy looked at his watch and said, “Will this take very long? I have a lunch date and I don’t want to be late”. Needless to say my colleague and I were taken aback and my colleague replied: “Well, we certainly would not want to be the reason for your delay - You’re free to leave now”.
Aargh! we both were annoyed!
I was on a recruitment committee for hiring a Network Technician for our department. One of the candidates we called had brought in some work samples to illustrate the types of technology architectures he had experience with. While this was a little strange to see, it was about to get even more horrid. The whole recruitment committee was stunned to see that the guy had not stripped off any organizationally identifiable information from the documents. There was a lot of sensitive and arguably confidential information that should not have been disclosed to external parties.
Needless to say, he wasn’t hired.
More to come…
Re: Interview Debacles (Fiascos, Problems & Mind Games)
Since I am presently in the interviewing process, I have one:
I was called to meet with the front line HR rep on a given day at a medium sized corporation. I was expecting a day of interviews as HR wanted me to bring in at least 3 copies of the resume. Needless to say that interview lasted 20 minutes and I was let loose.
Mind you, I had traveled from a different city for this interview and caught a cold on the way back. After 3 days, I received another invitation to meet the senior associate. Since I was under the weather, I requested a reschedule to 3 days later on a Monday. I wanted to fully recover. The HR rep agreed and said that he would confirm a meeting with the Managing Director on Tuesday. Even though I was not thrilled at the prospect of taking two days off from my job, I was willing to do it.
The senior associate interview went well and I promptly sent him an email. He responded by saying that HR would be contacting me as we move along in the interview process. So I stayed in town until Monday evening and did not receive any communication.
I returned back to the home city Monday night and went back to work on Tuesday. Around 11 AM, I heard a voice mail message from the HR rep who was asking if I was delayed? Delayed FOR WHAT? Apparently he had set up a 10 AM meeting with the MD and never informed me yet he insisted that he had confirmed.
Talk about a sticky situation. Should I argue with the HR rep or simply accept it as my mistake? Trying to be diplomatic, I accepted the mistake. He promptly asked me to see the MD at 5 PM on that day (Tuesday). After some quick thinking and doing travel feasibility analysis (taking the next shuttle out), I realized that the job was not worth it.
I felt that I had been manipulated on several occasions and furthermore they were making things unnecessarily difficult for me with the multiple rounds of interviews on different days. I emailed the HR person, thanking him for the consideration and opting out.
Most importantly, having a job that I like, drove me towards that decision. I am not going to generalize and say that HR people are terrible, however this guy seems to have done a terrible job.
Personally I prefer to deal with the hiring person directly.
Re: Interview Debacles (Fiascos, Problems & Mind Games)
I was interviewing with a consulting company, the usual process is that applicant goes through screening, behavioral, technical, and then onsite. First the recruiter screwed up by setting my tchnical interview before my behavioral, technical interview went well, to a point the guy told me before the end of the interview that he was recommending that company bring me in, anyways, recruiter calls me a later and wanted to set up my behavioral interview, told me that they would rather not do it on a cellphone , so i give them my home number, we set the date a week out, a day before the behavioral interview she she emails me saying that the position was being filled by an internal candidate.
Then the day my behavioral interview was supposed to be, I had an unidentified call on my cell, I did not answer, checked msg later and it was some dude who was saying he was scheduled to have a behavioral interview and called both my numbers several times with no answer. Apparently the recruiter forgot to tell this guy that I was no longer a candidate.
turns out that the recruiter forgot to tell this guy that I wasno longer being considered.
He emailed me as well, I had to respond back copying the recruiter noting that there must be some miscommunication on their side as I was no longer scheduled for an interview.
Re: Interview Debacles (Fiascos, Problems & Mind Games)
Wow – two negative experiences with intermediate parties (HR Rep and a Recruiter) involved in the process.
pak-one…
that sounds like one lousy HR rep – couldn’t even do his job properly.
X2…
I’m sort of surprised at the recruiter fiasco myself… the behavioral almost always comes before the technical. What’s more surprising is that the guy doing the behavioral wasn’t aware that his company was filling the role internally while the recruiter knew 
- talk about messed up communication chain in the company.
I have a consulting job interview related story too… will post it later today.
Re: Interview Debacles (Fiascos, Problems & Mind Games)
Absolutely. The job search process is like having another job, we can do without the unprofessionals folks. I am so glad to be searching for a job while I am winding down my current position.
Re: Interview Debacles (Fiascos, Problems & Mind Games)
umar and this is no mickey mouse company we are talking about, it was accenture :D
Re: Interview Debacles (Fiascos, Problems & Mind Games)
an interview that i can never forget. this is seriously a tragedy of errors. few months ago, i went for a credentialing data and institutional research quality assurance position at a prestigious local unvi.
the interview was rescheduled twice. i had lens allergy at that time, and so took my Mom with me to drive half of the way, took that morning off from the other job, and had to be there by 1 pm, whereas the interview was at 10:00am in a 50 miles opposite direction and with travel back to home and to the current job would have been a commute of 2 hours.
it was cold like 20 degrees. and even though i got out to get to interview on time, the traffic was bad. so got stuck. reached there 1/2 hr late all prepared though, but with my Mother. nearing the univ., i asked my Mom to change seats, so she listened to me, so sweet of her and always encouraging. she was more worried about my eyes situation.
prof who was suppose to interview, was waiting for me there at the bldg to allow me to park in the reserved parking. in cold he stood out of the bldg on its side (without his winter coat), as i drove past by three times and was on the ph, asking him, where will i see him. last time again, when i passed him, he said to me, is that you on (my car model) that just past me by, and i said, yeahhh, and then i turned around and finally stopped my car near him. after saying hello, he very gleefully he jumped in the back seat of my car, BUT what he did was - i had baked a cake that day, to take to my other car, and seeing my mom on the passenger seat in the front, he opened the door to one side of the back seat and...
yes, it was cold. so sorry prof.
what he ended up doing was that he ended up sitting on my cake. and all i could say was, please NO. no. no.
would you all like to hear the rest of it?
Re: Interview Debacles (Fiascos, Problems & Mind Games)
^ ouch… this one takes the cake… literally
yes - please continue… I’m sure we’re all curious now.
Re: Interview Debacles (Fiascos, Problems & Mind Games)
phir kiya hona tha, Umar bhai,
any way, he said (oh sweet), so sorry and embarrassed he pushed the baked cake on to the side and sat there. while i began driving as he said to me that i should park in the reseved parking and that he had his card with him so we should go there, swipe it to open the bar -gate and so that is what i did. when i reached closer to the gate he said, (my name, here is the card, please swipe it, there.) i did not take the card and turned around and realizing that my front driver's seat window decided not to open that day, politely told him that and so, he had to get out and do it for us to be able to enter the reserved enclosed parking area.
Re: Interview Debacles (Fiascos, Problems & Mind Games)
^ hahaha... it just keeps getting better...
I don't know whether I feel bad for the interviewer or the interviewee...
Re: Interview Debacles (Fiascos, Problems & Mind Games)
acha jee, phir..
so he got out of my car, and said he will swipe the card, and he did, but since the denda went up, and i did not want to have it come on top of my car's bonnet, i drove off WITHOUT THE PROF.
Re: Interview Debacles (Fiascos, Problems & Mind Games)
ok... by this time if I was that interviewer I'd have given up on you.
Re: Interview Debacles (Fiascos, Problems & Mind Games)
i know. that is why before they would have called me even to notify that i am hired, i myself did not feel that this is how an interview ought to be. it was plain tragedy of errors - comical at that.
in any event, i parked my car and he came in, saying it is cold, it is freezing cold. i somehow had the nicety to ask at the wrong time, but prof where is your coat? and grumbled i am sure, but very patiently and he boomaranged, if you will, that he did not brought one on him, since he is adventurous stupid.
finally as i was going up and up to the top most floor of the parking garage, he finally said, this is a parking spot, park it here. i said no. as i saw sleet there. and he said why. and i said, my Mom has her surgery in a month, i dont want her to slip or anything.
he said, please do park here, and that we will be alright since there was no other parking space in that faculty/admin parking area. and i agreed.
han, and when i parked in the spot, i parked totally inadvertently very closed in on his side. so he could not get out without effort.
so then..
Re: Interview Debacles (Fiascos, Problems & Mind Games)
..then wat 
ps. 
Re: Interview Debacles (Fiascos, Problems & Mind Games)
zobia,
i was myself very upset at this point, but so was my dear Mother. really disappointed in my ill-prepared ness or sequence of events to a point that even the prof said, looking at her looking at me, that it is alright, it so happens, sometimes.
now, since it was cold, i did not want my Mother to be in the car for any long duration, so i asked him, is there a lobby area in the blg where my Mom can wait for me, i would like her to come inside than be in the cold for an hr.
he politely said, yes, sure. not only that, but seeing and remembering that i was worried about my Mom possibly falling on sleet, he extended his arm for my Mom to hold on to him while they walked the sleet.
my eyes welled up from humbleness of this Interviewer, who managed to smile as well on all of this.
finally, i went in the room where there other professors were waiting or me. i apologized for being late. this prof. introduced me and my qualification.
we had an hour long interview. and i impressed them.
on my way out, he thanked my Mother for being with me that day as well.
he advised, knowing that i am in education as well, that less time on computer or reading. and somehow, he said this to me very seriously, that they will definitely contact me and later on they did offer the position.
but when i wrote him a thank you note, i said, sorry, i cannot join not because of what happened on my interview day but because, i would like to come to that university with more work experience.
and he appreciated that.
wished me well and said, whenever you would like to reconsider, you should apply at that university again.
quiet an experience.
but the good thing is i was very genuine and the committee and this kind and patient prof. saw to it that i was not deliberately dong all this. it was just not the right day for me to go for an interview.
Dushwari
Re: Interview Debacles (Fiascos, Problems & Mind Games)
certainly the interviewer, but i was also very upset on how that interview began.
^ hahaha... it just keeps getting better...
I don't know whether I feel bad for the interviewer or the interviewee...
Re: Interview Debacles (Fiascos, Problems & Mind Games)
dushi api 
these things happens 
btw, what uni was that?