A co-worker is leaving our company in a month and so we are interviewing people to replace him. He is helping us screen out the potential candidates, which I think is really odd but who am I to make the decisions. I got to sit in one of his interviews and was s.h.o.c.k.e.d. He basically chewed up the guy! I really felt uncomfortable. I agree that his resume was a bit exaggerated but I guess all resumes are. But IMO, it was totally unprofessional to insult someone in the interview, especially for a job that requires only a couple of years of experience and not a whole lot of skills.
I have been to only a few interviews (7 to be exact) and never had any complaints. Generally the people interviewing me were polite and very accommodating.
So, what has been your experience with interviews in general? Any horror stories?
1hr 30min interview on phone :( man it was long and freaking hard.. it was almost like an exam and he asked me everything .... now that i am hired.. :D i feel good about that interview but yeah it wasn't fair.. coz most of those freaking stupid interview questions were not even related to the job directly in anyway or form..
When I first got a job with Price Waterhouse, which is one of the largest accounting firms in the world, the Senior Manager who conducted the interview was absolutely brutal. Mostly the hiring process was guided by our scores/marks in graduation, and a separate test conducted by PW to filter out the applicants. About 600 ppl applied and after the test, they reduced the pool to 200 people and interviewed all of them. 15 were ultimately selected. The interview was conducted just to intimidate the candidates and to see who has the real will to enter and succeed in the profession. The kind of position PW had in the job marketplace, they can afford to turn down candidates in big numbers, and essentially be very very choosy. To their credit, once a person gets through the firm, after that interview, and after convincing the Senior Manager, no one will leave the firm at least on account of misplaced expectations or work load. Other firms constantly had to deal with ppl who'd leave in a short time after hire, just because the applicants didn't realize that the work hours will be so long and involves fair bit of traveling and sharp learning curve. It costs employer a fair bit of money to be hiring, re-hiring and training new resources, so its essentially a waste. A good and solid interview process at PW took care of this problem.
However, in US, the interviews tend to be far more gentle. Open insults during the interview must be quite rate. Myself, I have often asked fairly technical questions and when I see the candidate clearly struggling or trying to bluff, I would either smile and move on or tell them how to work through such an issue. We may not necessarily hire them, but we can certainly provide them better information.
i think i have met ur collegue quite offten during my interviews, the last one was a GM who had called me for the interview, just coz he thought i had boasted a lot in my resume’… after an hour of grilling he said he didnt have ne opening at present just wanted to meet me coz of the above reason. Really got me pissed, he said he would rather look forward to taking in someone who has a bit of hands on experience if ever the need arises. I am a fresher, n i am so sick of listein to this crap experince BS, that i said to him do let me know where i should shop for experince, coz i dont think anyones willing to sell it nemore. N hes like perhaps you arent marketing urself in the righ manner, u need to give another 30 -40 interviews more to learn the tricks of the trade. N then he had the nerve to ask me whether i learnt anything from this rendevous…
My first real professional job interview was done over the phone. I answered about 60% of the questions correctly. I did ask the interviewer to answers to the questions that I answered incorrectly. I think that left an immpression that I am willing to learn and accept my mistakes. I got a job offer with in two days, I did NOT even had a face interview. NOTE: I knew nothing, I just read books and applied for this job which required 2 years of experience. Now I am here for the last 5 1/2 years and taking care of the you can say the most important computer application. I think my parents prayers were answered. The important thing is that you have to believe in yourself and convince others but also be resonable and listen to others. :)