We have all been there .. some interviews go really good , some turn to challenge us and scare us .. This can happen to the best of us who might be a pro at interviewing ..
Please do share with us your experience of the toughest interview you went to, why was it tough and how you dealt with it and the outcome. Dont hesitate to mention the company names , it may help people prepare for interviews if they got an opportunity with that company ..
Re: The Toughest Interview you have been to ..
no experiences to share guys? come on , open up and tell us about tough interviews you have been to ..
I will share an experience .. its the cooperative group .. I have been on a few interviews with them over the years , but never been able to crack the code with them.. the reason being that they are very conservative in their culture and very skeptical about taking anyone onboard who is used to working in a high pressure, creative environment..
So the answers to their questions had to be extremely to the point, if you can do something , you tell them how you do it step by step! If you cant do something you just tell them you dont know how to do it .. I found the interviewers to be extremely non responsive , they would ask a question and then start writing notes as you respond back ..
Personally I dislike being in interviews like these. Infact I did realize years later that, that particular firm , even if i managed to get onboard, i wouldnt gel well with their culture .. and therefore I stopped applying for any jobs there .. but purely out of interest I did do research on what would work with them to be successful in their interviews … and lo and behold, a friend from public sector applied to one of their jobs and she got the role .. she told me that they need old school answers and thats what worked with them ..
So yeah, that was a tough cookie.. I didnt realize till the end that we are just not a good match to each other 
Re: The Toughest Interview you have been to ..
all interviews are tough for me, esp when I don't get the job afterward :(
But the worst one (i know not the same as tough).....waited an hour and a half and was done in 5 minutes.
Re: The Toughest Interview you have been to ..
Sara, getting a job in the end or not is not important , some interviews you get the job but the interviews are classed as tough for various reasons , know what i mean?
Tell us more about this interview .. thats actually extremely unprofessional on the company's part to finish off the interview in 5 minutes ... When I used to interview even when we knew within the first few minutes that the candidate is not suitable we would still have at least a 30 minute conversation to see if they would fit in any other departments within our firm ...
Re: The Toughest Interview you have been to ..
i had an interview for a school as a right brain trainer. you know those schools where they train kids age 0-7 to use their right brain. totally non academic stuff.
three people interviewed me separately. and the second lady gave me tests! i was really taken aback. it was a japanese school (popular worldwide) and these are the tests that she gave.
1) gave me a booklet with so many small font japanese letters in pairs. i had to tick the pairs where the japanese words/letters were exact. this was hard as i had to observe foreign characters in just 45 seconds!
2) another booklet with many shapes with small shades shapes within. again had to match the similar shapes. 45 seconds again to do this.
3) many many additional sums to be done in 45 seconds. example 23+19. 4+9.
4) mind map on love (3 mins) i was so unprepared for this one!
5) a mini essay to be done in 10 min on how the educational scene should be changed in 20 years. i wrote 2 short pages for this and the lady conducting the interview was shocked.
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this was the most challenging interview that i went for ever! but also the most fun!
Re: The Toughest Interview you have been to ..
Rose, I hate those tests that they give at interviews .. they totally make me nervous ! you must have done really well to enjoy the test 
Re: The Toughest Interview you have been to ..
Citigroup:
It was a group interview. They gave us a scenario, and told us to pretend we were a start up. Keep in mind that all of us are competing for a job, and we weren't the only group interview of the day. I think the task was to sell our company, list its merits etc, and talk about how we would woo someone to our company vs a well established competitor. The key thing in these kinds of interviews is your interpersonal skills. They're looking to see if you're a jerk, and whether you can participate in a group discussion.
Procter & Gamble:
Poker faces. There were two interviewers. They were amicable when they introduced themselves but as soon as the interview began, they were just straight faced. No smiles, no emotion. You have to frame every response as CAR (context, action, result), while they go through your resume. They nitpick everything, and ask several follow up questions for every inquiry. There is also and online IQ test, and a written test on the day of the interview. The second test is to make sure you didn't have help on the online test.
Re: The Toughest Interview you have been to ..
I had a tough interview at my local hospital with NHS two weeks ago. In the beginning I was so nervous because I knew I won't get the job. OK , I entered inside the room, two white ladies were there, both of them asked me 10 questions each, one kept questioning and the other one was writing my answers on the paper. They asked me easy and hard,mixed questions more like related to my IT field and job role in the hospital. The interview finished, they asked me to wait in an other room, one white man came, he went through my answers on the paper, called me, asked me few questions again, gave me feedback of my previous answers. And told me , you got the job, asked me to fill forms etc.I was quite shocked to hear his reply. Well, I was happy to get the job.
Re: The Toughest Interview you have been to ..
I think group interviews are tough because your interviewing with your competition, I gave one last week but it was nerve racking because I was constantly comparing my answer to that of the other interviewees.
Re: The Toughest Interview you have been to ..
Absolutely true Polished gems .. thats exactly the kind of pressure one feels in group interviews .. also it becomes a real strategic element to ensure your statements are different then all other competitors or else it just seems like you are copying them … and this entire process of deep, strategic thinking while being in a pressure cooker can be absolutely nerve wrecking :hinna: