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Original poster

Tell me about your interview failures

61 replies

roaringwater · 01/04/2019 20:05

Today I had a gruelling full day assessment centre for a job I really, really wanted. I didn't get it.

Please tell me your stories of interview failure so I feel worse a bit better.

OP posts:

Hyacintharehighersincelasttime · 01/04/2019 20:07

oh, i asked someone, who had changed their name, if they had got married, or something? i dont know.

velourvoyageur · 01/04/2019 20:12

Used the phrase 'British-speaking clients'. In an interview for a role requiring excellent comms skills.

hope you get a job you love soon OP spoil yourself tonight then back on't horse

cashmerecardigans · 01/04/2019 20:13

I went for a promotion and the first question was something like if you were successful, what would you do in the first 3 months, six months and a year. I was all geared up for competency based questions, my mind went completely blank and I never recovered from it, so the interview was awful. My line manager was on the panel and was looking at me in horror, clearly wondering how I’d turned into a rambling idiot.
Obviously I’d didn’t get it, I got very patronising feedback from the head boss, telling me that some of us are meant to stay where we are. I decided he was wrong and got another job externally in the next 3 months and have gone from strength to strength since.
It’s such an awful feeling when you’ve put so much into it. It won’t help now, but do get some feedback, you will always learn something from it. Even now, I still prepare and answer to that question, just in case!
Good luck

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Tattersail · 01/04/2019 20:17

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

wannabebetter · 01/04/2019 20:48

Cashmere oh thank God it's not just me!! Went for internal promotion / secondment temporary step up for 18 months. Panel was my current boss & next boss up (who used to be my boss until promotion!!) car crash is being kind - could hardly remember my name! Basic error was failing to realise interviews for promotion (when they know you!) are v v different from external interviews (where I feel v relaxed & have always been successful). Needless to say I didn't get it - am still licking my wounds tbh....

Palominoo · 01/04/2019 20:55

Not so much an interview but as a young girl on work experience circa 1981 I was introduced to different people in charge of their own departments as I would be going around working with all of them at some point.

I was introduced to a very prim, battles e type woman who looked near to retirement and her name badge read as Mrs Thacker.

Unfortunately I called her Mrs Fucker and didn't get to work in her department.

Palominoo · 01/04/2019 20:56

^battleaxe

Aimily · 01/04/2019 20:58

It's the most disheartening thing to want a job so bad, work so hard and not be successful in securing it. Sending hugs!

At 18 I got asked "where do you see yourself in 5 years?" My response hopefully will raise a laugh, I giggle now. "Professionally I have no idea, I just know I love admin, which is why I'm here. Personally, married with a baby" as soon as it left my mouth I knew it wasn't the smart answer 😂😂😂

Lelelel26 · 01/04/2019 21:02

At 16 I got asked in an interview for a very posh bank, how have explained your absence to your manager in your current role. I answered honestly, oh I said I had a dentist appointment!

Never good to admit you’re a liar in an interview needless to say didn’t get the job. 30 years on I hope I wouldn’t say the same again!!

PearlHeart3 · 01/04/2019 21:06

I went for an interview years ago and as I entered the room, I was asked where my laptop was for my presentation?

Yep, HR did not tell me about any presentation that I had to do 🤦🏼‍♀️

I remember feeling so unprepared and overwhelmed, I cried. In front of everyone. I did not get the job.

Original poster

roaringwater · 01/04/2019 21:07

These do make me feel a bit better. Thank you

OP posts:

Needallthesleep · 01/04/2019 21:10

I’ve been rejected from about twenty jobs recently. But worst was a job I could have actually done in my sleep, which I was rejected from because ‘you need too much development’. I basically fell apart in the interview (I actually said in the interview that I was falling apart).

Honeyroar · 01/04/2019 21:11

I got through several rounds of group sessions and onto the final interview stage for a graduate position. The interviewer asked me about my role on the staff student committee for my subject and I replied that it wasn't a very good committee and hadn't achieved much!! (I was actually being totally honest, but still!!😀😀)

CatsinSpace · 01/04/2019 21:13

I remember going for a job after graduating, and I had a stinker of a cold. Did really well at the interview up to the point when I forcefully sneezed unexpectedly. It was a snotty sneeze which I didn't catch in time with my tissue.

I didn't get the job

BestIsWest · 01/04/2019 21:17

First ever proper interview for a trainee accountant role with Cardiff City Council.
‘And why do you want to be an accountant, Ms West?’

I had no fucking idea. Could not think of a single reason.Total silence.

beansonbread · 01/04/2019 21:17

I was once asked as the first question in an interview, "what makes a good (insert job role here)?" to which I replied ".....ummm I'm not sure, I'll have to come back to that one!" I didn't get the job needless to say. Though I do think I unconsciously self sabotaged as I really didn't want the job in the first place.

WaroftheWorlds · 01/04/2019 21:21

Went for a promotion. One of the interviewers was quite senior and scared me for some reason. They had also carried out a piece of work to improve tji fs in our department the year before. They asked what I had done to improve a process,
and nerves killed me, and my mind went blank. I started reeling off a story about the work the interviewer had done, but for some mindboggling reason, claimed it as my own. I knew I was lying, I knew he knew I was lying and I JUST COULDN'T STOP.

I didn't get the job, and he reminded me of it five bloody years later, just as the cringe began to fade.

SamStephens · 01/04/2019 21:24

I remember one of my very first job interviews and got the “where do you see yourself in 5 years” question, I started off alright with hoping I’d finished my degree with a good GPA and putting my skills and education to good use in my field blah blah blah then I went on a tangent about how winning the lotto, traipsing around Europe and buying a house would be good too... lol

AnnieOH1 · 01/04/2019 21:33

Went to an interview at the last minute over 15 years ago via an agency. They emailed through an information pack for the company "to help as it was less than an hour's notice". They asked me what I knew about them so I was upfront (thankfully) and told them the truth that the interview was last minute but from what info I had received they were an agent for ILEX and LPCs (legal qualifications). Nope they were a pharmaceutical testing company. :/

In my defence it was held at a local hotel so there was nothing to clue me in. The guy interviewing me wasn't happy but we had managed to bond a little over a mutual interest at the start of the interview. So very unprofessional and embarrassing. I guess today in the world of smart phones I would have been able to do a little more personal research on the way but as it was I only had the information I had been presented with. Since then though I've prepared meticulously for every interview so I've found value in it I suppose!

marvellousnightforamooncup · 01/04/2019 21:36

Turned up on the wrong day once. That was embarrassing.

Elephantina · 01/04/2019 21:40

I interviewed for Barclays once, in their offices near Tower Hill. I walked around and around, and could NOT find the entrance to their building. I managed to call as I was going to be late, and the interviewer kindly talked me in and reassured me that no one could find it as the entrance was hidden.

By now I was flustered, sweaty, and could feel a migraine building. It all started well enough, but then my vision went peculiar and the throbbing of a true migraine started. My answers were getting shorter and shorter as the nausea got worse and worse, and I must've gone white because she brought me some water and moved the bin a bit closer. I didn't vomit but she wrapped up the interview pretty quickly and I didn't get the job, God knows what bollocks I came out with.

That wasn't the worst of it though - I actually had another interview straight afterwards, over on Oxford Street. I was an hour late so the agency called ahead to make sure they'd wait for me, then I had to work my way to the next one by tube, trying not to puke down myself, and it had also started raining so I was a frizzy mess to boot.

I arrived at reception and...they'd all gone home, they didn't wait for me after all.

It was a shitty crappy day, I was very relieved to get home where I crawled into bed!

Oh - I also car crashed an interview when I was not at my best, mental health wise. No one in their right mind would've employed me, I was unhinged and came out with some utter shite...

nrpmum · 01/04/2019 21:40

Was very young and had an interview for car sales. Made me do a bloody chicken laying an egg impression. Worst interview ever

amusedbush · 01/04/2019 21:50

Last year I had an interview for a massive promotion and I prepped like you wouldn’t believe. However one of the first questions was about a pretty obscure topic and after a few moments I just had to say ‘no, I’m sorry, I’m not able to answer that’. It didn’t recover. I’ve relayed the story to a couple of people in my industry and they have been baffled by the question (it really wasn’t relevant to the role) but the interviewer looked deeply unimpressed at the time.

Phlewf · 01/04/2019 22:05

In an interview where the main thing on the job was engaging with vulnerable clients in a real dynamic way I intended to say I would use an online diary so staff could easily keep everything up to date and keep everything flexible. What I actually said was spreadsheet. So I banged on about staff keeping spreadsheets everyday and I’d add everyone to a spreadsheet and I’d have coloured coded spreadsheets. I knew it was the wrong word but I couldn’t stop saying it. I flipping hate spreadsheets! it was the exact wrong answer.

Another interview I was doing fine until I caught myself in the reflections looking really cross but then I was like the joker crossed with mr Ed, I could not make my face less startled.

Most recently I went for an interview which was a massive massive reach for me but exactly what I want to be doing. I didn’t have the degree but the HND and had millions of extra skills. The director asked me a genuine question about “what do you know about this role”. I couldn’t remember 1 thing I’d studied. I’m genuinely passionate about the subject but I think the pressure was too much and I crumbled.

I am not good in interviews!

Samind · 01/04/2019 22:09

I was asked what training I had received in the past and I literally couldn't think of one thing even though they were at least 15 things I could of said 😂😂😂 my mind went completely blank and sat a bit open mouthed while it seemed like hours until the next question.

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