Holy hell, just had THE toughest job interview that I have ever experienced! Come & tell me your interview horror stories.

[Vampiricouncil]

Wow!
2 on the panel with the coldest staring eyes ever.
Absolutely no kindness to be seen!
Just cold hard eyes staring at me barking questions at me…

My worst interview is the one where I applied for one job and when I got to the interview was told there were two departments interviewing so representatives from both would be in the interview room.

In theory great, twice the opportunity to get a new job.

In reality, the teams sat at opposite ends of a 30ft conference table - so you couldn’t talk to one team without turning your back to another.

They talked over each other when asking questions so it was difficult to follow.

They then completely trashed my experience and qualifications as not relevant to what they were looking for (so why bloody interview me then?!)

If that happened to me now I’d walk out but I was young and stupid so sat there for an hour.

It took me YEARS to get the confidence to attend interviews again.

There’s also the job interview that took me 6 hours to drive home from (25 miles) due to beast from the east coming as a total surprise to them.

It’s incredible to me that people think it’s acceptable to behave this way towards someone who simply wants a job. Who do they think they are?

And why do you think you accepted that treatment? If it were me I would tell them I found the whole situation extremely hostile and would question the necessity of it.

@Vampiricouncil

Wow! 2 on the panel with the coldest staring eyes ever. Absolutely no kindness to be seen! Just cold hard eyes staring at me barking questions at me…

That's awful. They should realise that you are also assessing whether you want to work for them. If I was treated like that at an interview and was successful, I'd turn down the post.

I wouldn't work there if that's how they think am interview should be.

I had one of these and the feedback was that I didn't smile enough.

I did smile at the start but it clearly wasn't being well received so I stopped.

the weirdest thing about it was they offered me a second interview but I thought they were playing weird psychology games so wouldn't want to work there anyway.

I recently had an "informal chat about the job" via Teams which was certainly not informal or chatty with full blown interview questions and lasted an hour. If it's going to be an interview call it an interview!

@Vampiricouncil

Wow! 2 on the panel with the coldest staring eyes ever. Absolutely no kindness to be seen! Just cold hard eyes staring at me barking questions at me…

Yikes! What was the job?

I should add

I don't think they were being deliberately nasty at all.

but they were interviewing for a not very senior job - this was years ago - in such a serious way, you'd think I was in the SAS and they were quizzing me about how I would smoke out in a terrorist in a desert operation.

That really did not seem like a good place to work!

To be honest, my worst ones are the ones that have gone really well in both directions and I'm then told they've given the job to the internal candidate who was going to get the job all along. It really fucking infuriates me when my time is wasted.

I had a weird interview with a completely inappropriate solicitor in my youth. I think he'd already decided I wasn't the right look for the job so spent the interview telling me that legal secretary jobs were shit and that I should aim higher so I could have £200k cars like him. There was also the MI5 one where no matter what long winded answer I gave, the interviewer kept sitting there silently anticipating more... I really wanted to run away.

Teaching interviews are ridiculous....all the candidates together in one room all day, and a full day (two if senior position)?with teaching a lesson, formal interview (often a couple with different members of leadership), often an in-tray exercise, 'informal chat' with staff, tour, presentation...and anything else they can think of...!!! Oh and if they offer you the job you are supposed to decide there and then!

I went for an evening job in a kitchen at a golf club for some extra cash.
After the interview (with the Stewardess and Steward) they said they were going into the next room to discuss and come back. I heard the steward say to his wife "We can't put that in the kitchen - it needs to be front of house with that body". Wife agreed and they came back in and said "Sorry that we have decided you are not qualified for the kitchen job but we can offer you bar work".

I actually took the job and it was a massive mistake, with the steward backing me into corners, following me to the cellar when I changed barrels to molest me, grabbing my bottom and lady parts as I carried 3 trays of glasses, etc.

Sounds rough @Vampiricouncil

What sector is this?

Just so I know to avoid!!

I had a job interview to work for a very prestigious estate as an industrial placement. They asked some of the most random questions including how to manage an unwanted Canadian goose population. The answer is to submerse their eggs in paraffin apparently… It had no relevance to the job I was applying for though!

Ugh, I had one similar. They opened the interview by telling me that they were the big bosses because the lower management had proved themselves totally incapable of hiring good staff This was for an entry level, min wage job, so not exactly brain surgery

Worst interview I ever had was when one of the panel fell asleep and the other two acted like it was normal 😁

I had an interview like that once. I'd decided before I left the room that I wasn't taking it if offered.

It's made me a better interviewer myself though, I think. I make a point of putting people at ease and giving them the opportunity to show me their best.

@SequinsandStiIettos

Worst interview I ever had was when one of the panel fell asleep and the other two acted like it was normal 😁

How did you not laugh?!

The one I walked into and the interviewer said "you're not the colour I was expecting" (I am white and have a surname which is common in African countries).

The one where the interviewer told me I was a Poodle and he wanted a Rottweiler.

The one where the interviewer had his mobile phone on and took 3 calls from his wife with the ringtone recorded by his daughter shouting "daddy it's mummy calling"

All 3 interviewers were men and I walked out of all of them. These were for senior roles in the City.

My Dad went for his interview to begin vicar training. He tripped over the threshold coming into the room and went arse over tit in front of the panel of three stern bishops 🤣

The worst I had was for an internal position only one step up from the basic. IMO it only needed the ability to read and write and answer the phone. No offer, the senior foreman's son got the job!
Later one of the blokes on the panel spoke to me he said he was taken aback but how hard his colleague was.
It reminded me of interrogation when they don't proceed through lack of further evidence.

One for a pretty lowly position where they must have printed out and asked me every single interview question known to man . I lost the will to live after about page 6 🤣

bottormon- I have also been greeted with a gasp and “you’re white”.

My horrors range from from being interviewed by friends and still not getting the job, to making very badly received jokes in an interview, to savaging a product which the interviewer then turned out to be responsible for.

All good practice though

An internal job they knew I could do as I had been doing it already Suddenly they adopted an interrogation approach and if I hadn't already worked there and been doing the job and wanted it - I'd never have accepted it or wanted to work for the interrogator!

@Stripyhoglets1

An internal job they knew I could do as I had been doing it already Suddenly they adopted an interrogation approach and if I hadn't already worked there and been doing the job and wanted it - I'd never have accepted it or wanted to work for the interrogator!

Did you talk to them about that after?