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…

Ah yes the hr admin role where I had to do a presentation, have an interview, take an it test, take part in a group discussion present as a group and they even took notes while we had our lunch I finished at the same time as someone else and we both said if they offered it we’d say ‘no’.

My dsis went for a high flying job with a software company in the 90s when they started asking the stupid type questions much beloved of Amazon and Apple. They asked her something like “Apples or pears?” She paused and then said “if you can’t be serious then Xxxxx is in the next building, I can go there. I can answer that but then I walk. You can’t afford to lose me.” Ovaries of steel. She didn’t get the job. 🤣
Went to other company. Supervised the takeover 18 months later of first company.😏

@mrstea301

Ooh - also managed to get stuck in one of those interviews for a "marketing" job that's actually sales, where they drive you out to a distant town and you shadow someone doing door to door sales who is selling you hard on the job. Never again but I've never forgotten the experience!

Haha I ended up on one of these 'interviews' too. Walking around houses in the rain more than two hours away from home with a charity tabard on and trying to get people to sign up. I was promised a lucrative career in marketing if I passed blah blah blah.... the girl I was shadowing was only 18 and was on a massive power trip, made us do silly dances for her and sing songs so she could laugh at us. I managed about half an hour before I flatly refused to do any more, saying I wasn't a charity worker so wearing the tabard wasn't right. So she swore at me, said I could make my own way home and left me to catch five buses home alone 🤣

@merryhouse
"Well, you should be able to give me some textbook answers then, shouldn't you?"

LOL! Actually because of the very strict and fair HR rules I wasn't able to be snarky in return. I'd have loved to have seen my face though - I think it's the only time in my life my mouth has actually dropped open in cliche comedy style. I couldn't look at the other two interviewers on the panel in case we started laughing out of shock.

Luckily there were many other signs as well as this through the interview that the person wasn't for us!

I spent a day in a school, being interviewed. They wanted someone to lead a specific course, which was not mentioned in the job spec. I have no qualifications or experience in that subject. I have no skills which suggests I might be competent in that role. I had not lied on my CV. Funnily enough, they did not offer me the job.

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

I feel this. I had a similar experience a few years back. Was not sorry not to get the job.

I've had some terrible experiences.
The worst ever was immediately after I left university and I applied to do teacher training in Glasgow. The very first question I was asked was:
'So you're from the South if England and you went to St Andrews. How the hell do you think you'll last more than 5 minutes in a Castlemilk Comprehensive?'
The whole interview was incredibly aggressive and lasted less the 10 minutes.
Bizarrely I reapplied the following year and was interviewed by the same two blokes in the same room. They were very interested to know what I'd been doing in Glasgow for the previous year, told me they always appreciated someone coming back if they'd previously been unsuccessful and I was offered a place.

It was a huge pleasure to turn the miserable old bastards down because I received a better offer.

I went to an interview at a family run firm back when I was in my twenties. Had a lovely twenty minute chat with both the husband and wife and thought it would be an amazing opportunity with really lovely people. They were both gushing about how perfect I'd be. The husband then invited me alone into his office to discuss pay & benefits... and whilst we were sat down he leant across and rubbed my knee. I got such a creepy vibe off him I turned down the job, even when they rang up and offered me more money.

Oh I’ve had some terrible interviewers , when I was 17 office junior job interviewer completely lost her voice as in practically mute it did not go well .
When I was in my late 20s and had young dc interview ok the interviewer 2 woman were impressed with the fact I’d stayed in jobs more than 2 years . I mentioned briefly that I had a dc ( big mistake) interview changed like the wind and it was abruptly over.
I’ve had a couple that look at you as if they hate you or are bored so again you can tell and don’t bother .
Another I felt I was interrogated but I felt I gave good answers I got the job and I’m still there .
It’s good experience I say like others say it’s you interviewing them too so if it’s not great you don’t want to work there anyway .
My dh has probably had about 5 interviews in his life and he hates them but all good experience imo.

Oh I should add I worked on reception at one place and when they were recruiting the poor people were left for ages waiting in reception. I used to feel so sorry for them that they were kept waiting so long. I remember one particular person turned down a offer and boss was fuming that someone would turn down a job and was quite perplexed that people interview for more than 1 job . I did mention perhaps making them feel more welcome on interview but that completely escaped him somehow.

I went for a job in-house in another department, the job I'd wanted to do for ages.I couldn't answer any of the questions, spent most of the time frozen in panic racking my brains. At the end I said "I know you won't give me a job based on that performance, I usually have much more to say for myself" abd excused myself. I applied for the job 3 more times over the next 8 years.
It was the same manager who called me into her office when I finally succeeded. I said "you probably don't remember interviewing me in 2008 and I couldn't answer a single question".
She did 😂 and hoped it would be worth it. I love it just as much as I'd envisaged and now I tutor new starters.
Sometimes perseverance really does pay off.

The one where I was sent to a media firm by the job centre. Found out halfway through the interview that the media was porn!

Was it face-to-face or online, OP? What's your gut feeling? I had a second interview 2 weeks ago now and still haven't heard whether I got the job or not. When I enquired last Thursday they said they were "still interviewing a couple of candidates". Wondering if they've got a preferred one and are keeping me as a reserve; it's so frustrating!

Didn’t get it.

@Vampiricouncil

Didn’t get it.

Sorry to hear, or are you relieved?

One interview I had had a miscarriage overnight. I remember dressing smartly but nothing of the interview at all.

Another (very recent), the guy interviewing asked some question then said, “As long as you’re back to cook the tea, eh mum?” The female interview chased after me as I was leaving to apologise!

I didn’t get either job. A young lad got the second post, straight from university. I had got 10 years of experience and a masters in that subject. They didn’t renew his contract at the end of the year...

My first ever proper job interview had some questions that no one could possibly answer unless they already worked there!

One was “What would you do in x area of the premises if there was an emergency?” How could anyone know?! I said I would follow the guidelines that they would share with me during induction.

Got that job.

Sounds awful OP, imagine actually working there EVERY day!

Years ago I spent some time temping and it was a real eye opener. I couldn’t believe how different workplaces could be. Some people had worked in the same miserable office for years and you could see they were unhappy and yet there they stayed.

No feelings either way.

@SirChenjins

I had one of those many, many years ago as a new graduate. I applied for the job, got through to the interview stage, and was then torn to shreds by the 2 people on the panel who obviously had no intention of appointing me. They had my application in front of them, they knew exactly what my limited career history was, and then asked me questions that there was absolutely no way I could answer with my level of experience. Lots of eye rolling and huffing and puffing from them. It was utterly humiliating.

I sit on interview panels now and never, ever feel the need to act like the dicks they were.

Had a very similar situation when fairly new in my career. Had been made redundant and applied for a job with a very vague spec but sounded pretty similar to what I had been doing. Turned out to be less so once I got in the interview and found out more, but the panel of four were just vile to me. Smirks at each other, eye-rolling, one of them saying ‘we’re spoon feeding you here’, dismissing questions I asked. I came out with my confidence on the floor. They knew my background (detailed on CV!), why ask me to interview if I was patently unsuitable?! I’d walk out of any interview that treated me like that nowadays, even more so as I’ve conducted quite a few interviews myself, and if if you think someone is unsuitable there’s no need to make them feel like shit.

Interview for an internal job, a step above mine. I had already been doing the job alongside my lower ranked job on lower pay.

It was obvious though that the two managers interviewing me didnt want me to get it. They were so stony faced and harsh with me. Which was weird as actually they were really nice!

Another girl got the job from another dept, and a year in, I can tell you she is SHIT at her job. I ended up saving her ass more than once whilst technically her subordinate. I've now been promoted into the same role and I still spend my days fixing her mistakes, on the request of her manager who didnt hire me last time and part of me wants to tell her "dont forget, you thought she was the better choice than me!"

Second worst interview, again when young and inexperienced, was when the MD of a small and funky company led me to a sofa in the middle of the open-plan office surrounded by people working and said ‘I want you to interview me”! They obviously wanted an extrovert, confident person who’d have no problem with an audience, but that sure as shit wasn’t me. I’m sure the interview horrors of my twenties are partly why I’ve stayed in my current job 15 years!

It sounds like you're better off without that lot. How insecure and unhappy must they be if this is how they treat people? I bet they have a high staff turnover.

Internal interview for a job I desperately wanted.

Had lost my temporary pallete for my number 2 tooth, so second one in. So had a gap. Long story how it was lost but in involved being dumped by boyfriend that weekend and 2 bottles of wine.

Interview first thing Monday morning so no way to sort it out.

Turned up for interview feeling very sorry for myself and very unloved expecting a manager I vaguely knew to interview me. He had phoned in sick so an area manager from next area was interviewing me.

I'd had a 1 night stand with him 6 months before on a conference thing.

With hindsight I was pissed as a fart, about 15 years younger than him and he had been following ne around all conference and bought me copious amounts of drinks the night we slept together. Did I mention he was an area manager.

Anyway halfway through the interview he asked me if I ever thought about our night together. Should have told him to fuck off, instead I blushed and mumbled I was very drunk.

Got the job tho. And he was sacked a few weeks after. Never found out why tho.

@samlovesdilys

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!

^ This!

I actually got the last job I interviewed for - an SLT role - but fucking hell, by the end of the gruelling 7 hour day of informal chat, a tour, a lesson observation, an intray exercise, a scenario-based test that was like sitting an exam, a presentation on an unseen topic and a panel interview with SLT & Governors (broken up by a cringey lunch with the other candidates)…I honestly didn’t care if I got it or not! I was exhausted and my nerves were frayed.