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…

@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!

Plus you have to tell SLT you're applying for the job before you actually apply (references). The interview can also include being 'interviewed' by children too!

Op I’ve come across similar interviews and often it turns out that they already have someone in mind (internal candidate usually) and just have to go through a process they can’t be arsed with.

I suffered through an interview for a much sought after job where one of the interviewers stretched his long legs out and leaned back in his chair as if to sleep, with such a look of complete boredom on his face. I wonder if I'll ever forget him, it was just so mean.

I walked out of the waiting room for another interview as they were about 20 min late to collect me and no one had said anything to me and I was already feeling in two minds about the job. I told reception to let them know I'd gone and made my way out. However I was anxious as I was leaving that I might bump into them coming to collect me so I nipped out an emergency use only side exit.

I had an interview where I didn't understand the questions and had to just stop as I clearly hadn't prepped properly at all.

In my whole life I've only had 7 interviews, the others were successful. But with such a poor hit rate I loathe ever having to interview ever again!

Interview for my PGCE course. The first part of the day was a full morning of assessments. Then we had to wait around for an hour or two then got called into a room. If you name was called you had to take your bag and go into another room. The rest of us in the room were told we were successful to the interview stage. Those who left were not.

Not a horror story as such, but I knew my current organisation was the one for me when their application /interview experience was the exact opposite of the org I was working in at the time!

Never looked back.

11th November 2012. Interview for first proper grad job with a notoriously tough company based in a very fancy pants office in a London skyscraper.

The guy interviewing me had been quite hard on me and it was a difficult interview, but it was pretty much over and we were almost at the point of standing up, shaking hands etc etc when an announcement comes over the building PA system…

“Ladies and Gentlemen, please would you join us in observing a 2 minute silence for Armistice Day”

We had to sit opposite each other in a vast, empty boardroom, in complete silence, for 2 arse-clenchingly long minutes. Absolutely bloody horrendous.

Got the job though

Interview for a very large charitable organisation. Got me to travel 3 hours to their head office for the interview for a job that was based 10 miles from my house . I could have handled that but when I got there it felt like I was being interviewed by someone on work experience who then took my cv off me and commented they’d never actually seen it as they couldn’t open the attachment on my application but liked my cover letter. Overall just plain awkward, on the plus side had a nice night away with my sister and a good shopping trip

I had an interview where the 2 interviewers introduced themselves and gave me written instructions for a practical exercise then left me in an empty room to do the exercise which involved preparing a presentation. The wording was unclear and I was really puzzled about what they wanted so when I started presenting I explained that... to two blank stares. They let me carry on then fired a few questions at me and sent me on my way. They fed back that I was extremely nervous and they had had to cut the interview short because they felt my nerves were stopping me from performing well. It was truly bizarre.

A friend was involved in arranging interviews for appointment of a university vice chancellor. It was a full day of meet and greet events with academic staff and management for the candidates and a panel interview. One of her key responsibilities was to ensure that none of the candidates found out who else had applied (apparently that's not the done thing ) so she had to make sure that everyone moved around the campus like clockwork and no one caught sight of the other candidates. I had visions of the old Ealing comedy Happiest Days of Your Life.

The interviewer mansplained all the answers to his questions to me. It went on for an hour and a half. I declined their offer!

Had an interview a couple of weeks ago for a role in the public sector. I had over 15 years experience in similar post. Two people were interviewing. They kept joking with each other and were totally distracted. Senior interviewer was getting text messages which he read throughout the interview and kept laughing to himself. I didn't get the job as they said I didn't have experience of a certain IT system which wasn't even mentioned during the interview or on the job description. I think it was just an excuse. Told me that I would be lucky to get a job without that skill. A week later I had another interview for a similar post with two very professional interviewers who gave me the job on the spot as I was so experienced.

9 stages of interviews and assessments. Down to the last two and didn't get it. I was so exhausted.

Interview with a well known car manufacturer. The two men who interviewed me were really aggressive and swore during the interview. Telling me how they needed someone who wouldn't take any shit from the suppliers. Decided I really didn't want to work in that sort of environment.

My worst wasn't so bad until I got feedback..,

"I don't know how to say this but you made us all feel uncomfortable with how nervous you were"

I was due to take early retirement and thought I wanted to volunteer for a local charity for whom I had done fundraising for a number of years. I knew the staff, or thought I did, and was asked to go in for an informal chat. Having raised £30,000 for them over the years, they made no reference to this at all and thought they would slot me in to a job sitting at a computer for x hours a day and where my colleague would be doing the same job but getting paid for it whereas I would be doing it for the love of the charity. Having worked in IT for years, the last thing I wanted to do in retirement was sit at a PC all day! In the end, I told them where they could shove their kind offer.

I later found out there had been a change of management and most of the staff I had known over the years had left for other jobs.

I went for an interview at the Met Police way back and the person in charge asked if I could cope with sexism and people spitting in my face. I just said no thanks, sounds horrible.

I had an internal interview just yesterday. They were lovely though but I royally messed it up. So disappointed!

Interview for dep CEO. The chair of the panel fell asleep during my 90 sec opening presentation. He was seated in the middle with 6 others either side.
Was totally thrown. Got the Job
No one thought to mention his narcolepsy.

Outing here but DS just recently had an interview at Domino's. The manager asked him "What do you think customers expect from Domino's?" DS: Umm, pizza?

He got the job.

I recently had a call from a company who apparently wanted to discuss a role with me that I'd expressed an interest in. It turned out to be a random HR woman who asked me a series of situational questions and then asked me how much notice period I had to give. I'm not working at the moment and this was clear from my CV.

I learnt nothing about the role. They offered me an interview but I declined. Like PP have said, it's as much us interviewing prospective employers too and I wasn't impressed.

I've seen some of the tasks for a unit operator, position, but I wonder what methods the intelligence services use to train recruits ?

At a very pc education place for a very hard line pc trendy council....got grilled about my lack of knowledge on sikh religion etc....errr...no sikh students had ever ever attended this centre and none lived in the catchment area....didnt get job...due to my lack of knowledge....later rang me to ask me to temp...so i did.....quit after 3 weeks...terrifying stasi hard left atmosphere..had to ask for cofee without milk...all that ridiculous staff....huge amount of managers all typing away in glass bubble things...no idea what they did...awful....later unit shut down...all managers fired for racism and sexism etc....thats hackney for you...!!

I had one like that a while ago, 3 interviewers, 1 was lovely and the other 2 weren't very nice. I struggle with asking questions at the end, so I asked if there were opportunities to progress within the service (it was police but not a police officer) and the one horrible woman's response was "well we've already got a manager if that's what you mean"

I hate the way job interviews are anyway.
Why do the questions have to be a big secret?
I've applied for a couple of jobs over the past few months, researched what I thought might be asked and it's ended up being completely different. I don't see anything wrong with having a rough idea about which areas of the jd they are going to ask about so you can prepare examples.

@AngeloMysterioso

11th November 2012. Interview for first proper grad job with a notoriously tough company based in a very fancy pants office in a London skyscraper.

The guy interviewing me had been quite hard on me and it was a difficult interview, but it was pretty much over and we were almost at the point of standing up, shaking hands etc etc when an announcement comes over the building PA system…

“Ladies and Gentlemen, please would you join us in observing a 2 minute silence for Armistice Day”

We had to sit opposite each other in a vast, empty boardroom, in complete silence, for 2 arse-clenchingly long minutes. Absolutely bloody horrendous.

Got the job though

"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?"

I made them wait a day before confirming I wanted the job when they offered it to me which I now know concerned them - as I was by far the most experienced candidate. I was never as friendly with the interviewer again though after that and never quite trusted them again.

I used to work for a housing association, they restructured so my boss was made redundant and a few months later I was too.

Of course, it is the role that's made redundant not the person, and I knew that as my job had had a large HR remit. It had been my job, if someone had been made redundant, to send them a list of other openings so they could decide which one would be the best fit for them and then the recruitment process for that role would halt until the person who had been made redundant from their previous role started and became permanent.

Anyway, I don't know what I had done wrong but somehow suddenly when I was made redundant, this was no longer the policy..... The HR director was fairly new and didn't know me very well, she was so sour and horrible to me. She told me that there were internal vacancies but I would have to apply and interview for them like everyone else. Which I did, I had three interviews.

I had worked with these people for six years. They all knew that I would be made redundant if they didn't give me an alternative role. They made me interview and then rejected me - by the third internal interview I was so frustrated, because I KNEW what the law was, I knew what the company policy was and I had no idea what I had done wrong.

I did challenge the HR director on this. She said that the feedback she had had was that my communication skills were really poor and I was not doing myself any favours....??? So I pointed to my last three appraisals, where three separate managers had given me 'exceeds expectations' for communication - she said they had been lying to me....

I went into a completely different sector after that which I love!!!