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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

horrific interview.

42 replies

PreMadonna · 20/11/2014 16:27

Painfully, embarrassingly awful.
Dry mouth. Blank brain. Waffly.

Terrible.

Never again.

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PreMadonna · 20/11/2014 16:28

And this isn't chat and i'm not U at all.

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KatelynB · 20/11/2014 16:29

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WhispersOfWickedness · 20/11/2014 16:29

I feel your pain Sad I still have flashbacks to a couple of really awful ones about 8 years ago!

PeterParkerSays · 20/11/2014 16:35

Do you know why? Was it nerves, the job not being what you'd expected, which threw you?

LightastheBreeze · 20/11/2014 16:51

I know just what you mean, I had one also this morning, my brain went completely blank and I answered two quite basic questions wrongly, the interviewers just looked at me, mouths open.

outofcontrol2014 · 20/11/2014 16:55

Sometimes it happens. It just does. Doesn't matter how well qualified you are, how much you know your stuff - for some reason, everything just goes down the pan and you find yourself marvelling at what a complete idiot you sound, while being simultaneously unable to shut up.

I've done it several times, and wanted to go hide in some remote location for weeks afterwards. Good news is, it doesn't mean that your next interview will be bad - actually, I've found it usually goes a lot better subsequently.

Each time it has happened to me, a better job has come along later (and I don't think that's just psychological compensation - better salary, better conditions were offered). Stick in there!

chasingtherainbow · 20/11/2014 16:59

Oh god. I've been there. It was for a job I SOOO badly wanted to. I even did a pathetic beg for them to re interview me later on but they wouldn't. I was devastated.

However I got a different job two months later that ended up being perfect, and I hindsight I can now see that the other job would have had difficulties etc that I was looking past at the time

Next time xx

CalamitouslyWrong · 20/11/2014 17:08

I once had a horrific interview. They only asked 5 questions and I could not answer two. At all. I had to talk rubbish about learning on the job. I went out with people and told them (truthfully) that I'd made a complete arse of it and there was no way they'd be offering me the job.

Yet, a few hours later one of my references (who was with me) got an email notification asking for a quick reference as they wanted to offer me the job. I was flabbergasted and no one would believe me that I wasn't lying about how utterly crap I had been.I still cannot for the life of me understand why they hired me. The job before that I also don't know why they hired me.

I was properly and had a temperature. I was feverish and slightly delirious for the interview and I honestly can't remember it. Then I got to spend several hours sitting in the freezing cold at Watford junction station waiting for the sleeper train (as the interview finished too late to get the last ordinary train). I was totally skint and didn't even have enough money to buy a coffee and sit in Costa (after paying for my train and the taxi to/from the station). I was so grateful that they offered me the job, despite everything.

So, my point is, you might not have been quite as awful as you imagine.

Tbh, I never get the job if I perform well in interviews. I only get it if I'm abominably bad. That probably says something quite worrying about me on a day to day basis.

DonkeysDontRideBicycles · 20/11/2014 17:13

Oh dear. Been there and done that, it's horrible isn't it. Better luck next time!

WeAllHaveWings · 20/11/2014 17:17

Oh I remember that. First couple of interviews after 25 years in the same job were cringeworthy, came out thinking why on earth did I say that! Blank brain and panicking at my long pauses while I tried to think of a answer. Took a good 3-4 interviews to get into the swing of it.

ATailofTwoKitties · 20/11/2014 17:19

I've had interviews where I've come out thinking 'Oh god, pleeeease don't offer me the job as I can't face you ever again after what I just said...'

PerpendicularVincenzo · 20/11/2014 18:00

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littleleftie · 20/11/2014 18:15

Oh I hate interviews and have actually had an interviewer say to me "Erm, I don't think you quite understood the question." But I still got the job!!!Grin

I am a firm believer in "If a Train doesn't stop at your station, then it wasn't your train."

TheNewClassic · 20/11/2014 18:19

I have to interview people and I find it funny when people say certain things it breaks the ice and shows a bit of personality imo.

ConcreteElephant · 20/11/2014 18:21

You really never know.

At the interview for the job I have now I was asked if I could tell the panel a little about the big event happening at my workplace on that day. My mind went blank, totally blank.

I work at Parliament. It was the State Opening. The State Opening ffs. And I had no idea. The road closures as I went in and the Queen going past in a gold carriage not being enough of a clue apparently.

Obviously I must have done well elsewhere in the interview, but what I'm saying is that that's the only bit of it I could remember immediately afterwards.

I'm sorry it was awful. Fingers crossed though, eh?

Redhead11 · 20/11/2014 18:30

At the job i have now, which i leave next month, i was on day 3 of a dreadful migraine. I could hardly speak and when i turned up for the interview, i was told to have a wander around and smell the products (bath and body stuff).

Big mistake! I smelt one and almost puked on the spot. during the interview, they asked which scent i liked and i had to say the only one i had sniffed! It took me months to confess to my manager that i wasn't that keen on it!

PreMadonna · 20/11/2014 18:41

I'm hoping i don't get it as i am too embarrased to ever face them sgain.

THAT BAD.

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KatelynB · 20/11/2014 18:45

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PreMadonna · 20/11/2014 18:46

No but I did fall over my bag.

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TipsyTitFace · 20/11/2014 18:50

There must be something in the water today as I also had a bad interview.

I can do the job on my head, my CV speaks for itself, I just completely fluffed it.

The best question was 'how will you fit into an all male team?' Hmm I said it shouldn't matter but my previous team was male blah blah blah.

KatelynB · 20/11/2014 19:02

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Tanith · 20/11/2014 19:33

I remember two interviews.

One, they had to call me out to move my car because I was blocking in the MD Blush I reckon they wrote my rejection letter while I was in the carpark...

Another, I recognised one of the interviewers the moment I walked in. He had an enormous garden backing onto our estate and it was full of fruit trees. We used to go scrumping in there as kids and one day he caught some of us BlushBlushBlush

I thought he hadn't recognised me because I got the job. I squirmed a few weeks later when he was grumbling in the staff room about the Council kids in his garden: "But you'd never do anything like that, would you, Tanith?" BlushBlushBlushBlushBlushBlushBlushBlush

Notbythehaironmychinnychinchin · 20/11/2014 19:40

I went for an internal job last year. After I was told I'd been successful, I bumped into one of the panel members who took the piss out of my answers! Cheeky bugger!

forago · 20/11/2014 19:45

Tipsy that's what I would say and have only ever worked in all male teams - what's a better answer? it should be irrelevent but probably helpful if you're quite resilient and have a sense of humour - as evidenced by all the other all male teams you've been in.

Mind you I've never actually been asked it - and don't think you should be really!

smokinggnu · 20/11/2014 19:50

I cried in one once. For a company I was already employed by!
As a teenager I used to detest talking about myself and something in the phrasing of a question brought back this wave of emotions I'd had when being quizzed about my 'home life' at school. It was utterly mortifying.
I went back to work and they all asked me how it went. I actually threw myself into getting any job anywhere after that.