Ever walk out of an interview?

MentholMoose

Has anyone ever had an interview so bad that you decided to leave before it ended? It seems like you shouldn't do this out of professional courtesy, even if the interviewer is rude or the job is clearly a waste of time. But sometimes it's hard.

At one interview I had for a sysadmin position, the hiring manager said they pirate MS software because MS "will never know". I didn't leave, although it was tough to stay. The interview didn't last much longer anyway.

At another interview for a similar position, the HR person was over 30 minutes late. She eventually arrived and described the position. Certain aspects of it were undesirable, but I still agreed to speak with the hiring manager, so the HR person left me in the lobby to get the hiring manager. After waiting for another 30 minutes, the HR person came back and said the hiring manager was running late and would be available in 20 minutes. This time I cut my losses and excused myself.

chmorin

That bit about pirating MS software is horrible. And MS will find out, when you report them! Who would be stupid enough to tell that to someone they don't know if they will hire anyway? Apparently that company.

Hyper-Me

At that point you could always make a game of it and see how terrible of an interviewee you can be until they ask you to leave.

MentholMoose

Hyper-Me wrote: »

At that point you could always make a game of it and see how terrible of an interviewee you can be until they ask you to leave.

That sounds like it could be fun!!

Pash

Hyper-Me wrote: »

At that point you could always make a game of it and see how terrible of an interviewee you can be until they ask you to leave.

haha. I am thinking along the lines of Ben Affleck's character in Good will Hunting when he sends him to that interview and he manages to get advanced wages from the dudes at the desk. Fantastic.

arwes

Yep, interviewed at a place years ago that does point of sale installs/repairs for grocery stores. The guy gave me horrible directions to their office (it apparently used to be a barn). Started the interview, and he gave me the spiel about the type of work they do, and every few seconds he'd stop to spit in a Coke can. Yeah the guy was dipping Skoal during my interview. Then he tells me that me getting there only 5 minutes early for an interview is the same as showing up 5 minutes late to a job. I already knew I didn't like the guy so I told him that I think we're done and I left.

laidbackfreak

arwes wrote: »

Yeah the guy was dipping Skoal during my interview.

Just had to google that, chewing tabacco well each to there own but I'd have walked out of that too.

I've brought interviews to a close rapidly when I've not realised we're on differnet pages. It's something no one should be afraid to do. I always say the interview is a two way process you're there to get as much information out of them as they are out of you.

Paul Boz

I've never walked out of an interview but I've also never gone to an interview and not gotten the job, either. I've heard some interesting horror stories though. A friend of mine was interviewing for a job and the HR lady kept her cat in her office. My friend was practically deathly allergic to cats and wound up throwing up all over the HR lady's desk. He then proceeded to walk out to his car and left. That lady was left with quite a mess on her hands (literally).

BradleyHU

man, I've had a few of those. One interview i went for back in late January, about a week after i got laid off my from previous job. I interviewed with the Sys Admin person, and that part went smooth. Then I interviewed with the IT manager, and that didnt go so well. His whole body language seemed like he didnt want to be there doing this. and then on top of that, he was all up on his blackberry. I was answering questions he would ask, but i felt like he wasnt paying any attention to me at all, and more on his emails(or bbms). I wanted to be like "well i see you're extremely busy, so i guess this isnt the greatest time to do this interview, maybe i should go?" but i definitely stayed there thru the end of it...i didnt ask any questions tho, i felt like it didnt even matter anyways. now, i have a bb, and i know how addictive it is, but damn, even i put my bb down to handle important issues, or show pplz some common courtesy....

CompuTron99

I almost walked out of one. Years ago I applied for a job at a temp agency. The lady there decided instead of interviewing me, she berated me on my experience and my resume. She handed it back to me with all sorts of red markings on it. It looked like a high school english teacher had graded it. At the end of the interview, I ripped up the marked resume in front of her and threw it out. That temp agency is no longer around.

I have a long fuse, and it takes alot for me to be angry at something. I interviewed for an internship while in college (1996), for a small mom / pop PC shop (doing RMA, computer building, customer support). I went to interview with the service manager, and it went well, until the owner walked in. He asked me a few questions, then I asked him if I would be able to get me hands wet with hardware and software. He then start asking me what a _ _ _ error was, and what so many beeps meant. I told him I didn't know off the top of my head, but if I had the reference books i could figure it out. He then started slamming my knowledge (did I mention this was an internship), my college, it was a small town so he was able to slam my family as well. At that point the service manager realized I was ready to punch him, and tried to cool him down. I said thank you for the interview and left.

bubble2005

chmorin wrote: »

That bit about pirating MS software is horrible. And MS will find out, when you report them! Who would be stupid enough to tell that to someone they don't know if they will hire anyway? Apparently that company.

That interviewer must be bootlegged their way to that position.

Zartanasaurus

CompuTron99 wrote: »

it was a small town so he was able to slam my family as well.

WTF?

I almost feel like this was a test of how cool you'd be in the face of an irate customer.

CompuTron99

Zartanasaurus wrote: »

WTF?

I almost feel like this was a test of how cool you'd be in the face of an irate customer.

Nope. I wish it was. He used to do that to his own customers. He had alot of turn-around with employees. I ended up working for a direct competitor a few years later. We used to get alot of customers from his company (I think a few took a swing at him). I never would have gone that far.

Hyper-Me

I didnt walk out of it, but i did interview for a job that was installing AD domains and clients in 911 centers. The "ideal maintenance window" for a 911 center is Sunday morning at 3am.

...and they thought it was insulting that I asked for the the top of of THEIR ADVERTISED pay for the job.

blargoe

I interviewed for a job with a local county government IT department one time for a basic sysadmin position. It started off OK with a few people from the department coming in and started off with a discussion of what would be required from this position. Then they left and the "interview" started, which consisted of someone reading me questions out of the MS Press 70-284 book. My real answers didn't match what was in his book and I wasn't meeting his satisfaction. I finally excused myself, said this wasn't going to be a good fit and thanked them for their time.

About 6 weeks later I got a letter saying they didn't fill the position because there weren't any qualified candidates.

Zartanasaurus

blargoe wrote: »

I interviewed for a job with a local county government IT department one time for a basic sysadmin position. It started off OK with a few people from the department coming in and started off with a discussion of what would be required from this position. Then they left and the "interview" started, which consisted of someone reading me questions out of the MS Press 70-284 book. My real answers didn't match what was in his book and I wasn't meeting his satisfaction. I finally excused myself, said this wasn't going to be a good fit and thanked them for their time.

About 6 weeks later I got a letter saying they didn't fill the position because there weren't any qualified candidates.

Awesome.

L0gicB0mb508

When I was in college I had an interview with a very small computer shop. The owner was 30 minutes late to the interview (I was pretty pissed at that point). During the interview I got a 30 minute health lecture, which was just insane. I then had to take a paper logic test. I marked everything C and walked out. That was the worst experience I have ever had with an interview.

RTmarc

I've cut one short before and walked out. I went in for a position that was posted on the net as a Server / Net Admin position. Got to the interview, HR person was running 20 minutes late; seems to be a common occurrence. Got in there and she leads off telling me that everyone in the company has 10% of the salary taken off the top and donated to a specific charity (one that I don't support). You have no choice in the matter either. So we move along and the she starts describing the position. Instead of being a server / net admin position, it was a 100% voice system admin. This was not even close to what was posted on the job site. She starts asking about my experience with voice; I had none at that point in my career. After berating me a bit on not coming close to being qualified for the spot I pull out the actual job posting from the internet, slide it across the table to her, and tell her that perhaps they should have put that in the posting and we were done.

Needless to say, I didn't get that job.

Hyper-Me

RTmarc wrote: »

I've cut one short before and walked out. I went in for a position that was posted on the net as a Server / Net Admin position. Got to the interview, HR person was running 20 minutes late; seems to be a common occurrence. Got in there and she leads off telling me that everyone in the company has 10% of the salary taken off the top and donated to a specific charity (one that I don't support). You have no choice in the matter either. So we move along and the she starts describing the position. Instead of being a server / net admin position, it was a 100% voice system admin. This was not even close to what was posted on the job site. She starts asking about my experience with voice; I had none at that point in my career. After berating me a bit on not coming close to being qualified for the spot I pull out the actual job posting from the internet, slide it across the table to her, and tell her that perhaps they should have put that in the posting and we were done.

Needless to say, I didn't get that job.

I could be wrong, but isnt forcing employees to donate to a charity illegal?

veritas_libertas

Hyper-Me wrote: »

I could be wrong, but isnt forcing employees to donate to a charity illegal?

I would hope so!

Hyper-Me

I've only ever had one place ever ask (Target) and they tried to get their employees to donate 15% of every check to The **** and **** Foundation (or something like that).

Not that I have a problem with those types of people, but I dont think even ASKING someone to donate to any charity is appropriate in a work place.

chmorin

Hyper-Me wrote: »

I've only ever had one place ever ask (Target) and they tried to get their employees to donate 15% of every check to The **** and **** Foundation (or something like that).

Not that I have a problem with those types of people, but I dont think even ASKING someone to donate to any charity is appropriate in a work place.

Not to mention the extra 15% with taxes on your check would cut you down to 1/3 of what you should have gotten, at least where I live.

earweed

I had a non-IT intervew the other day. Still go on those occassionally if it's a decent looking job. Not working in IT right now and the job is better than what I am currently doing.
During the interview I felt I was being grilled and it didn't look good. What helped me keep my composure was that one of the 3 guys interviewing me kept falling asleep (they were doing round robin, taking turns asking questions) and when his turn would come to ask me a question he had to look at the other guys sheet to see where they were.
The job is as a radiation physicist; inspecting hospitals, dentists offices, anyplace xrays are used. They didn't raelly sell the job very well, it includes a lot of overnight travel and long hours (on salary). They only have 4 inspectors for the whole state so the workload will be heavy.
I got pounded on not being knowledgable on Application software. Specifically Microsoft Office Access database. I've worked with databases in the past and I told them that if it's a requirement for the job I could learn it quickly.
All in all I think I did ok. The interview lasted about 1-1/2 hours.

tiersten

I've cut an interview short because the job wasn't actually what I thought it would be and ended the interview because it'd save me time and the interviewers time. They were okay with me ending it as well.

At the end of the day, don't do anything stupid in your interview even if it is going badly. You never know if you'll bump into them at another company or if they turn out to be friends with your future boss.

cxzar20

In grad school I had an interview for a co-op at a regional bank for a position that I thought involved server work. Once I arrived there I found out that the work was actually more 80% Java Development / 20% Help Desk. I went through the motions of the interview and even convinced myself to take the 6 month assignment (if hired) because it could help me develop a new skill...until I was interviewed by the last of the three guys. He started seriously berating my background and proceeded to ask me for my greatest weakness. I figured this was a typical HR BS question so I answered it. He then proceeded to ask me to list another, and another. My fuse is pretty short so I told him to take me out of consideration and I openly questioned his professionalism.

It worked out though, two weeks later I was hired for a 6 month co-op at Cisco which really helped me when it came time to graduate and look for full time work.

Daniel333

There is nothing wrong with dismissing yourself. Let them know you don't think this is a fit at this time.

I think it's harder when you are interviewing and you have a candidate that isn't a fit! That's a problem. I mean, it's hard to say "sorry dude, you kinda suck at computers."

erpadmin

Daniel333 wrote: »

There is nothing wrong with dismissing yourself. Let them know you don't think this is a fit at this time.

I think it's harder when you are interviewing and you have a candidate that isn't a fit! That's a problem. I mean, it's hard to say "sorry dude, you kinda suck at computers."

An employer (usually) doesn't have grounds to sue you for you telling them "sorry dude, you kinda suck as an interviewer..."

However, the opposite of that tends to happen a lot....much of it valid, much of it toilet paper-worthy...but ambulance chasers will always try to find grounds through employment law...that's why interviewers tend to be tight-lipped. Interviewees don't have that problem....

Ch@rl!3m0ng

The first Interview I went for when I left the army was advertised for a sys admin role. When I got there it very quickly became apparent that the job discription for a sys admin was waaaaayyyyyyyy out. Turns out that they wanted someone to design open source routers and networks with Cisco and Extreme technologies. When the bloke started to tell me that he thought CCIE's were a waste of space in his annoying french accent, it was too much. I just told him that the job was not for me and stood up and walked out.

The phone call I have with the agency was fun afterwards when they asked me if I wanted a second Interview.

joshmadakor

Ch@rl!3m0ng wrote: »

The first Interview I went for when I left the army was advertised for a sys admin role. When I got there it very quickly became apparent that the job discription for a sys admin was waaaaayyyyyyyy out. Turns out that they wanted someone to design open source routers and networks with Cisco and Extreme technologies. When the bloke started to tell me that he thought CCIE's were a waste of space in his annoying french accent, it was too much. I just told him that the job was not for me and stood up and walked out.

The phone call I have with the agency was fun afterwards when they asked me if I wanted a second Interview.

Lol nice.

I think it's absolutely absurd when the interviewer thinks they can do and say whatever they want because they are the ones offering up the job. I put up with that once (Comcast assholes taking casual calls during my interview), but never again. If I don't get the same amount of respect in return that I'm showing, I will bounce like a boss.

JDMurray

I've never walked out of an in-person interview (although I wanted to), but I've definitely had quite a few phone interview where I hit an abrupt stop in my desire to continue seeking employment with that employer. There's usually a series of "yellow flag" statements that are finally topped by a big "red flag" statement. Some of the more memorable red flags that I've heard were:

• "We have a lot of security problems here, and we know it, but we have no money to fix them."
• "The guy working on the system now really hates it and won't use it."
• "Our application is entirely object-oriented and written in Visual Basic 6."
• "The only guy who knows the software is being reassigned to another project, but he occasionally might be available to answer a few of your questions."
• "The chief architect is very difficult to work with, but he use to work at Microsoft, so we think he's worth it."
• "We are only open weekdays from 8AM to 5PM, and it's very noisy here until 2PM, when the stockbroker people go home."
• "We don't think very highly of certifications here. I strip them from all candidate's resumes before passing them on to our hiring people."

Oh, and I almost forgot:

Me: "It sounds like you put new employees on a raft and push them out to sea all alone."
Interviewer: "That's about it, except we don't give you a raft!"

whatthehell

JDMurray wrote: »

Me: "It sounds like you put new employees on a raft and push them out to sea all alone."
Interviewer: "That's about it, except we don't give you a raft!"


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ROFL --- new definition of sink or swim here, lol.