Worst Interview You've Had

This was inspired by the "wear a suit or not" thread.

I had posted about an interview I had at Rackspace awhile back and didn't get the job, and one of the reasons the recruiter gave me was because I didn't wear a sports jacket. Hadn't thought about that situation in a while, but it brought me back to it, and how horrible of an interview it was.

Little bit of back story, I was working as a contractor overseas in Kuwait, and was preparing to move back home. Lived in a small(ish) central Texas town, and when I was home visiting a few months before planning on coming back, a friend of mine had told me about this company called Rackspace he'd just accepted a job with in San Antonio and how much he loved it. He invited me out to the campus for lunch and to check out the work space. What I didn't realize was that he'd also set up an impromptu interview for me with his boss, in which I was offered an entry level position. It was awesome, and I intended to take it, but the following day, I learned that my company in Kuwait needed to retain about 10 people for an additional 6 months and offered a ridiculous bonus on top of the already great salary if you agreed to stay. The 6 months salary was about double what the annual salary was for the entry level position I was offered. So there was just really no way that I could move yet, and they understood and just told me to reach out in 6 months and we could pick up from there. Awesome.

Nope. At about the 5 month mark, when I did reach out, I was informed that they had completely done away with the entry level positions, and had transitioned into Linux Admins being the entry point. I was a Windows guy, and realized that I wasn't prepared to be a Linux Admin, or even to interview for one, so I informed that I would study up, get comfortable and reach out again. In the interim, my company was assisting me in a transition back home, and they found me a position to transfer to in San Antonio, so it worked out. Life got in the way, I didn't make a whole lot of Linux progress over the next year as I adapted to my new role, and also shifted focus to Security. Still had Rackspace in the back of my mind, but things were good, and I was happy and flexibile.

Anyway about 18 mos after I'd moved to San Antonio, one of the recruiters who I'd been talking to regularly for about 3 years now reached out to me about a program they had for hiring people without much security experience and putting them through a 3 month classroom / bootcamp type in house training and then qualifying them and giving a raise and position. It sounded perfect. The company I had been wanting to work for for a couple years, the field I was wanting to get into, and training I wouldn't have to undertake on my own hours / home etc. So I excitedly expressed my interest, and was set up with an interview.

As mentioned from the other thread, because of the laid back atmosphere (and some advice from my friend who worked there and had become a manager) i did not wear a suit.

Anywho I arrive for the interview and it's set up as 3 back to back to back 1 hour panel interviews. I was nervous, but quickly calmed down, and the first two went phenomenally. Great rapport, was able to answer the technical questions proficiently and with confidence and was just genuinely having a good time.

The third however was a different story. Just a weird, rude vibe from the very beginning. The leader of the 2nd panel advised me to take a bathroom break, and I did and was gone maybe 90 seconds, as it was literally next door to the conference room. When I walked back in, the last panel was there, and already seated. They didn't really address me as I walked in, and looked irritated from the beginning. I tried to introduce myself and extended my hand, and one of the guys say "didn't you just use the restroom?" dryly.

Ok, so I sat down and tried to regroup.

There were two guys, but really only one talked and he's who I'll focus on.

He immediately launches into questions "because we're short on time, now" (due to me using the bathroom briefly I'll assume)

First question he asks me my favorite color. I tell him,

"you know honestly I don't really have one. bu-"

Are you color blind?

"no, just don't have one color that's one me over yet, but hopefully one day."

that's weird

After that he told me that the recruiter had told him I'd been trying to work for them for a few years now, and describe what's taken so long, and what efforts I've made etc.

so I talked about not being able to take the first offer, studying Linux on my own when they did away with the first line positions, but having to pause it due to working in a Windows environment and having a young child at home, and how I'd targetting moving to San Antonio with the ultimate goal of eventually working for them.

"So you had your company pay to move you out here with the express intent of leaving them?"

"Well, it's contract work so by nature we both understood I'd be leaving at some point."

"so... yes. got it"

just really confrontational and short, and the polar opposite of how the first two hours went.

another question he had asked was about my biggest strengths and I said that I really try to see things through, and am a bit obsessive over leaving things undone.

his response "except learning linux right? had no problem bailing on that'

anyway, you get the gist... the whole hour was more or less like that. even when there was a brief opportunity it seemed like things would get more personable he had asked what my favorite things to do were, and I mentioned that I really enjoy exploring the local food scene, and finding the hidden gems and sharing them with friends. He just cuts me off "recommend a place to me"

I throw out a few names with explanations and he cuts me off "NEVER HEARD OF IT"

lol. recanting the story, it really makes me laugh now, but in the moment it was very surreal and unbelievable.

It was so bad, that afterwards when I talked to my friend and he asked how it went I said "it went really well up until the last panel. do they make the third part intentional rude and confrontational to gauge how you respond?"

he just laughed and said no.

I still held out hope, but ultimately a week later my recruiter called to break the bad news to me.

I asked for feedback and he said "if it were purely technical we'd definitely hire you, but unfortunately you just didnt click with some of the leadership. Some of the notes I have say they would have liked to see you in a sports coat, and also that you didn't display the enthusiasm they'd like to see from a candidate."

I was kinda in shock and asked "in the few years we've been dealing with eachother, have I ever come across to you as un-enthusiastic?"

I wasn't in the room Joe, it's not really fair for me to answer

"Of course, just for my own peace of mind though."

no, you've been one of my more enthusiastic, persistent candidates to date.

Anyway, sorry. Didn't mean to turn this into a rambling novel, but ultimately I thought I nailed an interview, but got ambushed by a guy who just seemed determine to sh*t on me from the moment we met.

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Comments

networker050184

Um, yeah that had nothing to do with a jacket or not at Rackspace. That guy just didn't like you for some reason. What a jerk.

josephandre

basically.

I just couldn't figure out why. I think I'm pretty personable, and I've always interviewed well, but I'm not under the delusion everyone will like me. Just no clue why he specifically disliked me.

In any event, it stuck with me for a while, and put a chip on my shoulder which resulted in me getting my CISSP

networker050184

Maybe just caught him on a bad day, who knows. I had something similar where I could just tell from the tone of voice on the first question this wasn't going to go well.... And it was pretty similar to your experience. You win some you lose some as they say.

scaredoftests

I have quite a few 'worst' interviews. One person kept getting up from the panel table and kept saying 'how busy she was and don't have time to interview people' ugh.

Or the 2nd interview I was on for a family business and I was with the mom, dad and brother. The mom asked 'how long I planned on working', (til the day I die' , the brother asked 'how old I was' (I replied 'old enough to know better' and the dad asked about the gaps in the working history (it was when the economy was really bad and there were budget cuts.)

Or one I was had in which I had to take a personality test beforehand. After that, she asked me to come in. Instead of interviewing me, she proceeded to read the results to me (as I sat there, I thought to myself, that she could have done this by email). At the end, she explained that we were too much alike and it wouldn't work....

...just a few stories....have a lot more..

thomas_

I had an interviewer either misphrase the question he asked me or I misheard him, but I’m pretty sure he mispoke. It was one of those go or no-go questions pretty simple, but due to the miscommunication I looked like an idiot and I was unceremoniously walked out of the interview.

coreyb80

I remember interviewing for a position for over an hour and thought we were vibing. I answered all of the questions and felt confident. That was until the recruiter called me and told that I didn't get the gig. I asked her why and she was like "they said they smelled cologne", but upon further probing that wasn't the real reason. It was a blessing in disguise for me though. Definitely need to be in environment that judged based on skin color.

ThePawofRizzo

I've had a number of interviews in my career where I was the job seeker, probably a dozen, but can't say has I've had one that was overtly bad. Generally, they went well.

I was employed as a server administrator involved in interviewing a potential candidate for a desktop tech position ages ago. His work history was sketchy with multiple jobs and multiple lengthy gaps in between those jobs. Interestingly enough, one look at his resume, and no way I would have interviewed him myself, but my boss wanted to talk to him for some unknown reason. Started with the normal niceties and small talk. The guy seemed a bit jittery and high-strung and way too talkative, but I just figured "nerves". My boss asked most of the questions in the rest of the interview, which was pretty short. At some point, my manager asked about work history and experience with "I see you've worked a few places, tell me about your experiences." - not even directly addressing the multiple months long gaps between each job that never lasted more than a year. The guy begins telling several very personal stories about "my wife left me"....."took the kids out of state"......"called the cops on me"......."then I got sick and was in the hospital for this or that"....."couldn't find my kids"....To the point I'm thinking, "I don't need to know all this about you." My boss used some diplomatic way to finalize the interview at that point, and we saw the guy out. I was thinking "Wow."

The guy's rant about all his personal problems and life drama pretty much summed up why he had so many short-term jobs with long lapses of unemployment. After he left my boss merely turned to me and asked, "What did you think?" I replied, "Not just no, but H**L no." My boss had no real expression to show he thought the candidate would be an issue, but my boss was also a bleeding heart type who would help out a lot of people with sob stories. Anyway, thankfully, we did not hire the guy.

SpetsRepair

A lot of bad ones actually
-First interview while in college. I wanted to go for the A+/Net+ on the side but didn't do it and had an interview for help desk specialist at kellogs
Anyway, they asked me what DNS was and what it did. I thought it was ARP and I explained how ARP/DNS works than they looked at me and said no shortly after with their body language so I knew i wasn't going to get it

Anyway, who would've known actually studying for the A+/Net+ and beyond is what will get you a great job and not pretending you understand. Also, this still kind of pisses me off since I've met plenty of people who had great help desk jobs just starting out with no knowledge at all

I've had some bad ones after, I studied and became CCNA R/Security certified and had tons of interviews but didn't get a single job at the time since they wanted someone who knows servers, or just help desk stuff and they claimed i was overqualified...

gespenstern

Never had a really bad interview that would stick out. Yeah, I ran into tech questions I didn't know and ran into people with different opinions than I had (e.g. "lifetime work for a single company" vs "job hopping") but that was all understandable and I don't feel like I was treated unfairly. It's just a general human interview process that can't be anymore fair than that and that's an issue... So they were all bad in this sense.

Ideally I would have preferred to work for myself and never had to be interviewed by humans and hopefully one day I will.

triplea

OP same experience

first interview with who would have been my team leader and one of the infrastructure leads went great. Aced the technical part and the team leader said he would lie me to go to a 2nd interview NOW if I had the time ( of course ) and he would see if the big boss was free.

No reason why but he just was like he couldnt be bothered ( unprofessional if you dont really have time, I am happy to return when its good for you ). We both went through the interview 'process' but I can put that down as the exact moment 'I didnt get it'

Walked out feeling confident but was told a week later I didnt get it ( only 2 of us went through for 2nd interviews ). Was told my interview was positive and no negatives but the other guy was a better fit.

Will never know but thems the breaks. Luck of the draw sometimes.

JoJoCal19

I've only had one bad experience. About 4-5 years ago interviewed for an IAM position that read more pure access control based, like the position I had at the time (adding/removing users from groups, AD account settings). So the interview starts right into technical questions (no intro, background, what I'm looking for, etc) and it's basically reading off a list of MS certification type questions. Really low level AD infrastructure and Server OS config stuff that A) wasn't on my resume,

wasn't a part of the job description, and C) one would only know if you were either an expert in that area or had been studying for the MS exam. It didn't go well and I was only about halfway through the 3 hour drive home when the rejection email came through on my phone lol.

NavyMooseCCNA

scaredoftests wrote: »

I have quite a few 'worst' interviews. One person kept getting up from the panel table and kept saying 'how busy she was and don't have time to interview people' ugh.

Or the 2nd interview I was on for a family business and I was with the mom, dad and brother. The mom asked 'how long I planned on working', (til the day I die' , the brother asked 'how old I was' (I replied 'old enough to know better' and the dad asked about the gaps in the working history (it was when the economy was really bad and there were budget cuts.)

Or one I was had in which I had to take a personality test beforehand. After that, she asked me to come in. Instead of interviewing me, she proceeded to read the results to me (as I sat there, I thought to myself, that she could have done this by email). At the end, she explained that we were too much alike and it wouldn't work....

...just a few stories....have a lot more..

I make it my policy not to take personality tests or provide writing samples. I've been on several interviews that required it and I walked out.

Basic85

You have to think interviewing as a 2 way street and you're going to encounter good interviews and bad ones. I've encountered numerous horrible interviews. Most of the time it was a bad fit and/or they lied about the job.

AvgITGeek

Yeah. I went into a second interview (the first one with the dept leader went great!) with the CIO and he started asking me questions about the job I had on my resume from 15 years ago. He was persistent about contacting that person. I don't have that person's contact info. They left the company! I was told that I didn't fit and they have yet to fill the position. A blessing in disguise.

AvgITGeek

We had a position available for work. Several of the candidates had on their resume's "Security + in progress or MCSA in progress" but when asked, the reply was "I bought the books" Yeah, no thanks

TechGromit

My worst interview is when I interviewed for a FAA Federal employee position. Don't know how much you know about the government, but it's really tough to get an interview, let alone hired. Between KSA, educational requirements, industry knowledge, it's a tough job to get. Anyway I was working at the FAA as a Federal contractor and a job came up for a Federal Employee computer lab tech, there was a push at the time to modernize the FAA, it was called NextGen, the job description appears to be a lot about networking, VOIP, etc. I submitted my KSA and got an interview, I brushed up on all my networking knowledge and thought I was in pretty good shape. But to my surprise, in the interview they asked me what I knew about POT wiring, serial communications, etc, it was all about old stuff. While I did have some experience in this area, it completely threw me off my game, I bombed the interview. I realized later is this is what they wanted to hire for, but used the NextGen funding to hire for what ever job they wanted to get filled.

NetworkingStudent

Worst Interview?
Not the worst, but Man now I know what it's like to wait for someone else.......

Well I was out of IT work, so I did apply at a computer repair shop.

They called me, and left a VM I couldn't hear it.
I called them and couldn't reach them.

So we did at one point connect, and I scheduled an onsite interview with them after I passed the phone interview.

I got to the interview on time, actually arrived 15 minutes early.
Then I sat in that chair waiting for the owner to interview me. I was waiting in the lobby. Two customer came into the store while i was waiting for the owner.
The owner was onsite with a customer. Everyone apologized to me for him being late. I'm sorry..i'm sorry... At one point I got so frustrated I joked, and SAID TO One EMPLOYEE DOES THIS NORMALLY HAPPEN? IS THIS NORMAL? (I'm not yelling just using caps for effect)
Finally the owner comes in, and yells at the poor kid for not telling him someone is waiting for him. The owner says "Next time call me if someone is waiting for me more than 15 minutes". The the owner proceeds to apologize saying they tried something different and had someone else schedule interviews.

I really wondered about the company's time management skills. The owner is an hour late to interview a potential hire, I mean come on..

EnderWiggin

I wouldn't say I've ever had a an interview that bad. Mainly because whenever they start to go poorly, and I realize I won't be getting the job, I just say Thank you for your time, but I don't feel like this will be a good fit. I would like to respectfully withdraw my application. Good luck with your candidate search." If I know I'm not getting the job, might as well be the one with power in the situation

scaredoftests

That is my policy now. No personality tests. though, I have been asked during an interview 'if I was a tree, what kind of tree I would be and why?' ugh

technogoat

Recuiter told me that the job is 8am-4pm and I'll be answering emails and doing deskside support

I go to the interview and it turns out that: 24/7 service desk operation , massive call volume - 10K + users , rotating shift with 8 to 10 hours including nights

I was upset lol....

I had two interviews were I had to do IQ tests and personality tests...

I have a interview later on but I'm grossly under-qualified . Should I cancel or just go anyways?

scaredoftests

Go anyway!

Mike7

AvgITGeek wrote: »

We had a position available for work. Several of the candidates had on their resume's "Security + in progress or MCSA in progress" but when asked, the reply was "I bought the books" Yeah, no thanks

I avoid interviewing anyone who claims to be have 2 or more certifications "in progress". Once had someone actively pursuing OSCP, CISSP and Post grad diploma.

NavyMooseCCNA

scaredoftests wrote: »

That is my policy now. No personality tests. though, I have been asked during an interview 'if I was a tree, what kind of tree I would be and why?' ugh

I hate idiotic questions like that. I heard one in a movie "How many pennies will it take to fill this room?". I would answer something like "I'm here for an IT Security position, you must have mistaken this for the UNH Philosophy Department faculty lounge". I don't want to work for a place if they do this kind of crap.

Basic85

EnderWiggin wrote: »

I wouldn't say I've ever had a an interview that bad. Mainly because whenever they start to go poorly, and I realize I won't be getting the job, I just say Thank you for your time, but I don't feel like this will be a good fit. I would like to respectfully withdraw my application. Good luck with your candidate search." If I know I'm not getting the job, might as well be the one with power in the situation

Do you do this during the interview?
I had an employer had me sign agreement that this employment at-will and some other stuff even though there was no offer, I find that quite odd. Next time I'm not going to sign anything when there is no offer and of coarse that's only if I accept the offer.

networker050184

I've had companies have me sign an NDA for interviews. Never any kind of at will employment agreement. I can't promise I read every word though!

EnderWiggin

Basic85 wrote: »

Do you do this during the interview?

Yep, I end the interview by saying that. If I know I'm not getting the job, I don't want to waste ten more minutes sitting there giving answers that they don't care about. I always keep it respectful, but I have no issues ending it early.

Basic85

EnderWiggin wrote: »

Yep, I end the interview by saying that. If I know I'm not getting the job, I don't want to waste ten more minutes sitting there giving answers that they don't care about. I always keep it respectful, but I have no issues ending it early.

Any party should be able to end the interview at anytime. Employers have no problem doing it than so shouldn't the candidate.

mmcabe

This is more my toughest interview (or so I thought): I applied for a hosting position at a classic small dot-com startup. My sys admin experience had only been with internal servers, so I thought it would be cool to work with clients with different needs. There were few qualifications in the ad, but I had experience with MS/Unix/Linux and had worked quite a bit with our Cisco equipment, so I thought I'd be OK.

I sat in front of a panel of three people--the department head and two others in hosting. They asked me very solemnly, "What is FTP?"

I immediately got that feeling of dread. Obviously, there had to be a trick to the question. Were they quizzing me on acronyms? I answered, "File Transfer Protocol."

"No, we mean what does FTP do?"

I reached back into all I knew about the OSI model and tried to give a full explanation, afraid I was missing a detail somewhere along the way.

About halfway through they stopped me and said, "No, we just need someone who knows what you use FTP for! You're hired!" Apparently, no other candidate they'd interviewed had any clue how to upload files.

I took the job, which turned out to be the most intense, exciting job I'd had before or since. Like many dot-coms, we crashed and burned at some point, but it was a lot of fun while it lasted.

EnderWiggin

Basic85 wrote: »

Any party should be able to end the interview at anytime. Employers have no problem doing it than so shouldn't the candidate.

Absolutely. There's nothing wrong with doing it. It's just one of those things that aren't typically done, so it always catches people by surprise.

dhay13

Haven't had much bad experience but the one that I would have to point out would be one I had about 2 years ago. The interview went fairly well. There were a few areas he asked about that I didn't have experience in but told him 'no problem, I will learn it'. I mentioned that I was taking the CISSP exam in a couple of weeks and he commented 'I had 10 years of security experience before I took it and I barely passed it'. I felt he was insinuating I wasn't capable of passing with only a couple of years in the security sector. I met the ISC2 requirements due to other jobs but they were't true security roles. He told me before I left that I was no longer in the running. So a few weeks later I passed the test and sent him an email letting him know I had passed. I did it tactfully by mentioning that maybe we could work together in the future but my goal was to let him know I did what he didn't think I could.