Akward interview experience...

Just had an interview for what was deemed as a sr.sys admin role and the job description matched that, and briefly said somewhere in there that it was a supervisory role. I thought OK, maybe it's just a senior position on the team that mentors junior level members.. right? Suffice to say my resume has barely any supervisory action items on it, purely technical stuff. I applied and got an interview which was today.

So I get to the interview, and 9 people are in the room. This is the first face to face interview as well. So it felt kind of awkward from the get go. Then they had written out a bunch questions on a sheet of paper for me to answer and took turns asking me the questions. Awkward moment #2 initialized. I knew about halfway through the interview that it was going nowhere fast as every question was related to project life cycle of a devops team (???) and how to be a good manager. I was wondering at this point if I just got up and left if they would care, as everyone in the room must have known it was going no where fast.

Anyways, has anyone had a "mis guided" interview and felt pretty awkward?

TL:DR went to an interview that was not worded right in the posting and knew nothing. Too many people in room for me to tell them i was wrong for the job so I couldn't leave.

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Comments

TomkoTech

There is never a bad time to stop an interview. The moment you realized it wasn't something you were interested in, or qualified for you simply politely interrupt and explain your perception. I'm sure they would appreciate the candor, as well as you saving everyone time.

rsutton

Based on what you said, it sounds like the company does not have the ish together. I personally have never experienced that.

Nersesian

TomkoTech is right in the regard that there is no bad time to stop an interview. I would go one step further and say it might make you feel better if you did just that as I would expect a post that says - "Awkward interview experience I narrowly avoided."

Panel interviews are rough on anyone and they're typically by design. I've found as an interviewer I don't get alot out of them as there are simply too many personalities and questions to cater to. (Tell you what guys, run your panel interview and send me the vetted candidates.) The panel most likely wasn't technically minded and fell back on prototypical leadership style questions which I'm sure they had ready to go. It was on them to read your resume and determine you had no leadership experience, so you can't be liable for that. It is a PITA do schlep down to an office, pay for parking, fill out paperwork and find out the potential employer didn't do their homework. Seriously....I sweated up a good shirt for this?

I was working in DC a few years ago and looking to make a move. I was browsing $ITjobSite and must have submitted a resume for a Director of Operations for a GIS firm in Florida. I wasn't taking the process very seriously and didn't note the application date or company name between mixing drinks and hitting send. I got a call a week or so later from a very excited manager asking if I would be willing to come down and interview as he was sure I would be an excellent fit for the culture and type of work they did. I asked how they would be footing the bill and I was told not to worry, book my travel detail and coordinate with a PA for payment. Done! Suite at the Hyatt, Towncar rented and address confirmed. I contacted the PA who took my information and I received reimbursement before I left DC to the tune of just over 2k. Meh...no big deal I thought. They're probably a big company and can certainly afford the expense of flying me in.

This was not the case.

I made the interview on time only to realize they must have had me confused for someone who had any level of experience with Geographical Information Systems. I do not. I wasn't even sure at that time what GIS was and to add to the overall embarrassment, were five dudes in a strip mall who could ill afford my mid week vacation. To their credit, they went through the whole song and dance of introducing me to everyone and allowing them to ask questions. It was both the shortest and longest interview I ever had, as I simply had no idea what anyone was asking me. I called my wife on the way back to the hotel and let her know what happened, to which she advised against ordering room service after the fact.

The shrimp was delicious. I am not a good person.

Zartanasaurus

I definitely would've had to stop them relatively quickly. "Hey the job description said this was for an engineering role, but this looks like a project manager type role. What are the expectations here?"

It's possible they have no clue how to interview and printed off a bunch of questions from the internet that someone thought looked good. That's not a particularly good sign either.

loxleynew

Nersesian made me feel a bit better

Yea I should have and normally I would stop the interview but with 9 people I felt uncomfortable doing that.
I'll give you one question of which most were on the lines of this:

Describe what you would do if people from devops had one solution to a project and systems/network had a different solution, and no one was budging.

Any answer I gave to the ^above^ question resulted in them saying "but what if..", or "that is not right because of this". This was the point I wanted to ask them why are they wasting my time, and mine theirs.

TomkoTech

Well asking you that question seems to me gauging your communication skills. At the point that they start saying what if, or telling you that they wanted a specific direction I would have said yeah we are done here.

zidian

I've had to give difficult interviews lately. My company is hiring a number of positions and uses our in-house recruiting affiliate (same company, just we are large enough for it to be a subsidiary) to post jobs and pre-screen candidates. The first few people sent our way didn't match our requirements even in the slightest. It turns out the job requirement got morphed into a generic one by mistake. We ended up with a few awkward interviews to start until we figured out the problem.

It was probably just as awkward for the people involved in the room as well. Chalk it up to good interview experience you (and they) can use to be more well rounded in the future!

Danielm7

zidian wrote: »

t. It turns out the job requirement got morphed into a generic one by mistake. We ended up with a few awkward interviews to start until we figured out the problem.

This happened to me a few weeks ago. A friend is very high up at a large, well known tech company. He told me they had a security analyst position open. He sent me the job description, I applied, they shot me down in like 10 minutes. They told him, "he doesn't even have any building security experience, we're looking for physical security people!" Meanwhile the entire job description was all about infosec, someone merged the description for that instead of the description for security guards.

Nersesian

- Describe what you would do if people from devops had one solution to a project and systems/network had a different solution, and no one was budging.

1. Reserve off site conference room.
2. Purchase several cases of beer, one 1/2 case white wine, one 1/2 case red wine and one handle of Buffalo Trace Bourbon.
3. Deposit DevOps team, System/Network Admins and recently purchased team building supplies into said conference room.
4. Lock door.
5. Simmer for five hours.
6. Unlock door and enjoy your solution.
7. Code expenses to "Other Professional Services" budget.

karl88

Danielm7 wrote: »

Meanwhile the entire job description was all about infosec, someone merged the description for that instead of the description for security guards.

The lazy, worthless HR department was probably responsible for it.

Nersesian

karl88 wrote: »

The lazy, worthless HR department was probably responsible for it.

Shots fired.

[Deleted User]

Nersesian wrote: »

- Describe what you would do if people from devops had one solution to a project and systems/network had a different solution, and no one was budging.

1. Reserve off site conference room.
2. Purchase several cases of beer, one 1/2 case white wine, one 1/2 case red wine and one handle of Buffalo Trace Bourbon.
3. Deposit DevOps team, System/Network Admins and recently purchased team building supplies into said conference room.
4. Lock door.
5. Simmer for five hours.
6. Unlock door and enjoy your solution.
7. Code expenses to "Other Professional Services" budget.

Clearly, the correct answer. OP did you suggest this!? The part I can't undertand is how Nersesian has been around this forum for 7 years and only has 18 posts. He must wait until he can provide classic responses like this one.

Nersesian

I'm torn. On one hand you said nice things about my comment but I still feel the need to be snarky.

Have some rep...I guess....whatever.

I just have more time to comment now with the new management gig...I MEAN <ahem> I'm piloting a steering committee drilling down into the synergy projected over a five year period based on real world feedback analysis driven by cumulative data. Do you want to meet on this?

Kai123

TomkoTech wrote: »

There is never a bad time to stop an interview. The moment you realized it wasn't something you were interested in, or qualified for you simply politely interrupt and explain your perception. I'm sure they would appreciate the candor, as well as you saving everyone time.

I went to an interview about a month ago, and I got a ton of Citrix questions despite Citrix not being anywhere on my CV. The IT manager was getting a bit narky, so I said I'm not right for this role and cut off the interview, said sorry for wasting your time (just being kind, considering).

At the time, I was wondering if I put Citrix experience on my CV somewhere (which I hadn't) So I never thought to bring it up. After reviewing my CV I got a bit annoyed that they dragged me pretty far for an interview in the first place.

It didn't help that the IT manager said that although I lack Citrix experience, they wanted to see me just incase I had Citrix experience, seriously!

loxleynew

I have no clue what you do still but it sounds amazing. You hiring?

Nersesian wrote: »

I'm torn. On one hand you said nice things about my comment but I still feel the need to be snarky.

Have some rep...I guess....whatever.

I just have more time to comment now with the new management gig...I MEAN <ahem> I'm piloting a steering committee drilling down into the synergy projected over a five year period based on real world feedback analysis driven by cumulative data. Do you want to meet on this?

loxleynew

It's places like these that make me hate even applying for jobs. I kind of want to ask for an initial phone screen for any job now just to quiz them on what they are looking for rather than waste everyone's time. I have 4 questions I would ask them:

"How much does the job pay?"
'Does the actual job correlate with 80% of what is in my resume?"
"will there be a panel interview?" (instant no)
For bonus points "Is there a beer 30?"

Kai123 wrote: »

I went to an interview about a month ago, and I got a ton of Citrix questions despite Citrix not being anywhere on my CV. The IT manager was getting a bit narky, so I said I'm not right for this role and cut off the interview, said sorry for wasting your time (just being kind, considering).

At the time, I was wondering if I put Citrix experience on my CV somewhere (which I hadn't) So I never thought to bring it up. After reviewing my CV I got a bit annoyed that they dragged me pretty far for an interview in the first place.

It didn't help that the IT manager said that although I lack Citrix experience, they wanted to see me just incase I had Citrix experience, seriously!

Kai123

loxleynew wrote: »

It's places like these that make me hate even applying for jobs. I kind of want to ask for an initial phone screen for any job now just to quiz them on what they are looking for rather than waste everyone's time. I have 4 questions I would ask them:

"How much does the job pay?"
'Does the actual job correlate with 80% of what is in my resume?"
"will there be a panel interview?" (instant no)
For bonus points "Is there a beer 30?"

I landed the dream job 2 weeks later! But it definately shifted my attitude to job seeking. If I'm ever in the situation to look for another employer, they would have to answer a few questions first before I turn up.