Forum Moderators: phranque
Can you recall the toughest interview you had to put yourself through to get a job?
I do remember one, in particular, which involved.. a screening interview with an agency, then a 3 panel interview with the company...
Then a written exam on all the aspects, including coding tests, problem solving and multiple choise . etc ..
Then after passing that , and other 3 panel interview going over the answers and expanding on them to include, marketing promotion SEO etc ..
Then I was given a design brief, to be taken away, completed immediately and to spec....
After working all god damn night, there was another interview the next day, with the people I'd be working with going over team building, working within the company and an orientation tour ...
From about 100 candidates it come down to 2 of us .. and to my exhusted surprise I was offered the job... :-)
lol! I then proceeded to turn it down and moved to Switzerland ... but it was an experience...
The person whose job it was to drive me around was demented and talked incessently about herself. She asked me if I would like to see the highlight of the town, which in her opinion was the house where the woman who was beaten by her husband in "Sleeping With the Enemy" actually lived. I don't know if she meant it was the movie set or based on actual fact. I said I would not like to see this house, because domestic violence was upsetting to me. But she took me there anyhow and we had to sit in the car and look at it for 15 minutes while she told me all about the movie. Her interest in it gave me the creeps. The other highlight of the town we didn't visit: the pig factory farms.
Every person I was introduced to had some kind of reason to jump on me. I could barely say hello before someone was sneering about something they had seen in my cv:
"Oh, so you did research on [this totally frivolous topic/kook stuff/stuff I hate]."
"I see you studied with [this #*$! I hate]."
"So you teach [some class I wouldn't be caught dead teaching]."
"Gee, considering your research interests, you must be [a barbarian/a loon/a communist]."
There was nothing I could say that was right because the department was fiercely divided by various issues and everyone was sharpening their claws on the interviewees as a way of getting back at each other. If I said something to please one faction, the other faction would get up on their hind legs. It was so fricking sick.
I was sent to introduce myself to the department chair, and she sat there doing paperwork for ten minutes while I sat in front of her desk, just so she could let me know how little she thought of me.
I was never so glad to leave a place. Even though I was well qualified for the job, I knew I would not get it. I expected the usual rebuff--a polite phone call from the search committee head saying thanks but no thanks. Instead, in order to show their disdain, they sent me a form letter rejection. I later found out that the subsequent interviewee was a nun. She didn't get hired either. A total of eight people were flown out and interviewed. No one, it turns out, could satisfy these self-absorbed twits.
Even all these years later, I still feel angry when I remember this trip. This experience is one of the reasons why I left academia. Turned out to be a really good decision on my part. As for them, they are in northern Iowa, right where they belong.
At the end of the interview I was offered the contract at which point I politely turned it down due to the problems with internal politics would not allow me to do the job I was being paid for .
The funniest thing of all was some months later while contracting for IBM I was asked to attend a meeting with the very same 2 guys for the same project for IBM controll
steve
5 years ago, just after college.
I was called for an interview by a local software development company. Wrote down the address and went there 1 hour before the interview. Couldn't find the darn office even after 2 hours, inspite of calling up the lady asking for directions.
That was my toughest ghost interview I've ever had. Since then, I have bought a Garmin GPS. But of course, now I am potentially unemployable - so I don't hear from HRs too often.
<added> And oh, shocking as it might seem, I didn't get that job </added>
About 8 years ago, I was trying to get a go-nowhere, pay-nothing, no experience needed job with a huge retailer.
I went through two interviews. They then set a starting date for me, pending the outcome of psychological testing. So, I actually went there 3 times.
After the psychological testing, my contact person refused to take or return my phone calls. Looking back (and knowing more about the testing now), I think they caught me telling them what they wanted to hear. It was funny, though, because they acted as if I'd be dangerous to talk to or something.
I still shopped there for 3-4 years because it was close to me, and had no psychotic episodes. :)
Of course they were asking me all sorts of personal questions, like what religion I was, how often I went to church. Now I know this is not legal. But then I had no clue. The panel interview went on for an hour and a half.
I ended up getting the job and worked there for a while. It was the worst time of my life! But the benefits were great...
