Any good/bad job interview stories?

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I've got an interview this afternoon that I'm in between "ready for" and "nervous breakdown over." So, things are going about as planned.

It made me wonder if anyone had stories, good or bad, about job interviews that I could maybe learn a thing or two from.

By the way, my interview is for the position of "assistant webmaster" -it's only 4 days a week, but still quite decent pay. It's probably some kind of marketing racket scam...

― dan m (OutDatWay), Tuesday, 19 April 2005 13:01 (twenty years ago)

My own experience: every interview that I've ever had that's been strictly formal, I've failed at. Every interview I've had - that I can remember - that was the "friendly chat" type, I've got an offer from.

― caitlin (caitlin), Tuesday, 19 April 2005 13:07 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, I'm all about the casual-talk style interviews. In fact, if it's highly formal (reading from a list of questions, making sure to check off each qualification, etc.) it usually means I wouldn't want to work for that kind of place anyway. In a lot of cases, being confident (plus having the skillz) will make or break it.

I once had an interview when I was younger in which I was asked if I was a feminist (it was for a women's health org, and I'm female, to be clear) and, being the honest, friendly type I am, my answer was "I don't know really, I'm only 23!" And then I went on talking about stuff that made it pretty clear I was a feminist even if I didn't, at that point, know to label myself as such. I got the job.

― rrrobyn (rrrobyn), Tuesday, 19 April 2005 13:31 (twenty years ago)

past 22 months of my existence TO THREAD

― Vic in Alderaan (Vic), Tuesday, 19 April 2005 13:58 (twenty years ago)

I thought I was in a casual-talk style interview a month or so ago and assumed it was going quite well. It turned out the woman conducting the search had never done anything of the sort before and wasn't really sure how to go about doing an interview (ie, you have to ask questions, not just talk at me nonstop for an hour). As a result, I didn't really get a chance to address any of the concerns she had about me as a candidate (mainly that I may be too young for the job), since they only came up in the rejection phone call. I guess I wouldn't have wanted a boss with those kinds of communications skills in the first place.

I still definitely prefer the casual interview to rigidly formal ones, but they should, you know, give you a chance to talk. I suppose I could have been more assertive, but I didn't want to come off as rude or pushy.

― the krza (krza), Tuesday, 19 April 2005 14:09 (twenty years ago)

my brother had been working in a hospital's administration hierarchy and decided to apply for manager. he was convinced that he could never get the job, based on youth and lack of years of experience, so he went in loose. they asked, 'do you think the salary looks okay?' (it was three times anything he'd ever made before) and he semi-shrugged, saying "it looks good, but I think when you see what I can do for this department you'll want to give me more.' any time they tried to rattle him, he just grinned like he was the heir apparent. he nailed the interview and makes a hell of a lot of money. (works 60-80-hour weeks, though.)

― Haikunym (Haikunym), Tuesday, 19 April 2005 14:14 (twenty years ago)

thirteen years pass...

So I just emailed this to a recruiter I'd been working with:

"Unfortunately I'm going to have to withdraw at this point. After some research it appears that one of the essential functions of the database administrator position will be to enable the CEO (and by extension the company) to commit systematic insurance fraud."

I didn't say anything about the anonymous phone call to the California Department of Insurance.

― Elvis Telecom, Saturday, 1 September 2018 05:32 (seven years ago)

Cool cool.

― faculty w1fe (silby), Saturday, 1 September 2018 05:39 (seven years ago)

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