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The worst job interview I ever had

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Re: The worst job interview I ever had

#251

Post by codeduck »

LoulouMonkey wrote: post #239

As we're all sharing some bizarre experiences we've had, I feel I have to chip in. I had 2 very weird interviews with the same FAANG company, before actually joining the company in 2021. Anyway, we're in 2011 and my career in tech has just started. I hear back from a recruiter regarding a role I've applied for, and to be considered for this position it is mandatory to be fluent in French. Which shouldn't be a problem…

Better than my interview at a Apple, where one of the senior engineers who was supposed to interview me didn't show up - twice in a row.

I'd been recommended for the role by colleagues who'd moved to Apple; I gave them some rather pointed feedback for them to pass on to the hiring manager and moved on.

Re: The worst job interview I ever had

#252

Post by LoulouMonkey »

underdeserver wrote: post #248
LoulouMonkey wrote: post #239

As we're all sharing some bizarre experiences we've had, I feel I have to chip in. I had 2 very weird interviews with the same FAANG company, before actually joining the company in 2021. Anyway, we're in 2011 and my career in tech has just started. I hear back from a recruiter regarding a role I've applied for, and to be considered for this position it is mandatory to be fluent in French. Which shouldn't be a problem…

Was this a technical role?

Not really, it was technical support through tickets.

I don't exactly remember the specs, but French and SQL were the main requirements. Actually, more French than SQL.

Re: The worst job interview I ever had

#253

Post by supriyo-biswas »

halapro wrote: post #249
akdor1154 wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I chalked it up to a power trip and the indignant behavior that comes along with it, as it is especially embedded in the culture of the country that I'm based out of. That's a very globally-conscious way to refer to the USA!

My mind raced to the letter I instead

Immediate parent is correct.

Re: The worst job interview I ever had

#254

Post by LoulouMonkey »

shrikant wrote: post #250
LoulouMonkey wrote: post #239

As we're all sharing some bizarre experiences we've had, I feel I have to chip in. I had 2 very weird interviews with the same FAANG company, before actually joining the company in 2021. Anyway, we're in 2011 and my career in tech has just started. I hear back from a recruiter regarding a role I've applied for, and to be considered for this position it is mandatory to be fluent in French. Which shouldn't be a problem…

Wow, why do you think the communication was so off? (I don't know much about French) My guess would be that the intervewing manager was just translating English sentences directly into their French worded equivalent without actually following the rules/grammmar, and so it was confusing -- right? I initially thought they might be attempting to read off a Google Translate conversion but I suppose if that interview was…

My understanding of the situation is the exact same as yours. Which I find funny now, but obviously not that much back then.

The interview was in person, and she only used her laptop to take down notes. I remember thinking to myself "jeez she could at least have prepared some questions" but nope.

I'm glad it happened though, as I've told this story dozens of times since and it still manages to make me laugh :)

Re: The worst job interview I ever had

#255

Post by LoulouMonkey »

codeduck wrote: post #251
LoulouMonkey wrote: post #239

As we're all sharing some bizarre experiences we've had, I feel I have to chip in. I had 2 very weird interviews with the same FAANG company, before actually joining the company in 2021. Anyway, we're in 2011 and my career in tech has just started. I hear back from a recruiter regarding a role I've applied for, and to be considered for this position it is mandatory to be fluent in French. Which shouldn't be a problem…

Better than my interview at a Apple, where one of the senior engineers who was supposed to interview me didn't show up - twice in a row. I'd been recommended for the role by colleagues who'd moved to Apple; I gave them some rather pointed feedback for them to pass on to the hiring manager and moved on.

An interviewer that doesn't show up is really bad. Not matter where you work, you'd probably end up having a chat with HR if you did that twice.

Sorry about that buddy!

Re: The worst job interview I ever had

#256

Post by shantnutiwari »

gobdovan wrote: post #173

I always wanted to tell the story of my weirdest interview. It's bad in a different way from OP's. This was for a "Machine Learning Engineer" contractor position. - Hi, I'm gobdovan. How are you? says I. The interviewer doesn't bite: - How many prompting techniques do you know? (ok?..) After a couple confused seconds, I respond with 2-3 techniques and ask if I should explain them, but the interview engine is already…

" but the interview engine is already running at full speed:"

I dont know if this is a recent thing, but I had a similar thing where an interviewer was racing forward, and would only accept the answers he had in mind.

In Python, he asked me how to search for substring. I was thinking but he started hurrying me. So I said regex and started writing a regex.

"No, there is an inbuilt method"

I couldnt remember the method. He asked me to google it, but there are dozens of string methods.

"I could use a regex?" I said and tried to show him how.

He ended the call, and 5 min later the agent called me to say my Python was sun-standard so they wouldnt be going forward.

This guy was a permanent employee and supposedly an expert

Re: The worst job interview I ever had

#257

Post by meerita »

Cultural fit is important. You don't want to work with people who are not morally aligned with you or the company. A rotten apple can ruin the entire basket, but the problem with these cultural fit interviews is that the people who run them often use the wrong framework for their questions.

Who cares if you had trauma when you were 16? Will a past trauma affect your future at the company? Does the interviewer have a psychology degree to conduct such an interview?

In any case, do people have the right to a second chance if they did something morally questionable in the past? I've conducted over 2,000 interviews in the past 20 years, and I've learned a lot. The best indicators of a good candidate are not questions like "Tell me your weaknesses" or "Tell me about a mistake you made."

The best indicators are whether the person spent time learning about your project, your company, the people who work there, the technologies, the product, the vision, the financial status, and the investors. That shows more interest than answering "Tell me about your hobbies."

Re: The worst job interview I ever had

#258

Post by like_any_other »

BugsJustFindMe wrote: post #167
victorbojica wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was also part of this sort of interview once. They specifically asked personal questions - parents stuff, relationship, etc. Definitely not work related. It was indeed a very strange and exhausting experience. I could've definetly refused to answer some of the questions or drop out of the interview altogether, but not sure why I haven't. So yeah, this type of interview exists so I highly doubt the interviewer inter…

> They specifically asked personal questions - parents stuff, relationship, etc. In the US any employer who asks you about personal relationships during an interview is opening themselves up to an illegal discrimination lawsuit.

Even just an IQ test [1] or teacher licensing test [2,3] opens them to illegal discrimination, so that's not saying much.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Griggs_v._Duke_Power_Co.

[2] https://www.wsj.com/us-news/education/black-latino-teachers-...

[3] https://teachercertification.com/nystce/multi-subject-arts-a...

Re: The worst job interview I ever had

#259

Post by meerita »

rigonkulous wrote: post #40

I was excited, it was a game company, and I'd wanted to get back into games - or more specifically, game engines - for a few years. The tech of this particular company was interesting, an in-house engine developed by wunderkind, of course, and they'd invited me for an interview because I had done a fair bit of low-level work, which would be handy for their rough edges. Apparently. Half way through the interview, I ha…

I had a similar experience with another company. At one point during the interview, the HR department asked me to do a really stupid exercise, despite the fact that I am an engineer with over 20 years of experience.

I wrote an email saying I would not pursue the position, and they wrote back asking me to have another interview with them. I politely declined.

They probably understood that their method was not good.

Re: The worst job interview I ever had

#260

Post by meerita »

pan69 wrote: post #62
rigonkulous wrote: post #40

I was excited, it was a game company, and I'd wanted to get back into games - or more specifically, game engines - for a few years. The tech of this particular company was interesting, an in-house engine developed by wunderkind, of course, and they'd invited me for an interview because I had done a fair bit of low-level work, which would be handy for their rough edges. Apparently. Half way through the interview, I ha…

I had something similar years ago. I applied for a job at a company, size around 150 people. Did two rounds of interviews which were great. They wanted me to offer the role. However, as a third round, I was going to do a meet and greet with the CEO and he was going to yay or nay me. At point I dropped out. If a CEO can't trust his delegate managers to hire the people they see fit for a role, then thanks but no thanks…

I don't get why people downvote this.
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