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The worst job interview I ever had

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Re: The worst job interview I ever had

#261

Post by schnebbau »

analogpixel wrote: post #24

Would be funny if the interviewer wrote the exact same blog post; "I had the worst candidate interview today, I asked him a simple ice-breaker question before getting into more technical stuff, and he just went off about his family and relationships for an hour; weirdest interview I ever gave."

Yep. This is definitely an OP-is-autistic problem, or is perhaps inexperienced. Not an interviewer problem. Keep it professional. If an interviewer asks a personal question then you simply refuse to answer (politely), or steer it back towards a professional context. If they persist then you end the interview.

Re: The worst job interview I ever had

#262

Post by meerita »

syl5x wrote: post #237

I had an interview with a CTO back like 2 years ago, I already passed the 3-4 interviews 2 of which were technical and I am on this cultural fit interview with the CTO. The guy enters the call everything seems normal and he begins with his questions which were absolutely insane. First he asked me how did I improve in my work, since I work in cyber I explained to him that I am following latest trends, and getting secu…

Man, I would never want to be in your shoes that day. What a pain.

Re: The worst job interview I ever had

#263

Post by helloplanets »

bitbasher wrote: post #103

My worst interview was at Uber (their security team). The screening and technical interviews on site were all fine and dandy. At the end of the onsite interviews I spoke with the director in charge of the team. I asked some general questions like, "What's the team's work-life balance like?" He chuckled and said something like they work 60+ hour works. I looked at him and said flatly, "Yeah, I'm not doing that." The H…

So... You've never had a bad interview. Congrats!

Re: The worst job interview I ever had

#265

Post by stemchar »

shantnutiwari wrote: post #256
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…

I probably would've done the same. "I don't remember what the function is called" would've been fine-ish, but reaching for a regex is just insane.

Re: The worst job interview I ever had

#266

Post by raincole »

shantnutiwari wrote: post #256
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 was being rude, but I'm equally baffled by your description. It was very weird that you couldn't figure out which method is to search for substring when you have access to google search.

And it was triply weird that when he already said he wanted the non-regex way and you insisted on that.

Re: The worst job interview I ever had

#268

Post by mcv »

tombert wrote: post #63
mcv wrote: post #38

> covering such lovely topics as the hardest day of my life, my biggest life challenges, and other similar “trauma-baiting” questions. > talking about failed relationships, family struggles, and interpersonal challenges in previous work environments. I think that's an interpretation that wasn't necessary (though I agree they're terrible and risky interview questions). I'd stick to hard challenges is my professional l…

Not the OP, but having been in many similar interviews, I feel like it's an easy trap to fall into, especially if you've not developed a good bit of curmudgeonly cynicism. At least when I've done these interviews, they will be extremely friendly, and they will at least act interested in everything you have to say. It's very easy to overshare when you think the audience is actually interested in what you have to say.

I'm an oversharer, so I'm absolutely vulnerable to that trap. It's important to remind ourselves not to fall for it.

Re: The worst job interview I ever had

#269

Post by parados »

livealife wrote: post #58

Name and shame company: Canonical They make us write essays and life stories and reject in 24hrs. Felt the exact same frustration.

Second this. Canonical is currently winning the race to the bottom for tech interviews (I'm speaking with a couple of decades of experience on both sides of the table). They use lots of AI on their side (of course, none allowed on your side). A strange focus on your school years. Dark patterns in technical questions with no opportunity to get clarity. Ghosting afterwards. Interviews always involve some asymmetry but Canonical exploits that to the maximum.

Re: The worst job interview I ever had

#270

Post by GJim »

neoden wrote: post #235
MattRogish wrote: post #90

This… was a mistake on both you and the interviewer. All interview questions - unless it’s impossible to twist your answer to fit this - is scoped to “… at work”. Nobody who asks “tell me about yourself” is asking you to talk about how you met your partner, how many cats you have, or that experience you had, that one time, at band camp. It would be redundant and awkward to literally say “… at work” at the end of ever…

> is scoped to "… at work" It should be but nothing guarantees you from meeting an interviewer that somehow misunderstands their role and then you will be in a situation when you need to choose what to do next: try to be open or resist. Once during an interview (for a software engineer position) I was asked if I had a family and when I replied that I didn't, I was asked why. You might be able to cut it down in an app…

> I was asked if I had a family and when I replied that I didn't, I was asked why.

In Blighty, that would surely have garnered a response along the lines of 'they were all lost in an industrial accident involving a steamroller and a packet of Lurpak'.

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