Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The worst job interview I ever had

oliverio.dev

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

461–470 of 589 posts

Re: The worst job interview I ever had

#461

Post by giancarlostoro »

at-fates-hands wrote: post #447
giancarlostoro wrote: post #405

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I lasted about 6 months and even trying to leave was an ordeal. Like finding your next gig or just not showing up ever again? Because I've worked at a place where someone came in, went to lunch, and they never saw them ever again.

My buddy did that. I got a gig as a contractor for a well known company. They were hiring and he told his recruiter to get him in. After several conversations trying to tell him not to come in and telling him what a clown show it was, he still managed to get hired. Same thing. Came in, continually had to ask me how to do stuff, and I kept telling him, "See man, I told you this place is a clown show!". He did the same…

Yeah I cant blame someone for knowing their limits. In this case none of the people who worked with the person ever knew why they never came back.

Re: The worst job interview I ever had

#462

Post by TRiG_Ireland »

eithed wrote: post #433
arrowsmith wrote: post #406

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do Poles answer "how are you?" differently to Brits?

Brits will either say "Fine, thanks" or not respond at all. Poles will tell you that yesterday they went to visit their relatives, and now they're tired, or that their cat is sick, or that they having problems with something. It's a difference between "asking when you don't care about response" vs "asking because you genuinely want to know how the other person is"

In the UK, a perfectly valid answer to "How are you?" is "How are you?"

Re: The worst job interview I ever had

#463

Post by giancarlostoro »

JCTheDenthog wrote: post #444
giancarlostoro wrote: post #402

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Having said that, talking to a relative, I found out that this style of "interviewing" is often done when they already have someone for the position, but need to show (for compliance reasons, or otherwise) that they tried finding candidates, and only their preferred one qualified. Or they only want candidates from a specific country to apply which is seemingly the case. I've heard from very talented and capable dev…

>There's a problem with tech hiring and nobody wants to talk about it because most people are unaware. And those who are aware and bring it up often get accused of racism when they do, making it difficult to spread awareness of this awful practice.

The funny thing is I am considered a minority, but apparently not the “right kind” of minority. I think outside of being accused of racism I suspect some people anticipate HR level retaliation as well.

Re: The worst job interview I ever had

#464

Post by alphabeta3r56 »

My worst interview: The recruiter forgot about me. Then joined 5 mins late, asking me if we had actually scheduled something.

I said yes, so assembled 3 people 20 mins to listen to my presentation on my PhD work. No questions at the end of the presentation, sent a mail 2 mins later telling me they are not moving forward.

Re: The worst job interview I ever had

#465

Post by drrob »

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…

It's a good job I wasn't being interviewed for this job, as I have not one iota of a smidge of a clue what PEFT and LORA are. And I have no idea what varieties of prompting technique there are.

Re: The worst job interview I ever had

#466

Post by loloquwowndueo »

alphabeta3r56 wrote: post #464

My worst interview: The recruiter forgot about me. Then joined 5 mins late, asking me if we had actually scheduled something. I said yes, so assembled 3 people 20 mins to listen to my presentation on my PhD work. No questions at the end of the presentation, sent a mail 2 mins later telling me they are not moving forward.

Sounds like you dodged a bullet my guy.

Re: The worst job interview I ever had

#467

Post by nkrisc »

DangitBobby wrote: post #359
nkrisc wrote: post #303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There’s a reason interviewers in the US won’t (or shouldn’t) even ask if the candidate has a spouse. If they ask something about that specifically, and the answer indicates some kind of protected status (a man says “my husband” or reveal which place of worship they got married in) and they then decline the candidate, the candidate could make the claim they were denied because they’re gay or practice whatever religion…

I think people vastly overstate the amount of actual risk companies are taking when they engage is possibly illegal behavior, especially on this forum.

Likely true, and I’m sure many companies go unpunished despite engaging in it, but that doesn’t make it a good idea, and probably the kind of thing that could ruin a small business if they did get caught up in it.

Re: The worst job interview I ever had

#468

Post by eithed »

TRiG_Ireland wrote: post #462
eithed wrote: post #433

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Brits will either say "Fine, thanks" or not respond at all. Poles will tell you that yesterday they went to visit their relatives, and now they're tired, or that their cat is sick, or that they having problems with something. It's a difference between "asking when you don't care about response" vs "asking because you genuinely want to know how the other person is"

In the UK, a perfectly valid answer to "How are you?" is "How are you?"

Yes :D

In Poland you would just say Hej! = I acknowledge you being there but I don't want to chat. But again, back to the point I was trying to make - the intent behind these sort of questions (and answers) can be cultural

Re: The worst job interview I ever had

#469

Post by Gimpei »

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…

I’m inclined to believe that you are being too charitable to the interviewers. This is an early stage mental health startup. They totally could have been asking very personal questions. I believe this used to be standard when interviewing psychoanalysts. They could have stopped the author at any time too. That would be the most natural thing. I’m inclined to believe that it was a clown show and they conducted borderline abusive interviews. Shame on them. But also, beware early stage startups. It’s a real roll of the dice and the dice are weighted against you.

Re: The worst job interview I ever had

#470

Post by overgard »

victorbojica wrote: post #150
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…

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…

Legally, asking personal questions in an interview that are unrelated to the job is a huge minefield, ie, you could be opening the company to discrimination lawsuits. Huge red flag that the company isn't very professional.
Post reply on HN