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The worst job interview I ever had

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Re: The worst job interview I ever had

#511

Post by pelotron »

m463 wrote: post #372
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 remember interviewing once and they told me what they were working on. I was actually familiar with the product, but it had some glaring shortcomings, and I kind of groaned a little inside. And I told them that I liked some things about the product, but then I unfiltered sort of pointed out what was wrong. I really wasn't interested in working on it (though I didn't say that outright) And then they decided they lov…

I think the skepticism was the sincerity they were looking for.

Re: The worst job interview I ever had

#512

Post by schnebbau »

missinglugnut wrote: post #422
schnebbau wrote: post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

From the details I read in the post you are almost certainly wrong, not to mention being reallying condescending. The interviewer has control over the room. They steer the conversation. They could have stopped this at any point. Instead they encouraged OP to go deeper for 90 minutes. That wasn't OP misunderstanding a question, that was an interviewer enjoying the power trip.

Should OP take their mom next time to shut things down for them? You don't have to do what others ask of you, you know. I stand by my original assumption - they were too inexperienced with the world to know you can tell someone no, or lacked the ability to do so.

Re: The worst job interview I ever had

#513

Post by nedt »

Automattic, the company behind Wordpress, is so proud of they way they are working and the clear process for interviews. They invite you to a Slack channel, you get information before hand so you know exactly what they are looking for.

When I interviewed with them I've already worked with PHP for 20 years, even working on the Zend Framework, experiences in Javascript, HTML and CSS, leading projects for the longest time. But the interviewer I had seemed not to be interested very much. Shortly after the interview they threw me out of the channel, so I couldn't get to the information they shared yet they told me "Come back in a year when you are more experienced". Experienced in what? Well they never answered.

Of all interviews I had during that time they were the worst. Not really human. They saying "Automatticians are curious, driven, compassionate, tenacious, autonomous, friendly, independent, collaborative, communicative, supportive, self-motivated, and amazing with GIFs." I haven't even seen them posting a GIF.

Re: The worst job interview I ever had

#514

Post by dpark »

cdud3 wrote: post #454
nsxwolf wrote: post #427

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't want to pass an interview like that.

Its an effective way to sort out those candidates who are not able to leave private stuff at home.

It’s absolutely not. Putting people in a vulnerable position and then pressing them for information you don’t need and should not ask for is a good way to demonstrate that you are an unethical or at best incompetent interviewer.

It might be a good way filter for candidates that have a high tolerance for being mistreated, though, if that’s the goal.

Re: The worst job interview I ever had

#516

Post by eithed »

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.

Why can't people own to their mistakes and reschedule

Re: The worst job interview I ever had

#517

Post by KaiserPro »

dminik wrote: post #366
KaiserPro wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "what was the hardest day of your life" is a pretty standard I would suggest that this is a misremembering. As someone who's hosted thousands of interviews at companies big and small, all of the questions were scoped to professional work. Why? because when you ask things like "what was the hardest day in your life" you have a non-trivial chance of getting your interviewee tell you about the time they saw someone di…

Asking this sort of question is not great in professional context either. Someone working for the police could say: "Yeah, my boss made me clean up a triple homicide." Or a janitor at a fast food could say: "We found a dead addict in the toilets." Like these are all profession related answers. Yet they are not answers you want. Stop asking dumb questions.

I don't really like it either.

I much prefer asking about things the candidate would take from or actively avoid from the previous job.

Re: The worst job interview I ever had

#518

Post by eithed »

tsukikage wrote: post #177

Genuinely opening up is a mistake. The incentives for these clearly mean that they actually select for candidates who are capable of glibly blagging their way through an extended conversation without saying anything inconsistent, weird, compromising or of substance. This isn’t usually a required engineering skill. I’m guessing the interview was designed for salespeople and/or middle management.

I'd say it depends - evaluate the vibes. I spent 8y and recently 7y at a company where I genuinely responded with what I thought. But I'd say it's a matter of the audience - some people want to hear certain things and deciding if you can share these thoughts is up to you. It also allowed me to make decisions - if people don't care what I think and want sycophancy is this the company I want to be working at? I understand though it depends on one circumstances = you have to grin and bear it

Re: The worst job interview I ever had

#519

Post by jrflo »

SpicyLemonZest wrote: post #445
freehorse wrote: post #375

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my understanding, interviewers expect sth like: > What is your greatest weakness? > I am too good at my work

This is a common misunderstanding, and I don't want to sound like I'm blaming you for it, but it's based on a misconception of how the process works. What interviewers are looking for is genuine introspection of the kind a high-quality hire would be expected to have. One answer I've given before, for example, is that I instinctively focus too deeply on technical requirements; I have to regularly prompt myself to answ…

I don’t think “I focus too much on technical requirements” is a great weakness. That’s pretty much a standard pitfall most technical people would fit into. A greatest weakness is “I procrastinate a lot and wait til the last moment to get started on a project and often miss deadlines” or “I have a lot of conflict with teammates I disagree with”. Your answer is an example of exactly what I’m talking about, something that can be construed as a weakness but is actually kind of a strength because it shows you’re detail oriented.

Also, if you have a good interviewer, they will respect humility. Not all interviewers are good.

Re: The worst job interview I ever had

#520

Post by gopher_space »

overgard wrote: post #470
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…

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.

The minefield is enormous but there are only like five or six mines in it and they're all really well marked. It's something adults navigate every day.

I don't actually care about personal details, I'm just looking for a topic you can use to explain your point of view for a few minutes.

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