Friday OT - Get A Job

[ISUCyclones2015]

Not sure this counts but I had an interview with a Big Tech company (some search engine, a joke company right?) in San Francisco area during the week of “mock interviews” for some English class.

I was told that I would fail the class because I would hit 3 absences (both others were also for interviews) when explaining the situation.

Me: “You’re telling me I'm going to fail because I miss mock interviews led by other students for a real interview with X company?”

Professor: “Yes. Attendance requirement is a no exception rule”

I forwarded it to the Dean and they were so wishy washy about it I dropped the class and took it the next semester no problem.

Sometimes common sense isn’t there in Academia. I’m sorry.

 

[somecyguy]

My favorite occurred interviewing for a weekend job during seminary. Interviewed with the HR manager for a few minutes, when he left urgently to get his manager.
That interview went amazing. Manager concluded with "I have been praying for a candidate just like you. You are God's answers to my prayers for my life and the life of my company. I'll be calling you Monday to offer you the job."

He never called. I called on Wednesday just to get the news over with.
Otherwise, now I specialize in being yelled at during interviews.

Something similar happened to me last year. I was interviewing for a senior position with the VP of a consulting company. Everything went well and at the end said he would schedule a meeting with the president just as a courtesy meeting. Three days later he emails me they went with someone else over a topic we hadn't even covered in the interview.

 

[Cyclones_R_GR8]

Are you on any drugs?
You drink?

 

[Cybone]

Back then, only to excess.

One of the offices was known as the “cocaine room” back in the 70’s. One of the partners told me a story that they had a tenant living in that room back then. The guy asked one of the partners for a $10,000 loan in exchange for 10% of whatever the guy earned the rest of his life. The partner turned him down…the guy asking was Robin Williams.

I only stayed in Aspen for a year. I can tell you that A LOT of the powder in Aspen, you don’t ski on. *sniff* *sniff*

 

[ISUser]

I have lot of possibilities for this. I'm in engineering and am frequently involved in our group's intern interviews. I've had candidates:
- Take over the interview and ask themselves questions so we couldn't talk.
- Completely freeze up and not answer any questions even when we tried to lead them back in.
- Give a good example of handling adversity by shutting off the lights and leaving work when a water leak started.

I still think my best story is probably when I was interviewed by a company during my last semester at ISU. They forgot to tell me about a second interview with a different group an hour after my initial interview, so in the meantime they threw me in with the manager of another group who was hiring and had me talk to him. I ended up interviewing for three different positions in three hours when I was only originally told there would be a single interview. On the way out HR stops me and tells me a group at a location wants to talk to me the next day. I declined since it would be six hours away from campus and I needed to get back, but told them I would be interested if we could reschedule to a future date.

Fast forward to two weeks later and the company pays to fly me to the final interview location. I go to get my rental car and find out I can't pick it up because I didn't have a credit card and was under 25. I only had a debit card and they wouldn't take it. I had to take a taxi to my hotel, where I was basically stuck overnight until I took another cab to the interview since I didn't have a car or very much money. The interview wraps up and they decide to take me to lunch and show me around before my flight leaves. I was getting over a cold at the time and while they were giving the tour I sneezed into my elbow and blew a bunch of snot onto my suit sleeve that everyone noticed. I thought I was done for, but I just hit my 15 year anniversary with the same company!

 

[Antihawk240]

My current IT company. We interviewed a guy who wanted to move to Austin and was applying for a Sr. Position. We are all on camera. We watched him open and slam two Red Stripes on camera during the interview. If you can’t go without drinking on an interview, then you have bigger problems than employment.

Ha! I'm right there with you. When my wife and I moved I scheduled (3) interviews with (3) businesses who were direct competitors of each other. 1st interview went great, 3rd interview was great. The 2nd interview though- the president of the company during my "tell me your duties with *at the time time current employer* and why are you looking to move" part of the meeting did something I never ever expected. So I'm breaking out the response all while I notice he is fidgeting with something under the table. Then- get this- he turns to the side and fakes sneezes. When he put his hands to his face he puts in a pinch of chewing tobacco.

I didn't know what the heck to do- I had to be absolutely stuttering all over the place and repeating myself stupidly, dropping Uumms Ahhs and Uumms right and left because all I could think about was "Did this *&^% really just fake sneeze and put a dip in and expect me not to notice, and does this *&^% really think I don't see the dip in his lip when he is talking to me right now."

Oddly enough- they were the very 1st of the interviews to call and offer me the job and it was for the most money. It was a quick call though- I had to tell them "i didn't think it was going to be a good fit for me." I was able to use their offer though to get a higher paying offer from 3rd interview. Where I am still at today.

 

[1100011CS]

I am not sure if we have done this one before; I think maybe we did? What are your best (or hopefully most horrifying) interview stories?

thought this was going to be a thread about my son

 

[Sousaclone]

Mine is pretty mundane (been lucky enough that I've only gone through a handful of interviews).

Showed up 5 minutes before my first interview as an intern with a geotech company in Omaha (over spring break). Walk in talk to the receptionist and she says "Oh, he was expecting you yesterday and was wondering where you were. He's out of the office, but let me see if he's available."

Heart drops, moments of panic and confusion, etc. While she is trying to get ahold of the guy to see if he's available, I find the email that I've got printed out (this is 2005) with the address for the place and confirm that I was where I was supposed to be, when I was supposed to be there. Then try to figure out how to tell the receptionist that I'm right, the manager is wrong. Ended up sitting around for 30 minutes while the manager gets back to the office from wherever he was.

Interned with them for two summers. Didn't apply for a full time position.

 

[khardbored]

In college a new Staples was about to open up, lots of flyers sent out, etc.... I don't think they had their act together. I submitted an application, but no resume, no interview, and they hire me over the phone. My 1st day was opening day. I only worked there about 10 weeks.