Ever tanked an interview so hard it made you cry?

Happened recently to me, sucks doesn't it. I say onward and upward.
 
Worst thing I hate about interviews is if you don't tank but get strung along. If you make it though to 2nd or 3rd interview answer barrages of questions for hours on end, doing well. Then just nothing. Not even decency to tell you, you didn't get the job. That rejection of them using up all your time and then to just ignore you like that without even saying you din't get the job. The industry is small and for them to just treat you like that, thinking that will never be a bad reflection on them. That's why I don't mind if companies have so much issues with recruiters and disingenuous candidates. Karma is a bitch and they deserve everything they get.
 
Iamnotageek said:
Went for an interview a while back for an IT tech position. R13k p/m great benefits.

I didn't really want the job, but also wouldn't mind getting it. Have a job already but the salary would've been better.

Anyways, dude asks me a bunch of BS questions, about personality, what are your weaknesses etc.

Then he gets to the question, "On a network the ADSL router is working fine, everyone can access the LAN but no one can access the internet".... What would be the first thing you look for?

Told him I'm not answering such a stupid question.

He actually laughed and we got chatting afterwards. He liked the fact that I had the balls to speak my mind. Never got the job ( maybe due to that answer ), but **** that. I'm not answering moronic questions.
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Check if the RJ11 cable was plugged in? Would that be a suitable answer?
 
Rickster said:
Check if the RJ11 cable was plugged in? Would that be a suitable answer?
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Which was my point exactly...there are a multitude of answers to that question and if you only had one answer for it then I would say you aren't very bright at troubleshooting.

I also wouldn't employ you based on you thinking it's a stupid question.

I've had supposedly certified Cisco okes come for interviews with me who couldn't explain what NAT was...
 
[video=youtube;LsL2Zp7xOwY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsL2Zp7xOwY[/video]
 
envo said:
I'm good at the written and practical. But for the life of me, it was like I blanked out every single thing from my 1st 2 years on the job and could barely answer correctly. The dude had the power to make me nervous, which usually accelerates the temporary amnesia. I even forgot how old I was when he asked me ffs. When I said "tanked" I meant "taaaaaaaaaaaaaanked"
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What was the question?
 
Rocket-Boy said:
^this, I love overconfident people conducting an interview when they are not as good as they think they are.
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Yes. We had a recent one. Bailed on us. Couldn't handle the "pressure"

PS: Please don't put crap on your CV thinking it will outshine you in the office environment
 
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Well. There was a interview at the CSIR where the guy from HR asked me a question so convoluted that I'd forgotten the second part by the time I had answered the first part. Or the one at K2 where the agent had completely oversold me - that was a awkward day.
And another one was a grudge interview I took because the agent kept on petering me. I tanked that one so bad I felt miserable - they made me a offer the next day.

Since then I have handled a number of interviews myself - and I can recognise a good interview from a bad one. Once excused myself from a contract interview at a insurer, telling them that I got the distinct impression that they had already found their match, and were just going though the motions to keep HR happy. (They actually phoned me 6 weeks later, asked if I was still in the market)

My current contract - I was phoned by a former co-worker from the Reserve Bank, didn't even need a interview, after I sent my CV, they phoned me to ask when I can start.
 
semaphore said:
What was the question?
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If there was only 1 question I wouldn't have felt the way I did.

He asked me what software I use to design ERD's, and honest to God I only have used SSMS to design these, not in the UML way they probably expected. SSMS allows you to make comments on it, I use it after a quick sketch in my notebook (pen & paper). He acted like I just shat in my pants.

This was enough to make me even more nervous than I already was.

Was asked to explain the life-cycle of a web page, which I did, but probably not the text-book response he was expecting based on his "no that's not right?" type comments and when I went into even lower-level detail he asked that I don't go in too much detail. WTF?

I couldn't find the right terminology to explain OO, so I resorted to examples. He kept saying I was wrong so we moved on (I said something along the lines of when a class is written to be re-used in an application with other related objects, like a person would have a gender, and a policeman would have a job policeman, but inherit person stuff because he is a person. I know right, I felt I was right, he didn't. Obviously if I gave the text-book response his response wouldn't have been "you don't work with this at all I see")

By the time he asked me what a constructor was I was a total nervous wreck. Confused it with constants (yea I know I know)

After ending the interview even got my age wrong by 2 years, I wouldn't be surprised if he asked my name if I could remember that part without feeling like I might actually be wrong.

I did get a callback, but holy **** balls, that interview suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuucked. I'm actually thinking of cancelling
 
SauRoNZA said:
Which was my point exactly...there are a multitude of answers to that question and if you only had one answer for it then I would say you aren't very bright at troubleshooting.

I also wouldn't employ you based on you thinking it's a stupid question.

I've had supposedly certified Cisco okes come for interviews with me who couldn't explain what NAT was...
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you guys clearly missed the point of the question..in 99% of interviews we assess the applicants ability to understand and approach the problem. We are not looking for one specific answer of the multitude of answers that exist, and the questions asked will ALWAYS have more than one answer. We are merely assessing the persons approach to problem solving, how they think, where do they start..etc
 
envo said:
If there was only 1 question I wouldn't have felt the way I did.

He asked me what software I use to design ERD's, and honest to God I only have used SSMS to design these, not in the UML way they probably expected. SSMS allows you to make comments on it, I use it after a quick sketch in my notebook (pen & paper). He acted like I just shat in my pants.

This was enough to make me even more nervous than I already was.

Was asked to explain the life-cycle of a web page, which I did, but probably not the text-book response he was expecting based on his "no that's not right?" type comments and when I went into even lower-level detail he asked that I don't go in too much detail. WTF?

I couldn't find the right terminology to explain OO, so I resorted to examples. He kept saying I was wrong so we moved on (I said something along the lines of when a class is written to be re-used in an application with other related objects, like a person would have a gender, and a policeman would have a job policeman, but inherit person stuff because he is a person. I know right, I felt I was right, he didn't. Obviously if I gave the text-book response his response wouldn't have been "you don't work with this at all I see")

By the time he asked me what a constructor was I was a total nervous wreck. Confused it with constants (yea I know I know)

After ending the interview even got my age wrong by 2 years, I wouldn't be surprised if he asked my name if I could remember that part without feeling like I might actually be wrong.

I did get a callback, but holy **** balls, that interview suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuucked. I'm actually thinking of cancelling
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Sounds like he wasn't good at interviewing to be honest.
 
*SynergyX* said:
you guys clearly missed the point of the question..in 99% of interviews we assess the applicants ability to understand and approach the problem. We are not looking for one specific answer of the multitude of answers that exist, and the questions asked will ALWAYS have more than one answer. We are merely assessing the persons approach to problem solving, how they think, where do they start..etc
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Yeah, that's how I've interviewed candidates in the past. I can see them getting the idea, or at least understanding the principals behind it. Even if it is not 100% the answer I was looking for.

That being said I've had some really really bad candidates before.
 
When I was in for an interview, the interviewer asked me about my most difficult time I've experienced at the company.

Could not think offhand of anything, so I asked him if we could get back to that question, and he agreed. Went on with the interview normally, and when he was about to start a new round of questions I informed him that I'm able to answer his question he asked previously.

Most difficult time was when we got cryptolocker on one workstation... not a fun experience.
 
Nope. But I did tank an interview because I started crying. It wasn't a job interview though.
 
Nokkie said:
Yes. We had a recent one. Bailed on us. Couldn't handle the "pressure"

PS: Please don't put crap on your CV thinking it will outshine you in the office environment
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I don't put c*** or fluff on mine, it says things as they are.

Besides, if you really need to put c*** on your CV or fluff it up, then you've got a big problem.

By the by, I'm in the market... systems administrator with more than 18 years of experience.
 
envo said:
If there was only 1 question I wouldn't have felt the way I did.

He asked me what software I use to design ERD's, and honest to God I only have used SSMS to design these, not in the UML way they probably expected. SSMS allows you to make comments on it, I use it after a quick sketch in my notebook (pen & paper). He acted like I just shat in my pants.
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Lol. My honest to God answer, would have been "pen and paper" - I wonder how that would have gone down. IIRC, I used the Rational Rose suite about 15 years back.

envo said:
I couldn't find the right terminology to explain OO, so I resorted to examples. He kept saying I was wrong so we moved on (I said something along the lines of when a class is written to be re-used in an application with other related objects, like a person would have a gender, and a policeman would have a job policeman, but inherit person stuff because he is a person. I know right, I felt I was right, he didn't. Obviously if I gave the text-book response his response wouldn't have been "you don't work with this at all I see")
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Probably wanted everything in terms of "behaviour", "identity" and "state".
 
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