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Ever tanked an interview so hard it made you cry?
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Billy
Expert Member
Honesty, yes, Humility, never. If I am interviewing a Company to grace them with my presence, one thing that I will not be is humble. They are lucky that I have fitted their appointment into my busy schedule.
About 10 years ago I bombed an interview. Very bizarre, I had two interviewers - one had such a strong Chinese accent that I couldn't figure out what she was asking the entire time. When I explained to her that I couldn't understand her, she just repeated what she said multiple times, each time equally obscure. By the time she had conveyed what she meant, we were nearly done. I thought she was talking about advanced mathematical topics that I had never heard of, but she had just mispronounced a bunch of standard names.
The other interviewer just came in and spoke at me for an hour - never even asked a question, or gave me an opportunity to interrupt him by taking a breath.
Very bizarre experience. I have had hindsight after interviews in the past though - I've had some people try cast questions in an "interesting" way, which was sufficiently different to make someone less familiar with the field, yet who knows the answer they are looking for think they are looking for something else. Specifically, someone was looking for the answer "that is a minimization problem - use variant X of gradient decent to find local minima and variant Y to try search for global minima", however, it was phrased as "I'm a mountain climber, and I'm trying to find the "best view", how do I find it given a function or height map of the terrain?" - to which I tried to find the point on the map that could see the most terrain, basically trying to find the "least occluded" viewpoint (highest peak would be an approximation, but definitely not necessarily the best view since it may be surrounded by peaks nearly as high). People have to be very careful how they "re-word" questions - they can change it entirely, and more than likely this will confuse the smarter candidates, who consider the question asked from all angles, rather than just a narrow, but standardized interpretation of it.
The other interviewer just came in and spoke at me for an hour - never even asked a question, or gave me an opportunity to interrupt him by taking a breath.
Very bizarre experience. I have had hindsight after interviews in the past though - I've had some people try cast questions in an "interesting" way, which was sufficiently different to make someone less familiar with the field, yet who knows the answer they are looking for think they are looking for something else. Specifically, someone was looking for the answer "that is a minimization problem - use variant X of gradient decent to find local minima and variant Y to try search for global minima", however, it was phrased as "I'm a mountain climber, and I'm trying to find the "best view", how do I find it given a function or height map of the terrain?" - to which I tried to find the point on the map that could see the most terrain, basically trying to find the "least occluded" viewpoint (highest peak would be an approximation, but definitely not necessarily the best view since it may be surrounded by peaks nearly as high). People have to be very careful how they "re-word" questions - they can change it entirely, and more than likely this will confuse the smarter candidates, who consider the question asked from all angles, rather than just a narrow, but standardized interpretation of it.
WaxLyrical
Honorary Master
So companies are looking for arrogant employees?
Check out the winners of The Apprentice as a case in point.
I can't understand how people complain about SA tech interviews. They usually stick to simple technical stuff.
The US ones on the other hand. Holy crap. Read some of those interviews on sites like hackernews and it's super in depth and difficult with a heavy focus in Computer Science.
They only want A players and their A players are miles ahead of SA's A players.
The US ones on the other hand. Holy crap. Read some of those interviews on sites like hackernews and it's super in depth and difficult with a heavy focus in Computer Science.
They only want A players and their A players are miles ahead of SA's A players.
DrJohnZoidberg
Honorary Master
I've read some horror stories. I'm starting with a US-based company in Jan, glad to say there was no such horrid interview process
When I interviewed in SA, I wasn't asked very much technical - more of just a discussion. I never really thought this was sufficient, so when I interviewed for new hires, I made sure to ask a bunch of technical questions similar to what I later found out is done in the US. Still, even then, we would ask technical questions for an hour, and that was it. In the US, I've always seen 7+ hour long technical interviews on-site and at least 2-3 phone screens prior to that.
Billy
Expert Member
When you go for an interview, you are weighing the potential of their offer against what you currently have. Employers also lie, but unfortunately not in writing like your CV.
You are interviewing a potential provider of income, nothing more. Forget the career path the future prospects. In my career which has spanned Delivery Boy on a bicycle to MD, one thing is clear, I have outlived all but one Companies that I have worked for, so forget questions like where do you see yourself in ten years. The Company probably will not be there.
Employment is modern Slavery. Nothing more nothing less. You are looking for the BEST Slave Boss, nothing more nothing less.
GOLD!
You have so much to learn if you think that is a moronic question....
to give you an example, we have various scenarios which we use for interviews, the question is basically the same but the issue differs based on position, below is what the problem would be that you need to find:
L1: the router is unplugged, should take you 5min to find that
L2: the DNS service on the server has died, if your 1st step isn't a tracert to 8.8.8.8 the interview over.
L3: there is an upstream routing issue, local traffic will work but international services are down.
unless your title has architect in it and you are earning 50k+ arrogance won't get you anywhere.
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Interviews for senior positions typically do go the way of those you read about online, a helpdesk position not so much.
If a company is looking for a CS graduate you can be sure that they will be testing CS knowledge. I have heard of a half day interview which went from presenting the OSI model "like you would to a 3 year old" to an Exchange (multi server deployment) recovery here in SA.
Our interviews for senior staff typically involve a small lab relating to the area of expertise we are looking for and can be anything from a scripting test to configuring a full server solution to setting up a router (like a routerboard) from scratch. Watching someone quickly lets you see the difference between a true MCSE vs a guy who wrote the Exams using dumps
HavocXphere
Honorary Master
Nope never tanked an interview.
Couple of exams though.
Couple of exams though.
I agree with you on the first part of your post, although I don't think arrogance is acceptable at whatever level you are. My title has architect in it, and I earn way more than 50k, and if I threw my toys when asked "What's the square root of 1.2?" in my last interview, it would have been the biggest mistake of my life.
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pinball wizard
Honorary Master
FIFY
Not really in the interview but before it, 2 minutes before it. This was 15 years ago. Went for an interview at a software house. Got a reply back I didn't get the position, was actually glad after the interview. One of the interviewers was swearing non stop so I was thinking naaaaa, I'm not gonna work for you bud. So a few months later, I applied for a position through an personell agency. They were somehow not very open about who this place was and where. So go, and walk into the offices, and see the name and the person and like .... "Oh, you lot..." and turned around and walked out.
kripstoe
Expert Member
Yip... and that's why when we interview, we also want a potential candidate to feel like they want to work here. Even if someone does not get the position, we want them to leave with a good impression. Who knows, in a couple of years I might be applying somewhere where they are doing the interview.
smallearth
Expert Member
Didn't tank an interview yet. I did however get invited to an interview a few years ago only to realize early on in the interview that I was only invited as a formality and they had no intention of hiring me ever. Business wanted me, HR didn't.
Kilgore_Trout_Redux
Executive Member
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My first Skype interview was a bloodbath. It will also be my last Skype interview.
Had to explain how I would solve various trivial problems then code them.
One of those was a simple extension method and I got completely flustered coding the parameter signature around 'this'
Derp.
Had to explain how I would solve various trivial problems then code them.
One of those was a simple extension method and I got completely flustered coding the parameter signature around 'this'
Derp.
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I've only ever had one nasty experience like that which i consider to be the most unprofessional interview I've ever had.. unsurprisingly I hear that specific dept in that company goes through developers faster than toilet paper so makes sense. In this one the recruiter sent me for an interview on skills i did not have.. why they asked for me to come for an interview is a failure on the company side though, taking a personal dive on what i earned at the time vs what they think i should be and then taking a few mine to basically say what you did above i will never understand nor why the hr person let it happen. I then was told to find my own way out of the building(secure building where u need to be escorted out and i got lost so that was fun lol).
I've rarely bombed technical interviews as i prepare well and do my home work on companies. Two stand out.. one where i need to code something on paper where i hadn't coded for months haha, one i did bomb out of was with a large global company which focused on data structures etc. got thru ok but fell for the hr interview round which was just a 2nd round of technical interview. <-- Lesson learnt, I now never trust companies when they say it's a non-tech interview. Ugh for technical interviews you learn fast when you just graduated what to expect.. there after you just know what to prepare and don't gt caught out.
Recruiter once sent me on a C# interview.. I don't know a thing about C#, explained to the guy but he said i can see what i can do on the dev test simulation they had. So i tried.. yah that one i failed the worse but then again totally expected so didnt care too much. Still don't care for C# incidentally haha. One thing Interviewers forget is that the Interviewee is interviewing you & your company. I've lost interest in positions a lot of the time while in the interview and then again just kinda wait to leave.
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