Ever tanked an interview so hard it made you cry?

I have always seen an interview as a first date. It is two parties meeting and seeing if they have enough chemistry and interests to spend more time with each other.
 
I went for an interview at Old Mutual for a job I could have probably gotten, but I was young and my priorities weren't right. I ended up partying until 4am (erm not booze so I didn't stink) in the morning before my 8:30 interview and had a huge brain fart when hit with questions I would have sailed through. It took me 2 years and a half to get the same salary I would have gotten.
 
Kilgore_Trout_Redux said:
I have always seen an interview as a first date. It is two parties meeting and seeing if they have enough chemistry and interests to spend more time with each other.
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Heh. A friend of mine went on a first date a few years back, and his date asked him questions, like "Do you own or rent? What type of car do you drive?". I see an interview as possibly being that kind of date. ;)
 
Earlier this year I went to an interview at MDB and everything was great until we got to the technical questions. I got nervous and when I get nervous I kind of stutter and go blank. I forgot answers to a question they asked me and only remembered as soon as I exited the building. They lied to me and said they'll call me to come write an assessment but they never did. I was really sad since it looked like a nice company and I got there 2 hours early for the interview... lol *sigh* I suck... :cry:
 
goth_nerd said:
Earlier this year I went to an interview at MDB and everything was great until we got to the technical questions. I got nervous and when I get nervous I kind of stutter and go blank. I forgot answers to a question they asked me and only remembered as soon as I exited the building. They lied to me and said they'll call me to come write an assessment but they never did. I was really sad since it looked like a nice company and I got there 2 hours early for the interview... lol *sigh* I suck... :cry:
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/hmm.. wings
 
I had one, I was shortlisted for a postition and I was unemployed and nervous as hell! The initital assessment, which was like a case study exam - that was a breeze.

We also had to prepare a presentation and I tanked that hard. Fumbled my words, rushed through it, had my hands in my pocked and generally presented myself poorly. I evenutally came second in the shortlist.

I was so frustrated because it was an awesome opportunity... :(
 
A couple of years ago I seriously tanked my interview with Amazon so badly that I can only think back to it now and laugh.

After passing the phone screens I was seriously psyched to get this job. I always wanted to work for a "big name" tech company like Amazon. They flew me in to Cape Town for the on-site interviews so I got up at some ridiculous hour to catch the first flight.

The disaster started at the airport where I scratched my car badly while parking it, that really set my day up for success. :)

After the flight I got to their offices way early so I had a lot of time to psych myself out (and berate myself for damaging my car).

I read up quite a bit about the Amazon interview process beforehand so knew what to expect. Having quite a few years of experience I knew some of my CS knowledge might not be as fresh as a recent graduate so I studied hard for the interview but when the interviews started I was totally useless. I got some stuff right but I knew I had to ask more clarifying questions (but for some reason just didn't). I can still recall how I drew a complete blank on a very simple linked list question. It was pretty embarrassing, the one interviewer tried really hard to guide me to the answer he was looking for but it took me forever to pick up on the clues.

Obviously I failed the interview and I felt really bad (not quite tears at least). Not so much about the job but because I knew I could do a lot better. I pride myself on my technical skills and nobody likes being told that they aren't good enough.

Anyways I realised that not passing an interview isn't the end of the world and it doesn't actually reflect your real worth. So for all you younger developers: don't stress about tanking an interview, it is actually a good experience and will make you more relaxed for any upcoming interviews because you know it "can't go as bad as that other one" and not take the whole song and dance so seriously.
 
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I tanked an assessment today. They gave me a laptop (I hate laptop keyboard and mouse). So something that should take me 5 minutes took me 15 mins. I had a deadline today at work and had to do this assessment first. It was a very simple assessment.
 
cguy said:
Heh. A friend of mine went on a first date a few years back, and his date asked him questions, like "Do you own or rent? What type of car do you drive?". I see an interview as possibly being that kind of date. ;)
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Jerry Seinfeld: "What is a date really but a job interview that lasts all night. Only difference is, not many job interviews there's a chance you'll end up naked at the end of it. 'Well Bill, the boss thinks you're the man for the position. Why don't you strip down and meet some of the people you'll be working with?' "
 
I tanked at least two interviews for jobs that I really wanted and could actually for full the role.

The last one was this year, sucked so much because I felt like this job ticked all the boxes and was a carbon cut out of what I currently do.
The phone interview was terrible, all stuff I know but when they spoke it sounded like a different language. Then the recruiter convinced them that I need a second chance and that I would be better face to face.
So they had a bigger interview with more people, I felt it went much better.... I could remember all the questions that I got wrong and was able to tell them the correct answers. I felt like that should mean something ?

It was a much better interview in the end but they still chose not to hire, I still feel bad but now I see that the company is not doing so well, could be I dodged a bullet.
 
I tanked a telephonic interview pretty hard. The recruiter set me up for a intermediate - senior position while I was just fresh out of finishing my degree.
 
I can't say I've tanked a lot of interviews, but I have been rejected a fair amount of times. That's where the tears came from :D
 
I tanked an interview for a company I really wanted to work at over silly theoretical design pattern questions.

Fast forward two years and I got to work for them with a better position. Last month we where discussing how to interview candidates and mentioned it was important to keep questions relevant to the job position.

I then shared my experience with my original interview as an example and everybody burst out laughing as nobody could recall a single design pattern being implemented in our code beyond the basics (eg singleton).

Even in my degree studies we learn the danger of not doing proper interviews and that 80% of candidates who pass interviews are not suited for the position when the interviewer fails to not ask questions only limited to the position.
 
Won't say tanked but I went for an interview for a junior consulting position. At that point, I just had my diploma and a few years in a start-up, so no "corporate" experience. They asked questions you'd ask someone who's worked at a larger company, not an informal(ish) small business. Waffled my way through an answer, tried to dress it up with jargon - you know, "I had to adhere to customer relationship management principles where I had to balance the needs of the customer versus the needs of the business..." that kind of jazz. It was either that, or I say, "Did you even look at my CV? That kind of sh*t never happened there." lol...lesser of two evils, though. That was pretty much the same for every interview I'd went to afterwards, which eventually got me to a point where I'd just walk into interviews and fill time with words. The only one I got an offer for was one where all I had to do was fill in a questionnaire, which I aced. Got the job.

For the most recent one, I don't have any experience/qualification in that area (testing) but I'm a qualified dev, which they said was fine, they'd train me up to test. But the most classic part of that process is that they didn't even ask any of those, "What are your strengths/weaknesses" stuff, the dev manager just looked at my CV, said, oh, you've done this and this language - would you be interested in testing? I said, yes. We chatted mostly about programming, made a few nerdy jokes. They said they'd call back if I got through to the next round. Next round, met the CEO this time, she just said something along the lines, "I have no clue about your position, I'm just here because clearly they like you and I'm really here just to see if you can speak in full sentences and if you want to be here." Got the offer. Most pleasant process ever, neither side bullsh*t or put on airs and graces - maybe it's because I wasn't interviewed by HR but rather by the head of the dev team, but it definitely made up for the past experiences.
 
I tanked in 2 interviews in 1 week for dev jobs years ago, even though I had 5 years experience in building enterprise web applications. The interviewers seemed to want very specific answers to the way THEY did things and didn't regard my perfectly valid answers.

Fast forward 4 years later and I started my own dev company with 12 staff members currently and I do proper interviews. I look for the candidate's potential, rather than specific tech they've done and in ways I prefer to do it. I can teach them dev languages and methodologies in the job.
 
I once tanked an interview by insinuating the CEO was a lesbian by accident...
Long story short...verbal diarrhea because I was 20 and she was SUPER HOT...lets just say it got really awkward really quickly.
 
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