Wednesday, January 30, 2013

The world's most painful interviews.

As if job hunting wasn't hard enough with people telling you to just "find a job already"...

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 After sending countless resumes
you might get one call back, maybe two, maybe three.
Then you have to go to the actual interview.

The interviews that I have been on were some of the most painful things to experience.
Today, I will be sharing some of the experiences that I have had.

#1
Interviewer: "Oh, interesting!  My wife was in the same sorority as you!"
Me: "That's awesome!  Small world!"
Interviewer: "Yea, she hated it."
Umm, what?  Then why even bring that up in the first place?
How do you even respond to that?
Especially when that's the first thing out of his mouth!

#2
Interviewer: "What was your GPA in college?"
Me:  Told him my GPA
Interviewer: "Oh, that's kind of bad."
Me: "Umm I guess so.  I mean, I got into grad school with it and got a 3.4 my first quarter."
Interviewer: "Well, what was your GPA in high school?"
Me: Told him my GPA
Interviewer: "Oh. So you were one of those students that just slipped by doing the bare minimum."
What?!
Are you kidding me? 
Yea I'm a slacker that "slipped by" and then went on to college and then on to grad school. 
I'm so sure.
I nearly walked out of this interview because I was so offended because I do work really hard.


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#3
Interviewer: "So your last job is the only REAL job you've had?"
Me: "Umm, I suppose so?"
I'm sorry that I was going to COLLEGE full time and couldn't have a corporate 9-5 job while attending! And sorry that my previous jobs weren't "real" enough for you.

#4:
Interviewer: "Could you please draw a diagram of the office you worked at last?"
Like, he was asking me to draw where everyone's desks were and the general set-up.
Me: "Sure?"
I drew it out for him and explained what everything was as I was drawing it out
Interviewer: "What's this?  What's that?"
Wait a second, was I applying to a graphic design position or some artistic job?  
No, no I was not.
And like, weren't you paying attention when I was explaining everything?  
It wasn't the only question where he asked me to repeat 
my answers since he obviously wasn't paying attention

Image found via Pinterest
#5:
Interviewer: "So, you have a degree in English?"
Me: "Yes, I do.  I graduated a couple years ago."
Interviewer: "Hmm, shouldn't you be a teacher?  Shouldn't you be applying to that job instead of this one?"
Huh?!  
(As if I don't already get that question enough!)
But, like...Really?
If I wanted to be a teacher, then yea...I would be applying to that kind of job! 
I don't..and I'm not applying to that kind of job...I'm applying to this job!

Interviewing isn't fun any way you slice it.
But, I definitely learned a lot.
And, yea I am sure that some use these tactics to weed people out,
For most of these (like all of them but #4)
 I just think how these questions or comments could even pertain to the job at hand?
but they actually made me not want to work for these people!

Any fun stories from your experience in interviews? I'd love to hear that I'm not the only one!

4 comments:

  1. Holy.Wow. The diagram thing....weirdo. I have had pretty tame interviews but I remember I did read an article a few years ago where a girl said an interviewer asked her what her favorite color was. She said "red" & he said "nope. That's the end of the interview." And walked out. What the heck!?

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  2. Is this seriously real life??? I am an AWFUL interviewer and hattttttte interviewing. But, I seriously laughed out loud when reading all of your situations. Because I can not believe that they actually asked you crazy questions like that (draw a setup of your last office? What was the point of that? Unless of course you are applying to be an office furniture designer... haha! I can barely draw stick people, so i'm sure my picture would be just globs of rectangles for desks!)

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  3. Ahh, I hear you on this one! Sometimes I wonder if the person who is interviewing me is qualified for their own job. Before I got my new job last fall, I went on a few interviews. One woman talked SO LOUDLY that she gave me a headache. Another girl, who would've been my supervisor, was younger than me and had less experience. Really, people? Really.

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    Replies
    1. Ugh, she must've known someone in the company that got her the job! But, thats kind of how I feel at my new job. I have an assistant that is a lot older than me and its weird haha Im glad we both have jobs now and dont have to go through that pain anymore! lol

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