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Went to the address listed on the company letter head. They "were" a architectural practice. Got there and the office wasn't built.
Pretty big clue there..... keep walking.
Had some pretty dire interviews where the job had been filled and just going through the motions.
scenario in which a ship they were on had sunk & you could only save so many passenger
had that one. people getting very agitated by it all. I said calm down, it's an exercise, shuffle the deck and deal the cards till we are out of spaces, everyone has the same right to life. then went off and got myself a coffee. got the job.
worst one. turn up. we are going to start with the 15min powerpoint presentation you have prepared. Err what presentation? Awkward silence. (turns out I had missed it mentioned on the bottom of the mail) looked around there was a whiteboard and pen. asked the topic and winged it. got that job too!
had a *** annoying one recently where I was quizzed for an hour on getting directors to do things and didn't cover a single other area of knowledge or experience. didn't get that as was told I didn't have the 'gravitas'
had a *** annoying one recently where I was quizzed for an hour on getting directors to do things and didn't cover a single other area of knowledge or experience.
Translation - They can't get anything done because the directors are a bunch of arses. Bullet dodged.
scenario in which a ship they were on had sunk & you could only save so many passenger
Did this with aeroplane and only two parachutes, we had to argue why we deserved one - and then there was a vote. Oh, and I had to pretend to be David Bowie.
Won the vote, was bloody glad not to get to round two - the place seemed like a nightmare.
esselgruntfuttock - Member
My stepson recently had an interview with Virgin trains to be a driver (he's already qualified & driving for Freightliner but Virgin is more dosh)
GWR are recruiting train drivers rail magazine advert in todays issue.
16 year old teenager, wnt with dad to a job interview at a joinery manufacturers, got shown round, absolutely horrendous noise/dust and clutter, walked into mangers office for a interview and dad just said hes not working here and we both walked out.
Next job at a new build joinery firm, nice building new machines etc,boss asked if i was in a choir and could i sing as he wanted an apprentiuce who could tel if the machines where being strained eg sounding noisy/screeching etc, i said no, he took 3 weeks to tell me i didnt get the job.
I was stood in the security queue for porton down once when the guy in front of was informed the interview invite letter he had just presented to the security guard was for an interview at Portsdown West. Im guessing he didn’t make it.
they all looked like variant of holly
Osmanthus, Berberis, Mahonia, Griselina, Camelia, Holm oak, ... that's it, I'm out. Anyone got any more?
My worst interview was for a sub-editor position. I was nervous so I had a pint before (bad idea). The interview was with a small, older attractive lady who I both fancied and was quite afraid of. I stumbled my answers, got a hot flush, and then stuffed the practical test on my apostrophes.
You never know, they may appreciate your honesty over all the blaggers out there. I've certainly hired the less technically able candidate over the nobber with all the answers.
Before today, my worst was for the RAF. The whole application process took just over a year. One of the later stages of the process was to attend two days of assements at the intelligence school/base at Chicksands.
I caught the train(s) down, on the letter they advised to call the gatehouse 30mins before train arrives and they’ll arrange a lift from the station to the base. Great. So after 4 hours of train travel, 30 mins out call the gatehouse and ask for collection, the phone went silent, lots of voices in background.....Eventually they came back to me and advised me that the course I was due to be on started the day before... I read the letter out to them word for word clearly stating the date being that day I was arriving... I was told to wait 5 whilst they called the Brum careers office.. They called back, apologised, advised me that they had got the date wrong and that I had to head home and await another date to come through. So there I was, in the arse end of Bedfordshire, after travelling 4 hours on various trains now having to face the same journey home again (and yes I had to wait an hour for the next train to come along) for a job in intelligence which the intelligence service got the date wrong
Examiner spent 5 minutes outlining how soul-destroying the post would be and I left.
From the other side of the table...
Years ago I worked in the Personnel (aka HR) office of a leading arts college, and amongst other things I was responsible for arranging all interviews, and sitting in on them as scribe and to ensure due process, etc.
We had one interview for a part time lecturer; the panel was the Course Leader - a scruffy, somewhat obsequious and slightly creepy bloke in his fifties - and the Dean of School, who was a very good looking, raffish, friendly, and roguish charmer, similar age. The (only) candidate was a very pretty and shy-seeming woman in her early twenties, looking for her first job.
The Dean spent the whole interview rocking back in his chair, inadvertently flashing a few inches of lower torso as the bottom 2 buttons of his shirt had come undone. I was trying to work out how to draw his attention to this (but not hers) when we got to the part were go through the candidate's portfolio. To get a proper look (behave) the Dean moved round to sit beside her, and the Course Leader came round and looked over her other shoulder.... at which point I realised his flies were undone!!
As far as I could tell, I was the only person in the room who was aware of the full horror. It felt like the longest interview I've ever been in, though on the bright side, she got the job! I also never sat on a single-gender panel again.
GWR are recruiting train drivers rail magazine advert in todays issue.
He'll probably know about it, but I think he's decided to stay with Freightliner. 46K a year & doesn't work weekends, bank holidays etc. He actually got a job with Trans Pennine but knocked it back.
Hauling freight is a right doddle.
Applied for a job at British Leyland Cowley, in the late 70,s when i had finished my apprenticeship, traveled down there by train 5.00am train, then another train then another train then another train,(good job i like trains) taxi to Cowley, went to security gate, said i had come for a job, showed them my letter for the interview etc, they burst out laughing.
They then pointed out the place was on shutdown due to a long running series of strikes, everyone went home at 12.30 usually even office staff, eventually they managed to get a manager to show me round the huge site, like the mari celeste, got offered the job and good pay also free accomodation payments for a few months and relocation package etc, i turned it all down.
The job was working on the engineering patterns for the design of the new austin metro 4 door and the maestro.
My most stressful was probably this one;
Drove from Surrey to Essex, allowing plenty of time. Arrived, drove to the industrial estate the business was on, checked it out, then drove back to a Little Chef I'd passed, as I'd nearly an hour to kill. Timed myself driving back, about 10 minutes. Had a nice coffee and a snack, whilst genning up on the company. Felt well prepared, the job was exactly my sort of thing.
Walked back out to the car with 15 minutes to go, sat in it, turned the ignition. Click. Click. Click. Nothing. Dead as a doornail (never understood that saying BTW). Battery was completely dead.
10 minutes later, still nothing, nobody around with jump leads. Slightly panicked, I rang the business and got put through to the Director I was seeing. "No problem, I'll come and fetch you". Which he duly did. I was pretty mortified, but it broke the ice nicely.
Got to last two, and a final interview, but didn't get the job.
I think my company car had sussed out that I was being disloyal and talking to the competition...
At my last successful interview, there was a 10 min presentation. I'd double checked they'd have a laptop and screen.
Of course, they didn't work at all. Fortunately I'd still brought my own laptop, and some hand outs, and 4 of us huddled around my screen on a small table whilst I did my stuff. Again, it broke the ice, and I was less stressed than their HR person!
Was interviewed by a total prick once. He sat back, slouched in his chair behind his desk looking down his nose and basically intimating that I wouldn't be up to the job. The 'interview' went on for a short time before it kind of petered out. I don't know if I was supposed to display 'pluck' by having a go at him or what.
Many, many years later I heard a couple of horror stories from people that had dealings with the bloke.
Basically I walked out of the interview thinking 'what a waste of time, I wouldn't want to work for a shit like that anyway'.
He probably sat there thinking 'what a waste of time, I don't want a weedy little turd like that working for me anyway'.
No great loss for either of us, then!
20 years ago, Stoned out of my box, spilled my water on the bosses desk, got the job. Only job interview ive failed was for selling plastic boxes wholesale. A bullet well dodged I'd say.
Last job interview I had was 1983. I got made redundant earlier this year and will start job hunting in the new year. I'm not really looking forward to it.
Was interviewed by a total prick [i]once[/i]
thats pretty good going based on my statistics
Mine was particularly chaotic. The Great Snow(TM) of 2009 led to one of the people who were supposed to be interviewing me crashing her car on the way into work, and the other was stuck at home. I abandoned mine about 2 miles from the assessment centre and waded the rest of the way.
Was eventually led into an empty conference room and a three way call set up for the interview. To be fair that helped, as I did it with the chair reclined back against the wall, my feet on the table, and my sodden shoes steaming gently on the radiator.
That was followed a gruelling technical interview, after which I wandered back to the lobby slightly shell-shocked. A man in there strode over, stuck his hand out, and said “ah, [my name], good to see you again.” My response of “sorry, have we met before?” was greeted by a simultaneous cringing of everyone else in the room.
Turns out he was the CEO and we had indeed met, but at a party a few months prior which had a free bar. No idea what I said to him at the time, but it obviously worked because I got the job.
School recently interviewed for a dept head post for our Base that is trying to re-engage a select few pupils with education.
Guy rocks up late, pretty unkempt then after question 1 pulls out a can of monster opens it and starts drinking it. He didn't get the job.
I once thought i was clever keeping my portfolio of work on a memory stick/thumb drive rather than carry a big binder full of drawings around...
i neglected the fact i also had a folder on there full of those filthy or disgusting clips that used to go round on email before whatsapp was invented...
when the interviewer plugged it into his PC it had some sort of auto-run feature enabled so before we could do anything a video popped up of this surgeon being sprayed head to foot in hot human shit!!
didnt get the job.
Attended an interview for a teaching job in Lancs (where the Autumn term started in late July, wakes week etc). The job was vastly underpaid for what they wanted. The head and the inspector 'deliberated' for an hour and a half and I was getting thoroughly teed off particularly with having a motorcycle ride back to London. Anyway, all three of us candidates walked into the head's room and withdrew our applications. A treasured moment and a bullet dodged. They still paid out the expenses which surprised me a bit.
I got a phone call on the Thursday to say 'interview on Monday' for senior post in the Lakes. I was on a fortnight holiday in Skye at the time.
I drove back to Ullswater for interview (with family in tow), hired a suit.
I spent two hours being shown around the outdoor centre while mrs_oab contained three toddlers in the woods opposite.
Walked into the interview to be met by the statement[i] 'We filled the job here internally last week, but you seemed a stand out candidate, so we thought we would interview you anyway, as there is a junior position in Wales going and we wondered if we could persuade you...'[/i]
The interview lasted about two minutes as I suggested that I wouldn't work in Wales, or for a junior position.
I was interviewed by a prick on one occasion also.
For a warehouse job with Blacks Outdoors in Peterlee. The prick in question was called Mark Antony (Anthony) & he made no eye contact during the interview but just stared at & twiddled with his pen. I'm pleased I didn't get the job cos the place closed not that long afterwards & I joined HMPS anyway.
If you know Mr Antony, tell him from me, he's a prick.
Did the first stage of an interview for a job basically perfect for me. I had very relevant experience and aced their competence test. Even corrected some errors in their questions.
Stage 2 of the interview was a long, irrelevant, buzzword ridden chat with some HR chubsters and then some stupid exercise where we had to pretend to be marooned on a desert island with access only to an argos store. How would we survive using available items, what would our priorities be etc.
The stupidity of the suggested scenario made me (I'm told) visibly cross, and I don't think they appreciated me saying the first thing i'd have done would be to ride down the store's conveyor belt.
thomthumb - Member
Interviewer comes out with lots of concerned questions along the lines of "you don't mention any skills in X" "your CV doesn't list any experience with Y or Z".
I respond "Yes I've done plenty of X..."
"I can do Y Z etc etc, I tailored my CV to the job description but it never mentioned X,Y or Z".
I've had plenty the other way round where it turns out my CV mentions X, Y and Z but I've never done them. The agent had added them to the CV and put me forward for a job I wasn't skilled for. I always take my own copies of the CV now and distribute that at the start.
Cougar - Moderator
I'd say his greatest weakness was his honesyOr his lack of research into standard interview questions.
Or he was mocking the absurdity of the standard interview questions.
I got the age old "where do you see yourself in five years time", for a contract job! Really? ! Told the truth, and it was about developing my skills and my company, working with clients like themselves, expanding the business. Fair enough it shows commitment and ambition, even if not to them, and something to talk about, but this was a guy I knew and had worked with before, knew my skills and commitment. It should have been a straight tech interview. Like most my contract interviews, can I do the job and fix the hole they are in and can I start tomorrow?
All these questions really tell you is as you say, have they researched standard interview questions and come up with generic answer that you know is probably bullshit.
Stage 2 of the interview was a long, irrelevant, buzzword ridden chat with some HR chubsters and then some stupid exercise where we had to pretend to be marooned on a desert island with access only to an argos store. How would we survive using available items, what would our priorities be etc.The stupidity of the suggested scenario made me (I'm told) visibly cross, and I don't think they appreciated me saying the first thing i'd have done would be to ride down the store's conveyor belt.
I do sometimes wonder if stuff like this is designed to test how gracefully you can put up with bullshit and keep playing along.
Which may be a big part of the job you're interviewing for.
I was late for an interview once... Driving up the motorway, on the way... puncture. Wearing a white shirt. On the way to a job interview, is the only single time I've ever had a puncture in a car tyre! Changed it on the hard shoulder, made me about half hour late and pretty grubby. Didn't get that one either.
hang on Piranha
Last job interview I had was 1983. I got made redundant earlier this year and will start job hunting in the new year. I'm not really looking forward to it.
feel free to start a new thread about this and don't hesitate to ask for help, yes practices have changed but not for the worse in most cases, this thread is full of exeptions to the rule. good luck !
The stock questions above reminds me of my interview to get my Chartered Engineer status. I've always been a contrary bugger but when they hit me with the old "what will you gain from being a CEng" it was clear I had woken up on the wrong side of the bed as I essentially said I couldn't give a monkeys, it was something my company expected, and not having one previously hadn't affected my career at all.
They also made the mistake of telling me who the interviewers were in advance. I googled them, found their CVs and when they asked if I had any questions I proceeded to grill them about the projects they had led and why they had been unmitigated disasters.
I got my CEng. I can only assume they like people who aren't afraid to stand up to authority and say what they think is right. Or maybe they were scared of me...