hey all,

last week i had an interview with an inv. bank for an ops position. at this point, i dont have a firm direction with where i want to go in life so this position seemed like a good place holder. long story short, i came out of the final round interviews knowing that half of them didnt go well. i am always very candid in my responses and i have a sense of humor that is very dry. this did not work so well.

anyway before i start rambling...have you guys had any funny interview stories or advice if you interview people frequently.

ill start...one of the guys asked me...can you please tell me about a teamwork situation. i (foolishly) responded...well, are you looking for one of those generic academic stories where a member in my team didnt hold his or her own weight and i took charge of the situation and got the project done anyway?...crickets..."yeah, something like that"

if we called your boss right now..what would she say about you

"well...i most certainly bring a positive attitude to the office and the other employees look forward to when i am working...and that i should work on getting my assignments done on time" (with a joking tone) ...silence....well i hope that doesn't happen too often.

post away

 

I can't say I'm shocked, but kudos to you for honesty (I wouldn't want to work for such stiffs).

I scored very high on a test for a local police department when I was looking to get out of the city a few years back and had an oral interview with some folks. They asked several situational questions of the "what would you do?" ilk and having had several years experience I answered them all too honestly I suppose. One in particular asked what I would do if I went to a scene where some officers were beating on a guy that just shot a cop and I had a camera in the car. I said I'd turn it off and then stop them from beating on him any more. Let's put it this way, sometimes the correct answer is not always the best answer.

 

This is a second hand story, but, my friend knew a guy that was interviewing for Medical school. He was on his final interview and knew that he had a few of his priority schools in the bag.

So the question was, "How do you show them you care?"

He said, "I usually hold her for a minute after I'm done and then leave."

Interviews are such an imperfect science. I think reference calls are much better. At my current job I was told a few months after I started that my interview was pretty weak, but that I was the best person hired in years. Recently one of my partners told me the guy who was the best interview he'd ever had was the only person fired in the last 10 years.

 

I interview people constantly (in fact, I have one tomorrow). Our interviews are software development positions for a small embedded consulting company. I'm a pretty outgoing person, and I'm not your "typical" tech nerd, so I don't mind a sense of humor as long as you are answering my question also. If you're going out of your way to be funny, I'm probably going to give you crickets, if it's just naturally funny (or something I haven't heard before), then cool.

In the end, I'm not hiring anyone to be funny or not be funny. I want people who are smart, will get their work done, can fit well into our work environment, and who will be comfortable in front of and working with our clients.

 

I'm a technical recruiter so I'm interviewing constantly. I think I'm actually pretty comfortable to be interviewed by because I usually try to indirectly persuade people to relax because you get more honest responses.

I had a guy arrive to an interview with a sandwich because he was hungry and tight on time. I walked in once to my boardroom to find a candidate on his cell phone talking to a girl with his feet up on the table. He basically pretended I wasn't there until he finished his call. Needless to say he didn't get the job and that went in the notes.

 

you can answer many of your own questions by placing yourself in the position of the interviewer. if you were asking questions, what kind of answers would you like to hear? if you were an employer, what kind of employee would you most like to have? simple change of perspective is really insightful