So, tell us why you think you’d be a good fit for this position! Oh, you’re not willing to work overtime, donate PTO to sick colleagues or refer to your team members as “family”? I see. We’ll call you once we’ve made our decision…
Job interviews are often stressful, but one thing that can immediately take the pressure off is realizing that you don’t actually want the job at all. Redditors have been recalling infuriating interviews that made them lose their cool, so we’ve gathered their most amusing stories below. Enjoy finding out all of the juicy details, and keep reading to find a conversation with the Reddit user who started this thread!
#21
My Sr year in college I was once in a 4th round logistics interview and interviewer asked how much i wanted to make in the next 5 years. Thinking i should be realistic i gave him 300k. The starting salary was like 30k and you didn't make commission until after you passed your base salary.
They ended the interview with telling me they wanted to hear numbers in the millions and i didn't want the job bad enough/ planned to put in enough work for them so they said we weren't a fit. LOL.
They ended the interview with telling me they wanted to hear numbers in the millions and i didn't want the job bad enough/ planned to put in enough work for them so they said we weren't a fit. LOL.
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24points
“For the first one (the medical startup), I had sacrificed 4+ hours of my time during a very stressful and busy finals week to go to that interview in person. I was genuinely interested in the job due to the field, and made sure to communicate that in both my cover letter and in person,” Slumi explained. “So to then essentially be told that my motivations were too weak when they came from a genuine place, I think you can appreciate why that would irritate me a bit.”
“For the second [interview story I shared] (the financial company), I had spent 8 hours or so of my free time coding in the way they said they preferred in order to leave a good impression. So to then be told ‘Hmmm why did you code in the way you asked you to? You shouldn't have done that’ did not sit well with me,” the OP says.
#22
One of the worst interview experiences I've ever had was involving a recruiter who had no business recruiting:
cold call, of course, and paraphrased:
"hello, mr Walrus, I have this opportunity for you... yadda local yadda yadda in-field... yadda yadda contract position"
"oh, sorry I'm not currently interested in anything but full-time hire. I don't plan on accepting a contract role at all, but thanks"
"no problem we can negotiate that later if you land the position"
"ok, whatever, submit me if you think it's a fair shot"
he does, and they like my resume because I'm well experienced in my field. a day or two before the interview, I go to check the email he's sent me so I can mentally prep for the interview, and I notice, peculiar, that one of the line descriptions he's provided me looks familiar... a little too familiar... it's directly off my own resume, and he's presented it to me as if it's part of the job description. I pop him an email professionally telling him to stop f*****g around and provide me the job description or I'm not going to know what to expect. after initially denying any wrongdoing, he sends over the actual description. ok, fine, whatever. he's trying to prevent me from applying underneath him and cutting him out
days later, i'm sitting in front of a camera for a zoom interview.
now, i'm a wet-lab synthetic scientist. as the minutes and questions tick on, I realize very swiftly that this position is not only not what i'm specialized in, it's a data entry role, updating data from a list. once that's done, the job is done. this is a contract position and there's no way to negotiate around that. as I ponder this over, I am asked another question by the hiring team on the call:
"Mr. Walrus, it says here on your resume that you have lots of skill in -insert incredibly specific set of buzzwords here- can you tell us a little bit more about that?"
huh? that's not on my resume at all. I didn't put that in there, because I'm not skilled in that at all. but I'm sure I've heard that set of words before...
in the job description he emailed me
which means this f*****g recruiter not only lied to me about the position, but he lied to the position about ME. not knowing how much damage had been done, and seeing red, I responded that that wasn't on my resume, shouldn't be on my resume, they were lied to by the recruiter, and I'm unfortunately not skilled with that. there was an awkward silence, I let them know I would send over my ACTUAL resume once the interview was complete.
afterwards, I did just that, and tried to get in contact with the recruiter to chew him a new one. I tried to get in contact for THREE DAYS. I was searching for this man's boss on linkedin so I could dress him down and get him reprimanded.
finally he reaches back out to me, unprompted, via phone call and, having ignored every email I sent him, the first words out of his mouth are:
"Mr. Walrus, I have good news! the company wants to hire you!"
of course they do, I'm great and well-established
"they want to hire you for a 6 month contract basi-"
"no, I told you at the beginning of all of this I'm not taking contract work, and also, how DARE you"
this next part is NOT paraphrased, and will forever stick with me:
"oh please, mr Walrus, I've worked so hard for this"
"excuse me? you lied to me, the position, wasted the time of everyone involved, and then were unreachable for DAYS"
"mr Walrus, maybe i better put my boss on to speak with you"
"YEAH, PLEASE, YOU DO THAT"
and he did, the mad f****r actually did, and I sure did dress him down to his boss. the audacity was absolutely unbelievable, and the guy was a moron with no training. For what it's worth, his boss was professional and understandably horrified at the situation, as she and her team had been hiring for that company for years, and this idiot just jeopardized the entire account. she agreed there was no way to negotiate the position into a full-time role (obviously). I told her if she can figured out how to negotiate what I was ACTUALLY looking for, I'd be happy to take the position. She said "I'll see what I can do" and I never heard back.
couldnt believe it, i'll never forget it.
cold call, of course, and paraphrased:
"hello, mr Walrus, I have this opportunity for you... yadda local yadda yadda in-field... yadda yadda contract position"
"oh, sorry I'm not currently interested in anything but full-time hire. I don't plan on accepting a contract role at all, but thanks"
"no problem we can negotiate that later if you land the position"
"ok, whatever, submit me if you think it's a fair shot"
he does, and they like my resume because I'm well experienced in my field. a day or two before the interview, I go to check the email he's sent me so I can mentally prep for the interview, and I notice, peculiar, that one of the line descriptions he's provided me looks familiar... a little too familiar... it's directly off my own resume, and he's presented it to me as if it's part of the job description. I pop him an email professionally telling him to stop f*****g around and provide me the job description or I'm not going to know what to expect. after initially denying any wrongdoing, he sends over the actual description. ok, fine, whatever. he's trying to prevent me from applying underneath him and cutting him out
days later, i'm sitting in front of a camera for a zoom interview.
now, i'm a wet-lab synthetic scientist. as the minutes and questions tick on, I realize very swiftly that this position is not only not what i'm specialized in, it's a data entry role, updating data from a list. once that's done, the job is done. this is a contract position and there's no way to negotiate around that. as I ponder this over, I am asked another question by the hiring team on the call:
"Mr. Walrus, it says here on your resume that you have lots of skill in -insert incredibly specific set of buzzwords here- can you tell us a little bit more about that?"
huh? that's not on my resume at all. I didn't put that in there, because I'm not skilled in that at all. but I'm sure I've heard that set of words before...
in the job description he emailed me
which means this f*****g recruiter not only lied to me about the position, but he lied to the position about ME. not knowing how much damage had been done, and seeing red, I responded that that wasn't on my resume, shouldn't be on my resume, they were lied to by the recruiter, and I'm unfortunately not skilled with that. there was an awkward silence, I let them know I would send over my ACTUAL resume once the interview was complete.
afterwards, I did just that, and tried to get in contact with the recruiter to chew him a new one. I tried to get in contact for THREE DAYS. I was searching for this man's boss on linkedin so I could dress him down and get him reprimanded.
finally he reaches back out to me, unprompted, via phone call and, having ignored every email I sent him, the first words out of his mouth are:
"Mr. Walrus, I have good news! the company wants to hire you!"
of course they do, I'm great and well-established
"they want to hire you for a 6 month contract basi-"
"no, I told you at the beginning of all of this I'm not taking contract work, and also, how DARE you"
this next part is NOT paraphrased, and will forever stick with me:
"oh please, mr Walrus, I've worked so hard for this"
"excuse me? you lied to me, the position, wasted the time of everyone involved, and then were unreachable for DAYS"
"mr Walrus, maybe i better put my boss on to speak with you"
"YEAH, PLEASE, YOU DO THAT"
and he did, the mad f****r actually did, and I sure did dress him down to his boss. the audacity was absolutely unbelievable, and the guy was a moron with no training. For what it's worth, his boss was professional and understandably horrified at the situation, as she and her team had been hiring for that company for years, and this idiot just jeopardized the entire account. she agreed there was no way to negotiate the position into a full-time role (obviously). I told her if she can figured out how to negotiate what I was ACTUALLY looking for, I'd be happy to take the position. She said "I'll see what I can do" and I never heard back.
couldnt believe it, i'll never forget it.
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23points
#23
I actually just lost it a bit with a training thing. I thought it was going to be like a job with embedded training, bit like a graduate scheme, paying for your exams while you're on the job, etc.
I found out this morning that its not, you will have to pay thousands of your own money, and get no job and theres no job at the end, this wont really improve anything. If it helped me get a job I'd pay a bit for a course, but they wanted thousands upon thousands for a line on your resume that probably wont improve your situation.
They rang me and left a voicemail and the person was talking but sounded like siri. She just went 'please. tell. meeee. when. I can. call. you.' and I sent them a message saying you expect me to pay thousands for a training course with no job at the end, no help to find a job, you've just classed it as a job ad to make people think its an actual paid position, no thank you.
I found out this morning that its not, you will have to pay thousands of your own money, and get no job and theres no job at the end, this wont really improve anything. If it helped me get a job I'd pay a bit for a course, but they wanted thousands upon thousands for a line on your resume that probably wont improve your situation.
They rang me and left a voicemail and the person was talking but sounded like siri. She just went 'please. tell. meeee. when. I can. call. you.' and I sent them a message saying you expect me to pay thousands for a training course with no job at the end, no help to find a job, you've just classed it as a job ad to make people think its an actual paid position, no thank you.
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23points
#24
I had 2, both with recruiting agencies.
1, Lady emails me about this great opportunity. So I sent her my resume, and I have to take this test that I can only describe as a basic reasoning and math skills test. The minimum passing score was 70. I got 99. So I sent this woman an email that I finished the test, as requested. She takes a week to forward the results to the employer. I send not 1, not 2, but 4 follow-up emails in the next 2 weeks about the position, confirmed delivery receipts, and I get nothing back. I figure she ghosted me, so I moved on. 2 months later, she calls me and says that she needs my resume again and another test for the same employer. I asked why the first round wasn't good enough. She says I didn't get them to her in time. So, submitting both within 1 day of her contacting me isn't fast enough? I find that really hard to believe. I ask if she's sure I didn't lose that first opportunity because she can't read her emails and that this isn't a totally new position? She got snippy with me about never getting my emails. So I got to read her my emails verbatim complete with delivery time and date. As she stutters some nonsense, I say I won't be dealing with her as a recruiter anymore. She can forward me to someone else or forget that I exist and hang up. The audacity to blame me was just stunning.
2, I had a call from a recruiter with a very thick Indian accent, offering me another "great opportunity." He was kinda hard to understand through his accent and had difficulty with some words, but we got there eventually. He asked me for my resume via email and was waiting on the phone to continue the conversation until he got it. Bear in mind that this is 8 am and I currently work nights, and I had just gotten to bed about 3 hours ago. When he gets it, he starts critiquing my resume, saying I could word this better, and take this out and whatnot. I had this resume professionally built, but go off, I guess. He had asked for a text file and not a PDF, which I'd never been asked for from another recruiter, but I didn't think much of it at the time. After pontificating for 45 minutes, he finally hangs up. For the next 6 HOURS, I get calls from restricted numbers, no vm left, just repeated spam calls. At some point, I finally answered, angry as hell, and it's this guy again demanding to know why i didn't pick up before. "My caller ID said restricted number, I don't answer those. They're always scams. Why do you have your number restricted when you're calling clients?" He got pissy about it and tried giving me the business about "being open to contacts regarding new opportunities." I told him "I AM open to new opportunities, just not to people trying to sell me extended warranties on cars I don't even f*****g own. Unrestrict your number or maybe try to not spam call people for 6 hours without leaving a single voicemail, you maniac." He stopped contacting me after that.
Oddly enough, the employer reached out to me around this guy afterward because they were so interested. I got an interview, and during this they mentioned my qualifications based on my resume.... but those qualifications weren't on my resume. This egghead edited my resume to get a better outcome for himself. The employer was rather upset to hear that, but thanked me for my honesty and we terminated the interview.
I also had another recruiting agency reach out to me, and in their 3rd email they asked for a 10 minute video where I introduce myself and answer a series of questions. I was asked to "make it look professional." My response was "absolutely not, this is what interviews are for." Never heard back.
1, Lady emails me about this great opportunity. So I sent her my resume, and I have to take this test that I can only describe as a basic reasoning and math skills test. The minimum passing score was 70. I got 99. So I sent this woman an email that I finished the test, as requested. She takes a week to forward the results to the employer. I send not 1, not 2, but 4 follow-up emails in the next 2 weeks about the position, confirmed delivery receipts, and I get nothing back. I figure she ghosted me, so I moved on. 2 months later, she calls me and says that she needs my resume again and another test for the same employer. I asked why the first round wasn't good enough. She says I didn't get them to her in time. So, submitting both within 1 day of her contacting me isn't fast enough? I find that really hard to believe. I ask if she's sure I didn't lose that first opportunity because she can't read her emails and that this isn't a totally new position? She got snippy with me about never getting my emails. So I got to read her my emails verbatim complete with delivery time and date. As she stutters some nonsense, I say I won't be dealing with her as a recruiter anymore. She can forward me to someone else or forget that I exist and hang up. The audacity to blame me was just stunning.
2, I had a call from a recruiter with a very thick Indian accent, offering me another "great opportunity." He was kinda hard to understand through his accent and had difficulty with some words, but we got there eventually. He asked me for my resume via email and was waiting on the phone to continue the conversation until he got it. Bear in mind that this is 8 am and I currently work nights, and I had just gotten to bed about 3 hours ago. When he gets it, he starts critiquing my resume, saying I could word this better, and take this out and whatnot. I had this resume professionally built, but go off, I guess. He had asked for a text file and not a PDF, which I'd never been asked for from another recruiter, but I didn't think much of it at the time. After pontificating for 45 minutes, he finally hangs up. For the next 6 HOURS, I get calls from restricted numbers, no vm left, just repeated spam calls. At some point, I finally answered, angry as hell, and it's this guy again demanding to know why i didn't pick up before. "My caller ID said restricted number, I don't answer those. They're always scams. Why do you have your number restricted when you're calling clients?" He got pissy about it and tried giving me the business about "being open to contacts regarding new opportunities." I told him "I AM open to new opportunities, just not to people trying to sell me extended warranties on cars I don't even f*****g own. Unrestrict your number or maybe try to not spam call people for 6 hours without leaving a single voicemail, you maniac." He stopped contacting me after that.
Oddly enough, the employer reached out to me around this guy afterward because they were so interested. I got an interview, and during this they mentioned my qualifications based on my resume.... but those qualifications weren't on my resume. This egghead edited my resume to get a better outcome for himself. The employer was rather upset to hear that, but thanked me for my honesty and we terminated the interview.
I also had another recruiting agency reach out to me, and in their 3rd email they asked for a 10 minute video where I introduce myself and answer a series of questions. I was asked to "make it look professional." My response was "absolutely not, this is what interviews are for." Never heard back.
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23points
“Anyway, another thing to mention is that I wasn't in a huge state of anger or anything. I didn't scream or get physical or anything, I just spoke my piece, and that was that,” Slumi clarified. “I mean, interviewers aren't god; you're allowed to talk back to them if you feel like they are in the wrong. It may cost you your opportunity, but when they make those kinds of remarks it's not a good sign anyway. So you may as well go for it, it's therapeutic. Just don't do it if you're going to apply for another job at the same company in the future.”
#25
I had an interview for a job heading a group for new regulations that would be implemented in two years. We had to prepare for the regulations and implement procedures for them for audits prior to the regulations’ go-live. Part of the requirements would be a summary report. I have written summary reports, but not that type as they were not required yet.
So, I go to the interview and the interviewer asks me at least 5 times if I have written summary reports. My answer is always, “Yes, but not this type as this regulation isn’t live yet.” She just got more and more irritated with my answer. The fifth time I answered, I was rather pedantic about it and she huffed. I explained that the summary reports that I had written were quite different in nature, but following one regulation’s requirements for one summary report isn’t different than following another regulation’s requirements. I spoke to her like she was 5 because I was sick of that question. I didn’t get the job even though I knew her manager well and worked with him really well. I think she wanted a reason not to hire me.
So, I go to the interview and the interviewer asks me at least 5 times if I have written summary reports. My answer is always, “Yes, but not this type as this regulation isn’t live yet.” She just got more and more irritated with my answer. The fifth time I answered, I was rather pedantic about it and she huffed. I explained that the summary reports that I had written were quite different in nature, but following one regulation’s requirements for one summary report isn’t different than following another regulation’s requirements. I spoke to her like she was 5 because I was sick of that question. I didn’t get the job even though I knew her manager well and worked with him really well. I think she wanted a reason not to hire me.
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21points
#26
Had an interview with this lady for a small media/content agency. She immediately asks me questions such as if I live at home still as the job didn’t pay enough for me to afford to live even though it was apparently a mid level role. She also mentions that I don’t have quite the experience she’s looking for and asking me why I came from working in call centers(had to work any job I could atm despite it not being my desired field so I wouldn’t be homeless and have food). It was so damn uncomfortable I thought about leaving right then and there like why did you even bother giving me an interview if you were more focused on my personal life than my ability to work the job…I’d rather have an auto reject or something if I had to deal with that again.
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20points
#27
Damn, I feel like we both have the same personality! I'm also a pretty much reserved and calm person unless someone wronged me in some way, and I do have a few stories to share (but might not be as interesting as yours):
Interview 1
I interviewed for a telesales position. The introduction part went smoothly. And then we went to the sales part. He asked, can you list a few strategies or ideas to improve sales? So I asked him what kind of products or services are we talking about. He said it could be anything. I told him well, I can't really give you any practical ideas or strategies when I don't even know what kind of products or services are we selling. Then he said something really weird like "All my years working here, I've never encountered any practical ideas anyways." which I don't even understand what he meant. So i tried to explain my perspective, "So what I'm trying to say is that different products and services require different strategies. There isn't a one size fit all solution. For example, you wouldn't ask a twitch streamer to help you promote an IT solution, and fb ads might work better on something like computer peripherals than something like toilet paper." And then he kinda ignored everything i said and asked me again, "So your answer is?" At that point I got fed up and told him, "Nevermind, thanks." and left the online interview before he could say anything.
Interview 2
This was for a part-time customer service rep position (Max 20 hours per week, $5 per hour). I actually applied it on January (I've already forgotten about it), and they only reached out to me recently. So I thought they were pretty desperate at that point, and I might get the job. Same as usual, started with the self introduction bla bla bla. Then the interviewer asked why did you apply for this position (She acted as if I was applying for a full-time job), so I just gave some random bs like i'm looking to increase my income aside from my current full time job and to also gain more experience to develop my career bla bla. She even proudly said "Oh, you'd definitely learn a lot of new things in this job! (lmao woman, you think this is some sort of managerial position??) And then she asked if I'm able to commit to this job despite being a part-time job because there's gonna be a lot of work to do. I said yes.
Things started to get weird here. So she further explained, "Also, you need to make sure to get everything done before you leave work, so you might need to stay back and work overtime sometimes. Are you able to do that?" I said, "Yeah sure, I'll just make sure to get everything done on time." Then she asked, "Are you able to work overtime?" to which I replied, "If i'm getting paid for the extra time, then yes." She then said, "Uhm, actually we're not gonna pay any overtime. But sometimes, you might need to stay back and make sure everything is completed." I started to feel a bit annoyed, but kept my cool and said, "Well if that's the case, I'll just make sure to get things done on time so that I don't need to stay back." Then she said, "Yeah, but sometimes, for example, you reach out to another agent to check on something, and they didn't reply even when your working time is over. So you still need to stay back and follow up with that." I got so pissed off at that point I let out a laugh in a mocking way, and then I said, "Yeah, so I feel like for $5 per hour, that's a bit too much to ask from anyone, don't you think? Have a nice day!" and same as above, left the online interview before she could say anything.
Interview 3
Well, this isn't technically an interview, but more of an early screening stage via a phone call. It's for a customer service rep position as well. I thought this was a fully remote position, but then she told me i still need to go to the office once a week. I explained to her that i thought this was a fully remote position, plus I'm disabled, so it's pretty inconvenient for me to commute to work, and asked if she could grant me an exception. I could maybe go there once or twice every month if it's something urgent. She said she'll ask the boss about it later. And then she asked if I could work 16 hours per day for 4 days a week. I said, "But the max number of working hours per week according to the employment law is 45 hours (I'm Asian). That's already more than that." And then she started raising her voice and said in an extremely entitled way, "Not every job is 45 hours only. You need to understand that bla bla bla..." That entitled and condescending tone was what pissed me off. Before she could finish, I interrupted and told her, "You know what, I think this job isn't for me. Thanks." And even when i was saying that, she was still babbling away. But I ended the phone call anyways. After that, the more I think about it, the angrier I got. So i sent a follow up message to her on whatsapp (a common way to communicate here), I told her the employment act specifically said the max is 45 hours, 16 x 4 that's already 64 hours. You sound like it's morally wrong to want a work-life balance. People are humans too. We have our lives to live too. Not everyone is entitled to be your corporate slave. I withdraw my application, good luck in finding a suitable candidate. And then i blocked her.
I used to be like no matter how ridiculous or entitled the interviewer is, I'll just say yes to everything thinking that would land me the job. Years of working experience told me the otherwise. So nowadays, I don't deal with their bs anymore.
Interview 1
I interviewed for a telesales position. The introduction part went smoothly. And then we went to the sales part. He asked, can you list a few strategies or ideas to improve sales? So I asked him what kind of products or services are we talking about. He said it could be anything. I told him well, I can't really give you any practical ideas or strategies when I don't even know what kind of products or services are we selling. Then he said something really weird like "All my years working here, I've never encountered any practical ideas anyways." which I don't even understand what he meant. So i tried to explain my perspective, "So what I'm trying to say is that different products and services require different strategies. There isn't a one size fit all solution. For example, you wouldn't ask a twitch streamer to help you promote an IT solution, and fb ads might work better on something like computer peripherals than something like toilet paper." And then he kinda ignored everything i said and asked me again, "So your answer is?" At that point I got fed up and told him, "Nevermind, thanks." and left the online interview before he could say anything.
Interview 2
This was for a part-time customer service rep position (Max 20 hours per week, $5 per hour). I actually applied it on January (I've already forgotten about it), and they only reached out to me recently. So I thought they were pretty desperate at that point, and I might get the job. Same as usual, started with the self introduction bla bla bla. Then the interviewer asked why did you apply for this position (She acted as if I was applying for a full-time job), so I just gave some random bs like i'm looking to increase my income aside from my current full time job and to also gain more experience to develop my career bla bla. She even proudly said "Oh, you'd definitely learn a lot of new things in this job! (lmao woman, you think this is some sort of managerial position??) And then she asked if I'm able to commit to this job despite being a part-time job because there's gonna be a lot of work to do. I said yes.
Things started to get weird here. So she further explained, "Also, you need to make sure to get everything done before you leave work, so you might need to stay back and work overtime sometimes. Are you able to do that?" I said, "Yeah sure, I'll just make sure to get everything done on time." Then she asked, "Are you able to work overtime?" to which I replied, "If i'm getting paid for the extra time, then yes." She then said, "Uhm, actually we're not gonna pay any overtime. But sometimes, you might need to stay back and make sure everything is completed." I started to feel a bit annoyed, but kept my cool and said, "Well if that's the case, I'll just make sure to get things done on time so that I don't need to stay back." Then she said, "Yeah, but sometimes, for example, you reach out to another agent to check on something, and they didn't reply even when your working time is over. So you still need to stay back and follow up with that." I got so pissed off at that point I let out a laugh in a mocking way, and then I said, "Yeah, so I feel like for $5 per hour, that's a bit too much to ask from anyone, don't you think? Have a nice day!" and same as above, left the online interview before she could say anything.
Interview 3
Well, this isn't technically an interview, but more of an early screening stage via a phone call. It's for a customer service rep position as well. I thought this was a fully remote position, but then she told me i still need to go to the office once a week. I explained to her that i thought this was a fully remote position, plus I'm disabled, so it's pretty inconvenient for me to commute to work, and asked if she could grant me an exception. I could maybe go there once or twice every month if it's something urgent. She said she'll ask the boss about it later. And then she asked if I could work 16 hours per day for 4 days a week. I said, "But the max number of working hours per week according to the employment law is 45 hours (I'm Asian). That's already more than that." And then she started raising her voice and said in an extremely entitled way, "Not every job is 45 hours only. You need to understand that bla bla bla..." That entitled and condescending tone was what pissed me off. Before she could finish, I interrupted and told her, "You know what, I think this job isn't for me. Thanks." And even when i was saying that, she was still babbling away. But I ended the phone call anyways. After that, the more I think about it, the angrier I got. So i sent a follow up message to her on whatsapp (a common way to communicate here), I told her the employment act specifically said the max is 45 hours, 16 x 4 that's already 64 hours. You sound like it's morally wrong to want a work-life balance. People are humans too. We have our lives to live too. Not everyone is entitled to be your corporate slave. I withdraw my application, good luck in finding a suitable candidate. And then i blocked her.
I used to be like no matter how ridiculous or entitled the interviewer is, I'll just say yes to everything thinking that would land me the job. Years of working experience told me the otherwise. So nowadays, I don't deal with their bs anymore.
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18points
Finally, Sumi noted that he doesn’t expect the pain of job interviews to go away anytime soon. “But here's my vision of a perfect job interview in the tech sector: What previous projects have you worked on? What problems did you encounter? How did you solve them? If you had to solve them again today, would you do anything different? I think that's much more effective to evaluate a person's technical skills than copy pasted LeetCode questions and thousand year old logic puzzles.”
#28
I once applied to a creative writing job, marked as entry level. “No writing sample needed! Just send us your portfolio!” Ok, sure, I got one ready to go.
They return to me and say “We liked your enthusiasm, but none of your stuff in your portfolio was really *our style*. Maybe add that next time!”
That really got to me, because that is what a writing sample is for. You want the candidate to show they understand your style. A generic portfolio, in nature, cannot cover every single style out there (because then they start to complain that your portfolio is too bloated).
I got a bit annoyed because in my area, there aren’t many jobs in my field and I had some great credentials and expertise for the job. So I wrote back a rather uncouth email about “hey, if it’s supposed to be entry level, ASK FOR A WRITING SAMPLE IF YOU ACTUALLY WANT ONE”.
Nowadays I would’ve probably added a sample to my portfolio, but back then it really ticked me off because it was one of the most realistic job opportunities to me in a long time at the time.
They return to me and say “We liked your enthusiasm, but none of your stuff in your portfolio was really *our style*. Maybe add that next time!”
That really got to me, because that is what a writing sample is for. You want the candidate to show they understand your style. A generic portfolio, in nature, cannot cover every single style out there (because then they start to complain that your portfolio is too bloated).
I got a bit annoyed because in my area, there aren’t many jobs in my field and I had some great credentials and expertise for the job. So I wrote back a rather uncouth email about “hey, if it’s supposed to be entry level, ASK FOR A WRITING SAMPLE IF YOU ACTUALLY WANT ONE”.
Nowadays I would’ve probably added a sample to my portfolio, but back then it really ticked me off because it was one of the most realistic job opportunities to me in a long time at the time.
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17points
#29
I've posted this in another thread but it bears repeating:
Interviewed for a Ruby/Rails programming job. The lead developer was Indian and she had a thick accent so that made things worse. Everything was going fine until she asked me "What do you know about gem?"
And I said "Ok gem, sure. What about them?" Ruby gems are just what Ruby devs call software libraries.
She repeated, "Tell me about Gem."
I said "Ok, which one?"
"Gem."
"Um...what gem?"
"So you don't know gems?" Then she went on to explain what gems were. I was so frustrated that I cut her off with a bit of attitude and said "I know what gems are, I'm asking what about gems do you want to know about?"
It just went downhill from there and needless to say I didn't get the job and, while I was sad at first, I'm now glad I didn't.
Interviewed for a Ruby/Rails programming job. The lead developer was Indian and she had a thick accent so that made things worse. Everything was going fine until she asked me "What do you know about gem?"
And I said "Ok gem, sure. What about them?" Ruby gems are just what Ruby devs call software libraries.
She repeated, "Tell me about Gem."
I said "Ok, which one?"
"Gem."
"Um...what gem?"
"So you don't know gems?" Then she went on to explain what gems were. I was so frustrated that I cut her off with a bit of attitude and said "I know what gems are, I'm asking what about gems do you want to know about?"
It just went downhill from there and needless to say I didn't get the job and, while I was sad at first, I'm now glad I didn't.
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16points
#30
Yea, I’ve been entry level data science, and had several experiences just like this:
I got into an argument over programming languages, apparently I really list the guy off according to the recruiter.
Another time, this company interviewed me, asked about their problem, and I explained how learning algorithms work. They kept pumping, and I realize I was being used in a consulting role, for free. I just put my marker down, and sort of walked backwards. Didn’t get the job, they “promoted” someone in the room to do the role.
Same job, the CEO asked me how much I liked recycling. It’s great! I said, but honestly I couldn’t care less.
Entry level data science at small companies is almost always a mess. They need to hire you as an expert, but you’re also a junior employee, so there’s this weird problem of fit. It’s often likely that they are hiring with an ad how process, so it’s always a bit sloppy!
I got into an argument over programming languages, apparently I really list the guy off according to the recruiter.
Another time, this company interviewed me, asked about their problem, and I explained how learning algorithms work. They kept pumping, and I realize I was being used in a consulting role, for free. I just put my marker down, and sort of walked backwards. Didn’t get the job, they “promoted” someone in the room to do the role.
Same job, the CEO asked me how much I liked recycling. It’s great! I said, but honestly I couldn’t care less.
Entry level data science at small companies is almost always a mess. They need to hire you as an expert, but you’re also a junior employee, so there’s this weird problem of fit. It’s often likely that they are hiring with an ad how process, so it’s always a bit sloppy!
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5points