Most Painful Job Interview

[Ste11aeres]

What was your most painful job interview experience?

Mine was one where some guy was in the same room working on the fire alarms. Every few minutes the fire alarm would go off Painfully loud. But I couldn't cover my ears because I worried such an action would be un-cool and prevent a job offer. :bruised:
The interviewer said I was unreliable because some online test had said so. I'm reliable. I must have marked the "correct" test answers to show that:alien2:.
Then...and I have no idea why this had happened...I began to realize that for some reason I must have forgotten to put on deodorant and it was becoming obvious.
Didn't get that job. Should've covered my ears.

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[Tigon]

I had a job interview a couple of years back for a Microbiology lab in England.. I don't believe i can name them.

Things were going swimmingly until the manager mentioned that they "Don't employ people with Asperger's syndrome, Dyspraxia etc" because he finds that we "can't get our writing to stay within the boxes on forms".
Suprisingly, i didn't get the job. It's unfortunate that this was an off the cuff verbal remark, or i would have dragged this individual through the court system as i believed his behavior was highly inappropriate.

 

[Cyanide Lollipop]

I wouldn't say I've had a painful interview but I hate time wasting, like when they know who they are going to appoint ahead of time and the interviews are a formality so they can say that everything was done ethically. I went to one such interview years ago and did very well. On the way out one of the interview panel members informed me that if they filled the vacancy with someone based on their own site, then they would be allowed to fill another vacancy they had. If they filled the first vacancy with someone currently based at another site (which I was) then they would have to make do with one less staff member. I successfully resisted the urge to thank him for wasting my time and wasn't surprised to see the job went to someone based on that site.

 

[Eman]

Pretty much all of them, even the ones who I think genuinely wanted me to get the job. I'm just a nervous wreck at interviews and in formal situations. No matter how hard I try something is just "off".

I've been unemployed and living with my parents for the last year after finishing my last contract. Its really frustrating and annoying but really I have no choice.

 

[Tarragon]

hmmm, just one?! I've been discriminated against because of my sex and my race on two seperate occasions (I am male and English), oh and my age too! Then there's the times Ive been to an interview where it was clear they had already picked someone beforehand. Ive had an interview for a job I am eminently capable of, but they picked someone else because they had devised 'tests' for the interview process where they clearly didnt know much about the job themselves, and I ended up not getting the job because I did it the correct way(!!!!)

Guess interviews aren't always done by people qualified to do them. All a bit random in my experience. Im glad I never have to do any again, as I'm self employed nowadays!

 

[anne.bc]

The one where I didn't know it was for a temp agency until I got there. I obviously didn't get the job since my body language from finding out it was a temp agency/ my answers sounded very desperate because I didn't even care at that point, and I'm glad they've never called me since I was added to their "pool". My fiance only got ONE call with a temp agency and it was for a job that was 4 hours away. He would have spent his paycheck just going over there to complete the job! Sheesh....

 

[Judge]

Any job interview is probably just about the most stressful thing I can endure outside of intense physical pain. Small wonder when I get a job I hold onto it for dear life...even if it eventually proves toxic to me.

Probably one I remember the most was for a job I knew nothing about, where the person who was to interview me sat right down beside me on a sofa as I tried to complete their application. It unnerved me to the point where I told her I need to retrieve some additional information from my car and left. I never returned.

Dumb...but that's me. Not the strangest interview I ever had, but the one that bothered me the most given my social anxieties.

 

[Sparticus]

I've had 500-1,000 job interviews. I wouldn't even know where to begin...or remember which one was the most painful. Been quite a few.

Tried out for a personal escort job once...I was in between jobs, couldn't pay the rent & the job interview was in a bar in NYC. First the body guard, a large tall 20ish young man chatted with me & I got a real bad feeling in my gut. But when he found out I had been an athlete, his attitude changed & he appeared to accept me. He then nodded his head & the Boss lady appeared & interviewed me. Again I got a bad feeling in my gut. Then she dropped the bomb & told me sometimes my clients wouldn't be women. Caught off balance & unsure, verbally I hesitated & didn't get the job offer.

Stepping outside into the chilly Autumn air, I realized how close to danger I almost put myself into. But I was lucky. While talking to the body guard & after a few drinks, he candidly intimated [when I told him I had a son] that in the past some employees had been drugged, beat up & kidnapped...

At the time I was married & living with my ex-wife. She was "disappointed" I didn't get the job. Pretty soon after that I got another Corporate [ho hum...] job.

 

[Judge]

Then she dropped the bomb & told me sometimes my clients wouldn't be women. Caught off balance & unsure, verbally I hesitated & didn't get the job offer.

I hear that. Hard enough for me to deal with the very basics of any job interview. Let alone someone who may or may not be laying a minefield for you to dance in. But I suppose they would say always be "expecting the unexpected". I can try to expect it, but trying to be poker-faced if it happens is another matter for me.

It happened to me in a government job interview once. They brought me in on the premise of one job when they really wanted me for another. Halfway through the interview I caught on...and became quite uncomfortable. Funny now to look back and wonder if a screening process I would have been subjected to would have discovered my having AS back then. I wouldn't have gotten the job most likely...but it would have been better to know back then.

 

[Sparticus]

Interesting thought & I understand. I guess it would have depended on the screening process, the tests used & if they would have found out. Wish I had learned I had AS a long time ago. As for what happened to you, I've been in a similar position in which the job I thought I was going for on the interview, ended up being another position.

I hear that. Hard enough for me to deal with the very basics of any job interview. Let alone someone who may or may not be laying a minefield for you to dance in. But I suppose they would say always be "expecting the unexpected". I can try to expect it, but trying to be poker-faced if it happens is another matter for me.

It happened to me in a government job interview once. They brought me in on the premise of one job when they really wanted me for another. Halfway through the interview I caught on...and became quite uncomfortable. Funny now to look back and wonder if a screening process I would have been subjected to would have discovered my having AS back then. I wouldn't have gotten the job most likely...but it would have been better to know back then.

 

[Sparticus]

Oh smashed pumpkins, today I thought of a really difficult job interview [noise & stuff] but I forgot which one it was.