Interview fcuk ups

Feisar

Dr.Sanchez wrote: »

I wouldn't agree with this, I'm always tweaking and updating my CV with an objective to suit the position I'm applying for. Plus, none of mine is bull****. I always send mine in PDF format anyway...

Same here, my CV is pretty much a running document. I'm in my current job almost two years and if I was to apply for a job today it'd be the same Word file.

mauzo

I went to an interview in a clothes shop, just a summer job..I was about 16.
Everything was going great, she said her kids are in the school I went to, we're from the same area etc..grand chat.
THen she picks up a green pen and says how would you sell me this pen?! I froze....she had red hair so I said oh its green and you've red hair so it will be lovely on you....
What the fuk was I thinking?!?
SHe said no, you're supposed to ask what I need it for and then say why its well suited to my needs.
TO make it worse, I said ah yeah but its grand you don't sell pens here you sell clothes...

I got a job in supervalu instead.

Ficheall

syndeyfife wrote: »

THen she picks up a green pen and says how would you sell me this pen?! I froze....she had red hair so I said oh its green and you've red hair so it will be lovely on you....
What the fuk was I thinking?!?
SHe said no, you're supposed to ask what I need it for and then say why its well suited to my needs.

What a load of BS.
(not your story - her "logic")

harney

I was interviewing a few years ago for some sys admin role or something similar in Dublin.

I arrived a little bit early for the interview, so they directed me to that canteen upstairs to get a coffee while I was waiting. About 20'ish minutes later the interviewer comes to get me. As we are walking down the stairs she misses the second last step and practically impales here knees into the ground. I wouldn't be surprised if there was a tiny dent in the concrete :eek:

I froze in horror halfway between trying to help her up and going to my happy place in the hopes that this wasn't happening

She peeled herself off the ground and said "Lucky that wasn't you". My reply of "You could say that" probably didn't help.

Alas I didn't get that job.

Duckjob

podgemonster wrote: »

This happened to a friend of mine (honestly). He arrived into the company reception and met with the interviewer who was a short plump woman. After the handshake she informed him that the interview will take place in their temporary office across the road so told him to follow her.

The door out of the building they were in was an non-automatic revolving door with 4 segments. Unfortunately due to nerves he wasn't thinking straight and followed her into the same segments and when she pushed for the door to swing they got wedged together in a compromising position and shuffled awkwardly until they got outside. He was mortified.

He got the job though.

We have a winner

Cabaal

Once worked with a chap who had been passed over for every job opp in a department he wanted to be in due to him not being friends with certain people,

He was pissed off and was leaving the company anyway so he decided he'd go for one more interview:

HR: So, what did you do to prepare for this interview?

Him: Well, I went out into the garden and spent a few days building a waterfall, I then meditated underneath it.

HR: ........

December2012

saiint wrote: »

i have an interview next week
on wensday
now after reading all your fcuk ups
i can safely say i am screwed ha

Yes, particularly if they ask you what day of the week it is.

Cabaal

keithclancy wrote: »

These days I check the word documents properties and see how many times its been edited. If theres a lot between the creation date and today then its probably, mostly, bull$hit.

I'm using the same .doc document for the past 8 years, updated it each year as I moved different depts or gained more skills. In my case there's no bull****.

Course when i e-mail it to anyone its in a pdf document format as it takes out any problems with formatting for the recipient

martingriff

cheesefiend wrote: »

About two seconds after I left an interview I realised that the buttons on the dress I was wearing had popped open exposing my boobs.

Needless to say, I got the job.

Ya an aciddent. I believe you. :rolleyes:

Feisar

Feisar wrote: »

Same here, my CV is pretty much a running document. I'm in my current job almost two years and if I was to apply for a job today it'd be the same Word file.

Same here, but after seeing the earlier comments, I'll copy and paste the whole thing into a new doc.

Dub Ste

Had an interview for a job in one of the FAS centres,got my letter through to tell me the time and date.

The day arrives and so I set off nice and early to give me time enough to get there,and also to calm myself before I went.

The interview was for half nine,got there for nine,sat in the car for ten minutes then headed in.

Spoke to girl on reception,and told her I was here for the interview,"what interview?" she replied,"the job for the storeman"

"There's no interviews here today",so I got out the letter and showed it to her,and she said that the interview was in Baldoyle,and I was in Finglas !!

Cue a mad dash down the M50/N32 down to Baldoyle to glorious failure....
:D

keithclancy

keithclancy wrote: »

These days I check the word documents properties and see how many times its been edited. If theres a lot between the creation date and today then its probably, mostly, bull$hit.

Dr.Sanchez wrote: »

I wouldn't agree with this, I'm always tweaking and updating my CV with an objective to suit the position I'm applying for. Plus, none of mine is bull****. I always send mine in PDF format anyway...

MCMLXXV wrote: »

I would imagine most people would tweak their CV for the position they are applying for.

What I meant was if theres a lot in a short space of time

E.G. Last CV I looked at was created 3 months in the past and edited 185 times.

If its a 5 year old file thats a different story.

Besides, Agencies and most companies don't accept PDF, I was all for it a couple of years ago, found I got more replies when I sent it in word doc.

But doesn't mean I'd rule it out either, its just one indication you use when you have to look through a few hundred CVs

BlueSmoker

I was once looking for a tech support job, in a big computer manufacture firm 15 years ago, I had 3 interviews, one being technical (I probably wasn't qualified for the job anyway)

I was asked by the interviewer what DVD stood for, I said I had no idea and asked him what it stood for. He told me he didn't have a clue either, he was just wondering if I knew. Seemily DVD can either stand for Digital Versitile Disk, or Digital Video Disk, and really no one actually knows what it definitely stands for.

I didn't get the tech job, but was offered a job in the customer care department as administrator mind you I left after 3 months, hated the place.

Reloc8

Brendog wrote: »

I made the powerpoint and she wrote que cards because shes not a great public speaker.

Unless she was looking at something in a very dusty probate office they would definitely be looking for a confident public speaker (not necessarily to do with speaking in court - client consultations with double digits of people there, need to be able to give your advice competently and confidently). Cue (que ?) cards - bad idea.

Public speaking is a talent and a skill. If you're not good at it you can get better. She should practice practice practice.

The other point is that if she was asked to do a powerpoint presentation, it would be odd to need cue cards, because your powerpoint slides are effectively cues.

I suppose the other question would be whether she would have been any good at reading out your powerpoint slides.

harney

BlueSmoker wrote: »

I was asked by the interviewer what DVD stood for, I said I had no idea and asked him what it stood for. He told me he didn't have a clue either, he was just wondering if I knew. Seemily DVD can either stand for Digital Versitile Disk, or Digital Video Disk, and really no one actually knows what it definitely stands for.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kovg2Rw8Zi4

dj jarvis

not a interview ............. but close enough

i had gotten a job as a bar man for a new Irish bar in Frankfurt , we spent a few days getting it sorted , learning the German for different drink and the like , so i was due to open up next day at 2pm , that evening got a real bad case of deli belly and really bad stomach cramps ,

still had them the next day so had to find a doc , not knowing Frankfurt that well i had no idea whre to go, i remembered seeing a doctors office not far from the pub, so next day went in ,

told the receptionist i needed to see the doctor , after saying something to me for ages , she just pointed to sit , and sit i did
admiring all the lovely pictures of baby's on the wall

so the doctor calls me in , sits me down , and in not bad English asks what's wrong with me , tell him , he diagnoses galloping deli belly and does up a prescription , when he is finished , he just has the biggest grin on his face ,
so, me taken aback by this smile - i asked him what's up? - he laughed and asked me " do you know what kind of doctor i am " - i was thinking the creepy kind , but said no - he burst his hole laughing and said " a gynaecologist " :eek:

so that would be the reason for all the baby pictures !!!!

so now im late for my first day , arrive late - boss shouts " where the **** where you ? " - i answered at my gynaecologist - his facial expression looked like he had a stroke

Some12

My CV is years old and has 50 gazilion edits. When I have to use it, I edit it as needed for the job and save it again.

I then open a new document and copy & paste it into it. After ~37 minutes, I save it, exit and send in with the supporting dicuments.

Should the potential employer check dates and revisions, there is only one revision and it took 37 minutes to draft it for the targeted job.

Laura_lolly87

I was at an interview in front of 3 person panel when I was about 20 so quiet nervous but being very upbeat and friendly.

Interview was going well until I realised they were all looking at my left shoulder and the lady said to me 'I'm sorry there is a spider on your shoulder would you mind if I removed him?'. I am terrified of spiders. So scared that I nearly knocked myself out once by running into a door to get away from it.

I spent the rest of the interview near tears and very twitchy, constantly looking at my shoulder. Couldn't wait to leave. I didn't get the job.

keano_afc

My brother used to work in a postroom with me on a six month contract. Coming towards the end of the 6 months, a position opened up in our other offices and he applied for it. I was fairly confident he'd get the job as I knew some people in the other office and they told me they'd look after him.

So anyway, he was a big lad at the time and he'd just started doing weights. Interviewer asks him some questions just to make him comfortable and just happens to say "so, what are your strengths?" Bro says, and I still cant believe he said it, "well I've just started doing weights and my arms are getting big so I'd say my main strength is my arms at the moment".

He didnt get the job, but 6 years later both of us still work for the same company in different departments so it didnt do him much harm in the long run.

fasttalkerchat

At an group interview with LIDL:
The fella beside me was seriously nervous. He asked to see what notes I made because he didn't know what to say. I talked him through 5 key points.

Off he goes: "I really want to work for ALDI because,... ah ****! LIDL i mean LIDL"

Lippy C

I was pro-active dropped CV's into various places when I moved back to Ireland. Long story short boss of this one place was there when I called and told me to come back for interview on tue at 10am. Turned up waited over forty minutes and then she arrived...read my cv proceeded to tell me I must lying on my cv how on earth have you done etc etc she actually started arguing with me and then said I should have made appointment with her instead of owners.I told her I was invited there at this time and to be honest I was'nt interested anymore due to her ignorance and ill mannered treatment of me so I just walked out.Two days later I get a call from her saying she checked my references and would like to offer me a job!!!I said no thank you if you treat people like that in an interview you must be a bitch to work for and hung up........this was a few years ago so maybe she has retired now...It was a nursing home and I was an over qualified nurse...

smileyj1987

I had an interview a few years ago infront of 3 people and 2 of them where complete fools . I had applied for a start out role in a factory and they told me to show up for an interview to be a supervisor . I knew I was never going to get the job but went along that they may even offer me an entry level role . So half way through the Interview they where kind of making a fool out of me and asking me questions about what experience I had as a supervisor so I answered the questions and at this stage I was get pissed of with them . So then it went along abit more and I just wanted to leave . So then they asked me where do you see yourself in 5 years and I said in Mountjoy serving the last year of my sentence for G.B.H. The woman was sitting there nearly wetting herself while the 2 men told me to get out . Turns out the 2 knobs who interviewed me got the sack 2 years later .

Lima Golf

I once had an interview for a job I really wanted. Anyway I droned on about how organised I was, how I never overlooked anything, soo responsible and on top of my fricken game. Finished the interview, having gone pretty well, I was walking down the hallway when I stopped dead in my tracks. Fook. I left my handbag in the interview room. Had to go back, knock on the door and my organised, responsible self had to sheepishly pick up my bag and back out of the room, all apologies. Didn't get the job...I'm convinced it was the handbag.

Carverkid

Going for beach lifeguard last year I was paired with a complete sinker for the swim test. We had to practice our breaks and holds to show our interviewers and one of them involves grabbing someone around the neck from behind and forcing them under water. Long story short I got over enthusiastic and held the sinker under water for over two minutes. He came up blue and not breathing. In my defense he should have known the breaks but still, I didn't get the job. Turns out nearly killing another applicant looks really really bad. Even if you bring them around afterwards.

My fiancé's brother had a job interview for some restaurant/canteen place. Turned up to the interview dying for a piss, for some unknown reason he ran behind the building and relieved himself. As he turned around, he saw a car pull up and a guy get out. The guy looked at him, said nothing though.

He went inside, asked for the interview, and after awhile he was called. That same guy of course was the person interviewing him, and shook his hand before they went into the interview room.

He got the job too! So a **** up, but not a complete **** up.

midlandsmissus

I went and sat down at a table for an interview, riddled with nerves, and said 'Oh is that my glass of water', and picked it up and drank some of it. The interviewer says to me 'Eh do you want a glass of water', and went out to another room to get me one. Turns out it was her glass of water I picked up and drank.

rainbowdrop

Probably the time I had an interview for a job in a shop/service station. I was only about 19 and didn't really want the job anyway, so went out drinking the night before and was dying from a hang-over, so not in the best of shape

My friend suggested smoking a big spliff beforehand would calm the nerves, so smoke a big spliff was what I did.

It worked a treat, until half way through the interview when I was so stoned that I became absolutely convinced that I was sitting inside a giant envelope:D (the interview was being held in a tiny office that was painted light brown and had no windows). I started giggling at the woman interviewing me, and could not form answers to any of her questions without laughing even more!

Needless to say, I didn't get the job.............

eskimocat

From the trenches of interviewing..

(two female interviewers and male applicant) Applicant mentioned he was married in reference to 'so tell us a bit about yourself and what you have been doing workwise over the past number of years', and then the conversation went on like this:
Applicant: So are the two of you, you know... married?
Me: Married?, Yes.
Applicant: oh really, I see, are you now... mmmm... you'd never guess like...
Me: pardon?
Applicant: you's are married to each other aren't you? Lesbians like...
Me: no actually, I just meant that we both had husbands...
Cue the laughter... I nearly fell of the seat laughing... he didn't get the job but not because of that.

Sea Filly

Spud in Trainspotting set the bar for bad interviews. Whenever I felt one went badly, I would just console myself with that, despite him being fictional.

Caribbean Cat

I went for a teaching job in a different school in the same town I was teaching in at the time.Sitting in front of a panel of six people...one asked "what makes you stand out from all the rest of these applicants?Why should xyz school offer you this position?"
Confidant and as cocky as you like I reply "I think you will find my Leaving Cert exam class this year were outstanding in their results"
The interview was in June. The results were not out until August.
Epic fail for the rookie teacher:o

JustAThought

Some12 wrote: »

My CV is years old and has 50 gazilion edits. When I have to use it, I edit it as needed for the job and save it again.

I then open a new document and copy & paste it into it. After ~37 minutes, I save it, exit and send in with the supporting dicuments.

Should the potential employer check dates and revisions, there is only one revision and it took 37 minutes to draft it for the targeted job.

Sorry; am now very worried.
How do you check a document for dates & revisions?
( that's different to tracking ; right?)
PlEase share!!!!

Most mortifying interview moment?
Interviewing for job I dropped the name of a big international group that does pro bono consultancy work for it's members.
O: said interviewer: very excited;" how do Yiu know about them "
Que for me to talk about my great experiences & insights. What did I say... " these are just Some of the things I know; that you will get if you hire me"
The Shame :0
Suffice to say the interview ended shortly after that & I wasn't " hired "

Dave!

Never heard of an employer checking CV revisions before... Dunno what they'd be hoping to read into it tbh. Must be like reading tea leaves or somethin.

dalta5billion

A few years back I had the pleasure of exhibiting a fairly technical computer project at the Young Scientist in the RDS.

Needless to say, after several days of:

a) Explaining the project to some less than technologically literate but sweet teachers
b) Having my project declared "shíte" by a charming little 12 year old

I was in a particularly ratty mood.

Anyways, final judging day commenced, and a rather elderly lady sat down beside me on the stand. I explained my project to her, and her response basically was "what relevance would this have in my life". She persisted with this line of questioning until I eventually got exasperated and told her that it would probably have no relevance in her life, ever, which I suppose would have come out rather harshly in my stressed state.

Of course, I later found out from another exhibitor that she was an undercover judge...

Well, lots of head + table banging later, I didn't do too shabby!
It still haunts me whether or not what I did could have changed things...

fasttalkerchat

dalta5billion wrote: »

A few years back I had the pleasure of exhibiting a fairly technical computer project at the Young Scientist in the RDS.

Needless to say, after several days of:

a) Explaining the project to some less than technologically literate but sweet teachers
b) Having my project declared "shíte" by a charming little 12 year old

I was in a particularly ratty mood.

Anyways, final judging day commenced, and a rather elderly lady sat down beside me on the stand. I explained my project to her, and her response basically was "what relevance would this have in my life". She persisted with this line of questioning until I eventually got exasperated and told her that it would probably have no relevance in her life, ever, which I suppose would have come out rather harshly in my stressed state.

Of course, I later found out from another exhibitor that she was an undercover judge...

Well, lots of head + table banging later, I didn't do too shabby!
It still haunts me whether or not what I did could have changed things...

Could have been worse. "Feck aff ya aul' hoor" would have got you thrown out.

Dr.Sanchez

I'm guessing the people who stormed out of interviews with their "bad ass, take no ****" attitude are kicking themselves today?

red menace

I was asked what my two biggest wesknesses were, I said I lie and I steal. The interview never really recovered from that point on

InReality

keano_afc wrote: »

My brother used to work in a postroom with me on a six month contract. Coming towards the end of the 6 months, a position opened up in our other offices and he applied for it. I was fairly confident he'd get the job as I knew some people in the other office and they told me they'd look after him.

So anyway, he was a big lad at the time and he'd just started doing weights. Interviewer asks him some questions just to make him comfortable and just happens to say "so, what are your strengths?" Bro says, and I still cant believe he said it, "well I've just started doing weights and my arms are getting big so I'd say my main strength is my arms at the moment".

He didnt get the job, but 6 years later both of us still work for the same company in different departments so it didnt do him much harm in the long run.

Brillant.

SerialComplaint

I was delighted to be called back for a 2nd interview in O2, when it was still called Esat - just as they were starting off their home phone business (remember Esat Clear) - sometime around 1998 I guess. It would have been a great opportunity, so I was delighted for the call back. As we were going up in the lift from reception, the guy asked me if I had any trouble parking, and I replied that I had bought a book of the parking disks for the first interview, so I just used another one of them. He stopped, stared and asked 'So you've already had a first interview then?'.

It turned out he had no record of my first interview, but if someone else had already turned me down, he wasn't going to interview me again. Feckers - what a waste of time.

I'm not sure if it was an urban myth or not, but I did hear about the young go-getter guy who, when asked what was his greatest weakness, he responded straight from the hip with "Fat Girls".

swimming in a sea

1ZRed wrote: »

How kids like this fall on their ass onto a pile of money I'll never know:rolleyes:

I thought he was Canadian,

Feathers

keithclancy wrote: »

E.G. Last CV I looked at was created 3 months in the past and edited 185 times.

If its a 5 year old file thats a different story.

Besides, Agencies and most companies don't accept PDF

Surely that's just an example of someone who knows how to use a computer? Would prefer 185 times guy to the guy who saved his once - if you hire him & his computer crashes, how much work will he lose on you?

With PDFs, if an agency told me they wouldn't take my CV unless it was a Word doc I'd presume they'd mess with it before sending it out & would stay well clear!

Helix

keithclancy wrote: »

What I meant was if theres a lot in a short space of time

E.G. Last CV I looked at was created 3 months in the past and edited 185 times.

If its a 5 year old file thats a different story.

Besides, Agencies and most companies don't accept PDF, I was all for it a couple of years ago, found I got more replies when I sent it in word doc.

But doesn't mean I'd rule it out either, its just one indication you use when you have to look through a few hundred CVs

anyone remotely used to using computers regularly will automatically ctrl + s every time they've written a sentence or two. im a professional journalist and if i wrote a 1000 word piece in 40 minutes you can be sure as hell that there'll be at least 50 edits showing up on the file purely because of conditioned saving

lil'bug

I had a seizure at my interview I completely freaked out my interviewer
I continued on and got the job.
I also started crying at another interview

SerialComplaint

Helix wrote: »

anyone remotely used to using computers regularly will automatically ctrl + s every time they've written a sentence or two.

Never heard of autosave then?

Helix

SerialComplaint wrote: »

Never heard of autosave then?

i have, however it's not as reliable as you think, and it has the tendency to autosave as you're typing, which has the undesirable effect of missing keystrokes

Some12

JustAThought wrote: »

Sorry; am now very worried.
How do you check a document for dates & revisions?
( that's different to tracking ; right?)
PlEase share!!!!

"

All you have to do is display the document properties. The way varied depending on the version of Word you're using. Check the Word help and search for display document properties.

Original date
Modified date
# revisions
etc...

Genghiz Cohen

dalta5billion wrote: »

Well, lots of head [...] later, I didn't do too shabby!

:pac:

bren2001

My Sister was invited in for (what she thought) was a tour of the office. They sent her out a document to read but why would she bother? She thought they had already offered the job. Needless to say it was a final interview based on that document. It was between her and 1 other person, she wasn't offered the job.

In another interview, she was asked about stocks and which one she would buy if she had the money, she answered with "is currency a stock?". She got offered the job....

fasttalkerchat

bren2001 wrote: »

In another interview, she was asked about stocks and which one she would buy if she had the money, she answered with "is currency a stock?". She got offered the job....

That would be an interesting answer if better worded!

doyle61

Years ago I was going for interview for the army and was really well prepared for it if I do say so myself. Anyway while waiting in the waiting room the interview secretary says to me to head in for my air corp interview. I said I didn't have one but it turns out I did, notice just never got to me in the post, but I go in anyway for the hell of it but totally unprepared and not knowing a thing about the air corps. I laugh now when I remember the air corp officer asking me did I know what aircraft they had. I said to him that I hadn't a clue but if it made any difference that I thought f15's and f16's were cool. The two of them looked at each other, said they did aswell and burst out laughing. Needless to say I didn't get the air corps but I got the army (apprenticeship) job and it's now that I realise how off the charts my answer was: sure one of them jets is worth more than the whole air corps put together

Bobby Baccala

Was going for an interview for a job in fujitsu in airside swords, i was sick as a fúcking dog and surrounded by all sorts of mental technology and shít in the office, was slowly going insane and when they called me in for the interview i went in looking like something out of the adams family. I genuinely wanted to kill the interviewers for the bollocksy questions they were asking me, then they asked me what experience i had and i said "fúck all". that didnt go down well. Then they asked me what my weaknesses were. "None" i said as i stared at the fit interviewers tits which turned out to be a futile mistake.