Dejected and Embarrassed, Job Interviews Gone Bad

[Bones Brigade]

ITT: discuss opportunities you've had to procure a new position that you couldn't capitalize on.

Mine isn't an interview really, but it's an epic fail. I was attempting to become a police officer for the city of Tacoma, Washington. At the physical skills testing you must complete a certain amount of push-ups, sit-ups as well as a 300 meter run, and a mile and a half run. I scored max points in the first 3 categories and got to the mile and a half run when my legs cramped massively. I don't have the best of endurance to begin with, but I've got enough that I usually can do a mile in under 8 minutes. Anyway, my legs just couldn't take it, and I missed the mark quite badly. The worst part (other than having these events unfold in front of troves of people who did make it) is that I now have 6 months of waiting before I can try again. Big Ugh.

 

[wfooshee]

Well, during those six months, maybe do some more running to get in better shape for it.

Not being critical of your conditioning, as I am not exactly the reference specimen for human physical fitness. Just suggesting that the mile and a half shouldn't be thought of as something you have to one day get through just that once. It might need to be something you normally do, and that's just a chance to show off a bit.

Work on the endurance. Don't start out trying miles every day, but do a couple laps of the block, then after a few days a couple more every time, until you stop because you have other stuff to do rather than because you just can't go on any more.

See, once upon a time I was physically fit, but not for running. I rode a bicycle as my basic daily transportation, as well as for recreation. a 30-mile day was light in those days. But that was 30 years ago. Now I literally couldn't consider riding around the block twice!

 

[Bones Brigade]

Well, during those six months, maybe do some more running to get in better shape for it.

Not being critical of your conditioning, as I am not exactly the reference specimen for human physical fitness. Just suggesting that the mile and a half shouldn't be thought of as something you have to one day get through just that once. It might need to be something you normally do, and that's just a chance to show off a bit.

Work on the endurance. Don't start out trying miles every day, but do a couple laps of the block, then after a few days a couple more every time, until you stop because you have other stuff to do rather than because you just can't go on any more.

See, once upon a time I was physically fit, but not for running. I rode a bicycle as my basic daily transportation, as well as for recreation. a 30-mile day was light in those days. But that was 30 years ago. Now I literally couldn't consider riding around the block twice!

Oh of course. The thing is though, I have been running and my own personal times were well within the allotted limits. It was just improper preparation, or too little stretching (this I doubt) or something just misfired that caused my body to cramp up like it did. Too little water, potassium, or something. I don't know. I have six months to key in on what I did wrong before and during the event to make sure it doesn't happen again.

 

[wfooshee]

Did you have to run the mile and a half after doing all the other stuff, and is that how you do it at home? Running from rest would be a lot different than running after such exertion. (Like I'd know. . . . )

 

[Duke]

On the original topic:

I swear this happened to a friend of mine, not me.

We were nearing the end of grad school and looking for starter jobs. One afternoon my friend walks in and shakes his head about an interview he had just been through...

This was the day of the interview and he was busy all morning getting his portfolio together. He grabs lunch, drives downtown for the interview, parks his car in a pay garage near the place, and walks to the office building of the people he's talking to, a few minutes before the appointment. Rides the elevator up to the proper floor, and then can't find the office... anywhere. Rides the elevator back down and looks at the directory - no interview company listed on it. He realizes he's in completely the wrong building, so he calls the place he's going to interview and finds out they are some distance away; too far to walk. Uh oh... he tells them he'll be a little late.

Runs back to the garage, gets in his car, pays his parking fee, and zooms down to the right place and parks in another parking garage. Runs up to the proper office, now late, and the interviewer is in another meeting, so he has to wait, sweaty and out of breath. Eventually he has the interview which goes OK except for the interviewer being mildly pissed that he had to juggle his schedule.

So my friend leaves, goes down to the parking garage, and realizes that between the first parking fee and the extra wait time before the interview, he now doesn't have enough money to pay for his parking fee at the second garage. He begs, he pleads, nothing. No cash, no car. It's Friday afternoon and he needs the car for the weekend.

He's got no choice - he trudges back to the office place, has the guy paged, and then has to borrow $10 from the guy he interviewed with so he can get his car out of the garage.

So he came back to the house to tell us all this story immediately after it happened. The truly funny part of the whole thing?

He had a big piece of spinach from lunch still stuck in his front teeth when he told us the whole ordeal.

He didn't get the job.

 

[Touring Mars]

Worst job interview I ever had was for Astra Zeneca, a pharmaceutical company. Now I think back, it was more like an episode of The Apprentice than a job interview, something like 12 candidates, and two whole days of 'group challenges' and interviews etc. As soon as I walked in to the room, my heart sank as I recognised one of the other candidates... bear in mind that I was about to finish my Ph.D, and was under the impression that this was a Ph.D level job - turned out only 6 of us were Ph.Ds and the other 6 were not.... A few people were chatting, as if to try to make a good impression on the interviewers from the word go. Everyone was asking "Where did you study?" etc., and some really cocky git next to me asked me where I was from. "Glasgow University" I replied dryly. A young guy next to him interjected eagerly, "Hey, I'm from Glasgow Uni too!", to which I replied, "Yes, I know... you were one of my tutorial students last term...". Everyone except me and the poor guy laughed. I was wondering how on Earth I was at the same interview as this guy, and being considered for the same job - and I mean that with all due respect I was so angry that the company had advertised the job as suitable for Ph.Ds when actually they meant "You don't need a Ph.D to do this job, but hey, we'll have you anyway!"

 

[Greycap]

Well, one for me too.

To begin with I knew that I was leaving the town by train at 14:00. The interview I was going to was scheduled at 13:40 and I was going to walk there. Two miles from here to there... and I managed to screw up to such an extent that it was 13:10 and I was still inside. OK, I'll be running then. But no, Mrs. Fortune was with me for once, I caught a bus about halfway there and made it in time. I then went there looking totally lost and answered some reasonably odd questions - while still being just about totally lost - in an interview that was quite far from formal. The showing indeed went bad at least in my opinon! They promised to call me in a week to tell if I got the job.

Around two weeks passed and I was getting quite irritated as there had been no call. So I called back myself and asked what was the result... and they told be that they'd rather not hire me as "I might get frustrated with the job". Hell no, that's not a reason that cuts it for me so I pretty much talked myself there. Got the job. And they said "well, try it out for one month and we'll see how it goes". This happened in August 2007.

Im still there.

 

[YSSMAN]

Although I've yet to get turned down from a job post-interview, I can speak of an awkward one:

Group interviews with 15 women for a handful of jobs at a shoe store. I knew the secret was to talk a bunch, but it was kinda odd being the only dude there. One of two in the store after the fact. Still, I've noticed more guys coming in, which is nice. Still, I'm sure its awkward for them every time.