This is a story of the most weird and frustrating interview experience of my life. Even now, I look back on this whole experience and shake my head.
Many years ago, I was stuck in a customer service job I found to be very frustrating. Dealing with so many angry, abusive customers had taken its toll, and I couldn’t seem to get another role within the company because the competition was fierce. Desiring a change, I applied for different roles. Out of the blue, an agency contacted me because they were interested in forwarding me for an administrative role at a private bank.
The salary wasn’t miles better, and it was a slightly longer commute, but I was desperate to break out of my current job, so I accepted an interview. They gave me the details for the interview, like who to ask for when I arrived, the address, etc.
When I arrived at the interview location, I approached the front desk, which was manned by an old security guard.
Guard: “Hello, can I help?”
Me: “Yes, I have an interview today with [Interviewer].”
Suddenly, the guard looked extremely angry.
Guard: “OH, THIS HAS GOT TO STOP!”
Me: “Excuse me?”
Guard: “YOU HEARD ME! THIS HAS GOT TO STOP!”
He then stormed off, leaving me bewildered at the front desk. A few minutes went by, and he still had yet to return. Thankfully, a younger staff member came by the front desk.
Employee: “Hi. Can I help you with something?”
Me: “Yes, I told the guard I had an interview with [Interviewer], and he yelled, ‘This has got to stop!’ and stormed off. What is going on here?”
The employee looked annoyed upon hearing this.
Employee: “Sorry, they should’ve explained this to you. There are two different buildings here; [Interviewer] is in the second building. But I really apologize for that guard; I don’t know why he gets so upset having to tell people that. There’s actually a shuttle bus that takes people to the second building; if you’re okay waiting for a few minutes, I’ll get them to take you there.”
This would be my only positive experience of the whole ordeal. I made the interview at the second building, but things quickly began to take an odd turn. Two women showed up to interview me: a taller woman who seemed very polite and professional and a shorter woman who seemed very pissed off.
The interview started off fine with the usual “Why should we hire you?” questions, but soon, the second woman started asking me questions about family. How many siblings did I have? What did they do? It seemed very off, and already I was getting a bad vibe as none of my previous interviews had asked these sorts of questions.
Then, out of nowhere, while I was in the middle of answering a situational question, the second person blurted this out.
Interviewer #2: “Describe your sister in three words!”
Me: “Err… excuse me?”
Interviewer #2: “Describe your sister in three words.”
Me: “Sorry, I’m a bit confused here.”
Interviewer #2: “You mentioned before that your sister worked in a very successful job. Describe her. Is your ambition to be more successful than her?”
Alarm bells were ringing loudly, and this seemed really unprofessional.
Me: “This wasn’t related to the question I was asked at all. Why I am being asked about my sister?”
[Interviewer #1] looked at me as if this was a perfectly normal question and seemed to want me to answer it.
Interviewer #2: “I can tell you’re getting a little bit upset now!”
Me: “Well… I’ve literally never once been asked that question.”
Interviewer #2: “But what are your ambitions? Do you want to be more successful than her?”
Me: “Well, yes, I suppose I do!”
They moved on to the next question, and the interview rolled on from there. [Interviewer #2] continued to interject with several asinine questions and gave the whole interview a really hostile vibe. Once the interview was finished, I heard [Interviewer #2] say this as the pair of them walked away.
Interviewer #2: “I enjoyed that…”
I went away from that interview feeling extremely confused and upset; the whole interview seemed to feel like some kind of test to see how much I could put up with.
A few days later, I was informed that I had impressed them in the first interview and I was now invited for a second interview. I was very reluctant to go, and I told the agency person about some of the questions they had asked me, but he seemed to take little notice.
For the second interview, I was sent to the second building and told they were expecting me so I didn’t need to go to the front desk. When I arrived in the second building, I sat in the waiting room area, but I quickly noticed that there were no staff members around. So I waited and waited… and waited.
It got to the stage where it was nearly forty-five minutes since my interview was supposed to start, and no one had come down. I called the agency, and they said they’d contact the managers. [Interviewer #1] came down to greet me and told me another manager would be with me.
Another fifteen minutes passed, and a bored-looking man in a business suit plodded down the stairs.
Interviewer #3: “[My Name]? I’m [Interviewer #3]. This way, please.”
He took me to an office and immediately took out his phone and started checking emails. For the entire interview, he asked me the exact same questions as before (thankfully minus the sister questions) and sounded completely bored and uninterested. He either checked his phone or was staring off into space. Not once did he have any follow-up questions about my answers, and he seemed determined to get this over with as quickly as possible. After this, I got the impression that this second interview was a waste of time and that I wasn’t actually being considered.
Sure enough, a week later, I was told I wasn’t being offered the job. Apparently, my answers were “too long” and I “didn’t seem confident”. In fairness, this probably wasn’t my best interview, but I sincerely doubt he was listening to anything I said in that interview, and it made me wonder if they’d already filled the position and were just interviewing me for the sake of it.
I dodged a bullet; that company was apparently extremely toxic with a very high turnover of employees. Mercifully, I got another position for slightly better wages and moved to a much nicer environment. That whole experience still left a very bad taste in my mouth and remains the worst interview experience I’ve had.
