Horrendous Interviews

We've all had a horrendous interview, maybe?

Interviews are for the most part stressful but they needn't be.

TL;DR: Just respect the guy or gal that has sat down in front of you, that's all.

There's a saying I LOVE: people forget what you say, but they never forget how you made them feel.

Let me dive straight into my job interview experience from hell.

I was 40 and struggling with my business (that was four years ago now) and I was considering getting a full time job. There wasn't a job being offered, instead, I confidently networked my way to convince the CEO of the large conglomerate to interview me. What a mistake that was!

So, what happened Henry?

Wow...

Massive Ego

Well, for starters he spoke incessantly about himself.

He had a huge ego.

The norm is an interview is the interviewer leads the questions, not with this guy, he loved himself!

When I told him that I'd spent the last 15 years being a digital nomad (and having lived in dozens of cities) he interrupted me and said, "OK, I've likely lived in more cities than you - please carry on". Um, ok. So - how do you know that? If you work(ed) for the NSA, GCHQ or MOSSAD then you've got a point, but what a lame thing to say - how and why do you know that?

At the above point I knew that he had it in for me - but why?

I was coming from the startup world and my USP was that I'd bring Growth-Hackerish methodologies to the business which I thought might be of interest but wow, the guy slated his firm saying that they're clunky, old, bureaucratic and generally a nightmare to work for so I could leave my "cool ideas" at the door.

Vanity

Sure, perhaps he was being honest (so not that much of a bad guy then), but there was no need for the vanity.

Final Straw

The final straw was that when the Interview concluded he begrudgingly gave me his business card (after I asked for it) so that I could follow up with an email.

I wrote him a reply email to thank him for the opportunity yadda yadda email.

No reply from him.

Zero.

Not even a "thanks for coming in".

Jealousy? Possibly yes.....

Why would he have been jealous of me?

He made an effort to dissuade me from any role within the organization which tells me categorically that he didn't enjoy working there.

I guess he was jealous that I was coming from an entrepreneurial world and he was sat in his corporate job which sucked.

So, that's my worst experience which I admit is not life-changing, nor will it compare to some other more heinous crimes such as racism or sexism some might have experienced in an interview, but my point above was - why be a prick?