Bad Interview Moments Forum

[Anonymous User]

I'm surprised by all the bad Jones Day experiences. I know its all luck of the draw, but I found my Jones Day interviewers to be the best of the bunch, and I got an offer from the Chicago office that I was glad to accept.

I also thought Jones Day had a rep for being one of the better cultures in Biglaw. What offices were you guys interviewing with?

I met a couple people from the SF office and liked everyone a lot. I would have been fucking thrilled to work there.

My interview with the SF office was terrible. Neither the partner or the associate seemed interested in what I was saying. Several people in my class have also complained about how rude the partner from Jones Day SF was to them.

Thank God I had another offer.

[Anonymous User]

I'm surprised by all the bad Jones Day experiences. I know its all luck of the draw, but I found my Jones Day interviewers to be the best of the bunch, and I got an offer from the Chicago office that I was glad to accept.

I also thought Jones Day had a rep for being one of the better cultures in Biglaw. What offices were you guys interviewing with?

I met a couple people from the SF office and liked everyone a lot. I would have been fucking thrilled to work there.

My interview with the SF office was terrible. Neither the partner or the associate seemed interested in what I was saying. Several people in my class have also complained about how rude the partner from Jones Day SF was to them.

Thank God I had another offer.

Screener interview with the NY office. Both the associate and the partner interviewers looked like they'd rather be anywhere else. At one point, the partner just got up from the table and stood near the door with his hand on the doorknob while looking at his watch. Look, buddy, I'm not exactly thrilled I have to spend twenty minutes with you either.

Ding 2 hours after the interview. Can't say I'm devastated.

[Anonymous User]

The people at JD were really hit or miss for me, too. I met some really cool people, but then I met some really stuck up, self-important people. One guy started ranting on about how JD was #1 in client service according to some ranking--BTI, I think. Whatever. This pompous ass wouldn't shut up about, and I finally cut him off and said "cool story, bro." Got an offer the next day which I turned down.

[Tanicius]

The people at JD were really hit or miss for me, too. I met some really cool people, but then I met some really stuck up, self-important people. One guy started ranting on about how JD was #1 in client service according to some ranking--BTI, I think. Whatever. This pompous ass wouldn't shut up about, and I finally cut him off and said "cool story, bro." Got an offer the next day which I turned down.

Stories like this make me feel warm and happy inside. Thumbs up.

[Anonymous User]

Don't get all the Jones Day hate in this thread. The JD people I interviewed with (both at screener and CB stage) were some of the nicest, most down-to-earth people I met during all of OCI. I chose them over a number of other offers mainly because of the culture. Office was more middle-America than SF/NY, though.

[Anonymous User]

DC callback. Interviewed with a real bro associate. He played ivy football so we talked about football for a little bit then he got to the substantive part by leading off with "yeahhhh, so what's up with all this public interest stuff?" (My 1L job and 1L activities were public interest oriented). I spin some bullshit and we keep talking.

I get to the "ask me about the firm" part and I don't remember how many years the dude has been there so I ask when he graduated law school. He looks befuddled and says "what's it say on there?" as he directs me to consult his desk nameplate/pen holder that has his football number, undergrad with year and law school with year. "2009?" I say. "Yeah that sounds right."

I ask him how he enjoyed his summer associateship at the firm. He said "Well, I was here in summer of 2008 before the crash, so we didn't really have to try at all. We worked a couple hours and then would go to a ball game or something. Super easy. Not like that now. People have to actually do some work."

Other than him, everyone I met there was fine, but he really turned me off. Got dat offer though.

[wk1982]

Don't get all the Jones Day hate in this thread. The JD people I interviewed with (both at screener and CB stage) were some of the nicest, most down-to-earth people I met during all of OCI. I chose them over a number of other offers mainly because of the culture.

AAAh! you're one of them!

[jess]

.

[Anonymous User]

I had an interviewer who told me first thing that all standard interview questions were bullshit and tell you nothing about a person. So she took a different approach and asked me things like "If you had a theme song, what would it be?" Then asked me to hum my theme song. Or where do you see yourself at 75? What would you do if you didn't have to work for a living? What's your guilty pleasure? A part of me thought she had already dismissed me as a serious applicant, but later I asked everyone else who interviewed with her and they all got the same treatment.

[Anonymous User]

At a callback I was interviewing with a partner. She was a very, very sweet lady. Somehow, we got on the topic of 9/11. She started bawling during the interview. I was scrambling for tissues. Kind of felt like I should give her a hug, but didn't. Mad awkward.

Offer.

[somewhatwayward]

ITT people going to JD get defensive, spurring more people to share bad JD stories

[Anonymous User]

One day at OCI I just couldn't stop burping during interviews.

[ilovesf]

At a callback I was interviewing with a partner. She was a very, very sweet lady. Somehow, we got on the topic of 9/11. She started bawling during the interview. I was scrambling for tissues. Kind of felt like I should give her a hug, but didn't. Mad awkward.

Offer.

That sounds so awkward. Was this in NYC?

[071816]

An old partner I interviewed with at a callback asked me if I was liberal or conservative, then went on to talk about the "economic shitstorm" that started in 2008, and answered his phone mid-interview, said "I already gave them money" and hung up. Good interview overall just some weird fucking moments.

[Anonymous User]

MoFo SF callback. Mediocre at best conversation with almost everybody, but the real kicker was that almost all of my interviewers had my info sheet pulled up on their computer screen the entire time, right in my view. This info sheet had my interviewers' names and then next to those names a number between 1 and 5 (3.5, 2, 4.5, etc.), which I can't help but think was my rating. One guy had me at a "1" on the sheet. At the end of the interview (didn't go great), he ended it with a long "uh huh", and then conspicuously wrote a big "1" on my resume.

No offer.

[Anonymous User]

Pronounced Fried Frank, not the way it should be pronounced. The interview was going well before then. After that, he all of the sudden picked on the club that I organized and talked about how such clubs are useless, that when he was in college, he and his two friends created a club with like a $15 budget and it must not mean anything. I had already given him the BS about how the club is about a social environment for 1Ls to meet people outside of their section and bs like that, so now I did not know what to say. I was tempted to mention that our budget is high but thought it would be bad manners.
No cb.

[wk1982]

Pronounced Fried Frank, not the way it should be pronounced. The interview was going well before then. After that, he all of the sudden picked on the club that I organized and talked about how such clubs are useless, that when he was in college, he and his two friends created a club with like a $15 budget and it must not mean anything. I had already given him the BS about how the club is about a social environment for 1Ls to meet people outside of their section and bs like that, so now I did not know what to say. I was tempted to mention that our budget is high but thought it would be bad manners.
No cb.

Yeah, it's confusing. But the "Frank" is pronounced with a hard "a", as in frankfurter.

[Anonymous User]

responded to a question during a CB with "huh?"

guy gave me a weird look and then repeated the question. that was my last interview of the cb and probably my last shot at biglaw too.

[Anonymous User]

At a callback I was interviewing with a partner. She was a very, very sweet lady. Somehow, we got on the topic of 9/11. She started bawling during the interview. I was scrambling for tissues. Kind of felt like I should give her a hug, but didn't. Mad awkward.

Offer.

That sounds so awkward. Was this in NYC?

Yep, midtown firm.

[crazycanuck]

At the same firm I had 2 interviews + a lunch interview in the same day. The lunch was buffet style and we sat at tables with a bunch of other partners and different levels. Like 2 interview people and then 4-5 firm employees. I decided the roast beef + au jus looked particularly delicious. I was enjoying it and chatting to a partner when a rather large piece fell, landed on my shirt, and rolled down onto my lap. The partner had watched the whole thing and the corners of his mouth twitched a little as he obviously fought to hold in the laughter.

Currently work at the firm, partner can't look at me without laughing. In the bathroom i was washing my hands once and he came up next to me and said "hey gravy boat".

Just stick with salads with no dressing in interviews.

[DarkwingDick]

^Offer?

[Arbiter213]

^Offer?

At the same firm I had 2 interviews + a lunch interview in the same day. The lunch was buffet style and we sat at tables with a bunch of other partners and different levels. Like 2 interview people and then 4-5 firm employees. I decided the roast beef + au jus looked particularly delicious. I was enjoying it and chatting to a partner when a rather large piece fell, landed on my shirt, and rolled down onto my lap. The partner had watched the whole thing and the corners of his mouth twitched a little as he obviously fought to hold in the laughter.

Currently work at the firm, partner can't look at me without laughing. In the bathroom i was washing my hands once and he came up next to me and said "hey gravy boat".

Just stick with salads with no dressing in interviews.

[nevdash]

^Offer?

At the same firm I had 2 interviews + a lunch interview in the same day. The lunch was buffet style and we sat at tables with a bunch of other partners and different levels. Like 2 interview people and then 4-5 firm employees. I decided the roast beef + au jus looked particularly delicious. I was enjoying it and chatting to a partner when a rather large piece fell, landed on my shirt, and rolled down onto my lap. The partner had watched the whole thing and the corners of his mouth twitched a little as he obviously fought to hold in the laughter.

Currently work at the firm, partner can't look at me without laughing. In the bathroom i was washing my hands once and he came up next to me and said "hey gravy boat".

Just stick with salads with no dressing in interviews.

...But did he get an offer, though?

[Arbiter213]

...But did he get an offer, though?

smh

[crazycanuck]

^Offer?

At the same firm I had 2 interviews + a lunch interview in the same day. The lunch was buffet style and we sat at tables with a bunch of other partners and different levels. Like 2 interview people and then 4-5 firm employees. I decided the roast beef + au jus looked particularly delicious. I was enjoying it and chatting to a partner when a rather large piece fell, landed on my shirt, and rolled down onto my lap. The partner had watched the whole thing and the corners of his mouth twitched a little as he obviously fought to hold in the laughter.

Currently work at the firm, partner can't look at me without laughing. In the bathroom i was washing my hands once and he came up next to me and said "hey gravy boat".

Just stick with salads with no dressing in interviews.

...But did he get an offer, though?

SInce I work there, I obviously got an offer.