Bad Interview Moments Forum

(On Campus Interviews, Summer Associate positions, Firm Reviews, Tips, ...)
Forum rules
Anonymous Posting

Anonymous posting is only appropriate when you are revealing sensitive employment related information about a firm, job, etc. You may anonymously respond on topic to these threads. Unacceptable uses include: harassing another user, joking around, testing the feature, or other things that are more appropriate in the lounge.

Failure to follow these rules will get you outed, warned, or banned.
User avatar
EzraFitz

Silver
Posts: 764
Joined: Mon Jul 01, 2013 10:42 am

Re: Bad Interview Moments

Post by EzraFitz » Wed Jan 11, 2017 12:33 am

bk1 wrote:
thejaquio wrote:That didn't fully come through. The irony was a bit too subtle, especially seeing as how his mock-stories closely mirror the lameness of many of the unnecessarily long female stories being passed off here as legitimately "bad interview moments," just so they can talk about themselves.

But on second thought, man do I feel retarded. Gonna edit and hope no one else notices my exceedingly low IQ.
Enjoy your time out.
I appreciate you.

lavarman84

Platinum
Posts: 8502
Joined: Thu May 28, 2015 5:01 pm

Re: Bad Interview Moments

Post by lavarman84 » Wed Jan 11, 2017 1:53 am

Anonymous User wrote:Approximately 2013, I had a night callback with Skadden in NYC that started at 6 pm. All attorneys still in their offices looking miserable. The whole interview sucked ass - it was immediately obvious that it was not the right fit for me. This is probably because I am not a frat boy.

After the interview ended around 9 pm, the HR person broke the candidate group out into small sub-groups. Each group had a few candidates and a few younger attorneys from the same school - or at least that was the intent. I want to a non-Ivy / non-T14, still a fairly good school, and obviously there were no attorneys at Skadden who were alums at my school. Thus, I was placed with the Michigan Law group.

We go to this very strange basement Japanese steak house in Manhattan (all kind of a blur...no idea where in the city this place was). We sit down and one of the candidates decides to ask one of the attorneys "how on the record" this dinner is. (Obviously a newb.) Of course, they tell her it's a casual dinner that is not really on the record. For some reason, she takes this as a cue to begin telling a story about some famous professor at Michigan Law. Manages to work in a discussion about her professor's penis and tells a long and very involved story involving such penis. I wish I were kidding. I'm sitting there trying to figure out how this crazy person ever managed to get past OCI and to a callback at Skadden...and trying to keep my mouth from dropping down to the floor. No one else seemed fazed by this conversation. The whole ordeal ended at about 2 am. The dinner cost about $850 (I managed a glance at the check). I slept about an hour because I had an early morning flight back to catch my classes at law school the next day.

I immediately cancelled all of my other NYC call backs and accepted an offer at a non-Skadden non-NYC firm.
Haha, I also had a terrible Skadden interview experience that made me realize that it wasn't the place for me. But it wasn't nearly that bad. :lol:

Genius

Silver
Posts: 868
Joined: Thu Aug 04, 2016 11:19 am

Re: Bad Interview Moments

Post by Genius » Wed Jan 11, 2017 5:04 am

thejaquio wrote:

No, it shouldn't be though. And I'm gonna have to request that you (A Nony Mouse) keep your dicta to yourself and keep your posts on the topic of bad interview moments.
Bro ill fking rek u in the face.

masque du pantsu

Bronze
Posts: 105
Joined: Wed Oct 22, 2014 5:38 pm

Re: Bad Interview Moments

Post by masque du pantsu » Wed Jan 11, 2017 2:30 pm

thejaquio wrote:
PennBull wrote:
thejaquio wrote:
rpupkin wrote:Callback at a V35 firm. I'm waiting in the lobby for someone to bring me up to the office. All of a sudden, I let out a sneeze. A man walking by says "bless you." Later, I learned that the man was the managing partner! I was horrified.

Got an offer.
This is literally the worst story I have ever heard.

I have no idea what possessed you to post it on this board. We are all less entertained for having heard it. Thank you, and may God have mercy on your soul.
thats the joke, dipshit
That didn't fully come through. The irony was a bit too subtle, especially seeing as how his mock-stories closely mirror the lameness of many of the unnecessarily long female stories being passed off here as legitimately "bad interview moments," just so they can talk about themselves.

But on second thought, man do I feel retarded. Gonna edit and hope no one else notices my exceedingly low IQ.
Seeing all of this weirdness is actually going to cause me to come up with some questions designed to tease out latent sexism, which i will ask to every candidate i interview from now on. I never would have thought i had to do that, but after this shit i just don't know.

Anonymous User
Posts: 428098
Joined: Tue Aug 11, 2009 9:32 am

Re: Bad Interview Moments

Post by Anonymous User » Wed Jan 11, 2017 4:52 pm

zot1 wrote:
Anonymous User wrote:I graduated in one of the "lost years" (like 2010 through 2012) and pretty sure a bunch of screeners were jokes.

Not my interview experience, but my friend had an OCI screener where he revealed that he juggles. Interviewer hands him 3 apples that were sitting in the room and asks him to juggle. He juggles the three apples and the two interviewers oooh and ahhh. No callback.
And they didn't even pay for it!
Fo sho.

Stupid part is that this guy would have been a knock out most interview seasons (top 15% 1L grades at at a top 14). Instead, he's treated like a circus clown for jokes and giggles. He ended up striking out of OCI with top 15% grades in what was a shitshow hiring year.

Fortunately, his parents are wealthy and he had no debt...but still, dumb as shit that someone like that would strike out and be treated like a clown during interviews.
Last edited by Anonymous User on Wed Jan 11, 2017 4:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Want to continue reading?

Register now to search topics and post comments!

Absolutely FREE!


CravathDunn

New
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2017 4:49 pm

Re: Bad Interview Moments

Post by CravathDunn » Wed Jan 11, 2017 4:54 pm

masque du pantsu wrote:
thejaquio wrote:
PennBull wrote:
thejaquio wrote:
rpupkin wrote:Callback at a V35 firm. I'm waiting in the lobby for someone to bring me up to the office. All of a sudden, I let out a sneeze. A man walking by says "bless you." Later, I learned that the man was the managing partner! I was horrified.

Got an offer.
This is literally the worst story I have ever heard.

I have no idea what possessed you to post it on this board. We are all less entertained for having heard it. Thank you, and may God have mercy on your soul.
thats the joke, dipshit
That didn't fully come through. The irony was a bit too subtle, especially seeing as how his mock-stories closely mirror the lameness of many of the unnecessarily long female stories being passed off here as legitimately "bad interview moments," just so they can talk about themselves.

But on second thought, man do I feel retarded. Gonna edit and hope no one else notices my exceedingly low IQ.
Seeing all of this weirdness is actually going to cause me to come up with some questions designed to tease out latent sexism, which i will ask to every candidate i interview from now on. I never would have thought i had to do that, but after this shit i just don't know.
What kind of question could tease that out at an interview? "Do you hate members of ____ sex?" "No." "Okay then."

bk1

Diamond
Posts: 20063
Joined: Sun Mar 14, 2010 7:06 pm

Re: Bad Interview Moments

Post by bk1 » Wed Jan 11, 2017 4:59 pm

CravathDunn wrote:What kind of question could tease that out at an interview? "Do you hate members of ____ sex?" "No." "Okay then."
Oh, oh, I have one! Do you randomly call things "female interview stories"? Yes. Okay, then enjoy your extended ban.

User avatar
Slytherpuff

Platinum
Posts: 5401
Joined: Thu Jun 13, 2013 12:50 pm

Re: Bad Interview Moments

Post by Slytherpuff » Wed Jan 11, 2017 6:43 pm

Happy to post a female interview story to get the thread back on track!

I was at a callback for a large firm that has a smallish NYC office (fewer than 50 people). Interviewed with five men and not a single woman, and later found out that they just don't have that many female attorneys. One of the partners asks me a couple of questions, doesn't have anything else for me, so I start asking him about the firm and his experiences. I get out maybe two questions before he says he has a conference call he needs to prep for, and walks out 8 minutes after our 20-minute slot begins. I hang out in the room for the rest of the timeslot until the next interviewer comes by. This guy is visiting from an international office and said he's heard the New York office isn't doing too well. I just sat there thinking "why are you even interviewing for SAs then?"

Radio silence from the firm afterwards. Dodged a bullet for sure.

Anonymous User
Posts: 428098
Joined: Tue Aug 11, 2009 9:32 am

Re: Bad Interview Moments

Post by Anonymous User » Wed Jan 11, 2017 7:44 pm

Did a lateral callback interview with a biglaw firm some time ago. Met with 4 partners and then an associate. The partners were all friendly, upbeat, and tried to sell me on the firm. When I got to the associate, it quickly became clear that he hated his job and the firm. He had no questions for me, so I asked him about things about the firm. He contradicted everything the partners said in short, curt answers (e.g., Me: Partner X told me associates are able to do Y and Z work and have close contact with the clients. Has this been your experience? Him: No.). He physically looked like he'd lost his will to live. I gave up trying to conduct an actual interview with him after a few minutes and started asking him questions about his hobbies to see if he'd perk up a little. He did, slightly.

No offer, but no regrets about it.

Want to continue reading?

Register for access!

Did I mention it was FREE ?


Anonymous User
Posts: 428098
Joined: Tue Aug 11, 2009 9:32 am

Re: Bad Interview Moments

Post by Anonymous User » Wed Jan 11, 2017 8:56 pm

I had a screening interview where the screener berated me for 15 minutes for saying I wanted to live in Chicago, instead of my hometown of San Francisco. I told him it was getting too crowded and expensive, and I liked Chicago for what it had (plus rent was cheaper; all of which was genuinely true). He didn't believe me. The associate there tried to agree with me, but he had a disgusted face for the rest of the interview.

No CB.

Anonymous User
Posts: 428098
Joined: Tue Aug 11, 2009 9:32 am

Re: Bad Interview Moments

Post by Anonymous User » Wed Jan 11, 2017 11:00 pm

Anonymous User wrote:Did a lateral callback interview with a biglaw firm some time ago. Met with 4 partners and then an associate. The partners were all friendly, upbeat, and tried to sell me on the firm. When I got to the associate, it quickly became clear that he hated his job and the firm. He had no questions for me, so I asked him about things about the firm. He contradicted everything the partners said in short, curt answers (e.g., Me: Partner X told me associates are able to do Y and Z work and have close contact with the clients. Has this been your experience? Him: No.). He physically looked like he'd lost his will to live. I gave up trying to conduct an actual interview with him after a few minutes and started asking him questions about his hobbies to see if he'd perk up a little. He did, slightly.

No offer, but no regrets about it.
I had a CB where one interviewer was a third-year associate who had only ever worked on one (gigantic) case, and had basically only done doc review on that case. At least she was honest that her work was unbearable and she was going to leave as soon as she could. I know people get screwed like that at every firm; the shocking thing for me was that HR didn't know that she would be a terrible person to have interview people.

Anonymous User
Posts: 428098
Joined: Tue Aug 11, 2009 9:32 am

Re: Bad Interview Moments

Post by Anonymous User » Wed Jan 11, 2017 11:15 pm

Not exactly a bad interview moment, but nonetheless going to lead to a TON of radio silence. Even more than the typical mass mailing radio silence for a 1L SA.

In the process of mass mailing a major market, I failed to catch in the final paragraph of my cover letter that I would be more than happy to go to "insert different city" for an interview. Caught the mistake when reviewing my cover letter for a phone interview with a firm in that market (surprise, no CB).

At least it's only for a 1L SA, I guess?

ETA: This mistake was duplicated for pretty much every firm in that major market.

Anonymous User
Posts: 428098
Joined: Tue Aug 11, 2009 9:32 am

Re: Bad Interview Moments

Post by Anonymous User » Thu Jan 12, 2017 12:19 am

Not too bad, but was interviewing for a small lit firm in Los Angeles. Interviewer asks: "Why private practice?"... I was somewhat caught off guard. My first reaction was to say "Well I really enjoy the adversarial nature of litigation, so I've always seen myself as a commercial litigator." He responds with, "Well, why not work for the government, they do litigation? Or why not litigate public interest cases?"" I failed to articulate a response... I took a moment... and said "I've just never really been on that path for whatever reason....."

Edit: Should have been upfront and just said "It pays more"

Register now!

Resources to assist law school applicants, students & graduates.

It's still FREE!


Anonymous User
Posts: 428098
Joined: Tue Aug 11, 2009 9:32 am

Re: Bad Interview Moments

Post by Anonymous User » Fri Jan 13, 2017 1:35 pm

Also not too bad, but I was interviewing at a non-NY office of a big NY firm and everything was going fine, interviews with mix of partners and associates, kind of an unremarkable lunch, but I was the last interview of the day on a Friday, so this relatively small office was pretty empty so it was just me wandering between interviewers in their scattered offices. My last interviewer was a 1st year associate, who clearly felt awkward, and told me as soon as I sat down that he had just finished behavioral interviewing training, so please forgive him for trying to figure it all out. This threw me a bit, but you roll with whatever of course, so we banter a bit, and then he takes out a copy of my writing sample, which he had clearly read and marked up in red and blue ink, and started asking me pretty detailed questions about the background cases and my thoughts on the legal issue. Luckily I had actually reviewed the thing a few weeks before for OCI so it was kind of fresh in my mind, so I faked my way through that pretty well, but it felt just like he was some other guy in class and we were doing an exercise in how to do interviews, and he was pretending to be an interviewing attorney, but his performance wasn't very convincing. When it was time to go he was visibly relieved, and honestly I think it was way worse for him than for me. No offer.

User avatar
LaLiLuLeLo

Silver
Posts: 949
Joined: Wed Jun 08, 2016 11:54 am

Re: Bad Interview Moments

Post by LaLiLuLeLo » Fri Jan 13, 2017 2:23 pm

Anonymous User wrote:Also not too bad, but I was interviewing at a non-NY office of a big NY firm and everything was going fine, interviews with mix of partners and associates, kind of an unremarkable lunch, but I was the last interview of the day on a Friday, so this relatively small office was pretty empty so it was just me wandering between interviewers in their scattered offices. My last interviewer was a 1st year associate, who clearly felt awkward, and told me as soon as I sat down that he had just finished behavioral interviewing training, so please forgive him for trying to figure it all out. This threw me a bit, but you roll with whatever of course, so we banter a bit, and then he takes out a copy of my writing sample, which he had clearly read and marked up in red and blue ink, and started asking me pretty detailed questions about the background cases and my thoughts on the legal issue. Luckily I had actually reviewed the thing a few weeks before for OCI so it was kind of fresh in my mind, so I faked my way through that pretty well, but it felt just like he was some other guy in class and we were doing an exercise in how to do interviews, and he was pretending to be an interviewing attorney, but his performance wasn't very convincing. When it was time to go he was visibly relieved, and honestly I think it was way worse for him than for me. No offer.
Yup, that's what we do.

Danger Zone

Platinum
Posts: 8258
Joined: Sat Mar 16, 2013 10:36 am

Re: Bad Interview Moments

Post by Danger Zone » Fri Jan 13, 2017 4:41 pm

Yep, I did that this cycle and felt exactly like that guy
Last edited by Danger Zone on Sat Jan 27, 2018 3:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Anonymous User
Posts: 428098
Joined: Tue Aug 11, 2009 9:32 am

Re: Bad Interview Moments

Post by Anonymous User » Mon Jan 16, 2017 8:50 am

I was walking back from a callback lunch in NYC with my interviewer, holding the umbrella we were sharing. A powerful gust of wind lifted the umbrella out of my hand and dropped it somewhere in the middle of traffic. By the time we arrived back at the firm, we were both drenched. This happened after she'd spent the lunch telling me how she was sick for most of the previous week and had just about started to feel better.

One of the partners responded to my thank you email (I didn't know they were useless back then) by making a joke about how I owe the firm an umbrella, so obviously she had told everyone.

I did receive an offer but didn't end up there.

Get unlimited access to all forums and topics

Register now!

I'm pretty sure I told you it's FREE...


Anonymous User
Posts: 428098
Joined: Tue Aug 11, 2009 9:32 am

Re: Bad Interview Moments

Post by Anonymous User » Mon Jan 16, 2017 10:57 am

I referred to the wrong firm at least 5 times during a screener.

no callback.

User avatar
Toni V

Bronze
Posts: 419
Joined: Thu Jul 14, 2016 1:42 am

Re: Bad Interview Moments

Post by Toni V » Mon Jan 16, 2017 12:30 pm

I recently lateralled. During the lateral process I visited several out-of-state firms and during one interview a lady partner asked me if I had looked into buying a house and what area was I looking at. I hadn’t yet looked. With that answer her expression immediately soured ― I never heard back from her firm.

User avatar
nevdash

Bronze
Posts: 418
Joined: Sun Dec 07, 2008 5:01 pm

Re: Bad Interview Moments

Post by nevdash » Mon Jan 16, 2017 2:23 pm

Toni V wrote:I recently lateralled. During the lateral process I visited several out-of-state firms and during one interview a lady partner asked me if I had looked into buying a house and what area was I looking at. I hadn’t yet looked. With that answer her expression immediately soured ― I never heard back from her firm.
*on a first date*

"So, have you thought about what we should name our kids?"

User avatar
Toni V

Bronze
Posts: 419
Joined: Thu Jul 14, 2016 1:42 am

Re: Bad Interview Moments

Post by Toni V » Mon Jan 16, 2017 2:50 pm

nevdash wrote:
Toni V wrote:I recently lateralled. During the lateral process I visited several out-of-state firms and during one interview a lady partner asked me if I had looked into buying a house and what area was I looking at. I hadn’t yet looked. With that answer her expression immediately soured ― I never heard back from her firm.
*on a first date*

"So, have you thought about what we should name our kids?"
:lol: :lol:

Communicate now with those who not only know what a legal education is, but can offer you worthy advice and commentary as you complete the three most educational, yet challenging years of your law related post graduate life.

Register now, it's still FREE!


Anonymous User
Posts: 428098
Joined: Tue Aug 11, 2009 9:32 am

Re: Bad Interview Moments

Post by Anonymous User » Mon Jan 16, 2017 3:37 pm

I had a callback where all the actual interviews went really well, upbeat and chatty, everyone super nice and approachable. It wasn't a top choice firm for me, but it was nice for things to be going so smoothly, but when I met these two associates for the lunch it was so awful. The three of us walked about 15 minutes to the restaurant in almost complete silence. I did the annoying outgoing thing of asking polite questions and smiling like you do at an interview, but one dude gave me the troll single grunt responses, and the other one was completely silent. I mean, it was awkwardly grim. At the restaurant they both ordered literally the most expensive thing on the menu and then seemed to accept they were going to have to talk to me. I can paraphrase the entire conversation pretty accurately as the guy saying, in a deadpan emotionless voice, "it doesn't matter where you go, culture is a myth and they're all the same, neither of us will probably be here by the time you start, and it sucks the whole time, and this lunch is the best part of our day." Except he said it in more colorful language. If these guys were cartoons they'd have little black clouds just above them raining down. They could see I was a little surprised, and the guy just chuckled and said I clearly wasn't used to being told the truth, and that I should order a bottle of wine, since no one would care, and I should make the most of these things. The other guy barely spoke the whole hour or so we were out. Walked back in silence.

User avatar
LaLiLuLeLo

Silver
Posts: 949
Joined: Wed Jun 08, 2016 11:54 am

Re: Bad Interview Moments

Post by LaLiLuLeLo » Mon Jan 16, 2017 3:52 pm

Anonymous User wrote:I referred to the wrong firm at least 5 times during a screener.

no callback.
Interviewing should be like when you see someone you met once and can't remember their name. Dance around it. You know, "Hey man nice to see you! Okay nice talking to you dude, later!"

pml87

New
Posts: 46
Joined: Wed Nov 23, 2016 6:29 pm

Re: Bad Interview Moments

Post by pml87 » Mon Jan 16, 2017 7:23 pm

.
Last edited by pml87 on Tue Jan 17, 2017 4:24 am, edited 2 times in total.

RaceJudicata

Gold
Posts: 1867
Joined: Mon Jun 22, 2015 2:51 pm

Re: Bad Interview Moments

Post by RaceJudicata » Mon Jan 16, 2017 8:41 pm

pml87 wrote:Interview for UChicago Law with the admission dean.

Things immediately started out badly. The dean seemed unenthusiastic and downright rude. I have received another T-14 offer and money at this point so I was disinclined to tolerate the rudeness.

Dean: "so what can I tell you about UChicago?"
Me: "I understand that Chicago can be a rough neighborhood. Do you have any recommendation for living there?"
Dean: (obv caught off-guard, took her 5 seconds to recover) "well, you know, any big city can be complicated and blah blah"
Me: "but I have heard Chicago is also very gentrified and I should stay away from some area?"
Dean: "again, ANY city can be blah blah"
Dinged in less than 24 hours.

Sadly I had no such moment during OCI.
To be fair, this was an absolute banana land line of questioning.

Seriously? What are you waiting for?

Now there's a charge.
Just kidding ... it's still FREE!


Post Reply Post Anonymous Reply  

Return to “Legal Employment”