Bad Interview Moments Forum

[rpupkin]

Partner: schools (law) ranked at the top are ranked at the top because they have been around the longest.

Me: (Thinking about undergrad like H, which was founded in the 1900s) yea I know like a hundred years.

Partner: Well not hundreds of years....

Me: .....

Partner: ....

(Missed the chance to explain I meant undergrad.

Me: ......

I'm confused, H = Harvard? HLS was founded in 1817, so that would quite literally be "hundreds of years." YLS was 1824 and SLS was 1893. Know-it-all partners...

It's worse than that. Anon poster thought Harvard undergrad was founded in the 1900s. Harvard is the oldest college in the United States. It's almost 400 years old.

[hdunlop]

What happened to this thread?

[Anonymous User]

Let's start this one back up:

Wake up the morning of my interview, shower, and begin packing for my flight after the interview. Morning interview, BTW. At about an hour before my interview, I decide to eat breakfast, a chocolate protein shake. I take a sip, put the drink down and start getting dressed. I go back to take another sip, and shake the bottle, having forgotten that the top was off. Chocolate shake goes everywhere: all over the white sheets, on the desk, the carpet, the wall, AND (I shit you not, pun intended) on the back-side of my suit pants—they were on a chair. It looks like I had explosive diarrhea all over the room.

I go to the bathroom to get towels to clean up the wall and the desk, really the only things I could clean. Of course, the towels are white. I clean the wall and the desk. At this point I have about 40 minutes left. Decide to bunch up the sheets and the towel and leave the open bottle on top so that, after their initial horror upon entering the room, the housekeepers realize it's not fecal stains.

I go to check out and let the front desk know that I spilled chocolate milk on bed, hoping they don't bill the firm for "poop-cleaning." And spend the callback thinking, "if someone says what happened to the back of your pants, I'll just say, 'why are you looking at my butt.'"

Got other offers, withdrew,took awesome pictures of the room to show my friends, and have a funny story to tell.

[Anonymous User]

Double post

[Anonymous User]

First biglaw dream job interview

Partner: So why X law?

Me: (completely forgot which practice area this partner did because there were multiple job postings at the same firm) Because I think working with different clients... like partners and directors who get sued for malpractice is interesting...and director derivative law suits are interesting and unique.... (fumbling for words)

Partner: (wtf face) (silence)..... ok. So we also do Y law here....
























DIRECTOR DERIVATIVE LAWSUITS






Offered. No bullshit.

[mjb447]

But did you use the phrase "dream job" during the interview?

[Anonymous User]

But did you use the phrase "dream job" during the interview?

nah it wasn't a "thing" then.

[Anonymous User]

When I first came across FF, "Fried (as in fried chicken) Frank" just stuck in my head even though I later learned that wasn't the correct pronunciation. During interview, brain farted for a sec and started to say "fry..[began to correct myself immediately]..Fried Frank!!" Interviewer had already noticed and was laughing.

[Anonymous User]

I brought up Professional Wrestling in an interview. Interviewer gave me several avenues to stop before it got out but I just barreled through because they HAD TO KNOW. No CB.

[North]

When I first came across FF, "Fried (as in fried chicken) Frank" just stuck in my head even though I later learned that wasn't the correct pronunciation. During interview, brain farted for a sec and started to say "fry..[began to correct myself immediately]..Fried Frank!!" Interviewer had already noticed and was laughing.

That's not how you pronounce it? Okay that explains that ding from forever ago

[cannibal ox]

FREE-d Frank for anyone wondering.

[lavarman84]

FREE-d Frank for anyone wondering.

Is it really that big of a deal? I mispronounced Weil a few times during an interview. The interviewer acted like I had murdered her cat.

[cannibal ox]

in b4 "if you can't be bothered to learn how to pronounce a firm name, how can you be trusted to move commas correctly when working here?"

Seriously though, it isn't that hard to go to the pronunciation guide when you're doing your research pre-interview.

[lavarman84]

in b4 "if you can't be bothered to learn how to pronounce a firm name, how can you be trusted to move commas correctly when working here?"

Seriously though, it isn't that hard to go to the pronunciation guide when you're doing your research pre-interview.

I knew how to pronounce it, but my brain resorted to pronouncing it the way I thought it should be pronounced rather than the correct way.(since my mind was on other things) I probably would have done the same thing with Fried Frank if I had interviewed there.

[mjb447]

in b4 "if you can't be bothered to learn how to pronounce a firm name correctly when it counts, how can you be trusted to move commas correctly when working here?"

[butlerraider1]

Partner: schools (law) ranked at the top are ranked at the top because they have been around the longest.

Me: (Thinking about undergrad like H, which was founded in the 1900s) yea I know like a hundred years.

Partner: Well not hundreds of years....

Me: .....

Partner: ....

(Missed the chance to explain I meant undergrad.

Me: ......

I'm confused, H = Harvard? HLS was founded in 1817, so that would quite literally be "hundreds of years." YLS was 1824 and SLS was 1893. Know-it-all partners...

It's worse than that. Anon poster thought Harvard undergrad was founded in the 1900s. Harvard is the oldest college in the United States. It's almost 400 years old.

Has the anon poster clarified this yet? Unless there are typos or something, there are so many confusing things about that post.

[Anonymous User]

Me: "I actually transferred to my undergrad."

Interviewer/partner: [laughing under his breath]

Me: [Continues to genuinely wax poetic for 5 minutes about how much I loved my undergrad experience and that transferring was the right decision for my circumstance.]

Interviewer: ". . . And how did that work out for you?"

Me: "Um . . . Very well?"

[gfd973]

FREE-d Frank for anyone wondering.

Is it really that big of a deal? I mispronounced Weil a few times during an interview. The interviewer acted like I had murdered her cat.

I mean, yeah. It's straight up retarded. You're thinking about this like "well, there are just so many firms." Classic law student entitlement. Your interviewer is almost always thinking about this like "yeah, there are a lot of firms, but if you know how to pronounce even one firm, it better goddamn be mine."

[Anonymous User]

At the GDC post-screener dinner I was trying to cut this fried wafer thing into smaller pieces and it fucking exploded all over the partner next to me.

No callback.

[First Offense]

At the GDC post-screener dinner I was trying to cut this fried wafer thing into smaller pieces and it fucking exploded all over the partner next to me.

No callback.

GDC's pre-CB dinner is kind of weird imo. At least mine was.

[Anonymous User]

At the GDC post-screener dinner I was trying to cut this fried wafer thing into smaller pieces and it fucking exploded all over the partner next to me.

No callback.

GDC's pre-CB dinner is kind of weird imo. At least mine was.

I found it pretty awful (not related to the wafer-explosion incident), which was a good sign the firm wasn't right for me.

[lavarman84]

FREE-d Frank for anyone wondering.

Is it really that big of a deal? I mispronounced Weil a few times during an interview. The interviewer acted like I had murdered her cat.

I mean, yeah. It's straight up retarded. You're thinking about this like "well, there are just so many firms." Classic law student entitlement. Your interviewer is almost always thinking about this like "yeah, there are a lot of firms, but if you know how to pronounce even one firm, it better goddamn be mine."

Hilarious. You don't even recognize how hypocritical this is. It has nothing to do with law student entitlement. Both sides think of each other that way. If anything, law students tend to look at things more "romantically" than law firms.

So no, I don't feel guilty or bad about mispronouncing their name. Not when we all know the biglaw business model.

[FedFan123]

FREE-d Frank for anyone wondering.

Is it really that big of a deal? I mispronounced Weil a few times during an interview. The interviewer acted like I had murdered her cat.

I mean, yeah. It's straight up retarded. You're thinking about this like "well, there are just so many firms." Classic law student entitlement. Your interviewer is almost always thinking about this like "yeah, there are a lot of firms, but if you know how to pronounce even one firm, it better goddamn be mine."

Hilarious. You don't even recognize how hypocritical this is. It has nothing to do with law student entitlement. Both sides think of each other that way. If anything, law students tend to look at things more "romantically" than law firms.

So no, I don't feel guilty or bad about mispronouncing their name. Not when we all know the biglaw business model.

Just out of curiosity, how did you mispronounce Weil? It's a four-letter, one-syllable word lol. Only thing I can think of is maybe you said it like "wheel" but that would make no sense based on the spelling.

[lavarman84]

FREE-d Frank for anyone wondering.

Is it really that big of a deal? I mispronounced Weil a few times during an interview. The interviewer acted like I had murdered her cat.

I mean, yeah. It's straight up retarded. You're thinking about this like "well, there are just so many firms." Classic law student entitlement. Your interviewer is almost always thinking about this like "yeah, there are a lot of firms, but if you know how to pronounce even one firm, it better goddamn be mine."

Hilarious. You don't even recognize how hypocritical this is. It has nothing to do with law student entitlement. Both sides think of each other that way. If anything, law students tend to look at things more "romantically" than law firms.

So no, I don't feel guilty or bad about mispronouncing their name. Not when we all know the biglaw business model.

Just out of curiosity, how did you mispronounce Weil? It's a four-letter, one-syllable word lol. Only thing I can think of is maybe you said it like "wheel" but that would make no sense based on the spelling.

I said "wheel" instead of "while." That's how it reads to me.

[BaiAilian2013]

Me: "I actually transferred to my undergrad."

Interviewer/partner: [laughing under his breath]

Me: [Continues to genuinely wax poetic for 5 minutes about how much I loved my undergrad experience and that transferring was the right decision for my circumstance.]

Interviewer: ". . . And how did that work out for you?"

Me: "Um . . . Very well?"

Huh? This seems like it would be very funny if I understood it.

I have an ambiguous firm name and I do hold it against interviewees when they mispronounce it. They can overcome it, but it is a small strike. If you don't have the common sense and forethought to recognize that it is ambiguous and look it up, it makes me uneasy. A junior associate who doesn't think things through will be bad news for me.