Bad Interview Moments Forum

[LaLiLuLeLo]

Hm I guess I don’t see the issue with OP saying that. Tbh it sounds more like the interviewer is a weirdo if they would hold that against OP. If I were interviewing and the candidate said that to me, the appropriate response is “oh, cool” and let it drop.

[nixy]

Yeah, I didn’t really get it either.

[Auxilio]

It's an awkward moment, but it's not an offer-killing moment.

[tlsadmin3]

TLS wants to do something fun for the holiday season, so we are doing a drawing. List your “bad interview” war stories and your username will be put into a random generator for a $100 Amazon card. The winner will be announced on the morning of January 2. Mods are allowed to join, and feel free to add multiple stories. Your name will be entered for each post, as long as it is not a repeat of an earlier entry. Entries will only begin from this point on until January 1.

On your mark, get set, GO!

[Auxilio]

TLS wants to do something fun for the holiday season, so we are doing a drawing. List your “bad interview” war stories and your username will be put into a random generator for a $100 Amazon card. The winner will be announced on the morning of January 2. Mods are allowed to join, and feel free to add multiple stories. Your name will be entered for each post, as long as it is not a repeat of an earlier entry. Entries will only begin from this point on until January 1.

On your mark, get set, GO!

Can we still enter with an anonymously posted story?

[tlsadmin3]

TLS wants to do something fun for the holiday season, so we are doing a drawing. List your “bad interview” war stories and your username will be put into a random generator for a $100 Amazon card. The winner will be announced on the morning of January 2. Mods are allowed to join, and feel free to add multiple stories. Your name will be entered for each post, as long as it is not a repeat of an earlier entry. Entries will only begin from this point on until January 1.

On your mark, get set, GO!

Can we still enter with an anonymously posted story?

Sure!

[Anonymous User]

Interviewed in two firms on the same day. During my interview with a partner in Firm 2, I slipped and said something like “I heard Firm 1 has great etc.” He spent the rest of the interview telling me what Firm 1 does not have.

[tlsadmin3]

Interviewed in two firms on the same day. During my interview with a partner in Firm 2, I slipped and said something like “I heard Firm 1 has great etc.” He spent the rest of the interview telling me what Firm 1 does not have.

So what happened? Did you go with Firm 1?

[Anonymous User]

I'm clerking for a SSC and interviewed with a firm. Mentioned it's nice that SSC are less political than federal and less scandals etc. (probably in a way that didn't come off pro-Kavanaugh, because I'm not). The guy gave me a weird vibe during this.

I googled him after the interview (different person than I had been scheduled)—he had written a very outspoken pro-Kavanaugh op ed.

No callback yet...

[Anonymous User]

I was below median at a T14. I was interviewing with a v100 partner who asked me what field of law I am interested. I replied that I am interested in m&a/corporate work. He then asked me “if you want to do m&a why don’t you go to Skadden?” I answered “Ummmm, did you see my grades?”

No CB.

[Anonymous User]

(1) Happened during a CB at a firm that only does transactional work. An attorney asked me to describe my perfect work environment. After I finished she turned to me and said, "you just described a litigation environment. I should know, my husband is a litigator and I did litigation my first three years our of law school."

(2) At the cocktail hour after the CB at the same firm an attorney (who is known to be a hard***) came up to me and, pointing out that my last name was misspelled on the name tag, said "Don't you hate it when names are misspelled." Backstory is that, in the craziness of OCI, I had sent him an email thanking him for an extended conversation at a dinner during OCI and misspelled the name of the firm in the email


...I got an offer an accepted it. Sometimes we probably read too much into individual moments.

[Anonymous User]

CB at a V100. They set me up in a conference room. First two interviews go normally. My third interviewer, an associate, walks in, ignores my "nice to meet you" & outstretched hand, puts his feet on the table, and glares at me. Finally, he spoke. "I don't like you," he proclaimed. I was dumbfounded. "Er," I said, "was it something I did?" "No, no," he said, waving his hand, "I just don't like you." At this point I figured it was a lost cause. So I replied, "to be honest, I don't think I like you much either." He then said, "well, look, I still hafta be in here for a few more minutes. so any questions about [Firm]?" I asked two or three questions. He gave extremely terse responses each time. Once I didn't have any more questions to ask, he said, "you really ought to have more questions prepped. you sure you don't have anything else?" I said no. He muttered, "alright, whatever," turned around, and walked right out.

Thought I was doomed. Ended up getting an offer, which I declined.

[Npret]

CB at a V100. They set me up in a conference room. First two interviews go normally. My third interviewer, an associate, walks in, ignores my "nice to meet you" & outstretched hand, puts his feet on the table, and glares at me. Finally, he spoke. "I don't like you," he proclaimed. I was dumbfounded. "Er," I said, "was it something I did?" "No, no," he said, waving his hand, "I just don't like you." At this point I figured it was a lost cause. So I replied, "to be honest, I don't think I like you much either." He then said, "well, look, I still hafta be in here for a few more minutes. so any questions about [Firm]?" I asked two or three questions. He gave extremely terse responses each time. Once I didn't have any more questions to ask, he said, "you really ought to have more questions prepped. you sure you don't have anything else?" I said no. He muttered, "alright, whatever," turned around, and walked right out.

Thought I was doomed. Ended up getting an offer, which I declined.

Holy shit. That should win a special prize.You should have reported that guy to recruiting when turning down your offer.

[barkschool]

CB at a V100. They set me up in a conference room. First two interviews go normally. My third interviewer, an associate, walks in, ignores my "nice to meet you" & outstretched hand, puts his feet on the table, and glares at me. Finally, he spoke. "I don't like you," he proclaimed. I was dumbfounded. "Er," I said, "was it something I did?" "No, no," he said, waving his hand, "I just don't like you." At this point I figured it was a lost cause. So I replied, "to be honest, I don't think I like you much either." He then said, "well, look, I still hafta be in here for a few more minutes. so any questions about [Firm]?" I asked two or three questions. He gave extremely terse responses each time. Once I didn't have any more questions to ask, he said, "you really ought to have more questions prepped. you sure you don't have anything else?" I said no. He muttered, "alright, whatever," turned around, and walked right out.

Thought I was doomed. Ended up getting an offer, which I declined.

Holy shit. That should win a special prize.You should have reported that guy to recruiting when turning down your offer.

Why does some associate think he’s Jordan Belfort?

[Anonymous User]

I had a screener where the interviewer asked if I'd ever considered that higher grades my first semester would have made the process easier. I basically said, "Yes, obviously."

[Anonymous User]

Not really a bad interview moment, but I went into a V50 late (LATE) in 2L hiring season. Recruiter from HR, when I arrive, pulls me aside and says (literally) "okay, so why don't you have an offer yet?''. I was so taken aback. I said something like ''well I still am waiting to hear from a number of firms I interviewed at . . . I'm not really sure."

She was so upfront about it it really put me off.

After my interview, I emailed her a week later asking for an update. She says ''we haven't made any final decisions yet but in all honestly you will most likely not be chosen."

[Anonymous User]

Really nice partner who seemed to be trying to help me out as much as possible including giving nonverbal cues of my being on wrong track. "So, it seems like you really enjoyed [your time at X company." Answer: "It was a job, there were good and bad days"

Edit - to above, that's really interesting. I wonder what a good answer to that would've been.

[Bingo_Bongo]

My third interviewer, an associate, walks in, ignores my "nice to meet you" & outstretched hand, puts his feet on the table, and glares at me. Finally, he spoke. "I don't like you," he proclaimed. I was dumbfounded. "Er," I said, "was it something I did?" "No, no," he said, waving his hand, "I just don't like you." At this point I figured it was a lost cause. So I replied, "to be honest, I don't think I like you much either." He then said, "well, look, I still hafta be in here for a few more minutes. so any questions about [Firm]?" I asked two or three questions. He gave extremely terse responses each time. Once I didn't have any more questions to ask, he said, "you really ought to have more questions prepped. you sure you don't have anything else?" I said no. He muttered, "alright, whatever," turned around, and walked right out.

Thought I was doomed. Ended up getting an offer, which I declined.

That was obviously a botched attempt at a stress interview. Wasn't executed very well, because it wasn't believable in the slightest.

The purpose of those interviews is to put the candidates under stress to see how they respond. Law enforcement agencies used to use them a lot to make sure their applicants could keep their cool under stress, keep a clear head, ect. Generally, they're a little more believable than that, though.

I'm sure in that associate's mind he was doing some sort of clever psychoanalytical test on you, but in reality he just came across as an ass and probably scared several really good candidates away from the firm. He epitomizes the stupidity that often goes into hiring decisions. Hiring managers often think they have the fool proof test, or a genius list of disqualifiers ("If the applicant says/does this one thing, he obviously will make a horrible employee.") instead of just looking at candidates holistically.

One of the hiring people at a place I used to work was absolutely convinced she could tell when somebody was telling the truth or lying based on a verbal tic. I'm not going to say what that tic was in case she's reading this, but it was absolutely ridiculous and bore absolutely no relationship to whether somebody was lying or telling the truth, yet alone was 100% foolproof like she seemed to think it was.

[basketofbread]

I basically bid at random at my T2's OCI because I failed to even research which firms had large classes. I'm lucky to have gotten a SA. A result of my random bidding was that I had a screener with a tiny IP boutique. I have zero interest in IP and no technical background. I tried to cancel but my career services wouldn't let me and told me to do the interview. Cue extremely awkward interview where the interviewer, for some reason, pried me into admitting that I didn't know shit about their firm or IP litigation. Favorite quote: "Can you describe one thing, anything, remotely technical, that you know anything about, that in some sense explains your interest in this firm?"

Other weird interview was where the guy started with the dreaded "so what do you want to talk about?" I respond with some tepid question about the firm. "You seriously want to talk about the firm? Jesus Christ." Turned into a nice conversation tbh

[rcharter1978]

CB at a V100. They set me up in a conference room. First two interviews go normally. My third interviewer, an associate, walks in, ignores my "nice to meet you" & outstretched hand, puts his feet on the table, and glares at me. Finally, he spoke. "I don't like you," he proclaimed. I was dumbfounded. "Er," I said, "was it something I did?" "No, no," he said, waving his hand, "I just don't like you." At this point I figured it was a lost cause. So I replied, "to be honest, I don't think I like you much either." He then said, "well, look, I still hafta be in here for a few more minutes. so any questions about [Firm]?" I asked two or three questions. He gave extremely terse responses each time. Once I didn't have any more questions to ask, he said, "you really ought to have more questions prepped. you sure you don't have anything else?" I said no. He muttered, "alright, whatever," turned around, and walked right out.

Thought I was doomed. Ended up getting an offer, which I declined.

Holy shit. That should win a special prize.You should have reported that guy to recruiting when turning down your offer.

That has to be some kind of fucked up screening test. Sounds like a solid decision to turn them down.

[Anonymous User]

Screener interviewer was 20 minutes late. When the she apologized for being late, I told her it wasn't a problem. She then spent most of the interview refusing to believe I was interested at all in the firm. Wasn't sure whether to bring up the fact that I waited 20 minutes or not.


Winner of $100 Amazon Gift Card (mod edit)

[Anonymous User]

My third interviewer, an associate, walks in, ignores my "nice to meet you" & outstretched hand, puts his feet on the table, and glares at me. Finally, he spoke. "I don't like you," he proclaimed. I was dumbfounded. "Er," I said, "was it something I did?" "No, no," he said, waving his hand, "I just don't like you." At this point I figured it was a lost cause. So I replied, "to be honest, I don't think I like you much either." He then said, "well, look, I still hafta be in here for a few more minutes. so any questions about [Firm]?" I asked two or three questions. He gave extremely terse responses each time. Once I didn't have any more questions to ask, he said, "you really ought to have more questions prepped. you sure you don't have anything else?" I said no. He muttered, "alright, whatever," turned around, and walked right out.

Thought I was doomed. Ended up getting an offer, which I declined.

That was obviously a botched attempt at a stress interview. Wasn't executed very well, because it wasn't believable in the slightest.

Quoted anon. Yes, very possible it was a botched stress interview. Either that or the associate was planning to ragequit and decided to scare away some candidates on the way out.

In any case I didn't report him to recruiting, though if it had happened to me today I would have. I was more timid back then.

I really liked everyone else I met at that firm so it was a shame. I may very well have accepted there if not for that associate. He was in the (small-ish) practice area I was most interested in, so his attitude really turned me off. Could not imagine having to report to him.

[Anonymous User]

I am a 3 to 6 year associate in Big Law. I applied for a law clerk/Entry-level Associate job at a 50 attorney firm in Washington DC/Maryland/Virginia as a 3L. The job was out of state. I never heard from the law firm, so I sent a follow-up email (the "follow up email") to the hiring partner, stating how I had initially applied and had not heard back from the firm, but was still interested (I had used the same email at other law firms and even recently as a lateral where I received an interview the next day after sending the email). In the follow up email, I also wrote a brief story how I overcame a challenge in my pre-law school career after I was denied an interview, but eventually convinced the firm to interview me (I was also hired). The partner responds: "We have received hundreds of responses to our advertisement. It is not possible for us to respond to every inquiry that we have received. Thank you for your interest. If we choose to move forward with your application, you will be advised. Just a bit of unsolicited advice - pointing out to the person who is making the hiring choices that she has not responded to your submission, is not a helpful way to draw attention to your application." I respond with: "Thank you for your email. Do you have any ideas as to how I might follow-up with potential employers? I understand it is not possible to respond to every inquiry, but as a job seeker (especially in this legal climate), I want to show enthusiasm and continued interest in the open position." The Partner then responds by stating, "Your [follow up] email was arrogant. Perhaps you could simply send a note expressing continued interest without pointing out that no one has responded to you [FYI - I simply wrote that I had not heard back from anyone]. A person who is looking to fill a job opening does not owe a response to each person who submits an application." The Partner then describes a specific paragraph in my follow up email which described a pre-law school job that I landed by showing initiative. She replied, "As for your description of your experience with [Former pre-law school company], why should a hiring party be impressed that you showed up to a workshop early, dressed in a professional manner? This indicates to me that you will need to be complimented and coddled for behaving in a manner that is expected. I am not looking for a colleague who needs to be complimented for showing up to work." Additionally, in my follow up email, I had also attached professional references from my former jobs and summer associate positions because I was below median from a T50 and wanted to show that I was a high achiever. With regards to this information, she replied, "Finally, I find it highly inappropriate that you would send to me redacted performance reviews rom a previous employer. Typically, performance reviews are to be kept confidential and are property of your employer. The reviewer's name was blocked out, underscoring the fact that the review was shared without the permission of the reviewing party [FTI- it was redacted because the summer associate firm told me to redact client names, so I took it a step further and redacted the attorney reviewer's name and they knew that I was submitting such reviews with my jobs]. This shows that you lack the ability to keep matters confidential and private. The comments in the performance review are generic and not helpful. The comments also indicate that the reviewing person did not know you well, as phrases such as "[My name] seems personable" denote that the reviewer had not worked extensively with you [FYI - this is true, but only because it was a 10-week summer associate program]. The response to question number [One of the attributes on the Summer Associate Evaluation] one states that your work product met expectations. This does not impress me. I am looking for someone who exceeds expectations [FYI - the majority of the reviews said I exceeded expectations, this guy was simply saying I did what was needed]. I realize that you may think that my response to your question is harsh. You asked, and I have given my honest response." Needless to say, I was flabergasted at her response and sent the email exchange to some of my law school and non-law school friends. I routinely used the summer associate performance reviews when applying for jobs and my pre-law school employment reviews were submitted with my law school application to law school (where I landed a scholarship despite scoring below a 150 LSAT) and I had landed several interviews using this method after I was initially denied the interview by recruiting or never heard from the law firm. I have no idea why this particular lady was so pissed, but her reaction remains memorable as to how some people in the legal community are straight a$$holes.

[rcharter1978]

^^ill admit I mostly skimmed your post, but I think that the partner who replied to you had some valid points. Whoever it was took the time to reply specifically to your email and clearly put some thought into it and didn't blow you off.

I think she was super blunt, but if she thought that this was advice that would help you in your job search wouldn't you prefer she be blunt, rather than sugar coat her advice?

It kinda maybe seems odd to share a performance review especially if it's generic. Everyone has a lot to read so a generic performance review seems to just tell then that you're not a raving lunatic.

Also, didn't you prove her point about your inability to keep communications confidential by sharing her email with you and painting her out to be a villian when you asked for her honest feedback and she gave it to you?

I don't know, mileage varies but I'm glad you landed a job you enjoy.

[Anonymous User]

The performance reviews were far from generic. This Partner thought highly of herself and was the first and only person to have such a negative reaction to me sending a follow-up email (which I had done previously and it resulted in a job interview) and to my performance reviews, which as I explained, were used in my applications to pre-law school professional positions, application to law school, 1L and 2L summer associate positions, and post-law school legal positions. I know its unconventional (the performance reviews), but when you have a low LSAT and not so stellar grades, you can't play by the rules. Call her a villian or what you want, I think she definitely believes her backside smells like roses.