Bad Interview Moments Forum

[A. Nony Mouse]

One time at an interview in Chicago, the interviewer asked me why Chicago. Somehow my response referred to "Ohio," and not Illinois or Chicago. Whoops! (Got a CB though)

At another interview, at the end of a callback interview (panel interview), one of the women actually refused to shake my hand. I just thought she was a bitch, but I heard from other people that she apparently was racist. (No offer, surprise surprise)

At another interview, I swore. The entire panel laughed. (Got a CB)

Affirmative action in action.

What do you mean by this?

[MCFC]

Bumping this for 2014.

[KidStuddi]

Yes. More schadenfreude please.

[Anonymous User]

Accidentally swearing at lunch with junior associates after one of them did...

[Anonymous User]

Accidentally swearing at lunch with junior associates after one of them did...

is this like... actually a big deal though?

[dixiecupdrinking]

Accidentally swearing at lunch with junior associates after one of them did...

is this like... actually a big deal though?

Depends but probably not. Not a good idea, though.

[Anonymous User]

interviewer: "do you have any questions for me?"
me: "what can I ask or tell you at this point to convince you I'm a good candidate for your firm?"
interviewer laughed; "so you want me to ask myself questions and then answer them?"

oops...

[Anonymous User]

Selling an interviewer hardcore on my sole desire to practice in X market...then running into her on the train the next morning on my way to interview in Y market. GFD.

[Anonymous User]

chairman of firm in home market asked me a substantive question about my writing sample during CB. I didn't even remember what i had turned in at first. Kinda fumbled through it. Did not get offer.

[Anonymous User]

Interviewer from NY who was an alum at my school asked me why I chose my school... started talking about how i liked the region and just went on auto pilot and finished off my reasoning with "and that's why I want to stay in Chicago".

CB today though

[Anonymous User]

Interview with old WASPy partner. At the end I ask about the firms mentoring program. Partner takes a long time thinking of a response and eventually says "you know, we don't really worry too much about mentoring. It mostly comes up organically. Except for minorities. Have to make sure they feel included; part of the mainstream. You know." Any more questions? No.

[Anonymous User]

.

[seizmaar]

On a callback dinner at a french high end place where I couldn't read the menu, I was a bit inebriated and decided to go with the salmon. But when I ordered I pronounced it with the hard "l". And then I giggled because I was so embarassed. Offer, despite this.

On one callback, during my last interview as I was leaving a partner asked if I had gotten my parking validated. I thought it would be funny to say: "No, but I was just going to bill the firm for it anyways." No offer.

On one callback, I got in a black infiniti as described by the partner for the dinner interview, and only realized after a few minutes of driving and small talk that this guy was not there for me, but was from a different firm picking up another dude. The drive back was crickets..

On that same callback dinner, the partner said something about how he had just recently made partner and I made a point of clarifying that he wasn't yet an equity partner. No offer--letter signed by that partner.

[Anonymous User]

This happened at oci last week. I knock, person ahead of me says he needs a minute or so. I'm like yeah sure no problem. 4-5 minutes go by dude opens the door and I am met with a tidal wave of rancid shit smell combined with a futile attempt to cover it up with spray.

He even left the bathroom door open too. I thought about making a joke about the food at the hotel being bad but just pretended like nothing was amiss and tried to not let my eyes water. So far no cb

I also found myself playing footsies accidentally with at least 3-4 interviewers throughout the week

[baal hadad]

Interview with old WASPy partner. At the end I ask about the firms mentoring program. Partner takes a long time thinking of a response and eventually says "you know, we don't really worry too much about mentoring. It mostly comes up organically. Except for minorities. Have to make sure they feel included; part of the mainstream. You know." Any more questions? No.

I sorta appreciate that honesty

[ymmv]

Interview with old WASPy partner. At the end I ask about the firms mentoring program. Partner takes a long time thinking of a response and eventually says "you know, we don't really worry too much about mentoring. It mostly comes up organically. Except for minorities. Have to make sure they feel included; part of the mainstream. You know." Any more questions? No.

I sorta appreciate that honesty

Yeah, it's refreshing.

[Anonymous User]

On a callback dinner at a french high end place where I couldn't read the menu, I was a bit inebriated and decided to go with the salmon. But when I ordered I pronounced it with the hard "l". And then I giggled because I was so embarassed. Offer, despite this.

On one callback, during my last interview as I was leaving a partner asked if I had gotten my parking validated. I thought it would be funny to say: "No, but I was just going to bill the firm for it anyways." No offer.

On one callback, I got in a black infiniti as described by the partner for the dinner interview, and only realized after a few minutes of driving and small talk that this guy was not there for me, but was from a different firm picking up another dude. The drive back was crickets..

On that same callback dinner, the partner said something about how he had just recently made partner and I made a point of clarifying that he wasn't yet an equity partner. No offer--letter signed by that partner.

Are you serious?

(Accidental anon. This is shifty_eyed.)

[seizmaar]

Are you serious?

(Accidental anon. This is shifty_eyed.)

Sadly these all happened to me, albeit last year. I'm sure there are some i've blotted from my memory as well.

[Anonymous User]

My first interview ever for 1L summer. When asked what drew me to the firm I said "the pay"...didn't get an offer, but it was a learning experience to not be too honest.

[Anonymous User]

Screener interview with firm that has no Boston office.

Me: "So, is there any feeling that the Boston office, as the firm's primary office, gets better work than the NYC office?"

Interviewer graciously offers me an easy out: "Oh, you must be thinking of a different firm. We have no Boston office. That's okay, you see a lot of people during on-campus interviews - it's easy to get confused about where you are. This is [firm name]."

Me: "No. I thought you had a Boston office."

Dinged, integrity intact. =)

[Anonymous User]

All of these are much better than mine but...

Walk into the room, handshakes, "have a seat," blah blah blah. The room has ceiling to floor windows and it's bright. Maybe I squint or maybe the partner can just tell but he closes the blinds a little more and says "Sorry, it's bright in here, I keep having to shut these the sun keeps moving on me." Just on small talk autopilot without even thinking about it I say, "Yeah, it has a tendency to do that." Other partner laughs he just glares. No CB.

[Anonymous User]

firm was specifically seeking a summer for one if its groups. applied and made it all the way to the cb stage, after surviving pre-select and screener.

as soon as i sit down with my first interviewer, the first words out of his/her mouth: "not sure if we're taking a summer next year." rest of the interview proceeds while i awkwardly wonder if this is all just pretend for something that isn't even gonna happen.

ding a week later. why did they even bother?

[sublime]

..

[Anonymous User]

Accidentally swearing at lunch with junior associates after one of them did...

is this like... actually a big deal though?

I swore after my interviewer did, context appropriate.

Once or twice in interviews I did use low level curse words though, or insinuated them.

I don't think it is a big deal, but certainly something that is better avoided. Like almost everything else, a lot of it is reading your interviewer.

Yeah... I've flat out sworn in interviews before. It hasn't been a big deal, depending on context and interviewer.

My bad interview moment came when I had an interviewer essentially tell me that Latin America was barbaric and she wondered what had happened to it to make it decline after Europeans had come in and civilized it.

[Anonymous User]

Screener with a Michigan firm (my home state). I'm going to school in CA and worked my 1L job in San Jose. The interviewer proceeds to ask me about my 1L job which is typical. He asks what I thought was "where is San Jose"? Me, feeling real awkward (like WTF, this guy doesn't know where a pretty big known city is) responds, "um, like an hour south of SF". He's responds, "no, I obviously know that, I used to live in SJ, where IN San Jose is your 1L job". Felt like a real idiot there. No CB.

Another screener. We start the interview going back and forth with pretty generic stuff. He's asking me some typical questions, blah, blah, blah. All of the sudden, he asks "so what's your handicap"? I'm thinking he's asking about my weakness, so I blurt some response out. I forgot I had golf listed in my interests section. Interviewer responds, "no, your golf handicap". Still haven't heard back.