Bad Interview Moments Forum

[fundamentallybroken]

1L interviews are practice.

[Anonymous User]

The AIA (America Invents Act) has been the big story in patent law in the last couple of years, an overhaul of the patent system that's the biggest legislation in the field in 60 years.


Interviewing for patent law positions two years ago: during at least 2 CBs, I spent a lot of time asking about, and discussing their handling of, the "ACA" (Affordable Care Act). Cruelly, no one bothered to correct me. I realized it in the middle of a third CB.

[Flips88]

The AIA (America Invents Act) has been the big story in patent law in the last couple of years, an overhaul of the patent system that's the biggest legislation in the field in 60 years.


Interviewing for patent law positions two years ago: during at least 2 CBs, I spent a lot of time asking about, and discussing their handling of, the "ACA" (Affordable Care Act). Cruelly, no one bothered to correct me. I realized it in the middle of a third CB.

Why did you think the patent people wanted to discuss health care reform...?

[Dany]

The AIA (America Invents Act) has been the big story in patent law in the last couple of years, an overhaul of the patent system that's the biggest legislation in the field in 60 years.


Interviewing for patent law positions two years ago: during at least 2 CBs, I spent a lot of time asking about, and discussing their handling of, the "ACA" (Affordable Care Act). Cruelly, no one bothered to correct me. I realized it in the middle of a third CB.

Why did you think the patent people wanted to discuss health care reform...?

He's saying he meant to ask about AIA but got the acronym wrong and said ACA instead.

[Anonymous User]

- I had an interviewer say "so I see you didn't list your undergraduate GPA so I assume it was below a 3.0, but how bad was it and what happened?" It's not like it's off limits, but it was the second question he asked and it threw me.

- I got firm names mixed up and said I want to work at xxx because... and the name I used was one of their peer firms in that market.

- I had a friend go into a screener with a partner and associate, and after about 5 minutes, the partner told him that he would be a really good fit at [insert peer firm in same market] and said he had a friend at that firm that he would put him in contact with, which is great, but he said the next 15 minutes were really awkward because they were just selling him on the other firm and clearly had no interest in him.

[Anonymous User]

Worst interview ever: SOB decided to not only quiz me but to have a substantive, moot court style discussion about my journal write-on topic. I could even barely remember the topic. When I did after some effort, he started substantively challenging my arguments. It was insane. I wrote that shit 2 years ago and it was nowhere on my resume.

THEN he asked about the most obscure item on myresume, a project from undergrad, 15 years prior. I explained it, and when he pushed further, I admitted that we ended up not finishing the project back then. he pushed to why, and seemed unsatisfied with my explanations. At some point, quite frustrated, I gave up and told him the truth: "it was my last semester in college, I was graduating in a couple if weeks, I just didn't care anymore. I took the D and moved on with my life."

Another I.interviewer another firm basically cross examined me about various aspects of my resume. It was really weird. It's like he was operating with a presumption that everything was false and it was his Jo. To get to the truth.

There are a lot of sociopaths in this profession.

[arklaw13]

Worst interview ever: SOB decided to not only quiz me but to have a substantive, moot court style discussion about my journal write-on topic. I could even barely remember the topic. When I did after some effort, he started substantively challenging my arguments. It was insane. I wrote that shit 2 years ago and it was nowhere on my resume.

THEN he asked about the most obscure item on myresume, a project from undergrad, 15 years prior. I explained it, and when he pushed further, I admitted that we ended up not finishing the project back then. he pushed to why, and seemed unsatisfied with my explanations. At some point, quite frustrated, I gave up and told him the truth: "it was my last semester in college, I was graduating in a couple if weeks, I just didn't care anymore. I took the D and moved on with my life."

Another I.interviewer another firm basically cross examined me about various aspects of my resume. It was really weird. It's like he was operating with a presumption that everything was false and it was his Jo. To get to the truth.

There are a lot of sociopaths in this profession.

why would you put an unfinished project on your resume?

everything else is sociopathic though

[Anonymous User]

- I had an interviewer say "so I see you didn't list your undergraduate GPA so I assume it was below a 3.0, but how bad was it and what happened?" It's not like it's off limits, but it was the second question he asked and it threw me.

I had a shitty UG GPA and put it on just to avoid questions like this.

- I got firm names mixed up and said I want to work at xxx because... and the name I used was one of their peer firms in that market.

Do people really do this? Either don't use firm names or make sure you obsessively double check before the interview, people!

[Anonymous User]

Worst interview ever: SOB decided to not only quiz me but to have a substantive, moot court style discussion about my journal write-on topic. I could even barely remember the topic. When I did after some effort, he started substantively challenging my arguments. It was insane. I wrote that shit 2 years ago and it was nowhere on my resume.

THEN he asked about the most obscure item on myresume, a project from undergrad, 15 years prior. I explained it, and when he pushed further, I admitted that we ended up not finishing the project back then. he pushed to why, and seemed unsatisfied with my explanations. At some point, quite frustrated, I gave up and told him the truth: "it was my last semester in college, I was graduating in a couple if weeks, I just didn't care anymore. I took the D and moved on with my life."

Another I.interviewer another firm basically cross examined me about various aspects of my resume. It was really weird. It's like he was operating with a presumption that everything was false and it was his Jo. To get to the truth.

There are a lot of sociopaths in this profession.

why would you put an unfinished project on your resume?

Because it was a really cool senior project I was part of. The issue was not putting it on my resume, but not being prepared to discuss it. It was a mistake and I learned that lesson the hard way (what is it with all these "this is what you did wrong" posts?).

But the first thing I did do when I got home was to get rid of that entry. I could have chosen to leave it there and practice talking about it but after that experience I just wanted nothing to do with that topic. No big loss.

[Anonymous User]

- I had an interviewer say "so I see you didn't list your undergraduate GPA so I assume it was below a 3.0, but how bad was it and what happened?" It's not like it's off limits, but it was the second question he asked and it threw me.

I had a shitty UG GPA and put it on just to avoid questions like this.

- I got firm names mixed up and said I want to work at xxx because... and the name I used was one of their peer firms in that market.

Do people really do this? Either don't use firm names or make sure you obsessively double check before the interview, people!

When you've done a dozen screeners in a day at a career fair and by mid afternoon your brain is getting fried, yeah its not inconceivable that you'd fuck up like that.

[Anonymous User]

Interview with the managing partner and the hiring partner. Managing partner sees my resume, including the town I grew up in (Town Y), and mentions that he grew up in Town X in the same County (County Z). Town X is a pretty rough town, and Town Y is better, but still not great for the county. Managing partner's group is the one I would be working for, and it includes construction cases.

Managing partner: "Oh, you're from Town Y in County Z! That's great! I love seeing people from County Z here! And, having grown up in Town X, I know that you're going to have some character like I do"

Me: "Oh, yeah Town X is great. I grew up so close to it. And one thing that I got from growing up in Town Y is that I worked a lot of blue collar jobs and have a lot of experience in things like construction, which is something most of these kids who went from kindergarten through law school without working a day in their lives don't have."

*Awkward pause*

Managing partner: "Well... I live in Town A (super wealthy area) now, and our kids didn't worked. *another pause* ... But we've tried to make them do chores, mow the lawn, and some stuff."

Didn't get the job

[Tanicius]

1L interviews are practice.

Yeah, no, nonsense. Torts lecture < any opportunity to get a job, no matter what year you are. Someone who gets shitty grades 1L year might actually need that 125k/year below-market firm they nabbed for their 1L summer before grades were released, and the grade they get in the class whose lecture they missed probably has nothing to do with the missed lecture... unless the professor is the same asshole mentioned on last page who threatened to dock a grade for a missed lecture.

[Anonymous User]

Me: Yeah. I had professor X for Tax I.

Interview: Really? I had professor X too!

Me: Is that so? I thought he only started teaching there 10 years ago.

[Dany]

Me: Yeah. I had professor X for Tax I.

Interview: Really? I had professor X too!

Me: Is that so? I thought he only started teaching there 10 years ago.

[KMart]

Tagged; this thread has me LOLing at work.

[beepboopbeep]

Me: Yeah. I had professor X for Tax I.

Interview: Really? I had professor X too!

Me: Is that so? I thought he only started teaching there 10 years ago.

You have no idea how often I've started to say things that would've come out exactly like this. Condolences OP.

[Anonymous User]

Me: Yeah. I had professor X for Tax I.

Interview: Really? I had professor X too!

Me: Is that so? I thought he only started teaching there 10 years ago.

You have no idea how often I've started to say things that would've come out exactly like this. Condolences OP.

So you're saying I didn't get the job?

[Anonymous User]

Last interview of the day is with managing partner. At the end of our 20 minutes, he's going to walk me to the associates who are taking me out to lunch, and I walk out his office behind him and glance down for a moment as I reach the door. It's a corner office-- hallway goes straight ahead & off to the left. He has stopped a step outside his door and is starting to point to the left to show that we're going that direction, but since I've glanced down, I don't notice, and bump into him. Don't even remember what I was glancing down at. Anyway. Smooth move on my part. Snail mail ding 2 weeks later.

[Anonymous User]

Kirkland partner was talking about his new car. I joked and said I drive a Civic and only want to work at K&E so I could buy a Porsche. Ding.

Surprised they didn't respect my entrepreneurial spirit.

[Anonymous User]

I had an interview with a super-alpha M&A partner during a callback. It went really, really well. We basically talked about football and shit, and we went significantly over the allotted time. At the end of the interview, I went to shake his hand, and I knew that a firm handshake would basically lock it up. To my horror, he tightly grabbed my fingers, which made me panic, which made me try to force the rest of my hand into his for like 5 seconds, and when I looked up, he had a disgusted look on his face, and only then did I realize what I was doing. I stammered something incomprehensible, and then embarrassedly walked out with the paralegal.

Offer two days later.

[McAvoy]

I had an interview with a super-alpha M&A partner during a callback. It went really, really well. We basically talked about football and shit, and we went significantly over the allotted time. At the end of the interview, I went to shake his hand, and I knew that a firm handshake would basically lock it up. To my horror, he tightly grabbed my fingers, which made me panic, which made me try to force the rest of my hand into his for like 5 seconds, and when I looked up, he had a disgusted look on his face, and only then did I realize what I was doing. I stammered something incomprehensible, and then embarrassedly walked out with the paralegal.

Offer two days later.

Confused. Is tightly grabbing one's fingers some alpha bro shit I don't know about?

[UnamSanctam]

He was trying to give him a bro hug

[North]

Bump for the post-OCI period being largely over.

REMINDER: Post your outcomes in this thread: http://top-law-schools.com/forums/viewt ... 3&t=237124

[Anonymous User]

I walked out of an interview once.

I was interviewing with the most prestigious firm that was interviewing at my (t-30) school during 2L OCI. We got through the basic questions and started to have a more open discussion. I mentioned rather casually that they represented Company X, which is perhaps the largest company in the state. Well, shit went from casual to hostile really quickly. Apparently they had just lost Company X as a client, but one of the two interviewers felt the need to tell me that they DIDN'T NEED ANY ONE CLIENT and that they are STILL THE BIGGEST FIRM IN THE [STATE/REGION/COUNTRY]. It was pretty bad. The only way it could have gotten any more awkward is if the guy had just broken out the, "DO YOU KNOW WHO WE ARE?" line. I nodded, chuckled, said thanks, and got up and left.

[Anonymous User]

I accidentally packed my sport coat for a callback. It's navy and has two buttons...just like my suit jacket (I packed the right pants). The biggest difference is that the buttons are brass or something. When the recruiter met me I heard a very quiet "Oh my...."