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This interviewer is the managing partner of the office. S/he is the #1 decision maker.

The speakers played old pop songs throughout the interview. I didn't notice at first because the volume was pretty low. But still noticeable after a couple of mins and I felt awkward... And the partner kept slightly shaking her/his head on the beat of the music.

The interview was cut short by 5, 10min or so, which made me feel I was pretty much thrown out.


I'm 100% sure I will be ding'ed. But what would you do in this kind of interview?

You get a wider range of personalities at callback interviews than screeners. I've had people badmouth their own firm or other people I was meeting with, extremely socially awkward/unresponsive people, but also some great conversations. The music thing is a new one though, I've never heard of that happening. I had a callback interview recently where I bombed with the head of the practice group I was interviewing with- the interview lasted maybe 15 minutes out of 30. Blew every other interview out of the water, so I have to hope that the person is just very curt or had something really pressing to get back to.

As long as you trust you didn't do anything out of the ordinary, there is not much you can do at this point. Maybe this person is like this with every interviewee and will ultimately make a decision more on grades/resume. Or maybe they just don't like you instantly, no matter what you say or do, and if that happens there wasn't really anything you can do to change their mind. Best to shake it off and focus on something else.

Music is new to me. Never had anything like that during a callback, associate or partner.

Now, I did have a screening interview with a Latham person and he had the television on the entire time. That was...memorable.

I would have mentioned I dug one of the songs...engage!