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I had an interview today and things did not go as expected. I should have known not to get dressed up when she said we'd be meeting in a cafe, but it was really awkward when I met up with her and she was dressed in jeans and a tee-shirt and I was wearing a suit. More awkward still when I started talking about my past work experiences and she said she didn't care about that and was just here to gauge my personality. I had no idea what to say to that or even what kind of personality she expected since she was dressed so much more casually, maybe that meant I was overly formal and a bad fit. The entire thing lasted about 15 minutes and felt like a waste.

It sounds like she was a bad interviewer, frankly.

you are being too hard on yourself. you did nothing wrong. how else should you have dressed? Maybe there was miscommunication on whether this was really an interview or something but what you wore was fine. Some interviewers are just rude and don't feel like filling a student in on what their intentions for the interview are.

I have never heard of an interview like this from a firm.

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Relax. Nothing wrong in erring on the conservative side. Both the dressing and the focus of the conversation show you were pretty serious. I don't think she will hold that against you.

A. Nony Mouse wrote:It sounds like she was a bad interviewer, frankly.

Yeah, stating that the interview is to "gauge your personality" is not a good way to gauge someone's personality - unless you just want to know how that person is going to respond to aspies or weirdos.

AntipodeanPhil wrote:

A. Nony Mouse wrote:It sounds like she was a bad interviewer, frankly.

Yeah, stating that the interview is to "gauge your personality" is not a good way to gauge someone's personality - unless you just want to know how that person is going to respond to aspies or weirdos.

OP here. Exactly. I had no idea what to say to demonstrate my "personality." I felt so awkward. Maybe it didn't go that poorly, but I didn't feel great about it. And it's a small firm thing, which may be why she was more informal. But I'd hate to seem "uptight" or whatever if that's not what they're looking for. I guess I just need to keep looking, but if there's a lesson to be learned here I still don't know what it is. How should someone respond in this situation?

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ajax adonis wrote:
Respond to this particular situation? You don't really have to do anything else. If you want to, you can send a short thank you email, but that's really unnecessary.

Based on what you told me, I don't think you have to change anything you're doing. Just keep doing what you've been doing. It seems like you're determined to get a job, which is good.

No, I mean next time I have a question or a statement like "I'm here to gauge your personality." What should I say? I don't want to be caught off guard again if I have another weird interview. I just need a job, I don't care how weird my coworkers are.

ETA: thank you, though, for the encouragement.

Anonymous User wrote:

ajax adonis wrote:
Respond to this particular situation? You don't really have to do anything else. If you want to, you can send a short thank you email, but that's really unnecessary.

Based on what you told me, I don't think you have to change anything you're doing. Just keep doing what you've been doing. It seems like you're determined to get a job, which is good.

No, I mean next time I have a question or a statement like "I'm here to gauge your personality." What should I say? I don't want to be caught off guard again if I have another weird interview. I just need a job, I don't care how weird my coworkers are.

I wouldn't have known how to respond to that question either. It puts you on the spot in a really awkward way, like asking a comedian to "do something funny."

I guess you could react the same way you would to any other odd or ambiguous question: stall, and ask them to elaborate. "Where should I start?" or "What would you like to know?" seem safe enough.

Anonymous User wrote:

ajax adonis wrote:
Respond to this particular situation? You don't really have to do anything else. If you want to, you can send a short thank you email, but that's really unnecessary.

Based on what you told me, I don't think you have to change anything you're doing. Just keep doing what you've been doing. It seems like you're determined to get a job, which is good.

No, I mean next time I have a question or a statement like "I'm here to gauge your personality." What should I say? I don't want to be caught off guard again if I have another weird interview. I just need a job, I don't care how weird my coworkers are.

I agree with everyone that you handled this well and it sounds like she was a weirdo. I doubt you'll ever have this "question" in an interview again.