Best.....I was interviewing for a promotion and the boss says "you really already have the job, the interview is just a formality."

Worst....I landed an interview out of college with a big company for an account rep position. The guy shakes my hand and asked me to have a seat. His first ? was "how old are you?"......I said 23. He said "I had to interview you....but you just look too young, thanks!" Entire interview took about 2 minutes.

That worst could have turned into the best. That's a big time no-no question! Instant grounds for age discrimination!

you shoulda peed on his leg after the interview.

My Worst: In '79 I was late for an interview in Houston. Saw someone backing out of a parking space and jumped into it even though I saw this other car waiting. When I got out of my truck the guy came out of his car talking poop. I told him "Hey you don't want any of this!" turned and went into the building.
Waited in the waiting room for 10 minutes and was called by a lady to follow her. She opens this door and as I walk in THE SAME DUDE looked at me and said "I don't want any of you! Good-by!"

I applied once for an accountant job at a place that made and sold electronic components - diodes, resistors, capacitors, etc. The accountant job was just a straight accountant job in the front office.

So as part of the interview they give me this written test on electronics - diagram a DPDT switch, how many resistors of this kind do you need to do this, which IC component is most appropriate to use as the timer in an alarm clock...none of it made sense to me. On every question it was just a wild guess.

After I took the test I told them I thought there was some mistake because I was an accountant and had never had so much as five minutes of electrical engineering training. They assured me they gave everyone in the company the same test even though it wasn't mentioned in their ad and the job required no knowledge of electronics. Needless to say, they didn't hire me because I got a 20 on the test.

I told them their interview method was ridiculous. I could have been the best, most knowledgable, most efficient accountant in the world, but if I didn't know how to calculate capacitance or the symbol for a diode they wouldn't hire me? It didn't make any sense.

On the flip side......one of the funniest interviews I have ever done was with a really nice lady that applied for an assistant position.

During the interview her stomach began to give her some trouble. Alot of trouble!! My office was very quiet and it was VERY tough to keep a straight face......she excused herself and came back a little later to finish the interview.

She didn't get the job.

And I quote .... " Can you be told what to do ? "

I applied for a position with United Airlines. They had provided a very detailed form with instructions as to how flying time should be counted. During the course of the interview the question of how I had filled out the form was raised. The HR person said that the instructions were that flight instructors should NOT count their instructor time as Pilot in command time. I had done so. (There was a problem with civilian flight instructors jumping aboard aircraft and logging the time even though they were not flying).

The HR person asked in a huffy tone why I had done so. He asked if I had problems following instructions? I replied in an even more pointed tone, that I was instructing people fresh out of flight school in how to fly a Boeing 707. No one other than me was qualified to fly the aircraft. Often, they had never even been in one before. I stated that it did not matter if I were on the carpper, I was the pilot in command, and I was not then he could tell me who the he77 was.

Not surprisingly, I did not make the afternoon cut to continue the interview process.

Never had one.

no hable

The worst ever job interview.

I broke my neck in Miami in 1966. Spent about 5 months in the hospital. Flew home in a body cast. When I finally got up and around some I was wearing a four poster brace and still used crutches a little to get around. My self esteem was so low I would have needed a ladder to climb up to bottom.
I went to a bank to find some kind of job. Some entry level job to tied me over till I could get back to Texas and finish college. I was ushered into a vice president office and grilled about my education and the "Accident". Then the fool said he was looking for an advertising copy writer. place an ashtray on the table in front of me and said to write an ad pointing out the features of that ashtray.
Like I'm sitting there just lucky to not be paralyzed or dead with two years of mediocre college behind me and he want me to write a ad for a ash tray?
I wasn't even looking for that level of employment. I just laid the pencil down got my crutches and started hobbling out of the bank with tears in my eyes.
The guy cam after me and I ended up getting a job as a check sorter operator 40 hours a week and grossing $75. But I was working

Hi,

Thanks very much for this comment. It help me to think about my ideals.

Tks again and pls keep posting.

wtf...

I sat down with the lady in HR and talked for almost an hour. NEVER once even mentioning work related stuff of any kind! We talked fishing, restaurants, vacations till she had to go to lunch, then said "you can start tomorrow, be here at 8:00 for orientation"

I can't remember ever having a bad interview.

Yeah, sadly this is the mentality of the airlines and their hiring processes are meant to identify employees who they can control rather than employees who will use sound judgement.

My own worst/best job interview was applying for a salesman job at a gun store. Met with the owner - "J.B" - and spent about twenty to thiry minutes identifying various types of pistols & rifles, describing how they operate, etc. Thought I impressed him. Then his wife came in at the end of the interview and said they'd call me if a position became available. Huh?

I walked across the street to get a cup of coffee and sort out my thoughts ... this was a stage in my life where my car had died and everything I owned could have fit in a ford ranger, so a steady job was critical at the time. As I was doctoring my coffee, the gun store manager showed up to get coffee as well. We talked for a moment, and he told me that I had impressed the owner to no end, but that his wife thought that any guy with long hair was a shiftless, worthless so and so. By this time, another one of the employees had showed up to give me the same talk lol

I took the hint, dipped into my dwindling cash supply, got a good haircut and came back the next day. The missus - who parenthetically handled the bookkeeping, accounting, taxes and the like - hired me on the spot. Turned out that while I was a decent gun salesman, I was far better at organizing & ordering inventory, keeping records of firearm serial numbers, hunting down rare and obscure guns for special orders and so forth. That was one of the best jobs I ever had, and only left it to come to Texas ... otherwise I'd probably still be there

A carpenter was applying for a job and was asked by the foreman,
"How many eighths are in an inch?"
The carpenter paused thoughtfully then confidently said, "Four!"
"How can there be four eighths in an inch?", asked the foreman.
"You see, there's 1/8th, 3/8ths, 5/8ths and 7/8ths".
He was hired.

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A HVAC tech wants a job, but the foreman won’t hire him till he passes a little math test. ”Here’s your first question, the foreman said.”Without using numbers, represent the number 9”

“Without numbers?” the HVAC tech says, “Dat Is easy” and proceeds to draw three trees.

“What’s this “the boss asked.

“Ave you no brain? Tree and tree and tree make nine” says the tech.

“Fair enough,” says the boss “here’s you second question. Use the same rules, but this time the number is 99.

The tech stares into space for a second then picks up the picture and makes a smudge on each tree. “Ere ya go”

The boss scratches his head and says “How on earth do you get 99 with that”

“Each of the trees is dirty now. So it’s dirty tree, dirty tree and dirty tree and that equal 99! Now the boss is getting worried that he is going to really have to hire this guy so he says “OK here’s the last question. Same rules but now the number is 100.

The tech looks into space for a second and grabs the picture. He makes alittle mark at the base of each tree and says” Ere ya go 100”

The boss looks at the latest drawing and says ”You must be nuts if you think this represents 100.

The tech leans forward and point to the marks at the base of each tree and says” A little dog came along and took a **** by each tree. So now you got dirty tree and turd, dirty tree and a turd and dirty tree and a turd which makes 100…….So when do I start?

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hehehe ... 'dirty tree and a turd' is probably gonna become an OT byline

Good story Zeek ! It's amazing what standards people use!

never drink coffee before a job interview

Need more info

i oddly enough have gotten every job for which i've interviewed for. so i guess it wouldn't be which interview was the worst or best, but which was a mistake. the majority would be when i was a broke college kid applying and then working for academy and hobby lobby in college station.

Was asked one time "do you think you could kick a womans azz?"

... and what, pray tell, was the job you were interviewing for??

When I was in college (many eons ago) I was looking for part time work and saw that one of the local papers was looking for a warehouseman on the night shift that would primarily be moving supplies around with a fork lift.

I had to take a test with questions like would you rather dig ditches or be an electrical engineer (duh). After I completed the test, I was told that I couldn't qualify because the test did not indicate manual skills. Even after I told them I lived on a farm and had been driving farm equipment since I was 10, they said they were bound by the test results. Idiocy!!

I was hiring people for a new division I was in charge of, and had a few minutes before the next applicant was scheduled so I headed for the head.

I was standing at the urinal getting ready to do my job, when this African American guy about 6'3" weighing 320 lbs. flew through the door and said, are you Mr. --------. After I quit shaking, I replied yes and please go outside and wait for me. Never did finish my job.