The interview experience!

Discussion in 'Employment & Jobs' started by DapperDan, Feb 26, 2010.

  1. DapperDan

    DapperDan Nibble Poster

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    Hey all,

    I just wanted to know what some of your strange moments you may have had when going for an interview, or even conducting interviews for that matter:).

    One of the strangest interviews I had was about 3 years ago. This scrap metal business had their IT outsourced and never had a permanent on-site IT presence at the firm. They wanted me do everything from 1st line to 3rd. I was totally happy with that. When being shown around, the servers where on their last legs and needed upgrading. I was interviewed by the MD and Finance Director (who have little knowledge of IT), and they told me all upgrades etc would need to be done during work hours as they didn't like to pay overtime. Erm, I didn't ask to be paid overtime, but there's no way I could get everything to the way I want during core hours and keep all the other systems running. And this wasn't a small company by any means

    Then I was asked a question by the MD which I found odd! He said that in this business some of the workers in the yard have some 'industrial' attitudes towards ethnic minorities and women. And being black, would I be sensitive or thick skinned to some of the 'banter' (as he put it) that may fly around? Now this sent alarm bells ringing for me and I wanted to walk out of the interview (although I didn't, and I stayed professional and dignified to the end :biggrin). I think I answered that question really well, but in truth I would've lost my temper with the said person had something like that had happened. Then the MD started having a go about me coming across as laid back and not looking like I 'want it' enough. I have no problem people saying that I'm laid back, and people misconstrue laid back as another word for being lazy. I said to him that I am calm under pressure, and I don't need to shout, swear or be animated for others to see that I'm busy. I'm confident in my own skin.

    The MD of that place was a grade A c***, and I let the recruitment agent know that after interview:). And coming across dudes like that has only strengthened my resolve to succeed.
     
    Last edited: Feb 26, 2010
    Certifications: ITIL v3; A+, Network+
  2. OnFire

    OnFire Nibble Poster

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    One of the strangest ones I had was as an interviewee was for a worldwide Oil Company.

    The IT manager started to ask me technical questions but had a funny way of pronouncing them:

    Have you ever worked with I-TELL?
    (Thinking it was some cheap switch or something I said no)
    He them takes 10 mins to explain ITIL to me at which point I realised what he was talking about but let him carry on.

    What do you know about Va Vest Ta?
    (Custom app?)
    He asks was I'm lying on my CV for having Vista on it. I reply to say "Oh Vista" and he replies "What is that?"

    He then asked me for my opinion on how to transfer data to a DR site for backups.
    I suggested DFS across the WAN link with a bandwidth limit however since he didn't know what DFS or bandwidth was, he informed me he would only consider technologies he was acustomed to and wanted to see if I was on the same "wave length" to suggest his current solution (Mapped drive and a script).

    He cut the interview short as it was nearly 4pm and this was when he usually gets alot of calls from his users about slow downs on the network that he has been trying to resolve. I asked him what time his script was due to run and he replied "4pm"........but didn't twig at all!!!

    I told the agency I had found another job as the salary wasn't that great anyway.
     
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  3. BosonMichael
    Honorary Member Highly Decorated Member Award 500 Likes Award

    BosonMichael Yottabyte Poster

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    Josh and I were interviewing someone for a language editing position. He was a young guy - an English/technical writing major who liked technology. However, he wasn't a tech. Josh had printed up a RAID question that needed an explanation. During the interview, Josh slid the paper over to the editor candidate and calmly asked him to give us a detailed explanation of the different RAID levels.

    In the two seconds of silence that passed, I swear I saw a bead of sweat drip down the candidate's face as he stared down at the paper. Then Josh slid the paper back towards himself and said, "Just kidding". We all had a good laugh over it. :D

    He got the job. :)
     
    Last edited: Feb 26, 2010
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  4. SimonD
    Honorary Member

    SimonD Terabyte Poster

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    We interviewed someone for a position in a previous company, it's getting towards the end of the conversation, the part where it's basically over. Now the three of us that were interviewing the chap liked the occasional beer and kebab on a Friday lunch time so I asked the question about whether he liked Kebabs. He looked a tad shocked but carried on.

    Anyway we decided after interviewing another candidate that this chap just wouldn't get on with the infrastructure manager, technically he was very good but on a personal note he had a very weak character. This guy was notified about the fact that he didn't get the job on the Friday, by the following Thursday he had decided to take not just the company but also the agency involved to a tribunal for unfare interview techniques (the kebab and beer question apparently), the problem was it took him nearly 6 days to decide that he didn't like the questions!

    Long story short, the guy was black balled from a number of agencies (we were dealing with 4 for that role, his name got passed to all 4, who were shocked that he had done something like that).

    As for me, I have gone into an interview not wanting the position at all, very blase and just wanting to get the interview over with, 20 minutes after the interview finished I was offered the position (which I took and had for 18 months :D).

    There are other interviews where I was so desperate for the position that they could smell it, needless to say I didn't get the role (I should hasten to add that's about 7 years ago now).
     
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