Bad Bad Interview

I had a bad bad interview today. I made several mistakes prior and during it. The result was not pretty. I walked out feeling stupid, embarrassed, and upset. I came home, went to the gym, and by the time I got back I was able to laugh at the whole experience.

How did it all start? Seriously where do I begin? When the company's vice president called me to schedule an interview, I didn't ask where they posted their job ad. That piece of information was important because I needed it to see what position they were looking to fill and what type of business I sent my resume to. He mentioned his company name over the phone, and I jotted it down. I set the date, got the address and we hung up. I immediately went to google the company's website. Of course I couldn't get it right because I didn't know how to spell the company name correctly. No, I failed to ask him about that too. Sigh. After many tries I gave up. Instead I did a search on the address he gave me and I found the company's information finally. Unfortunately their site was down, so I used google's "cached" function to study the site. Some images were broken, some formatting was off, but I was able to figure out in general what they were.

Then I went to look for the application I sent. I did many searches in my mail box but I couldn't find that company name in my sent folder. I figured it was one of those nameless companies that posted ads on Craigslist, so again I did a search on the city where the company was located. I found one email I sent over a month ago, to a job in this city, but with a different position. I figured this was it and thought I would be fine.

Now, let the disaster begin. Today the first question they asked me regarding what their business was about, I said "door knob" and right away I saw a pause. Later while browsing through their catalog during the interview I learned they probably would much prefer that I say "entry set," a more professional, complimentary way of describing their products... Bad sign #1: Prolonged silence in the room. I knew it started off badly, still I held a positive attitude, I wanted to win these guys over. But their pause and silence were quite noticeable. I had a feeling I wasn't doing too good.

Bad sign #2: Both the president and vice president have very little to say after I described my accomplishments/successes. They were just either not impressed, or didn't believe a word I was saying. I slowly realized that actually I wasn't winning them over with my "positive" attitude or responses. I remember their pause, their silence, and their scarce feedback were getting longer and longer. They started to look tired, and very uninterested. Bad sign #3: The president started to check at his watch while I talked. That was the moment I knew I better see my ass out of their office. There was no graceful way of doing this. I made my answering shorter. And I was feeding the silence pot as well. Finally I said cheerfully, "OK! That's it!" Thinking I would be leaving, thus save everyone some precious time and myself some dignity. Bad sign #4: The vice president acted surprised that I had no questions for him. "You don't have anymore questions?! That's it?!" Oh man...

So I asked him a question. After in so many words he told me, like before, he didn't have an answer for me. The silence fell again. So I forced myself to ask him another question, similar results, uninterested, nonchalant response while the president sat there checking his watch!

Inside I couldn't take it. I just stopped "asking questions" and expressed my thoughts for leaving by skillfully folding up my portfolio. The president was so happy he got up and shook my hand eagerly. I hurried out and felt like crap for the next few hours.

Now I can laugh about it. I found out the company in fact posted their ad on Monster, not Craigslist. So I had the wrong position in mind, and if I had checked my Monster history I could probably find out more about the company, and the subtle difference between "door knob" and "entry set" and ...

I applied for so many jobs, often I just don't remember where I found the posting or position, when I sent my resume, what company it was for, all that. Today just showed me that if I didn't have the right, proper information about the company and the position how it would all backfire in my face.

It wasn't funny then. It is pretty funny now.