Main image of article Surviving a Horrible Tech Job Interview in One Piece

Summary

If the thought of going on a job interview makes you nervous and stressed out, you’re not alone. In fact, a survey found that nearly 92 percent of Americans are afraid of at least one part of the interviewing process. And when the hiring manager intentionally tries to intimidate you, or paints a doomsday picture of the work environment, the situation can go from startling to downright terrifying.

Here are some horrifying examples of bad interviews—and how to handle these bloodcurdling situations. With the right set of interview skills (and post-interview skills, such as sending a thank you email), you can effectively determine whether a company culture is right for you.

The candidate expected a professional conversation with the hiring manager; instead, he found himself eye-to-eye with a stone-faced interrogator who fired off questions that left him feeling uncomfortable, inadequate and intimidated. To say the interview didn’t go well was an understatement.

Lesson: “It’s no accident,” noted Barry Drexler, owner of ExpertInterviewCoach.com. Stress interviewing techniques are common in high-pressure industries, and are purposely designed to test a candidate’s ability to handle demanding roles, deadlines and difficult clients. If you find yourself facing an interrogation (and you really want the job), stay calm, don’t doubt yourself, and prevail by demonstrating your ability to think on your feet.

Before heading into the interview, take the time to research the company (ideally, you should be doing this early in your job search). Sites such as Glassdoor should have reviews by past candidates who went through the process, and that will give you an idea of what you’re facing. If you’re fine with a “pressure cooker,” mentally prepare yourself to keep answering questions even when the stress piles up.

A newly minted CS grad thought the interview went well… until the hiring manager took the opportunity to expand on the written job description: “You realize that you’ll be sitting at a desk coding 12 hours a day and coming in on weekends, right?”

That’s a key example of a “gotcha” question, in which the hiring manager asks you about unexpected aspects of the job (or in the example above, emphasizes the job’s worst aspects to see how you’ll react). They’re curious to see if you can roll with the punches (so to speak) and respond in a confident way. 

Lesson: The interviewer will be studying your body language and facial expressions to see how you respond. Do your best to stay calm: take a moment to collect your thoughts, focus on your breathing, and keep steady eye contact. Respond with conviction; ask the hiring manager for a bit more detail about their question if you need to buy some more time to formulate a response.  

After exchanging pleasantries, the interviewer immediately asked the candidate to describe his experience with a software development tool not listed on their résumé. This rattled the candidate, who stumbled through their answer. 

Lesson: Again, this is another example of an interviewer testing your mindset and composure. If you find yourself in this situation, admit that you haven’t worked with that tool before pivoting to your relevant qualifications and experience. Be sure to end every answer on a positive note, and keep in mind that the successful candidate typically meets only 70 to 80 percent of the written job requirements. If you do your best, you can recover from what you think is a ‘bad’ interview.

The candidate sealed her fate when she got into a heated technical discussion with the interviewer. When the company turned down her application, she emailed a screenshot of the solution to the hiring manager just to prove her point. The manager responded that the candidate was right—but that didn’t change the company’s decision about the hire.

Lesson: Even if you’re right, let it go! Live to fight another day, advised Tim Leylek, branch manager, IT Direct Hire for Addison Group. Instead of a follow-up email explaining how the interviewer was wrong, the candidate should have sent a nice thank-you note for the interview within 24 hours.

The candidate found it distracting when the manager kept interrupting to interact with co-workers and take phone calls. It dragged out the interview and made the candidate feel like they weren’t a priority.

Lesson: If the hiring manager must take a break during the interview, say something along the lines of, “Was my last answer what you were looking for?” to re-engage the conversation when they return. Some managers have been slow to realize that candidates have choices, and the job interview is a two-way street.

Everything seemed to be going well—at first. The candidate solved a series of simulated problems during a video interview. Yet the manager broke off the discussion abruptly by saying, “We’re done here,” and hanging up without providing any feedback. 

Lesson: “Don’t stoop to their level,” Leylek said. Wait a day or two and send a note thanking the manager for their time; you never know when your paths may cross again. Whatever happened on the interviewer’s end, it might not have anything to do with you.