Had an interview yesterday. . .

. . . it didn't go too well.

It was actually a second interview. The first interview was a group interview and it was fairly easy as far as those go.

I decided to take a bus that was scheduled to arrive very close to my destination about 10-15 minutes before my interview time, which was in the middle of the day. This was my first mistake: as the bus approached the city and got ready to exit the freeway, traffic suddenly came to a complete halt. I should've taken an earlier bus. I ended up getting off the bus only 5 minutes before my interview time.

The interview location was a block uphill from the bus stop. I ran up the hill, but I was out of shape, and I wasn't wearing shoes made for running, so I had to slow down about 2/3 of the way up. Coming to a busy street that I had to cross, the light was red, but I was in a such a hurry that I decided to jaywalk. In the middle of the crosswalk, I tripped and fell. I was very lucky that I didn't get run over by a car, and I managed to get up and make it safely to the other side of the street, only to find out that my fall had tore a hole in my pants.

I went on to the interview anyway. I felt very humiliated about the condition of my pants. When I met the first interviewer, I apologized about my pants and explained what happened, and she seemed very understanding and kind. In fact, the interview seemed to start off well, as the first interviewer and I seemed to hit it off. I began to feel a little bit better.

My first interviewer had me go up to the area where I would be working, so I could observe current employees. I did that for awhile, then another manager came to get me. That was my second interviewer of the day. She was not nearly as friendly as the first interviewer and asked much tougher questions. She quizzed me a little about what I had observed and proceeded to ask me questions about what makes me unique. I got really nervous and really stumbled through. She didn't seem impressed. When it was my turn to ask questions, she seemed to get a bit offended by one of my questions. I tried to explain what I was thinking, but the damage had already been done.

I was then taken to a third manager, who read off another list of questions. Her questions were a bit easier, but nonetheless I was feeling very un-confident by this point and she didn't seem too impressed with me. When we were wrapping up the interview, she didn't make good eye contact with me. She escorted me to the elevator and told me that I'd hear from someone within a few days. I don't think it's looking good.

It's really too bad, because I really thought this job, though a low-paying, unglamorous job, could be a good fit for me. Oh well. . .

TLDR: I was almost late to the interview. I fell in the street and ripped my pants just before getting there. Interview started off okay, but I got too nervous and shaky when they started asking the tough questions. There were three interviewers, and I didn't get a good vibe from the last two. It's not looking good, even though this is a very low-level job.

Sorry to hear that Winner. Perhaps it's for the best, because the second interviewer, the one with the bad, negative attitude was probably gonna be trouble had you gotten the job. She would have rided you from day one and being in a management position, may have eventually gotten you fired (even though she's the one who should be fired!).

It's great you got the interview. It shows companies are genuinely interested in you. One day, hopefully soon, you'll go on an interview where ALL the interviewers will like you and you'll in turn get the job! And all of the interviewers (one may even sponsor you) will watch out for you and take a personal interest in your success!

jmainframe wrote:It's great you got the interview. It shows companies are genuinely interested in you. One day, hopefully soon, you'll go on an interview where ALL the interviewers will like you and you'll in turn get the job! And all of the interviewers (one may even sponsor you) will watch out for you and take a personal interest in your success!

Thanks for the support, but I have to disagree that an interview indicates genuine interest. I think in this case they had some genuine interest, but I've also been to interviews where it was really obvious that they already had someone else in mind (likely an internal candidate or the boss's nephew or someone like that), but had to fill an interview quota due to HR policy.

A couple of months ago, I went to an interview, and it was clear from the very beginning that it was a waste of time. I don't think the interviewers ever so much as smiled at me. More recently, I had a phone interview where the interviewer only asked me one question availability (I'm pretty much always available to work).

Then there are the temp agency interviews, where the agency is just looking for more candidates to add to their lists.

Stay positive. There are a lot of resumes that get sent and wind up being sucked into a black hole, with no responses from the job poster. You can't get a job offer without first being interviewed. At least you're getting interviews. And as long as that happens, there's hope.

I have had so many bad interview situations like this over the last few years! I even got pulled over by a cop in a snow storm right before an interview I had in college, but it was for a menial inventory job, so I ended up getting it anyway. Those days before the Recession when you could show up with a smile and a good head and get an offer on the spot!

Anyway, these things happen. You just have to look at all of them as practice. Learning to bounce back and move on to the next thing.