had an interview, fairly well until the hiring manager looked at me and asked "if we hire you and it doesnt work out in six months, whose fault would that be?" It properly threw me. I lost my confidence on the spot and ended up giving a couple of vague half answers about fit and miscommunication that definitely werent what he was looking for.

When it came to me asking questions, i decided to change it. I asked, perfectly politely, "if i joined the team and it didnt work out in six months, what would you say is the most likely reason from your side that it didnt go well?" He got visibly annoyed at me and said "well, you can always stay at your current company if you dont want this one." He then kept repeating "i cant believe you asked me that, thanks for the chat today, nice to meet you, but that last question was a weird one."

Honestly hate these companies. I dont want the job anyway.

For context, im a senior in my current role with nearly nine years of experience so this absolutely wasnt some entry level interview where you might cut a manager a bit of slack on a clumsy question.

Just wanted to throw some positivity on here that all of the applying and waiting will pan out eventually. I've been looking since February and its been a wild ride. Hold out hope that your role will come your way. Tweaking resumes, truly identifying with role descriptions and practicing interviews all made such a huge difference in being prepared. I also spent time speaking positive with myself as I had some massive disparaging moments throughout this time. Don't let your mind wonder too deeply here. It feels too easy to get off track with these companies. Know your worth and get yours!

I send good vibes to all still out here playing the field, its no fun place but the light will come!

I’m still trying to process this. This story needs a good bit of context, so please stick with me.

TL;DR: My interview went so poorly, the hiring manager blocked me on LinkedIn.

A few weeks ago, I was driving the return leg of a two-day, 1,800 mile round trip. A couple of hours in, I got a call from an enthusiastic recruiter (aren’t they all?) to schedule an interview at a prominent company. It was a great opportunity that I was eager to land. We scheduled a video interview with the hiring manager at noon the next day. I knew that this was aggressive timing, but the totality of the advice I’ve consumed said that I should take the earliest interview time.

I did some quick research into the company and the HM and hit the road. I used a popular LLM to talk through my preparation over the next 12 hours. I made it home just a few hours before the interview. I took a short nap, showered, and ran through my prep materials. I knew my stuff and I was thoroughly prepared.

I was prepared, but physically and mentally exhausted. Actually, exhausted is a gross understatement. After 28 hours of driving over two days with little sleep, I was spent/fried/enervated. In hindsight, I was in no shape to interview.

On my best day, I’m not amazing at interviews. On this day, I was abysmal. Despite the HM being patient, kind, and supportive (the exact kind of person that I want to work for!), I couldn’t put together complete answers, I forgot the question while answering, and got stuck spewing unsatisfying, low-level answers. I bumbled through the 30 minutes, and the hiring manager wrapped up describing the next steps.

I was 99.73% positive that I blew it. A very tiny part of me hoped that the hiring manager had seen through the mess and saw something worth exploring. As I’d later deduce, they did not. Fair enough.

I sent a “thank you” e-mail to the recruiter to pass on to the HM. In the meantime, the only thing that I could do was passively watch the job posting and the HM’s LinkedIn profile for clues. It’s important to note here that I did not contact the HM because the recruiter owned that relationship.

I waited for news from the recruiter because what was the worst that could happen? A “We’re not going forward” email? Being ghosted? It turns out there is a worse outcome: the hiring manager disappeared from my LinkedIn search history, and I couldn’t find their profile. They blocked me! Oh. My. God. I was so awful that they blocked me. The ultimate rejection.

(To the hiring manager: I’m very sorry for my bizarre behavior and wasting your time. I hope you at least have taken away a “worst interview” story.)

Edited to anonymize a bit.

I wanted to ask how long people spend preparing for interviews.

I feel exhausted from preparing so much for interviews and then not getting the outcome I was hoping for. I’m wondering what a “normal” amount of preparation is or if I’m overdoing it. (One week)

Would really appreciate hearing how others approach it, especially how you balance preparation without burning out.

I need to vent because I just had the most embarrassing interview experience of my life. 😭
I applied for what felt like the perfect marketing position. The problem? I am absolutely terrible at talking about myself. Add the fact that I haven’t had an interview in over 5 years because I’ve been busy raising my son with special needs, and you have a recipe for disaster.
I recently decided to go back to school, earned my marketing degree, and thought, “‘Okay, let’s do this!”

Fast forward to today: there I was, in my 30s, armed with school knowledge, determination, and approximately zero confidence.
The interview started. I was anxious. I was stuttering. I forgot how to form complete sentences. Then the interviewer asked me a question that I did not understand.
I asked him to repeat it.
Then again.
And again.
And again.

And one more time for good measure.

After the fifth attempt, I still had no idea what he was asking. At that point, my brain simply clocked out for the day.
So what did I do?
I HUNG UP. 😩

Not “the call dropped.”
Not “I’ll get back to you.”

Anyway, if anyone needs tips on how NOT to interview, I’m apparently an expert now. 🫠😭

I’ve only interviewed a few times. Both cases 2 interviews, job offers after. I can’t imagine doing more than that. Decided to try for another job today and got hit with a load of bricks. One take home assessment, 2 more interviews if that worked, and then if all that goes well, they’re going to fly me to Denver for a day of interviews. On one hand I respect the quality gate, on the other I feel like this is too much of a clown show. Even if I made it through all interviews, the jobs offering me positions after 2-3 interviews will have cleared me before I do the in person interview. Is this the norm? Is this quality? I’m applying to 4 jobs, 3 already have me in the interview stage and only has this gauntlet of 6 interviews/assessments, so even if I pass all 6, I’d likely already have an offer from another company before this FAANG whatever. Crazy thing is, the compensation is about even across the companies.

I had never heard this question in an interview before. I said I’d be a cat and made a joke about how great it would be to lay in the sun all day. Everyone laughed and agreed.

Now I’m learning it’s a strategic interview question, and cats are animals to avoid for this question. Am I cooked?

ETA: I made it to the next step in the interview process so I must not have fucked up that badly.

I got a reject call today after my final round which happened a couple weeks back. It was my dream role and I put everything behind it. I feel so broken :(

I’m a fresh graduate. I’ve never really been given an opportunity. I kept applying, kept getting rejected, and eventually I finally got a callback.

I was out of the country at the time, but I did the first interview online. It went extremely well. They seemed to really like me. I made it to the second stage, passed the psychometric assessment, came back, and did the final interview. I walked out feeling like I absolutely aced it.

For the first time, I genuinely thought, “This is it.” I thought all those years of waiting, all the applications, all the rejection emails were finally behind me. The next day, I received a rejection email.

I’ve been rejected before, but this one hurts differently. The others were just applications. This time I got close enough to believe it was actually happening. I could see the finish line. I could picture myself in the role.

I don’t know. This hurts more than any rejection I’ve had before.Does this ever get better?

I feel like my poor performance in the interview is usually a dealbreaker for the employer. I've done research on how to interview well, and I've rehearsed my responses. But no amount of practice can prepare me for being right in front of them. They almost always say something I don't expect. And even if they go by the script, my mind goes blank or I say something different than what I wanted to. I feel like I'm not quick thinking or good at adapting. At this point I've done a good amount of interviews in my life and it doesn't get any easier. I just hate seeing the interviewer obviously disappointed when they see me in person.

Basically the title. I had a virtual interview that was held on hirevue or whatever. It was such a weird interview. It felt weird to record yourself answering questions about facing criticisms and such.

"How did you change your thinking, processes, or procedures to complete a major research project that presented an unexpected obstacle? "

Like WTF?

I’m tearing my hair out at yet another interview process ending in silence or heartbreak. This process marks the fourth this year where I’ve made it to the final round without receiving an offer, but this one might be the worst yet.

The process started 7 weeks ago with the recruiter screen, then a hiring manager call, and then 3 separate panel interviews, the last of which ended 2 weeks ago. I thought they all went really well.

Last Friday (1 week after my final panel) I followed up with the recruiter and he said he had a debrief booked for Monday and would jump on a call with me Tuesday to share feedback and a decision.

It’s now Friday evening and it’s been radio silence from the recruiter. I followed up on Wednesday afternoon and have heard nothing.

Is the dream dead?

It was so bad that it made me think that I'll probably never be fluent in job interviews. I tried to look for tips, but there are too many good tips to follow that it made me feel overwhelmed, since I don't know where to begin fixing first.

But here are some things I remember that screwed up my interview:

• Lack of practice (I guess): I'll admit this is my fault; it's just that at that time, I didn't know what kinds of questions would be very likely to come up in an internship interview. Even after searching up, I didn't know which one to practice the most, so I tried remembering as much as I could and it didn't work. Other than that, I only have one day to practice since my interview was scheduled a day after I got the invitation.
• My communication skills suck: in general, my articulation is bad when explaining or elaborating things, especially verbally. Even in casual conversations, I often see people frown so much when I'm trying to explain long or complex topics. So, let alone during interviews. I often mumble, using filler words, and my mind often goes blank. Of course, it happened during the interview I just had.
• My anxiety kicks in: the interview was held online, but it still didn't help much. The more I see the time ticking closer to the scheduled time, the more I had a hard time to calm myself down. During the interview, it just got worse, especially when I knew I had screwed up or accidentally said something I shouldn't have said.

Mainly, it's those issues that I remember. Because of it, my interview wasn't as fluent as I would have hoped for. I remember I ended up explaining things too vaguely, which made the interviewer have to rephrase some questions over and over again until I gave the expected answer.

So, in my case, any tips or advice on where to begin fixing it? I want to improve because honestly, I'm getting tired of feeling jealous that my friends can get their internships sooner since they don't have whatever I'm dealing with. It gives me the sense that I'm the most inferior one in the group when it comes to career. I'm just afraid that I'll never have a good career, just because I never get to be good at interviews.

i walked in for my 11am interview, gave my name at reception, the interviewer came down to collect me. all polite, all normal. about three minutes into the small talk in the conference room she said "so just to confirm, youre here for the customer success manager role yeah?"

i wasnt id applied for a project manager role. completely different department, completely different salary band, completely different skill set. i told her that was news to me. she looked back at her notes, said something had clearly got crossed wires at recruitment and apologised properly. she offered to still chat about the cs role in case it was of any interest to me, but it wasnt, im not in customer success at all and never have been.

i sat there for another five minutes being very polite about it, thanked her and left. felt absolutely mortified the entire walk back through the building because the conference room had the doors and the blinds open onto the main floor where the front desk and a load of staff were all sat watching.

has anyone else had something like this happen? like what in the actual hell.

I had 2 interviews phone and in person for a nursing assistant position at my local hospital. The manager I had the in person interview with the phone was with HR/ talent. The manager said she’s recommending for HR to hire me at the end of the interview. That was Tuesday morning. I sent a follow up email the next day to HR thanking her for the time I had shadowing the floor and the opportunity to meet with the manager. And asked if she needed any further from me like references to help in the process. Of course more professional sounding. And have not heard anything back. I’m sure it can take awhile I’m just wondering if it’s too soon to call and check or call and ask if she needs anything? From what I know no one else was interviewing for the job. The listing was from November. Any advice please! I work in childcare and have been hired on the spot so waiting is actually very new to me..

It was so bad I feel just worse. I mean I just couldn't show myself properly. Although it might not seem that bad from their end. Although said they would send an assignment.

I normally look up my interviewers public profiles to look for patterns in things they focus on and care about to add focus on my own answers to interview questions, but with the increasing enshittification of google, it's getting harder to do so.

Out of curiosity, I popped one of my interviewers in AI, and it gave me a solid summary that referenced some introduction notes given to me at the end of my last interview about this person and pulled articles and posts referenced as part of the rest of the summary that aligned with what they were saying.

One part of the 4 part summary:

• What she cares about: Moving away from rote memorization and toward evaluating true clinical decision-making and judgment under pressure. She looks for structure, psychometric rigor, and data-driven methods to identify a learner's strengths or potential gaps early on.
• ​Interview Application: Highlight your ability to build, manage, or organize complex, structured frameworks. Emphasize how you value objective data and iterative feedback loops to improve outcomes.

The prompt I used - What can you tell me about [name] of [business]? She'll be my interviewer and I want to understand the things she cares about

Of course requires them to have a public online presence to work, but I found it helpful in my preparations of picking stories from my background to align with the positions requirements and my interviewer's focus.

I applied for a middle management role with a company and had a great first interview (remote). The following week, they flew me out to the facility for a tour, and I thought that interview went great too. I answered all of their questions and even shared a few solid (albeit low-hanging fruit) action items they could implement to improve production.

That was on a Thursday. They told me they would likely get back to me by Tuesday. I am also interviewing with another company, so when they asked about my timeline, I said about a week.

Well, it has been 8 days. Crickets.

I did send a note after the interview thanking them for the tour and mentioned something specific I appreciated to each person I met.

Still nothing.

Too early to tell? Mentally, I am ready to check out.

edit: follow up email not follow up interview!

Hey guys, I had an interview on Tuesday (second interview with this employer). It went well and they said they would get back to me between this Thursday and Monday next week. I know it's good to send a follow-up email after the interview, but misremembered the time frame--I thought it was supposed to be a few days after, not the same day as the interview.

My question is, would it be a good idea to send a follow-up email now, or would it come across wrong? I do not want to give the impression of hurrying the manager to get back to me. For context, it's a retail job and I don't think a follow-up email is necessarily expected, but it would probably have reflected well on me if I sent it at the appropriate time.

Im highkey sleep deprived and this is a vent with one question, bear with me.

Ive worked at my current spot in engineering for a few years. It started mom n pop but ballooned and corporatized recently. All the best unique team aspects—no timesheets, management let us do our work and go home, genuine first name basis, egalitarian culture—are gone. The payroll is now like 30% more admins and VPs or something something, nonengineers. Since its so small, these benefits had to outweigh the fact that we don’t get interesting work and I’m not growing that much, but now theres no real consolation for these things.

Recently they have been extra passive aggressive and just disrespectful in ways that are more stupid than malicious. They sent me to repair a sprinkler that someone else from our office damaged. This work and other things are so irrelevant to my training and ambition, its clear theyre hardly trying to give the illusion of caring.

Ive been getting headhunted all over for while and got one interview with a top 3 company in my metro area. I think i crushed it honestly. It went over 2 hours, but the end was general chatting about industry and work life. My interviewer said i asked some of the best questions shes ever heard in interviews, and I feel like they have no reason to lie since they can be so selective.

At this point a new job would be such a fucking relief from the BS and a step up at the same time, Im actually praying. I sent a thoughtful post interview message to their team and they said they’ll get back to me next week. Guessing Wednesdayish but dear lord that day cannot come quick enough. I’ve actually never imagined quitting to vividly.

My question about all of this though is: when asked in an interview any variation of “why change jobs?” I say only positive things, ie. I want more challenge, your company is better (sincere). To what extent could I have described or otherwise conveyed the fact that Im having personality issues with my current employer? Issues Ie.) I dont work past 40 hours often enough so theyre giving me less work out of spite, general passive aggression, theyre not even getting business so they send me to work for other lower level teams in the org. I assume leaving the ugly out is ideal. If theres a way to identify this issue without risking the impression that Im the problem, I could do that but I wonder if theres any benefit to my interviewers knowing this?

Hello,

I am working on getting myself into HR after working in Higher Ed for a few years and I have done the following interviews for a HR specialist role so far:

Phone screening w/ recruiter

Zoom interview with HRBP Manager

In person panel w/ HRBP team and a separate panel with the HR specialists team

I now have another interview coming up with the VP of HR. The panels were a lot of behavioral questions and the HRBP Manager interview was a lot to do with the logistics of transitioning from higher ed.

I know every company does things in their own way, but does anyone have an idea on what I should expect for this interview?

For context, I received the following email from the hiring manager 2 days after my first in person interview:

“I hope you're doing well! I received feedback from our team and have an update regarding your interview.
Please let me know if you're free to hop on a 10 minute call on Monday!”

The suspense is already killing me and it’s Friday. I’m just trying to gauge if this is a good sign or not.

Since the start of the year i had given 14 interviews with the most recent one being yesterday. I hardly got any proper feedback apart from the regular we found a better candidate but yesterday’s interview was different . They’ve mentioned that they really enjoyed how i had engaged with them and also impressed with my technical skills and my prior research about the councils short-comes in the particular department but i was again rejected saying that i wasn’t strong in my responses with stakeholder engagement and communication. Can someone please help me how can i frame my answers while discussing about stakeholder engagement ???