Funny Interview Stories
Andy note: Best of WSO - this post originally went up December 2009 and we thought it deserved to go back on the homepage for those who may have never seen it.
So I just was in an interview for a student run Venture Capital fund. He asked what I would invest in, stocks or gold. If stocks what aspect. I went blank and just start bumbling. I ended up saying I am bullish and I would go with energy (because I just finished an internship in that sector and it was the one I knew the best.)
Anyone got any good screw up stories? Just want to make sure I am not alone.






Couple years ago
I was fool enough to ask an MD if he would rather be doing anything else than IB. He said "Are fucking serious?! If it weren't for the money I'd rather be strung out and drunk on an island in SE Asia"
I once had an interviewer
I once had an interviewer fart. LOUDLY. And it was rank.
As a closet 10-year-old, I had a hard time not laughing.
I didn't get the job.
That's just not fair
I once had an interviewer fart. LOUDLY. And it was rank.
As a closet 10-year-old, I had a hard time not laughing.
I didn't get the job.
That's just not fair at all. Dang.
Let's hope this thread gets legs
Epic stories so far.
ER
I had an interview for an ER internship in Europe.
I was not prepared at all as I was actually called there in the last minute because somebody else was not able to make his appointment.
I was asked to recommend a stock. I had no idea what to do. I was panicking and just said the name of the first company that came to my mind. This company however was not listed (one of the biggest private companies in that country) and went into insolvency one week before (which was major news in this particular country and on every newspaper due to the massive layoffs).
I have never felt so stupid. I realized my mistake when I arrived home and wanted to check the performance of the stock i recommended. He didnt say a word and kept just looking all serious at me asking questions like: where do you see growth potential? What markets? etc.
horrible.
Keep them coming.
^^ hilarious.
______________________________
Freeze those knees, my chickadees!
Consulting
not as funny as some of the stories above but this reminds me of my first interview for a consulting internship as a junior in college (decided it would be good practice for IBD, get my story down and might be a good backup if i was actually able to pull it off). So while every other student was studying all of the frameworks and cases, I was just ready to bull shit my way through...this is back when I was 21 and had no real clue was IBD or consulting actually was.
So you can imagine when they started asking me these case questions like, "how many ping pong balls would it take to fill up a 747?" i was like wtf and thought it was hilarious. At first I kept asking questions like there must be more info. here because how could anybody guess that number...but they wouldnt budge and eventually I caught on (after 5-10 painful minutes) that they wanted me to pull it all out of my ass.
I proceeded to pull as much geometry bullshit and the most asinine assumptions from nowhere. the real funny part is I thought I would get credit for looking "genuine" / not overly rehearsed.
nope. ding.
WSO Conference 2013
Private Certified User Chat
I was interviewing with a big
I was interviewing with a big asset management company. It said "entry level, trading" on the post on our OCR website.
The company posted separately for this interview and its ER associate interview. so I figured it *must* be for its buy-side trading arm. I went on and on the whole interview about how trading on the buy side is so much more fulfilling and just basically why it's great(er than sell side s&t). Interviewer nodded.
Then at the very end she told me that this was actually for the sell-side division (huh? it exists?), and recommended that I check their website (which was a different link from the one listed for the ER interview..) after the interview.
Oops.
(Strangely I did get past that round though...)
Learn Financial Modeling
Interview Guides
WSO Resume Review
I was interviewing last year
I was interviewing last year in Philadelphia for an investment management summer analyst gig. There were two other students from my school and two others from Stanford in the waiting room. One of the Stanford candidates was called in and she stood up and walked over to the interviewer to shake his hand. She said, "excuse me one moment" and walks over to the corner and throws up. She was just really nervous and they eventually had to call an ambulance (office policy?).
Here goes
I was interviewing for this crappy boutique and in classic crappy boutique style they sent two of the frattiest guys ever to interview me. We started talking sports and stuff like that. Somehow we got on the subject of Vegas and they were telling me about how I have to go before I start a FT job. I mentioned that I hadn't gotten a chance to go because I had never had enough money to "make it interesting" - I believe was the phrase I used. What I meant was that if I were to go to Vegas and have a bad run at the craps table, my entire trip would be over. I want to have money to do whatever I want in Vegas without worrying about the repercussions. One of the interviewers replied "Well, if you want to have sex with some nasty girl, all you have to do is go prowling around circus circus after midnight." I didn't understand how that was related to the conversation, but didn't want to make it awkward. I just laughed and shrugged it off. A few hours later I realized that he thought I was saying that I hadn't gone to Vegas yet because I hadn't been able to save up enough money for a hooker.
ding. knowing these guys, this probably wasn't the reason though
"Ride your bike. Drink good beer."
- Fat Tire Amber Ale
[x]
[x]
Was finishing an interview,
Was finishing an interview, waiting for an elevator in the bay. A guy looks at me and says, "Who are you?" I tell him my name. He says, "No, who are you and what are you doing here." Told him I was interviewing. Silence. I ask, "And what do you do for the firm?" He says, "I'm the CFO. Its ok. Relax."
My first interview with MS
My first interview with MS soph year was horrible since I didn't know what investment banking really was, and of course right after walking through the resume he asked me "what is investment banking" and I babbled for 5 minutes about how there are certain investments that might be made and how it requires money obviously, etc. The bad thing is, the guy just nodded sternly so it made me continue my obnoxiously ignorant rant.
After that I did a lot of research and landed at a BB, but I will never forget being so clueless in an interview.
Sad Thing
I had an interview for an ER internship in Europe.
I was not prepared at all as I was actually called there in the last minute because somebody else was not able to make his appointment.
I was asked to recommend a stock. I had no idea what to do. I was panicking and just said the name of the first company that came to my mind. This company however was not listed (one of the biggest private companies in that country) and went into insolvency one week before (which was major news in this particular country and on every newspaper due to the massive layoffs).
I have never felt so stupid. I realized my mistake when I arrived home and wanted to check the performance of the stock i recommended. He didnt say a word and kept just looking all serious at me asking questions like: where do you see growth potential? What markets? etc.
horrible.
The sad thing is that the guy probably didn't know either, unless the company was in his sector.
"I don't think that there is any other quality so essential to success of any kind as the quality of perseverance. It overcomes almost everything, even nature."
-John D. Rockefeller
These are hysterica. Keep
These are hysterica. Keep 'em coming.
Went to interview with an
hahaha
WSO Conf - June 29, 2013
should have asked for a copy of WSJ
.
This actually happened to me.
Depends on how long the shit
############
############
############
The time is now, seize the day ...
Did you get the job!!!!
--
No you didn't
No I didn't get the job. The
This is true, why would you
Long time ago... first ever
INTERVIEW GUIDES -- Technical, Fit and Networking... The Biz School Bible and More...
--
That taking a dump story is
Billy Ray Valentine wrote: I
New York Movers
When I was applying for SA's
"I don't think that there is any other quality so essential to success of any kind as the quality of perseverance. It overcomes almost everything, even nature."
-John D. Rockefeller
How come you get one
During an interview on
^^ there was a thread
"Ride your bike. Drink good beer."
- Fat Tire Amber Ale
I was at a SuperDay for a
At a superday for a BB I
Reminds me of something
Had an IB interview and
nice
!@#$%^&*()
I interviewed with a firm
villagebanker wrote: At a
When asked about leadership
I got asked the population of
lol dweezy wrote: When asked
When i was interviewing with
no fucking way? that's
SWF wrote: When i was
__________
Just my 2c.
GordonsGecko wrote: I got
Had a similar question asked
ShawnDU2009 wrote: Had a