Could this somehow come back to hurt me?
Last October, I was interviewing for this position at one of the Big 4 Strategy Consulting. The interviewer was late, obviously looked bored, and threw obvious curveballs at me in the case study. He then started texting midway the interview.
I was so pissed. So when he stopped texting, I said something along the lines of, "You know, you look busy, I think we should interview another time." stuck my middle finger at him then left the office with my stuff.
Obviously I got a rejection letter. But could this incident hurt me if I interviewed again with this company albeit in a different city (or through other means)?
Lol if you actually did that you're an idiot. I would say it could come back to hurt you in the same way reneging could (i.e. you're obviously blackballed at that firm, maybe he will talk to his friends at other firms).
I would look beyond this, and do a self-assessment. The interviewer did all of that on purpose to see how you would respond, and failed with flying colors. What would you do if a client acted that way during a meeting? Would you give them the middle finger? Well congratulations you're now unemployed. You might want to look into roles that aren't client-facing, or quickly learn to manage your temper.
The only thing you have real control over is how you react to situations.
"you're obviously blackballed at that firm, maybe he will talk to his friends at other firms"
Haha, it's probably his very favorite story to tell to anyone who will listen. I doubt he'd mention his/her name or purposefully try to sink this guy though, so I wouldn't expect it to come back on him if he/she interviews elsewhere.
Well FWIW, I already had an MBB offer in hand in a different city at that point and just wanted some more practice interviewing for the future. I also said it calmly (very passively aggressively) .
If you are going into consulting, learn from this experience as something you can NEVER come anywhere close to doing in front of a client. You need to be polished and take as much shit as you can, whatever that means. It's unfortunately part of the job.
Yeah, obviously I know not to do this if I'm actually getting paid to kiss ass to even the most anal client.
So let me get this straight - you blew off the guy in this interview, then you joined MBB, where you came across an annoying client, naturally gave them the tried and tested middle finger and MBB reacted the same way as the first guy and threw you out... and now you kind of need that first middle finger back?
Yeah the middle finger was a little much.
It's tough to assume whether he was doing that as a "test" or whether he was just being a dick. I'm going to assume the latter.
If you had just called him out, I would have said good job for having the balls to do that. The middle finger was just classless though.
I still say apply like you would normally and if it comes up, just be honest and own up to it.
Well that escalated quickly. As someone with a temper myself, I can't give you too much shit for getting heated at him, but you have to realize that there were better ways to handle that, right?
Hell, even excusing yourself from the interview and saying "thank you for your time but I'm withdrawing my candidacy" is probably not the right move, but is far more professional than giving the guy shit and...of all things...flicking him off.
What happened to the MBB offer? you got rekt there?
Nope, I'm finishing undergrad in May and have already signed on to start shortly thereafter.
So you were a student on an interview and you think he was wasting YOUR time? That's priceless...
If I were that interviewer, I would go out of my way to make sure a little shit like you didn't work for me or with me.
Until flipping the guy the bird, I actually admire the way you ended it, as long as you didn't yell at him. But the finger isn't professional and one thing you have to do in a professional environment is be professional. At least until you're so successful and wealthy that you don't have to give a shit but even then having manners and being a gentleman alone is worth It.
The whole blackball thing is way over blown and kind of bullshit but that could actually blackball you from not only that firm but that guy probably told his friends and colleagues. While I'm personally not going to get my knickers knotted and tell people outside of my firm that someone reneged or something like that (I just don't care that much to expend the energy or remember their name tbh) if someone flipped me the bird I'd probably try to hurt them professionally. As you progress in your career you'll realize that it's a small world and you'll come across random people from 20 years ago so it's not a good idea to be a douche bag.
This, word for word. I'll add that although I think that flicking him off was a mistake, I burst out laughing as I read it.
All I can say is LMAO.
The bigger dickmove IMO is wasting the firm's time (and perhaps taking an interview slot from a deserving candidate) by interviewing for a job you have 0 interest in. If you got an MBB job, you obviously do okay in interviews. Don't you have something better to do?
This guy just came across as the fat pig at the DMV IMO.
Awesome.
Lol I was expecting something more interesting. Middle finger, however as others have said, is classless.
Get rid of your ego my man.
Give me the bird in an interview? I wish a motherfucker would.
Best comment I've read all day!
I love when guys who work at big 4 think they're BSD's. I would have done the same thing OP.
Has anyone read this kid's past posts? I'm seriously doubting that he or she had the balls to actually flip the bird. I mean, so needy.
At any rate, if I see some random kid flipping people off in my MBB office, I guess I'll know where this guy ended up.
of course it may... who says that the interviewer will stay with that firm forever and won't join a firm you want to join on later during your career..? who says that your name won't pass his desk, ever? I'd keep track of him and see where he moves after this so that you can stay away from that firm.
Asking to re-schedule is a power move, which you didn't have any, so what you did was just a stroke to your ego, nothing else.. he's not thinking that "you gave it to him"... the middle finger was super unprofessional
I must be the only person that doesn't believe the OP one bit.
You haven't been around long enough. Young people on this site are exactly this socially awkward.
Wow.
The next time this happens to one of you instead of doing something brash insist on leaving the room. Say you would like to give them some privacy so they could call whoever they are trying to reach instead.
If they don't put the phone away after realizing you figured out their fake act then they are just a bad interviewer. In that case they are probably easily manipulated anyway so why not take charge and be extra polite?
"they were texting during the interview".... They were more likely sending an email to a client or colleague, this has happened to me in countless interviews. Even if they were texting you handled it in an incredibly poor way, needless to say I hope you are black balled so less bratty and egotistical candidates may take whatever spot you were hoping for
What a badass (serious)
I would have kicked your ass.
That's a total Johnny Drama move right there.
Has it occurred to you that maybe you're the problem? Don't be mad at wasting someone's time, when you're clearly wasting yours. There was no need to interview, want a interview your college has mock interviews. Also you sound super egotistical and and act as if the world SHOULD revolve around you. This is something from middle school and I'm a high school student.
Pussy move.
You should have just taken a shit on his desk.
Wow is all I say. The middle figure might have been too much but it was gutsy. Something I would never dream of doing.
This actually happened to me as well ....
I was invited on site for an interview, and 15 mins after the interview was supposed to start, there was no sign of the guy. so I call his secretary on my cell, and she went to grab him from some meeting.
During the interview, dude kept checking his phone and seems really distracted. But I kept professional the whole time because I really dont want to get worked up while sweating balls through my expensive borrowed suit. At this point I just said fuck it, theres 15 mins on the clock, ill just muscle through this and treat it as a practice for the next interview.
I was really surprised to get an offer from them the next week. I guess he felt really bad for me because honestly I did really fucking shitty on the interview between the anxiety and indignation. But fuck it, I'm not top tier MBB material like the OP, ill take whatever I can get.
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