Worst Interview experience?

I completely bombed an interview with a commercial mortgage brokerage once, the principal literally said to my face that I had no useful skills to his company. I ended up accepting a job with another firm a week later only to have the same principal email me during my first week offering me the position. Then he tried to convince me to leave my current position to join his firm. I think he was desperate, but that was definitely the worst interview I had but I ended up with an offer so I wouldn't get too bummed out about it if I were you, weird things can happen. And you have probably already heard this but the more "no's" you get, the closer you are to a "yes"!

I was the interviewer and not interviewing, but my first job out of college was in REPE and our group was pretty small so they had analysts that had been there for a couple of years interview new hires, and probably for only 15-20 mins. So just remember: interviewing to be an analyst at a real estate investment firm. The guy wasn't great overall but when we got to the do you have any questions for me part he asked me how much math would be involved. When I said nothing too complex like you don't need to do multi-variable calc or advanced stuff but you should be able to hold your own in basic business math, some algebra, be quick at numbers and be efficient at excel and the math involved with that he said "I was under the impression there would be no math involved in this job." I didn't know what to say after that. Just silence.

Ding.

Second time posting my worst experience: i recently had a final round interview with the ceo of a small data analytics provider. the guy was 15mins late, ok, fine, its an entry level role, youre time is more valuable than mine. he sat down and made a point of conveying that it was his first time looking at my resume. he then, out of the blue, asks me “where would you go if you could go anywhere”. he proceeded to interrupt my answer and said he was unable to proceed with the interview until his secretary could find the initial application i filled out when i first came in. now, bear in mind, this fucking thing took me 15 mins to fill out the first time and all of it was redundant.

, i fill out the form again. he comes back into the room, looks it over and then exclaims “you were a manager at your previous position?!?!?!” as if he had caught me out incorrectly filling in a field. and i correct him, graciously, that i was indicating my supervisor’s title. he then continues looking over the form, and all of a sudden asks me if i realize i am wearing brown shoes with a dark suit. he gave me several other fashion tips and then told me i come across as “spacey”. when i asked if he could describe it better he recommended i google the word ‘spacey’ and see what comes up. i said i think kevin spacey will probably come up. that was about the end of it.

A year or so ago I had an interview with a sector specific micro boutique in the City (these are very different to US advisory boutiques). Let's just say that the 80s / 90s finance scene was alive and well at this place. I'm going to be so easily identified as I told everyone who would listen about it after but saw the thread and had to create an account to share.

Travel up the night before and realise I didn't bring a shirt so go to HoF (only place open) and pick one up in the right neck size without really thinking. Get up the next day, put it on - it requires fucking cuff links. It's 07:30 and the only place open is Primark and their only cuff links have huge fake diamonds on. Going well so far.

Get there. Walk in after hanging round in the lobby and its a 2 Vs. 1 interview. Emphasis on the Vs. Told to take off tie and cuff links as I look too formal (they're both wearing ties) - he looks at these fake diamond things and just straight up laughs. Questions ranged from what was the genesis of western thought - nicomachean ethics or the republic? How does "the Prince" influence my daily life? I then lost a £5 bet to the lead guy (had to pay up) and bombed a few brainteasers, nailed technicals.

Then it got really weird.

They called in one of the guys below them and tell me to stand up and insult him as best I can. I thought I had bombed it due to brainteasers and was convinced they were just fucking with me. At this point I thought it was best to just go for it.

Then, they asked how much my hotel was because they pay expenses but, "if you got lucky, I'm only paying half". I explain that Tinder didn't serve me well last night and that leads to me, tie-less and cuff-linkless swiping away to show an ageing director how Tinder works in an interview.

Weird day.

Ending an otherwise good interview by calling the interviewer the wrong name.

I went on a few interviews in college for jobs I didn't want at all to practice interviewing and one guy was just a douche bag like some of the above mentioned stories so I decided to screw with him. I think it was the third or fourth person interviewing me in the day (and I thought I was only going for a normal ~hour interview so I was already kind of pissed off that I was still there) and he started grilling me in a dickhead way and saying I was wrong when I wasn't so I started answering questions just to fuck with him and see what he'd do. He'd ask a qualitative question, one was one of the typical what's your greatest weakness or something like that and I answered 7. Another was a quant question where the answer should have been a number and I said red. He turned beet red and I thought he was going to jump across the table and hit me. I just walked out after a few minutes and said I had to be somewhere else.

I was 1 year out of UG at a decent shop. While at a cousin's birthday party, I struct up a conversation with what turned out to be a senior VP for a respected REPE shop. We ended the conversation with intentions of getting coffee in a few weeks.

2 weeks later, we have coffee and the SVP conveys they have an opening in the acquisitions team that he thought I would be a perfect fit for. The following week I come into their office and interview with 2 associates & 1 VP (round 1, total of 2-3 hours). The interview went really well & I was asked to come in for a 2nd round. The 2nd round consisted of meeting with 2 VP's & 2 SVP's for a total of 3 hours. Things went well again, so they asked for me to come in once again to meet a Principal and to take an excel test. The 3rd round took an additional 3 hours, for an all in total of 8-9 hours of interviewing, with 8 different people.

I did everything right, arrived 5 minutes early to every meeting, wrote thank you letters, and related on a personal level to pretty much everyone I met with. I heard back from my contact, who then stated everyone loved me & he even threw out numbers for the offer & stated that the last thing before they wrote me the offer would be for me to meet with the founder of the firm. I was really nervous for this one, so i took the day off for the interview just to make sure nothing could come up last minute before / after work that would come in the way of getting to their shop on time.

I was on the train commuting home the day before the interview when i get a call. The call was from the founder of the firm and he asked where I was at (which was 40 minutes away from downtown). I told him that the interview was tomorrow, and he asked if I was sure. Simultaneously I check my emails while on the phone with him, and confirm I misread the email. I apologized, but the damage was already done.

TLDR - spent 9 hours interviewing with 8 different people on 3 separate days. Everything went great, last step was to meet the founder of the REPE shop. Ended up standing the guy up. Did not get the job.

2 hour mental math test at Red Lobster? How was pay/culture/exit ops/prestige?

Fun update Monkeys! My worst interview just turned into a full time offer working on a commodities trading desk. After 6 months of straight kicks to the face.... over coming a non target background.....low side of 3.0 GPA..... I finally landed a full time offer.

Straight up terrible interviews? Can't think of any.

Awkward interviews? Absolutely.

1. I interviewed for a Client Services role at an Investment Management firm, and the Senior Vice President interviewing me literally pulls out a crumpled paper from his pocket with interview questions on them and starts reading them off one by one (I thought he was joking).

2. When I was interviewing for an Internal Wholesaler position (one of my first full time jobs), the National Director of Sales happened to be in the office. He asked that I come in the office and interview with him after speaking with the two Sales Desk Managers. Everything was working in my favor up to that point. I walked into his office, and he stood up from his chair, and I proceeded to shake his hand and sit down across the desk from him. He froze while standing up and said "Don't you know it's common courtesy to sit down only after the other person sits down", and I replied "No, I've never actually heard that before" (LOL). Later on, we keep on talking, and he stops me in the middle of the interview and says "Are you chewing gum right now?", and I said "Yeah I am. I actually was meaning to spit it out before I stepped into the office, but I couldn't find a trash can, and I didn't want to spit it on the sidewalk outside" (Just ridiculous on my part). I thought I bombed that interview completely, but I guess honesty really works because I ended up getting the job, and the National Sales Director actually took a big liking to me (the Sales Managers on the desk would later go on to tell me he was my biggest advocate).

3. I interviewed for an Investment Analyst role, and the head of Investment Research walks in and we begin the interview. Everything is fine, until about 5 minutes in, when his nose starts bleeding uncontrollably. This guy literally walks out the room, and walks back in with tissues shoved up his nostrils. When he removes them, his nose starts gushing again. Rinse, Repeat. He cycles back in and out of the room about 5-6 times with new tissues shoved up his nose. He apologizes numerous times and says it's the dry air. I think if by "dry air" he meant cocaine, then yes, it was definitely the dry air.