Ask HN: Can you share your experience when you bombed an interview badly?
Any detail such as the company you were interviewing at, what happened next etc would help. Thanks.
FAANG1: Frontend engineer role. Internal recruiter told me to practice leetcode problems. There was also a pre-interview session where I got to chat with an engineer who also recommended I practice leetcode problems. Day of the interview comes, and I was given zero leetcode problems - every coding assignment was "implement this function/feature in JavaScript".
FAANG2: Successfully passed a phone screen. I did not know it at the time, but the phone screener was a somewhat famous "celebrity engineer" too. He seemed very pleased with my solution. I am invited to the onsite.
At the onsite, I am given the exact same question as the one from the phone screen. I tell the interviewer the truth and he says its fine, go ahead. I tell him that I'll do the same solution I gave for the phone screen. He ends up nitpicking bits and pieces and basically tells me my solution sucks. In hindsight, the vibe was negative the moment he walked in and he seemed pretty hostile throughout the interview. So not sure what I could have done better.
An indicator of consistency / consistent performance was what I was once told by an HR of a billion dollar agri company that also screened candidates based on their scores starting from 10th standard / grade (in India the 10th and 12th school exams are considered important "markers" in our education system as they are national exams). Huge variations between a candidates score in 10th, 12th and every semester of college was treated as a potential red flag by them. Candidates with good experience and qualifications weren't immediately disqualified but were asked to explain the reason for the "fluctuations" in the interview. Experience did matter more, but their logic was the job gets more and more stressful as you rise up the ladder, and so it was important to consider your grades too as they reflect something about your personality.
By that token, the fact that I went to a prestigious and selective university (where I bombed with the 2.3 GPA) vs. someone having gotten a higher GPA at an easier/less selective school would seem like it ought to carry some weight, but I don't think it ever has - and I think it shouldn't.
(Perhaps cultural context also comes into play here - A British banker had come to India for some conference. After learning about how the banking industry in India is, he asks one of his fellow indian colleague on why indian banks asked for a college degree for a Clerical position, where as British banks in UK stipulated that high school diploma was enough for such positions. The indian guy replied, "When I can get a college graduate for that position, why would I hire someone with a lower qualification?".)
It doesn't, of course. They're doing this because they're clueless, and hypersensitive to any superstitious indicator that you might not be the "perfect" fit.
That (and applies to HF types), a very deeply ingrained sense of elitism (and a the supposed link between high performer status and "native ability"), of course.
I went in for the final round with the HR team, and conversation went well until they asked if I got placed for another company that had visited the campus earlier. I replied "No, I was not eligible to attend the interview since I had an existing arrear due to a failed lab exam.". They immediately cut the interview short, and later I was informed that I was rejected. I could have just given any other answer and gotten away with it, because I would have cleared that exam before I had to join the company.
If these guys were as smart as they think themselves to be - and a certain minimal GPA is in fact a requirement - they'd ask for that up front.
So not sure what I could have done better [FAANG2]
There's nothing you could have done - and that's the whole point of these hazing rituals.
A significant portion of the time (like around 20 percent per round) we either fail, or are at least moderately "dinged" due to what are essentially just chemistry issues between yourself and the interviewer. Performance, or so-called native ability has very little to do with it.
The companies doing this are more or less aware of this, on some level. And in fact use to pat themselves on their back, saying "Well we're so awesome that we can afford to burn through 3x as many candidates as we really need to to fill this position. And because the terrifyingly high false positive risk. Which just proves how awesome we are."
In addition to my relatively weak grades, I attribute my failure to a lack of experiences, maturity, and confidence. The STAR interview method was big at the time (maybe it still is) and I had trouble with those. Possibly my peers were more prepared as they typically had relevant internship experience that they could draw on whereas I did not.
Some of the questions that I can remember struggling with: - Give an example of a time you had to change direction on a project due to budget constraints. - How do you handle ambiguity? - Give an example of a time you solved a problem using common sense.
Eventually I was able to improve my interview performance by compiling every question I could remember or find in books on interviewing, and practicing my responses in the mirror over and over again until the answers came out naturally. I believe my grades were still a limiting factor, however.
Several years later I was interviewing for an energy trading position in Baltimore. They setup a call with me for what I thought would be a fairly run of the mill phone screen. Instead, there were two hiring managers on the lines who proceeded to ask me a number of statistical/quant questions that I was unprepared for and had to stumble through while sitting in a park without so much as pen and paper to help me reason through them. At the end of the interview, I asked for their e-mails so I could follow up. After a short pause, they said no, that they would be in touch with me. Of course, I never heard from them. Months later, I bought a book on Wall Street interview questions/answers and the first 2 or 3 were the exact questions, word for word, that I had been asked.
It ended up being one of the best interviews I could have had since it taught me my weak points. I was able to brush up on them and went on to get multiple offers a couple of weeks later.
Bombing interviews can be a learning opportunity. It’s only really an issue if you’re really invested in the company you’re interviewing with.
Simple right? Just work out the area of the wafer and divide by the area of a single device. Except for some reason, I cannot for the life of me remember the area of a circle. I'm freaking out at this point, seconds are passing and I can't write down the equation for a circle. Suddenly, after digging deep in my memory, I remember the onion method [0] and work out the area to be pi*r^2. The guy is staring at me like I am insane for showing my working for the area of a circle...
Next question, he writes a bunch of letters on the whiteboard and tells me to create as many electrical equations as I can. I get V=IR instantly and then just stared blankly at the board. I couldn't remember anything else. He thanks me for my time and obviously I don't get the job.
I interviewed with another team at the company that asked a bunch of Verilog and C questions, it went much better and they made me an offer. I rejected because I couldn't face working in the vicinity of the first interviewer. I hope I never meet him again in my life...
[0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Area_of_a_circle#Onion_proof
Would I be interested? Of course! In my circles, working at Google was a sign of excellence back then.
Did I want to interview right away, literally during the same phone call, or would I prefer some time to prepare? What did my cocky, eager-to-please-the-Google-gods 19-year-old self do? Bring the questions on! No need to prepare!
Needless to say, I hadn't the slightest idea of what to answer for most of the questions. If memory serves, the interviewer tried to save the disaster by dynamically adjusting the difficulty of questions asked, going so low as to asking "do you know what an RJ45 cable is, and what it's used for?".
That one question I did get, but by that point it was clear that I wasn't going to be a Googler Sysadmin. My obvious-in-retrospect takeaway: Always prepare for interviews in advance, and don't be afraid to speak for yourself, even if you want to make a good impression.
Aside from that, I recommend that people don't burn bridges, treat subordinates poorly, or participate in gossip. It is a small world. It will come back to haunt you, some day.
Could you please elaborate here? What prompted you to do that?
The "high pressure" tactics interviewers apologized after, and I feel for them, but who knows what bullets I dodged by walking out. It was pretty disrespectful. Life's too short and that was over 2 decades ago and I have zero regrets about that day.
At the time it hurt, a lot. Looking back, I guess I understand. It wasn't worth their time to invest 2 more hours in interviewing a person who was so obviously not meeting their bar.
be thankful that you bombed the interview, that place is a mess. and is basically dying.
In my early twenties, IT sales job. I bragged about building computers for my friends and close family, interviewer straight up asked me if I would stop doing that and just send people to company store instead. Left because I couldnt stop laughing.
I installed servers and implemented some office software solution at a medium sized non engineering company. They asked if I wanted a full time job. Next thing I know managed rolls out a genuine whiteboard (something you didnt see at all at the time in my country) and wants to do brain teasers with me :o. I said no thank you and left, they hired someone who aced quizzes instead. I got a call half a year later when nothing worked anymore, ended up doing contract work at ridiculous (for me) rate for a while. Wasnt the best atmosphere, you could cut air with a knife.
Much later in my carrier. Was asked to expand few industry acronyms/abbreviations from the top of my head without googling. Not the meaning, exact wording, apparently super important for a technical position at that company. Couldnt remember what ro in rohs stood for, which made interviewing engineer very happy. So in return I pointed at random pcb laying round and asked if he knew what 94V-0 meant. That was that, in retrospect Im glad I didnt get that job :).
From my experience most of the time people skills > technical skills.
That was a long time ago. Nature fixed that problem for me. (I'm not in the U.S.).
In Summer of 2011 I interviewed at a storage company. A good friend referred me. The nervousness was so immense, I caught diarrhea on morning of interview. I was asked to reverse a linked list. It's a standard question that I practised few times. I would program in C language. But on whiteboard, I could not produce the solution. I just froze. My mind took off in so many directions, going over the solution I did at home. It started finding bugs (real or imaginary) in that solution. The question is a warm up question, yet I could not answer. I practiced it so many times and yet ... After ~10 mins, I broke down, literally. There was only one other instance in my life I broke down in front of strangers. I tried not to show. Took restroom break. Composed myself and produced a solution. I'm not sure it was correct.
Interviewer was gracious. Obviously, I did not get an offer.
I've improved greatly since then, but that was rock bottom in my interviewing world.
I was interviewing for tech lead in one of startups in my niche. CEO said that there is a potential growth path to CTO (I was young and had no idea what CTO really means so I believed him). Startup was fairly established with big customer base for the niche it operates. And my experience was a perfect fit, at least from technical point of view.
Prior to that role I was working in environment where people generally had respect to each other. I never had to deal with politics. It was enough to be respectful and just deliver what I was meant to deliver.
When I entered the interview there was a long table, on the other side of the table there were 4 persons - CEO, COO, accountant, and some older person in his early 50s. On the other side of that table there was a chair for me to sit on.
The interview immediately started from a bombardment of non-technical questions I would normally have time to reflect on. But still, I was expected to provide fast responses even though those questions was not really even close to what the role was about. Particularly the older guy was very active and, well, the tone of his voice and the way how he was structuring his questions was not nice, to say the least. Anything I said was immediately denied by this guy, and while the time was passing the tone of his voice and general behavior was becoming more and more rude.
I remember what I was thinking about straight after I left the interview - this was the worst interview in my life, it felt like actor-played drama. I was on many interviews prior to this one, I think I can say I have seen enough to be able to tell the difference :)
When I left the room I was simply told I'm not a good fit, even though days earlier CEO was very excited and there was not a single technical question asked (like, not even what technologies I worked with, or what projects I delivered). I found it quite confusing, but such is life, I moved on :)
VP of engineering was very aggressive and abrasive and dismissive of me because of no direct 'D' experience, and he asked "Why the fuck did you apply for this position?" I remained calm and explained this had been discussed with his first two levels of managers and we decided it was easily mitigate given the initial projects scheduled. He said something about "other missing qualifications" then abruptly departed.
The remaining three managers said no problem and that we should continue interview. I told them that their dishonesty about job requirements was disappointing and that the interview was terminated and to immediately call in my minder for my departure from site.
Friends at the company later informed me that the interview was done only as requirement per HR and that I was their first choice.
The good - avoided working for a jerk, and was able to inform my industry sector what was going on at this company.
My then employer never knew that I was interviewing elsewhere, and received a raise and new title two months later and was able to do some really great stuff over the next four years.
The bad - I got a reputation for being a 'difficult' person to interview (my engineering specialization is very small, and most of know or know of each other).
I failed the technical screen interview.
They asked me some softball questions about Java and J2ME, thanked me for my time, and then I didn't hear from them for a week when the interviewer's manager called me. He diplomatically explained that I bombed the tech screen, but that he was giving me another chance because it didn't make any sense based on my resume. So I answered some more technical questions, and I could tell by his voice that he was not impressed by my answers. Not quite wrong, just not demonstrating the technical mastery he was expecting.
Anyway, I didn't get the job. They ghosted me after that. I've never been particularly good at the technical side of interviews, but I have always made it through the technical phone screen (if there was one). Extra humiliating to get filtered on the phone screen (twice!) for what was my area of expertise at the time.
This was for a Django developer contract. One question was around how to let people experiment with large amounts of data easily through a browser - my answer of provisioning & giving each (authenticated) user a powerful machine with a copy of the data that would give them the ability to run queries on it (through the browser) was spot-on. I also had questions around serving multi-gigabyte files where me answer of using Nginx to stream the file (behind custom auth - essentially your backend receives the request and authenticates it, but responds with a specific header instructing Nginx to serve the file - at which point the backend is no longer involved) was good.
They gave me a sequence of numbers and asked what it was (It was the Fibonacci sequence) - I couldn’t answer.
They explained me a little bit (but I guess not enough) about the relationship behind the numbers and asked me to write a function to generate them. I couldn’t. I had access to Google but I honestly told them that clearly the point of the exercise is that I wouldn’t search this particular thing (which they agreed) so I didn’t.
I couldn’t figure it out; in the end they showed me the solution and while it was easy in retrospect (a one-line recursive function) I wouldn’t have been able to figure it out.
That tanked the interview. Overall no hard feelings from either side and since then I’ve consulted for multiple clients and delivered successful solutions. I still wouldn’t be able to figure this out if this question came up again - realistically speaking this would never actually come up in my field of work (and when it does, I can Google it) so no big deal, but I guess they didn’t see it that way.
At a college job fair, I went up to an engineer for another military contractor, and retold him about my experience above, and asked if his company had a similar culture. He pulled me aside and said “You should never repeat that story again”. Which, I interpreted as “Yes”.
I knew I didn’t want to start my career with a company that wasn’t world class competitive. Glad I bombed it, as I learned exactly what I wanted. I’d been naively idealistic, thinking that I’d been working for a tier-2 or tier-3 contractor, and the largest military contractors would have processes in place to deliver on commitments. Makes me wonder if this mentality has changed.
Another one: question was how to have a box in the DOM that when you click it, it goes away (back in 2011). Follow up: 10 concurrent users and 10 boxes and if anyone clicks any box, it disappears for everyone. Both were easy. Next follow up: 1 million users and 1 million boxes. I had to admit that that was an entirely different problem and much harder due to $reasons and I wouldn’t know how to do it and would have to seek help. Figured I’d doomed myself; however I got the job.
`PWC` --> Same thing.
Then I learned about `STAR` Interview questions and prepared answers according.
`Amazon` --> Interviewer asked "Gaps and Islands" problem. I had practiced it earlier knew the solution. But somehow blakned out.
`Delloit` --> I was looking for change from current gig due to integrity issues. Manager wanted me to do false billing for a employee that didn't existed. Told the Truth to interviewer, he said rejected bme right away.
`Cognizant` --> I was young and cocky. Got into argument with interviewer while defending my solution. Got angry and asked him to bring a system and test it instead of spitting out bullshit. LoL.
During later interviews, I just lied that I am on bench as project got cancelled.
As in all interviews they asked me if I had any questions. Each question I asked their answer was that my question was not relevant. I told HR I do not want the job, not that I expected an offer.
Clearly they wanted someone who doesn't expect answers, probably not to ask questions in the first place.
(modding consoles to play pirated games. Later i found out it is better described as alegal)
I was thrilled at having made a good first impression.
The interview was going really well, with the manager making positive remarks about my resume as he quizzed me on it.
Finally he said, "I noticed you sometimes hesitate and pause when you speak. You'll need to improve that as it can convey that you lack confidence. Ok, let's try this - I am going to give you a topic and I want you to speak about it confidently. So pretend that a colleague in your team has come out as gay, and HR has deputed you to speak to your team about it. What would you say in your short speech?
(Note that homosexuality was illegal in my country at that point of time, and nobody really talked about it - more like we indians "neutrally" ignored it.)
I was taken aback a bit and paused for sometimes to gather my thoughts, and after wracking my brain for what seemed like a long time, I suddenly remembered an article on homosexuality that described how it had even been observed in some animals too, like monkeys, and sociologists / psychologists thus were of the opinion that treating it as some "deviant" behaviour particular to humans was wrong. I figured starting by citing that would make me sound smarter and knowledgeable and began my speech - "All of us already know about the different spectrum of human sexuality. Psychologist have noticed and studied monkeys too have shown homosexual behaviours, so it is ..."
And as I was saying this, I noticed his face darkened, and he got up and stormed out of the interview room before I could complete. I didn't understand what had gone wrong. Someone else came in for a technical interview and that went well.
Later I got an email that I hadn't qualified. I followed up with HR, and one of them was kind enough to call me back and tell me that the manager thought I was a homophobic person and thus not a good fit for his team and the company. Turns out he was openly gay, and I had unknowingly offended him by comparing gay people to monkeys and animals.
Lesson learned - best to talk as little as possible on disruptive topics like religion, politics and sexuality even if you are asked about it. (I don't blame the manager for being sensitive about what I said - he was bold for his time and it must have been stressful for him).
I was asked by a friend to apply to a job because "we really need someone like you". I liked the friend and I was open to interview. Applied to the job, and gave him a copy of my resume.
The interviewer emailed me a time with a hangouts link (remote interview). He sent it to the wrong email address, so I never got it.
Fast forward a week later I see a voice call on hangouts with my friend's name on it. So I answer it on my phone. It was the interview. Totally not prepared, not in the headspace for an interview...I don't even have my resume in front of me...and definitely not dressed for the occasion.
It's a 12 person panel. I have interviewed with 1-4 people before, but 12 was a lot.
So I sit down where I was, which was in the attic, because I was cleaning, wearing a t-shirt and shorts, but hey they can just see my face and uhm a cloth thing for a background because I had a grey blanket on hand when they called me so I made it my makeshift background.
Totally off my game, but at least my friend is part of the 12, so there is that. And I managed to setup my makeshift area within 30 seconds with my video off. Relevant side note, I have 4 kids, so either I would have to be downstairs with the kids screaming or outside...so the attic was the best place for me.
Interview starts, brief introductions...I got no freaking paper or pens, but I find a pink paper with some kid art on it and a thick sharpie, which was ridiculous but whatever. I'm rolling with it.
"So 100011_1000001, might as well start with some of the basics, how long have you been working with AWS?" Er...I hadn't except personal dabbling. I have no idea why they start with that because I didn't apply for an AWS position. Give them my best answer. "Do you have any admin experience?" Er...in college as a side job.
My answers are not horrible, but it's obvious that their questions don't match the job I applied for. Because why would I apply for something I don't know? I try to nicely ask them if they are interviewing me for the wrong job. Which is really confusing because my friend send me the link, and he is right there, but something is off with him. He hasn't said a word and acting aloof.
The job I applied for did "change", it was to admin AWS based tools. We kind of laugh it off and I basically told them that I am going to screen myself and say I am not fit for this specific job, so might as well save them time.
Friend was still quiet.
So I failed the interview spectacularly with a lot of awkwardness for me. I haven't blushed for a decade, but I was blushing big time.
Fast forward six months later I found out what happened. The friend was in heavy debt. He pinged everyone that was semi-competent that he knew and got all their resumes and would apply for jobs in his company impersonating us. He was hoping to get the $5k sign on bonus his company was offering enough times to get out of debt. It's also why I never got the interview meeting, he had miss-typed my email address.
After a long day of popping my head into each establishment on 7th Avenue, inquiring about work, and being turned away with varying degrees of forced politeness and hostility, I walked into the next one down the line. I asked for the manager. "Hey, I wanted to stop in to see if you are hiring." I said, one more time.
"We're always hiring!" He said, with a practiced grin. "Come inside, let's chat."
Being a bit green, I couldn't believe my luck. Always hiring! He must mean exactly what he's saying. What an oasis of opportunity I've found in this desert of "we'll-call-you-back"s! And so we sit down, and we start to talk about my work history.
I loved bartending, but hated working in restaurants. The job itself was amazing: I got to practice and refine a very cool skill all night, I got to yell at drunk assholes, when it wasn't too busy I got to chat with a huge variety of extremely interesting people from all over the world: MTA union reps, underlings of ambassadors and diplomats from the US Civil Service, bus drivers, microbrewery bottle filling techs, and a whole host of drunken weirdos with interesting stories to tell. Especially after a year of sitting indoors, scared of getting breathed on by strangers, I really miss those amazing 2 AM conversations. The sympatico you can feel with another person in an environment like that is a special, sacred thing.
And yet, working in a restaurant was anything but nice. The only restaurateurs who could achieve even moderate success in a market like NYC – with its extreme cost of business, dubious morality, and margins thin as Bible paper – were criminals. Just the utility bill at one larger-than-usual Times Square Irish pub I worked at came out to $20,000/month, never mind equipment costs, liquor, food, licenses, etc. The incentive to cheat was enormous. A healthy work environment of mutual respect between employer and employee couldn't take root in a cut-throat environment absent trust and honor.
I either had a healthy sense of self-respect or a chip on my shoulder or something: even though I loved the work, I simply couldn't thrive in that kind of environment. I quit a lot of jobs. But still retaining a 24-year-old sense of optimism – a little banged up from stray grocery carts and swinging doors in the parking lot, but mostly chromed out and shining – I was holding out for a place where I could do the work and be respected too.
But of course, in a restaurant owner's eyes, taking time out to show your employees a little bit of graciousness takes a back seat to more pressing existential questions like "can I keep the lights on in here?" or "how am I going to afford to purchase another shipment of chicken next week?" or "am I going to pay myself a salary this month?" They can't afford to worry about this interpersonal stuff, and especially don't want to expose themselves to higher turnover if they can avoid it. The bald, goateed gentleman who greeted me at the door, who spent all of 45 seconds picking over my resume with the shrewd eye of an experienced player, absolutely eviscerated me on the spot.
"Well, you say you've got four months experience here, but give or take a couple weeks, that's really more like three months right? Same goes for that other place, it's really more like six huh? So why are you quitting so many jobs son?"
I utterly withered. I was already on the mental ropes: I was unemployed with no prospects and a dwindling bank account. My fragile state of mind couldn't stand up to this kind of grilling.
"Well, uh, I'm just looking for the right place you know?"
"Right. So no place is good enough for you huh? You're always finding something wrong with it, right?"
What the hell am I gonna respond to a question that? "My first job had a paranoid owner who thought I was stealing cash out of the register, and at the second job it was the general manager himself who WAS actually stealing cash out of the tip jar?" Would he believe me? Or perhaps more to the point, were HIS books even on the level in the first place?
"Well ... I'm just looking for the right place."
"Thanks," he said, with that look of finality and dismissal that washes over a face when its owner has completely, utterly written you off. "I think I've heard all I need to hear. We'll let you know if we want you to work a shift." We had probably been speaking for all of five minutes, and it was already over. It was rare to sit down to speak with anybody when hunting for a job in the city. I was still riding the high of having snagged an actual interview, and that huge swell of a feeling was crashing hard on the sharp rocks of sudden rejection.
It gutted me. Ruined me for days. I had just started my resume pilgrimage for the day, and it was all I could do to drag my shell shocked ass back onto the uptown subway to crawl into bed. All I could manage were bowls of cereal and late-morning binges of the West Wing with my other unemployed roommates for a couple days. And after that, back to the pavement once more, with the looming memory of that interview dogging my every wincing step.
I'd say that was probably my worst interview ever. It's funny to look back on it eight years later, many careers and a pandemic removed. I think nowadays the lesson I derive from it is one of scarcity: I had bad tunnel vision wrapped around the idea that restaurant work was the only work for me, and that I had little to no chance of obtaining it. A scarcity mindset is no way to live. There is opportunity out there. Sometimes it's hard to find, sometimes you have to work longer than you'd like to obtain it, but it's out there. I'll close by recommending this [great podcast on the subject.](https://www.npr.org/2017/03/20/520587241/the-scarcity-trap-w...)
Thanks for the prompt! Fun to recount that part of my life, even though it was hard at the time.
I've kept a few blogs over the years, if you've got the taste for some more I'll drop a link to the one I wrote while doing the Camino de Santiago: http://largerway.blogspot.com/
And my current project, Startup in a Month: https://startupinamonth.net
I probably should have put it off, but the tech stack was exactly my expertise and I knew they were using some tools I had developed.
I aced the first two interviews. Then the 20 year old kid came in and asked me to code the two glass ball challenge. I was a bit insulted, no big deal, right?
Wrong. Instantly I had the worst panic attack of my life. I just looked at the guy, started sweating and walked out of the room.
My bike was in the hallway and I had to get out of there so fast I literally road it down the hall, down the stairs and out the door without dismounting.
I can still hear his freaked out, apologetic voice timidly saying “I’m so sorry, did i do something wrong?”