Twelve Reasons to Walk Out of a Job Interview

Have you ever been on a job interview that, somewhere in the middle of it, you got a funny feeling about the job? But, since you needed this job, or you perhaps you hated your old job so much, you got the offer and took the job anyway. Well, I have. A few times. What mistakes those were.

In an effort to help my younger readers who would be more likely than not, as I once was, to accept a position they were offered without pause for reflection, I wanted to share some reasons why you should walk away from a job interview, and the potential job.

First, let me state that I believe your greatest commodity in life is time. Not money. Not opportunities. Not even good friends. Time is the one thing we can never get back once it’s gone. It’s gone forever. There will always be other opportunities, new friends, and you’ll always make more money.

Having said that, I think that once you determine that a job opportunity is not for you, it’s best to cut your ties immediately, dismiss yourself, and head down the street to something else. Anything else. An afternoon matinee. A Big Gulp at 7-Eleven. Or back home to start sending out those resumes again. But, don’t let the process persist when you know that the job itself is doomed.

How do you know ahead of time? You can’t know for certain. Some people are very reluctant to pull the plug on something when they haven’t fully explored the entire opportunity. Let me be clear. The blunders and mishaps that are present in an interview are only going to compound ten-fold once you enter the workplace as an employee.

So here’s my guide to navigating the perilous waters of job interviews. Unlike other guides, I’m not going to tell you how to act, what to say, what to wear, etc. There’s plenty of that elsewhere. I’m going to tell you when to split. To high-tail it. To hit the road. I wish I could tell you I’m old pro at this. I’m not. I’ve walked out of only two interviews in my life. And I’ve just never returned calls from about a half-dozen others after the interview. But I can assuredly tell you this: I should have walked out of more interviews than I had. But I was young, inexperienced, lacking confidence. I’m hoping I can save someone the grief that I went through by not walking away out of a job interview.

Here are my Twelve Reasons to Walk Out of a Job Interview. Please add to them as you see fit in the comments below to help other people out. I’m sure I missed a few. These aren’t in any particular order but numbered for convenience. Most of my experience has been in office, high-tech, or retail environments, so I’m particularly interested in hearing from people that have experience outside those realms.

1. Group Office Interviews. Some places feel it is novel and worthwhile to group interview a potential employee or job candidate. I’m not talking about two people interviewing you at once - that’s fairly common. I’m talking about five. Or eight. I once went to one with eleven people in the conference room all geared up to interview me (I didn’t get offered that job). Why is this a bad sign?

First, it tells me that the decision makers in the office aren’t actually capable of making a decision. They look for group consensus. So, like public school, the office crawls along on issues until everyone can agree. The whole point of a manager is to manage. The whole point of a leader is to lead. If they can’t even hire an employee in an office of 10-20 employees, that’s not a good sign.

Second, it is a huge waste of resources. Just add up the individual salaries of all the participants (mentally), multiply by 1.5 to account for taxes, workers comp, and benefits, and figure out what the company is spending per hour to interview potential candidates. A good question to ask is “How many other candidates are you currently looking at?”. If it is just you and one other, maybe you can try and overlook this expense. If they say something like “five” (or more!), head for the door. It isn’t about whether you’ll win out or not. It’s about this happening all the time while you work there.

2. They talk about how “Fun” or “Crazy” it can be to work there. Believe me, if these words come up in an interview, be very cautious. What they mean, by way of translation, is this: “Fun” = “We, the managers, have a lot of fun and we believe our employees think we’re cool and hip”. Trust me. The employees do not think their managers are cool and hip. They think their managers are blind to the real problems there. Rather than solving problems, making work flow smoothly, and being professional, the managers resort to “fun” activities to cover up their own incompetence and to inflate their own egos. A few episodes of “The Office” are sufficient to demonstrate this. “Crazy” = “We place no value on anyone’s personal life but we do value utter chaos as just the pure, zany workplace that this world is all about”. Huh? Sometimes these interviewers are the ones whose own personal lives are such a train wreck, that they actually have a bitter disdain for peace, efficiency, and productivity. Work is an extension of their own madness. Run while you still can.

3. They ask you personal questions about your family life or are overly chummy. In over a hundred interviews in my life, I would say about half of them violated the law and asked me questions about my personal life and family to some degree. Most of the time this is harmless. Very often, you may find yourself interviewing with someone who has no formal human resources training or who has less experience interviewing than you do being interviewed. Don’t sweat that. Those jobs can be very easy to get (if you really want them).

However, be careful about this. It indicates a lack of preparedness on behalf of the company itself and may be an indicator as to the turmoil going on behind the scenes. Perhaps they are so “behind” in their work, they grabbed JimBob off the less important project of the day and asked him to screen you for your first interview. Or, maybe this workplace considers “your family” to be “their family”. Yes, it’s creepy, but you won’t get that feeling until about three months later, so be alert now. Or, possibly, they just have no problem with violating federal law - or are completely ignorant of it. Most likely, if it’s a small business (under 25 employees), you can almost be sure that last possibility plays into it.

The fact that you are married or single, have no kids or ten kids, love dogs, hate cats, and so forth, have no place in a job interview unless you bring it up yourself (and you shouldn’t). Even if they gleaned info about your personal life from Googling you (pretty common nowadays), they shouldn’t be asking you about it in an interview. If they didn’t like what they saw on the internet, they shouldn’t be interviewing you - not grilling you to find out more about that political position you hold, etc.

4. They appear to be looking at your resume for the first time. We all know that interviewing is tough work. And candidates tend to blend together. And maybe when they first called you, they had not fully looked at your resume in detail yet. But, by the time you have arrived to the interview, the interviewer should have looked it over for at least five or ten minutes, jotted down some questions, had things underlined or highlighted, etc. But some companies are adroit at scheduling back-to-back all day interviews to “pack” a position. To do that requires a lot of interviews, and little screening. In fact, some of these companies hold to a warped philosophy that says “Interview as many will show up” and pick the best one from that bunch. Bad, bad, bad.

First, you’ll be working with other people (and clowns) who were picked using this same process. Unless you are a clown yourself, you will be miserable.

Second, it’s a sign of disrespect to waste people’s time for an interview, when even a precursory look at their resume (or application in some jobs) would have prescreened them.

Case in Point: I once had a job interview in Orlando (about an hour’s drive) for a job I really wanted. I was excited to get the interview because I had wanted this job and this position for some time. I was even more excited because I had gone through one of those lengthy and obnoxious custom job websites that the company had created to pre-screen their candidates, including a mini-personality test, and had been convinced, until getting the call, that I wasn’t fully qualified, but wanted to try anyway since I knew I could do the job and probably better than most of the employees they currently had. So at 9:00am on the morning of, I arrived in my “Sunday best” and sat down with the hiring manager in a small conference room. He begin to ask questions as he went down the resume in a sequential fashion. After a minute or so, I realized he had never seen my resume. He was asking questions that were answered elsewhere on it. He was acting surprised to see certain things - “Oh, you used to live on Long Island? My sister lives there - how did you like it?”. Uh, I was in high school when I lived there and I was probably 32 the day of the interview. So, my brain was already thinking “What’s going on here?”. Then, he got to my education. I didn’t have a four-year college degree at the time. He brought that up and said that the job required it. I replied that it also said or “equivalent experience”. I had six years of experience in the field that this position was in. He said, “Oh, but we just have to say that on the ad. We really want someone with a 4-year degree. I’m sorry”. And the interview ended. An interview, I might add, that never had to happen if someone had done their job for about sixty seconds. And if they weren’t doing their job for something as important as hiring a new employee, it’s highly possible they won’t be doing their job on other things. And yes, I did have the sweet satisfaction finding out that the company went out of business three years later. But that usually doesn’t happen.

5. They talk constantly about the workplace or environment. This is somewhat unusual. Normally, its up to you to ask probing questions about the workplace. You should have done your research. And a little bit of discussion is healthy and good. But don’t expect any dirt on the place from the interviewer. You’ll need to get that elsewhere.

But, occasionally, you get a gabber who starts telling you personal details about the place. “Kathy had to leave because her boyfriend got a job across town, but quite frankly, we were glad she left. A lot of her work just wasn’t getting done. She thought she was a good employee, but between you and me, we had plans to help her move on anyway”. This is what I’m talking about.

In theory, you are supposed to smile, nod your head approvingly and knowingly, so that you will be seen as the wise understanding new employee who will bring goodness and a wholesome attitude to the job. You are to be seen as the interviewer’s new friend during this moment.

In reality, you should ask where Kathy’s new job is across town, get up, shake hands, and head over to Kathy’s new job to see if they are hiring.

Bad-mouthing former employees is a bad sign. Some argument could be made that if they start warning you about current employees that you are practically guaranteed the job: “Watch out for JimBob after lunch. He’s got a wicked temper”. But I still say a lack of discretion in one area could be indicative of a lack of discretion in another. And while this is universally true of all people, it is common for us to take chances anyway when it comes to friends and family. Don’t take chances on a place where you will be spending 40 hours a week of your life. Move on and find something else.

6. They ask you to implement something. Anything. I think that this maybe one of the most damning things you could be hit with during an interview. The worst part about it is that it seems so pleasing to your ego, so affirming to your confidence. You almost want the job even more when this happens. You shouldn’t.

Here’s why. In all likelihood, the management (which could include the interviewer) has realized that they couldn’t implement this new program (or ideal or discipline) on their own. They’ve probably tried without success. So, they want to bring in a changer. Someone who will be a catalyst who can lead the Israelites to the Holy Land. Just remember what happened to Moses.

Sometimes, they may even admit this: “We need someone who can explain Agile Development and who has used it before. Some of the old-timers here just don’t seem to want to change. If we have to, we’ll get rid of them, but we want to give the best shot at success by bringing in someone who can be a huge asset in turning this ship around”. Here’s what will really happen: You will be back stabbed by every “old-timer” there, which will turn out to be 85 percent of the employees, the program will never be a success due to internal sabotage, and you will be the one fired after six months for “Failure to Implement the Program” for which you were hired in the first place.

Unless you bill yourself as Change Shaper, or a Corporate Catalyst, like some kind of Tony Robbins guru, don’t accept a position like this. Wish them the best of luck. Explain to them that, right now, you are looking for an excellent program that is already in place, but that if they get it implemented, you’d be interested in re-examining the opportunity (if you are). Then, hit the road.

7. Interviewer Not Showing Up. This is far more common than you think. You might think, and believe, the excuse the secretary gave you: “I’m real sorry, but Shannon had a personal emergency. She asked if she could reschedule on Thursday”. Unless this is your dream job, the one you have been dying to get, take a walk on the opportunity. The interviewer forgot.

The reason you should walk isn’t about your ego, bruised or not. It’s about a work environment which would be either so hectic or neglectful, that a face-to-face meeting is neglected. It doesn’t matter if that meeting was with the Coca-Cola vendor, a job candidate, or Dan Quayle. If you weren’t called ahead of time (more than an hour), you can be almost sure the office runs on a pattern of neglect.

If you think you might have just been caught in the rare happenstance of a real-life emergency and feel like giving the company a second chance, try to evaluate the secretary. She or he knows the truth. Do they seem like they are lying? I happen to have the bizarre skill to know in almost all cases when I’m being lied to be a total stranger. It comes in handy sometimes - other times it’s a bit of a curse (i.e. It’s easier to be nice to people, and thus more friendly, when you don’t know that the person is a lying fool). There is a good book called “Never Be Lied to Again: How to Get the Truth in 5 Minutes or Less In Any Conversation or Situation” by David Lieberman. I highly recommend it - especially if you find yourself getting fooled sometimes.

Another good trick, if you still aren’t sure, is to just say “okay”, reschedule, and then ask if you can just sit in the waiting room for a few minutes and look over your notes for the rest of the day. Go through your daytimer, but listen to what is going on. Get a feel for this secretary. Get a feel for the office. After five minutes, you should know whether you were neglected or not. If the secretary feels uncomfortable with your presence, or finds some reason to walk down the hall and not return immediately, just add that to the factors that are weighing against this company.

8. Personality Tests, Psychology Tests, Bubble Tests. Oh, My! This may or may not happen at the interview time. Twice, I’ve been ambushed with no foreknowledge of a test at the time of an interview. In essence, I was shuttled into a small anti-room to take the test and when finished, forced to sit and wait for the results, which were glossed over by the interviewer, and then taken for the interview itself. Lame. So very lame.

There are some occasions when these types of tests are required. Certain federal and state jobs, for instance. Teaching jobs. But these usually happen after an initial interview and most applicants are well aware of the requirement. They are primarily used as a defense against liability claims. In case you later go “postal” and shoot up the place.

Some companies like to use them to make sure you have the type of personality to succeed on the job. This is true in starting sales-related positions, especially when the candidate has little or no experience in sales. No sense in wasting their time or yours if you are not an “A” type personality. Or so the theory goes.

The real problem with these tests in other workplaces is rather simple. They don’t work. They are designed by psychologists who, mostly, haven’t worked much in the “real” workplace. They are useful to take if you want to just for fun (I’ll post my most recent one here shortly). And they can be invaluable for those suffering from mental conditions or personal stress issues in which such insight can be helpful for both doctor or patient. But, they don’t belong in most workplaces.

Even Target, the giant retailer, requires applicants on their in-store computer system to take a miniature version of the MMPA, which was originally used in mental hospitals. Our culture has become increasingly accepting of these types of examinations by employers. The more professional companies usually outsource the results, which can usually take an hour to several days to receive. The outsource firm usually only provides limited feedback (”Hire”, “Don’t Hire”), or a scale that shows the candidates fit for the position (80%). However, many small businesses self-evaluate these bubble tests. In essence, they enjoy playing “god” and reading about all your faults.

I went to a job interview where such an exam was presented to me. I had been warned ahead of time, but since it had nothing to do with my job skills, I wasn’t too pleased. In fact, it was also based on the MMPA. You answer on a sliding scale from “Strongly Agree” to “Strongly Disagree” such questions as “I like to steal” and “Making others feel sad can be fun”. Being kind of in a cantankerous mood that day, I decided not to even read it and just “Christmas Tree’d” the bubbles. Well, I didn’t make it look exactly like a tree, but I just randomly bubbled each question without even reading it. I think I only read the first two or three (out of about 150). I sat and waited. Twenty minutes later, the manager came in, smiling, and said I did “exceptionally well”. We had a great interview that lasted an hour and I was offered the position on the spot. I accepted. That night, I thought about the insanity of what had happened that day. I called him the next morning and told him I changed my mind. I declined the position. I never told him why - although I probably should have.

If a business owner, manager, or supervisor, can’t hire you without the use of a bubble test, you may wish to think twice. Like reason #1 above, it could be an indication of a lack of decision-making skill on the part of the hiring manager. These tests don’t guarantee that “loons” and “nutcases” aren’t going to work there. In fact, in one place where I took such a test, I was seated right next to, I’m convinced, the most out-of-control person I think I’ve ever worked with. Several times a day she would scream loudly at people when they walked in if she didn’t like them being there (like a crime victim type of scream). She babbled constantly - about TV shows mostly. She degraded everyone. She played and talked to her stuffed animals on her desk. She seemed immune to the fact that everyone hated her and wanted to find a way to get her fired. My own boss confessed to me that he would fire her instantly but he was afraid she’d come after him. She did throw things across the office at times (in an area with sensitive and expensive electronic equipment). And all the while, I sat there thinking, “Hmmm… she passed the same test I took. What good is that test if they can’t ferret out people like this?”. But, you see, she passed a test and therefore, the real analysis by the hiring managers had been taken away from them. They had grown lazy and had stopped asking the tough questions because there was that test that did all that. It’s a real shame when we let machines and unseen “wizards” (read: psychologists) tell us who we should work with and who we shouldn’t.

9. Lunch Interviews. I’ve been on two. Both were a bust. Not for me, but for the company. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. At first, it seemed kind of novel. Kind of cool. Hey, a free lunch. Who turns down a free lunch? Well, that may be one very good reason some employers utilize this tactic. Can I call it a tactic? I think I can.

Some employers think that it will demonstrate who you really are a bit more. Do you have good table manners. Do you overeat? Some kind of thinking like that. More than likely though, they are meeting you for lunch for several other, and less noble, reasons.

Most obviously, they want to interview candidates away from the office. Your imagination is as good as mine as to why this could be. Chaos at the office? No respect of his/her time at the office (i.e: interruptions)? The interviewer using “inappropriate” methods to scope out potential hires? Wants an excuse to put a free meal on the company? So busy at work (overworked possibly?) that they can’t find the time? Could be anything. All these should be warning signs to you. Politely refuse a lunch interview and just say you’d be more comfortable in an office setting.

A small caveat: I’m not referring to business deals, or the hiring of CEO or something. Power lunches like that are a necessary evil in some parts of the corporate world. I’m referring here to normal jobs that most of us have (or have had).

Second, a lunch interview puts you at the significant disadvantage of not being able to evaluate the work environment - a key component to determining a successful place for your future. Whether by intention or not, you are doing yourself a disservice to allow it. If this is the third and final interview with the company owner, then it may be understandable. If it’s your first in-person interview, decline. And go look for a more professional environment.

10. “We’re doing something great and amazing here! If you hear this, and don’t see dancing elephants in the lobby, people flying around with jet packs, or everyone dressed up as pirates and swashbucklers, you should probably be very afraid.

I’m all for innovation and having an exceptional workplace. But there is nothing innovative about filing papers. Or typing documents. Or creating a cool website. Or mopping the floor. Or blocking and bluffing shelves. It is ordinary work that has to be done.

Maybe Disney World can get away with statements like those, but more than likely, the place you are interviewing with isn’t Disney World. Even employees at a “cool” place to work, like Amazon.Com, spend most of their time doing normal tasks: fulfilling orders, updating data online, handling order inquiries, etc. Important stuff, to be sure. But not great or amazing.

The problem with the statement itself is that it discloses a certain myopia that the company has about the real world. Nothing wrong with thinking you’re better than your competitors. But equating it to being the next Bill Gates, or the Harlem Globetrotters, is cause for concern. The other underlying message is that “you should be so lucky to even set foot in our door”. Now, if this is really the case, you’ll be feeling like that long before the first interview anyway. However, if you look around and see phones ringing, people standing at the copier, fluorescent lights humming, and dust on the interviewer’s stapler, then maybe it’s time to consider that the person who’s interviewing you may be trying to oversell the job to keep warm bodies at desks. If it is starkly obvious that the only thing great and amazing about the place is the fact that you had never heard of it until that week, it’s probably time to hit an afternoon movie matinee.

11. “Everyone here should be as passionate as I am.” Usually, it’s a rather maniacal or ego-driven employer who makes statements like these. Sometimes, this can go hand-in-hand with #10 above.

Believe it or not, I once worked at an insurance office where the boss would regularly make outlandish statements like this. Yes, an insurance sales office. Zzzzzzz…..

Of course, there are two huge reasons why a fire alarm should be going off in your head when you hear this.

First, it’s very likely, especially with small businesses and small workgroups, that the boss is completely unable to deal with employee turnover. The boss or owner may not understand why people leave jobs. More specifically, the boss may be failing to understand why people leave his job. Instead of identifying the root problems, he chalks it up to the fact the ex-employees weren’t passionate enough about the job. Further embedding this idea into his head is the fact that most employees in the final months of a job, as they are looking for a new position elsewhere, often don’t appear as energized as they once were. So, the boss begins to believe it. He takes the turnovers very personally. He has little regard or understanding of any elements of an employee’s personal life. He can’t believe that he had anything to do with causing the person’s misery, so he chalks it up to this.

And when he announces that employees should be as passionate as he is in the middle of an interview, he is trying to insure himself that you, the job candidate, are not going to turn out like “the others”. He wants you to respond that you believe likewise. He has to emotionally protect himself from further failure. In my experience (which admittedly is outside the realm of places where this statement could actually be true - like Apple or Yahoo!), these bosses are sometimes only months away from resignation themselves.

Your second reason for alarm: Overtime requests without regard for your personal life. Now, if you have no personal life and live for overtime, then never mind. Although most people don’t mind working a bit of overtime here and there, especially after they’ve been on the job for a while, you can be sure that this maniacal, self-absorbed boss will consider it a personal slight if you refuse overtime. You will likely be asked to do things “above and beyond” on your very first week. Why? Because he knows you are fresh meat, willing to sacrifice to make a good impression during those first crucial 90 days, and the other employees have started finding ways to avoid and shirk him.

He may even orchestrate a policy, as did one place I worked, for mandatory overtime during “peak” times. You can guess when those peak times are, right? Right. Anytime he feels that it is a peak time. Don’t question the Illuminati.

In the real world, employees have their own lives and concerns. The boss who recognizes this and realizes that he comes second, not first, in his employees hearts, is the one who, over time, actually gets more out of his employees. The boss who demands allegiance, who wants everyone to “give it their all” (thereby constantly implying that many of them don’t), doesn’t get it. I love football. But, I don’t want to play it at work all day. “Go, go, go” is a great mantra for a yearly inventory, or a tough quarterly report. But not for every day of the week.

12. Failure to have an office or desk ready for you. This just needs to be said. Employers who do not have the space or work area available for you to do your job professionally and comfortably just need to be eliminated from your consideration.

During the interview, most employers at some point before hiring, will take you an a brief tour (usually a second interview) or point to or show you where you will be working. Sometimes, however, they will say they aren’t ready for you quite yet, but they will tuck you into some nook or cranny until a) they move into their new office, b) so-and-so is leaving to join Big Corp. next month, c) new funds come in “any day now” for the purchase of additional leased space or furniture, or, most likely, d) until hell freezes over or you are no longer the lowest rank pea in the pod, whichever comes first.

Often, they’ll chalk this up to their incredible growth (watch out for statements #10 and #11 above to accompany this) or to some recent cutback where they had to close down the other branch or annex and everyone is just a “little cramped” right now. Consider that your merit raises could also be a little cramped for a few years as well.

If you are a business partner or part-owner, this arrangement may be satisfactory. But employees that are treated like chattel are only going to be unhappy. Move on down the road where you don’t have to share a desk, or a folding table, to a company that knows how to plan for growth, or manages downturns with proper realignment.

I was once walked over to a desk that looked like a primary school desk and was told that I might have to sit there a few weeks until they could order a better desk and have it shipped. They actually had managed to squeeze a monitor (before flat-screen monitors) and a keyboard and mouse on it. It was an amazing feat of physics and resource allocation. I decided to exercise my own physics and resource allocation by walking out and asking them to let me know when they had a professional work environment ready so I could begin work at that time. I ended up finding a much better job the next week instead. And despite their “earnest” interest in me at the time, they never did call. I assumed that their earnestness was perhaps related to their “effort” in preparing work environments in which efficiency, professionalism, and productivity were not primary concerns. Either that, or they found another guy to take the job who had no problem sitting in his old fifth grade desk.

In Conclusion:

Remember, your time is precious. Don’t waste it pursuing less-than stellar places to work. You might be discouraged and frustrated with the job hunting process, but don’t let that cause you to do something in the heat of the moment that will take years off your life possibly. Value yourself. Value your time. You are a good employee and a company would be privileged to have you and your talents. Don’t let your confidence be shaken by a long job hunt or financial pressure. If you are out of a job and have to work somewhere just to pay the bills, don’t do it in your career field. Go work day labor. Drive a cab. Take up a delivery route. Work in a convenience store. All worthwhile endeavors and they will keep you fresh for interviews. You will be more picky. And you deserve to be more picky. There are a lot of good employers and good companies to work for. Don’t let yourself be pressured into going with anything but the best. If you are the best (if you are reading this you are!), you deserve the best. Go get it.

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Comments

I read this article right after getting back from a job interview for a manufacturing position and I had to laugh. On the application, I was asked what my minimum salary requirements were. During the interview, the supervisor I was talking with referred to this number and sort of grunted. This may or may not have been in regards to what I was asking for and since the salary for the position hadn’t come up yet, I decided it was as good as any time to ask. He never told me. He said this would be discussed with management. I wanted to ask “Don’t you know what you pay your employees?” but I felt it was best to just drop it. I also asked how promotions were conducted, whether they promote from within, is there a bidding process etc. Again no real answer only that the company doesn’t have any set procedure for this. Lastly I asked what he liked most about the company. I don’t think he really understood the question since his reply involved him talking about his job (which I don’t believe I was applying for, but who knows at this point), and that he likes his office. I can’t wait to start (Thats sarcasm btw) The saddest part is this isn’t even close to some of my worst job interviews.

Wow, this is one of the best articles I have ever read. You do a great job of summing up all possible outcomes, I can tell you had tons of experience with interviews, the outcomes seem to be dead on. I am sorry that your #4 didn’t work out, but if they are that busy and that quick to look over your resume, or more importantly your potential coworkers resumes then that company probably wouldn’t of been as great as you thought it would have been due to poor management. Beyond resumes, some people are just bad or don’t have the time getting to know people at a glance. The questions were totally irrelevant to anything that your skills could have benefited the company, so too bad for them.

Most of the things I mentioned today combining your life with your job applied more to my five years experience with freelancing rather than what you are saying with working for Big Corp Co. That is one of the reasons why I simply cannot work for a company, my mindset is set to put all my emphases in what I love, create a product to benefit people and watch it grow. In the meantime, I am ready for challenges, I cannot let it stop me, and at the end of the day it will be one heck of an adventure. I’ll make sure in the future when I look for people that I will not use the generic “fun and great atmosphere to work”. Talk is cheap, show them why.

On a side note, his article needs to get more publicity, maybe it was off hours for digg. Keep up the great work and it was very nice meeting you today! :) I will be at epcot tomorrow, so see ya there!

I was in an interview where the interviewer was clearly uncomfortable. She asked me my about my background and strengths/weaknesses. When she asked me to name the three things I would want to have if stranded on a desert island, I should have declined to answer such a silly question. Instead I made something up and ended up getting the job. She must have Googled interview questiosn right before I arrived!

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