How to ruin a job interview
The following TV advertisement shows Saatchi & Saatchi NY’s Tide Interview. One slip of the spoon can ruin any chance of landing that job.
First impressions count.
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22 appreciated comments on “How to ruin a job interview”
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Have you experience something similar to this David?
Thankfully not, Jamie. I can picture it, though. Have you had any bad interview experiences?
The worst interview was a second interview I had for a IT security firm. Got pass the first one and was then told if I got invited back for second it was just formality. Met the director of the company in the second interview and for no reason he decided to take the p*ss out of me. Decided wasn’t going to take that and answered him back. Never did work for them!
Yourself?
You’re much better off away from that firm anyhow.
Once, when leaving the room where a group interview / discussion was taking place, I pulled the glass sliding door off its hinges not realising it was on rollers. There was me, stood in front of everyone having to hand the door to a manager working there.
Oh.. that video is just too funny ..
I haven’t had any bad interview.. Hope never have one.
I had a wierd interview a few years ago for work with a Norwegian firm. The guy didn’t want to talk about any of my past work experience (which probably wasn’t a bad thing for me) but he wanted to discuss philosophical ideas like why people fight and hurt each other. In the end it was a quite an interesting conversation, a bit more suited to something you’d have in the pub and amazingly I got the job. He turned out to be a great boss too.
Nice one, I had an Interview for an MNC wearing a t-shirt, It was a kind of fun among we friends, he was staring at my T-shirt more than listening me.. Atlast he asked me to wait for his call which I never got, But who cares I never wanted to work for a company.
I enjoyed that–very smart ad.
I haven’t had any nightmare interviews that I recall. However, an Art Director friend at his first interview for something design related (mid 1970′s, back in the days when one could smoke during an interview) recounted how his cigarette set light to papers on the desk of the interviewer–not a major fire, but embarrassing none the less. Moreover, he got the job.
The moral of the story? I have no idea.
I can’t say I’ve had this happen at an interview, but I see it happen all the time in presentations, in design, all kinds of places.
In a presentation, if the person has an annoying habit, it just screams at you, you can’t hear what they’re saying!
In a design where one point is distracting it just drowns out the rest. Like bad use of type – it doesn’t matter what it says!
Or in copy, a spelling mistake is all you can see.
The video is great so funny! The Moral to the story is taking too many drugs can result in strange unexplained experiences at any time ;) Got to watch the video again!!
Hysterical video. Thanks
Haha! Fun ad. And a good point.
I’ve had some horrible interviews. Hopefully I won’t experience any more of them, but if anyone ever asks me again “What are your worst qualities?” I’m either going to just get up and leave, or really tell them the hard truth (none of this, spin a negative into a positive). I loathe those stupid questions.
HAHAHA That’s awesome. My interviews haven’t been that bad, I don’t think….I didn’t think so anyways lol.
Thanks. I got a good laugh out of that one. When I got out of art school ( in the UK) and went to live in New York I didn’t know what to do. I went for an interview with a sign painting company. They had me draw large freehand S’s. I was nervous with all the guys standing around watching. The curves didn’t really come out as well as I had hoped. I didn’t get the job.
Perhaps my nastiest interview was in San Francisco for a well known clothing company. At the time, I was trying to draw story boards. In those days they were done by hand. The guy told me to come back in ten years. Anyway, all this went to show me that illustration wasn’t really the thing for me.
But I do have my most embarrassing first attempt at selling story here.
You’re very welcome, Christopher, and thanks for your email. Just replied.
I haven’t had many, but one bad one actually only semi-happened to me. I got called for this one company, agreed to come for an interview, then I went online and googled it. Found nothing, except for a blog that mentioned it. The author, it turns out, was also called for the same position, but ended up going around collection donations posing as a charity organization (this was considered his all day ‘on-the-job’ training).
Needless to say, once I finish the first interview and they told me to clear a whole day for the second one, I said my thanks and ran.
Although, I have to say, the sliding door thing of yours beats that flat. :)
What a crock of… Goes to show the importance of doing your homework.
Just one slip of the spoon can ruin any chance of landing that job.
I remember when this commercial aired. It is hilarious.
One of my worst interviews really perplexed me. I worked at a convenience store for several years and they rolled out a test ad campaign, developed at a local ad agency, designed to enticed 18-26 years to buy stuff in the store. It failed horribly due the C-stores implementation.
Years go by, I start my senior year looking for an internship.
I remember the local agency and did a ton of research on them. After finally getting an interview scheduled ( which was a feat ) I came in, was interviewed by the art director and I asked my questions about her thoughts on my work and what the ad agency goals where. I saw an example of the ad campaign hanging up, and I mentioned my involvement at the store level. That seemed to get a positive reaction since I could talk and ask questions about various projects. I left very confident.
A week later I received an email from the art director and was informed due to my terrible interview skills, I wasn’t getting the internship. Upon asking for details, I received nothing. It was suggested I actually knew too much about them, and that was off-putting.
Any thoughts on this?
If it’s true your interviewer thought you knew too much, I definitely wouldn’t dwell on it, Tim. Employers should try to hire people who are smarter than them.
This ad’s so funny, am going for an interview later in the day but i was forced to look at my shirt checking for a stain just to be sure theres wasn’t anything. funny… and on the flip side David thanks for your great work here on Logo Design Love much respect.
regards
David
On the flipside, I have had some absolute failures turn up for interviews.
We had one turn up for a graphic design position, arriving late, reeking of cigarette smoke, crumpled casual clothes and no copy of his resume or portfolio.
When asked why he hadn’t brought his portfolio of work which is the most integral part of the design interview, his comment was along the lines of “I thought if you liked me and my level of experience it wouldn’t matter.”
Obviously we didn’t bother to get him to come back to show us his portfolio.
Then there are the designers who show up with portfolios full of other peoples work, have massively inflated egos or insist that they are ready to be an Art Director straight from their six month graphic design course with no experience what so ever. Or my favourite was a recently graduated junior designer who near the end of the interview told us that he wouldn’t work for anything less than $90k AUD. When told that was around a Senior Designer/Art Director wage stated that he still wouldn’t change his mind even though the position was advertised at a bit over half that amount. His ego was the size of Texas, and was told in the interview he wasn’t suitable for any role with the business (which is a pretty big thing to say to anyone in an interview). But for weeks after, he was constantly calling and asking how he went and couldn’t understand how we didn’t immediately give him a job. To this day I wonder if he ever found a job.