Interviewing Exposed

We had a little relaxing moment at work where my group sat down and spoke about random stuff. And one such topic which came up was when each one of us had interviewed at the company. Since none of these guys were around when I had come in to interview, there were no fun stories about me that they knew of. So I thought of telling them this funny incident.

It was a few days before X-mas in 2004 when I drove to Baltimore to interview. It was a cold day and from the schedule, it seemed to be a long day, starting at 8 and ending by 4. The last interview being with my current boss and manager, who would make the final call. When I arrived, there was some scheduling problem and my to-be-boss would be my first interview. Not a good thing - I was being thrown into the ring without any warm-up. We made small conversation as we walked to his office and when we got in, my boss asks, "Hey, I forgot to ask, do you want some coffee?", which I politely refused.

"You sure? Coz I am getting some for me."
"Yes, I am OK"
"Fine, have a seat and I'll be right back", he pointed with his hands in a particular direction, to a chair and walked out.

The slightly-tense me walked in the direction he had pointed out and sat down. And looked around the office.

"Hmmm, nice office. Nice view, windows on 3 sides", I thought. "And this is a very comfortable chair. Very relaxing." And I looked around the office rotating the chair around its axis as I sat on it. A 90 degree rotation to the left and I was staring at a computer screen. "Very weird", I thought. He might ask me to program something on the PC perhaps. And then I looked across the desk and saw two chairs on the the other side, not-so-comfortable-looking as the one I was on.

"Hmmm. Comfortable chair, access to the PC. Something is fishy. Ahhh... I am sitting on his chair"

And I jumped out of it like a jack in the box, just as my boss entered the room. Fortunately he did not see me and I moved across and occupied one the chairs on the other side. Close one.


A funnier interview episode was when a friend of mine interviewed. I had told him about the opening and when he asked if I had any do's-dont's, all I told him was just stick to the point. Dont answer more than what is asked. He however, took this advice to a whole new dimension.

We had an initial phone screen with my boss, my friend and I in conference.

Boss: Hello
Friend: hello

Boss: So, can you tell us something about yourself?
Friend: Yes.

(long silence)

Boss: Hello, X?
Friend: Yes, hello.

Boss: Can you tell us something about yourself?
Friend: Yes.

(again, long silence - my boss looks at me and smiles)

Boss: Hello, X. Can you hear us?
Friend: Yes. I can hear you.

Boss: So can you tell us something about yourself?
Friend: Yes.

(silence - and my boss is making this 'whats going on' face)

Me: X, what we want is you go ahead and introduce yourself. Tell us about your past experience, what you are looking for blah blah.
Friend: Oh. OK, I am a certified..... (and it goes fine from then)

Yes, we did hire him. Eventually! And I remind him everytime of this incident and we laugh.