Post
by Anonymous User » Wed Aug 16, 2017 12:28 am
I had so many...
(1) Interviewing with a partner, I take a sip of water and it goes down the wrong pipe, so I need to cough so bad but try to hold it so my face gets so red. He asks, "Are you ok?" And I burst out coughing and for some reason the coughing just wouldn't stop, it's like the water settled in the lungs or something. After about 30 seconds (that felt like 5 minutes) of me coughing with a red face, now even redder cause I just assumed I'm not getting the offer, he says, "Don't worry. You're ok." in a voice that tells me he clearly can tell on my face I think I blew the interview.
(2) Interviewing for a litigation position on campus. The guy interviewing me asks a few background questions then asks what I'm looking for. When I say litigation, he stops the interview. Literally say, "we can stop the interview now. There's no point in going. We're looking for corporate lawyers, no need for litigators." I was still in interview mode so I try to say "well I could try corporate. As just a 2L my interests aren't set in stone." He goes, "No, really. I said the interview is over, no need to keep going. We're not looking for maybe corporate, just for people who know for sure they wanna do it." Then he tells me he's open to criticizing my interview skills and giving me tips for other interviews, and he DOES that for the next 3 or so minutes, says, "I liked your background, bring that out. And be more assertive, take control of the interview." I then realized how fucked up the situation was and just said, "you know what, thank you but I think I'll go." I got up and left. The whole thing lasted less than 10 minutes.
(3) I was interviewing with a NYC firm on campus. I never been to NYC. I pretended to know about a few spots in NYC and the partner asks me what boroughs they're in. I had no idea what a borough was. So I said they're "near Brooklyn." He goes, "near Brooklyn? What borough is it in?" So I repeat, "oh you know, near Brooklyn." I tried just transitioning into something else but he kept on it. "No. Tell me what borough it's in." I said, "near Brooklyn." I was getting embarrassed now and he said, "Near Brooklyn? you mean in Brooklyn?" And after realizing Brooklyn is probably a borough I said "yea in Brooklyn." He basically walked me out the interview at the end and made it clear by his "thanks for coming" tone I wasn't getting a call back.
(4) Interviewing with a stuck up partner (a Harvard grad as usual). He asks me about my prior experience and then begins to belittle me by asking, "why would anyone wanna do that work really." Then he name drops a few people and asks me if I know them, and then gives me a disappointed look when I say I don't. He finally gets to a point where he asks me about a specific prior work I did and then (I'm pretty sure) on purpose pretends not to understand what I'm talking about. I try to explain it a few times and he says, "Yea I'm a bit confused... so what about this again?" At that moment I knew this jerk is gonna make sure I'm dinged anyway so I might as well enjoy the moment. So I start talking to him like he's a baby, "So, you know, in this country there's a judicial system. It has three levels of federal courts, the district court, the appellate circuit court, and the supreme court." lol He didn't like that.
(5) Interviewing with a junior associate. He comes in on his off day in jeans and a tight t-shirt, a pound of gel in his hair, and the hardest bro attitude you could imagine. He says how he's working from home that day but had to come in to interview me. He then spends the whole time talking about how he's working on a powerpoint for a partner and that's his biggest project and that he won't even get to present it, another lawyer will... I had the hardest time pretending to be impressed and interested. He then spent the rest of the interview bringing up his good law school grades and awards cause I guess he felt inadequate about just working on a powerpoint. The whole thing was awkward.
Despite all this, and similar screw ups, I had 8 call backs and 5 offers.