True Stories: Jobs I Knew I Wouldn’t Get

Stella

I accidentally applied to work on John McCain’s presidential primary campaign. The job posting did not disclose which campaign the position was with, and I only found out when the campaign called me to schedule an interview. Awkward!! The interview went very well…until the last question. Interviewer: “Would you vote for the Senator?” Me: “Well, I’m not a registered Republican, but he wouldn’t be my first choice.”

I did not get the job.

***

I had an interview for a summer position at a large, Philadelphia law firm. I was having a really nice conversation with the interviewer, and I thought things were going great. Until…she suggested I pursue a career as a news anchor. Flattering? Yes. Encouraging for my job prospect as an attorney? No.

***

One of my earliest interviews was with the Library of Congress to plan a cross-country celebration of Abraham Lincoln (totally absurd). The interviewer casually mentioned that his nephew was also interested in the job.

I was not hired (thank heavens).

***

I got an interview to work in the Postal Service’s legal department. I asked the interviewer what specific duties the job would entail. Her answer: “I’m not sure. It depends what division you’d be in, and we don’t have any open positions right now.”

Seriously?

***

Please tell me that I’m not the only person with a surprising number of these stories. What amusing experiences have you had?

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Comments

True Stories: Jobs I Knew I Wouldn’t Get — 3 Comments

  1. I interviewed with a real estate company owned by a Chinese group of businessmen. I wasn’t too nuts about working for a Chinese owned company anyway, but about 5 minutes into the interview, the (Chinese) manager popped up and said she needed need to make a phone call and left the table. That was so weird. I was so glad I didn’t get that job, not that I ever expected to anyway.

  2. I once interviewed at a company that did research in paper production. Somehow we got on the topic of textbooks, and I said something along the lines of “it’s so convenient, all of these resources are available online as e-books, I don’t need to buy paper-based textbooks!”
    The interviewer replied: “Yes. That’s why our industry is in so much trouble.”
    Oops.

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