Figured some would get a kick out of this story of an interview that I was actually excited about a few years ago.
So in 2015, in a heavily Oil and Gas based area, right after the crash of Oil and Gas, I was essentially Jobless and trying to support a household of 3 on whatever I could get. I had applied to countless jobs. Most of them where automated systems requesting me to put in the same information 37 times, so I was pretty disheartened. I managed to get a modest referral to a role from a mutual contact. The job was for “Business Development Representative” for the promotional wing of a large office supply company. From what I understood, it was built around selling company branded promotional products to companies, that they would either furnish offices with, sell to customers or provide to employees as a reward/work clothing/whatever.
I did some sleuthing on linkedin on the people that would be making a decision on my employment. Over the next 3 weeks, I have 4 or 5 phone calls/interviews with this company with various managers/VPs. They all seem to be going well, but I need to eat, so I took a more physical job (land scaping/irrigation system installation) so I was dead tired from 10-12 hour days doing manual labor. At about week 3, I am told they want to do an in-person, presentation/interview. They sent me three scenarios that I could template and work off for this presentation. I build this slide deck, double, triple and quadruple check that everything is ready to go. Presentation day roles around and because I am working manual labor, I have requested the absolute earliest possible slot, so I can then go to work shoveling or whatever. I still got to this office 45 minutes early and was forced to wait in my car for 15-30 minutes until they opened. Once they did, I went inside and told to wait in the lobby then was left alone.
Finally, they bring me in. I start setting up and disaster strikes and my presentation becomes corrupted when trying to display it… while standing in front of about 5 in person people and another 4 or 5 on the phone conference (with video of course). I explain the issue and what happened and that since it was based on there “template” I can speak around it a little bit, but couldn't do the full numbers. They discuss and suggested I push forward and talk about a company I do know (I worked in sales). So I launch into a presentation/pitch with the very basic “template” that they had initially sent, modifying info on the fly, with 10 or so executives bombarding me with questions and me answering them on the fly. They seemed fairly impressed and thanked me.
I got a call, later that day, saying that two people where in the running for the job. Myself and another person that had presented later the same day. The VP talking to me said him and the executive team where extremely impressed that I “overcame” the technical issue and still managed to speak confidently and turn the meeting around. Then, I heard nothing. A week passed, then another week. Finally, after calls and emails, the VP got back to me and said they went with the other candidate. I asked why and was told that presentation wise it was neck and neck, but that the other candidate showed up to the office nearly 2 hours prior to his time slot and asked to have a tour to understand the work environment, see things in action and it showed some form of initiative or something, they appreciated.
I was crushed. I had been through 6+ weeks of interviews, hours working on a presentation that glitched out on there office equipment and I had been led to believe I was right on the cusp of getting the job. Then to be told, the reason for not getting the role was that the other candidate showed up later in the day and had not only the time, but was allowed to tour the office and that was the deciding factor. After reading this sub and other peoples stories, I truly believe they never intended to hire me and had decided on the other candidate at some point and just strung me along in the case the other person didn't actually take the job or didn't start or whatever. That 2 week or so of lag is what makes me thing that.
Seriously though, fuck that company and fuck awkward, massively drawn out interview processes like that. From aptitude tests to phone conferences to personality testing to these massive presentations. What a waste of time and effort. My current company on the other hand, definitely has issues, but after a phone call, they requested an in person interview and paid for my gas and hotel to drive the 5 hours 1 way and stay over night to meet them, then offered me a job on the spot.