Favourite Awkward Interview Moments

Applying to College
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<p>I have George W. Bush Syndrome. Don't know what I mean? Read on.</p>

<p>Interviewer: What was your GPA upon graduation?
Me: Um. I don't know offhand because I didn't receive a cumulative recalculation. Would you like me to freeball it for you?
<em>Interviewer STRUGGLES to maintain wavery eye contact for a moment, then covers his mouth and bursts into laughter, so enthusiastically that he nearly slips off his seat.</em>
(I was trying to find the word "ballpark." "Freeball" evidently means to go commando.)</p>

<p>Int: How exactly did {the marketing co. I ran} work?
Me: Well, each of our sales reps would start off with a small base of customers requesting service, and from them, gain more customers. Kind of like a (<em>searching desperately for a term to describe it</em>)...Kind of like a mushroom cloud! [A better word may have been "triangle," I later reflected.]
<em>Awkward silence</em>
Me: Um. But a positive one. That involves revenue. You know, because it expands upon itself and so do mushroom clouds?</p>

322

<p>HAHAHAHHHhahahh omggg.</p>

323

<p>"until... i heard john williams playing hedwig's theme (from harry potter) on the radio. i immediately blurted out "HEY, THAT'S HARRY POTTER MUSIC!</p>

<p>a short awkward silence ensued and then she asked if i liked harry potter. and even here, i could have fixed it... but instead, i go "i love harry potter - its my favorite book series!"
having realized what i've just admitted to, i tried to humorously add "i know i'm not supposed to admit that to my dartmouth interview but you've caught me. i've been hiding it from all my interviewers."</p>

<p>she laughed and then went, "yeah, my niece and nephew love those books"
i ask about them and discover they are 4 and 5 years old. great so now my interviewer thinks of my like her 4 year old niece.</p>

<p>she did not leave the subject and asked why i like harry potter. seeing this as a place to try to salvage the remaining bits of my normal student reputation, i said "well.... i've learned a lot from it" and went on to talk about how it inspired me to write and such. and then, i slipped again "...and it's because of harry potter that i taught myself to knit. i've knitted two harry potter scarves... one ravenclaw and one slytherin</p>

<p>Nothing was bad about what you said. You sounded natural and funny.</p>

<p>The answer that you gave wouldn't keep you from a place like an Ivy. </p>

<p>Saying this as a Harvard alum interviewer.</p>

<p>The worst replies in Harvard interviews that I have conducted were from students who obviously were telling me what they thought I wanted to hear, not what really was their truth. One was from a guy who told me that his favorite book was "Oedipus Rex". When I asked "why", all he could do was summarize the story. As a result, it was obvious to me that he was lying about his favorite book -- just selected one that he thought would impress me.</p>

<p>I'm a rare person who finds the Harry Potter series boring. However, I know lots of smart people -- including adults and college students -- who include the series among their favorite books. I would find it interesting in a good way if a Harvard applicant did that, and I would be interested, too, in what the student found compelling about the series.</p>

324

<p>Haha, I have only gone on one interview so far but it turned out pretty well even despite my nerves; the guy was cheerful, I was friendly, and we clicked. (I mentioned being a proud Harry Potter dork, too! My Skidmore guy enjoyed that, even though he hasn't read them.) It went fantastically, until at the end he asked "is there anything else that I can do for you?" and I blurted out "evaluate my interview!" without even saying please. I felt so horrid...</p>

325

<p>LOL at Srk for the "freeball" line--that's hilarious.</p>

326

<p>haha you (the interviews) were adorable! =)</p>

327

<p>The only kind of bad thing I did was imply that I had no friends. I was quick to clear it up, though.</p>

<p>Interviewer: "So, was hard to make friends after switching high schools?"
Me: "No, not really, I still had my friends from junior high. Things didn't get bad socially until junior year. That's when I lost all my friends...
<em>puzzled look from interviewer</em>
...but now I have new friends and everything's great again."</p>

<p>At first it sounded like a good idea to show that I had struggled with adversity, and then I realized halfway through that saying I lost all of my friends probably didn't sound great, even though it was just a divergence of interests - no one did anything bad. I don't think it was a major black mark on my interview, I just think it was funny.</p>

328

<p>Thanks for bumping this thread. One of the few times I like a nice bumping.</p>

<p>I hope I get to do an interview. It seems like one of those nervous things where you wouldn't remember anything that happened.</p>

329

<p>So, I'm interviewing for a job at my local Best Buy and they make me wait for an hour :(. Then, when they're finally ready, I get taken into the cramped, dispassionate confines of the security room. Is it just me or does the amount of creativity/ingenuity necessitated by an interview question increase exponentially in a bland environment? And the interviewer's stolid expression and pure obliviousness didn't help either. I mean, why are you interviewing someone if you don't CARE? Thankfully, I got the job anyway, despite my relative dumbfoundedness.</p>

330

<p>I had to bump this thread. :)</p>

331

<p>Just had my MIT interview...</p>

<p>It was at the interviewer's house. Her dog kept barking so I couldn't hear her most of the time. She brought up her ex alot...and my face was :-/ okay...</p>

<p>I: So what do you dislike?
R: Mess. I'm OCD about organization, I have very organized notes (continued explanation)
<em>awkward silence</em>
R: umm...yeahh...CAULIFLOWER
I: What? I'm sure that's on page 144 of the MIT handbook..."the must like cauliflower requirement."</p>

<p>I'm pretty sure she was mocking me.</p>

332

<p>haha so you just randomly blurted out califlower? or was this taken out of context... funny though.</p>

333

<p>I'm pretty sure I projectile spit as I was talking... I got really excited. What's worse though is that the I watched the interviewer's eyes follow my spit through the air... I couldn't help it?</p>

334

<p>At my WashU interview a few weeks ago, the interviewer picked me up at the admissions office and said that we could go sit wherever we wanted. Turns out, that meant a bench * right outside the admissions office door. * So much for privacy.</p>

<p>Halfway through the interview, I was talking about something and suddenly became aware that a person was standing directly in front of me. It was my friend--she was finishing a campus tour, and proceeded to start a 5-minute conversation with me about WashU while the interviewer sat in dumbfounded silence.</p>

<p>Apparently, my friend thought the interviewer was my mom...</p>

335

<p>when I interviewed at Wesleyan, the senior interviewer's first question was just, "Tell me about yourself." it didn't last that long and at the very end after I mentioned everything I could think of, he asked, "is there anything else you want to tell me about yourself?" I was thinking, "uh, that's all we've been talking about for the last 20 minutes!" I don't even remember what I said.</p>

336

<p>@mflevity - Hilarious!</p>

337

<p>This whole thread is a good argument for eliminating interviews entirely, which some elites have done.
But of course they function to pump up the alums and keep them on board as supporters (contributors).</p>

338

<p>My friend just finished his MIT interview. Hilarity did ensue.</p>

<p>The first question the interviewer asked was, "Do you like to read?"
- Answer: Of course.
- Truth: Hasn't read a book since the first Harry Potter.</p>

<p>"What books have influenced your life?"
- Noting that he has not read a book since Harry Potter, his choices were Harry Potter, and Oedipus Rex, which he was reading in his English class. Since he was flustered, he blurted out Oedipus Rex. Yes, that Oedipus Rex.</p>

<p>The interviewer laughed pretty hard, and had that awkward smile that everyone fears, then asked why.
- Umm... You know. The battle between fate and choice; it's deep, and it spoke to me on a personal level. I promise I don't love my mother. Well, wait, I do love my mother, but I don't love her like that. </p>

<p>"That isn't the answer I usually get. Do you want to try again?"
- Uhhh... Har- The World is Flat by Milton Friedman.</p>

<p>"That was Thomas Friedman."
- Oh, that's what I meant. </p>

<p>"Let's just go on"</p>

<p>This is our Valedictorian.</p>

339

<p>HILARIOUS! haha well thankfully interviews arent a big part of the admissions process</p>

340

<p>This all makes me want to become an interviewer....</p>