Favourite Awkward Interview Moments

<p>My interviewer asked me to ask a question and then answer it. I was so caught off guard that I said to skip to the next question.</p>

<p>remember a situation is only as awkward as you make it ;).</p>

<p>I started my interview (I've only done one for my ED school) kinda nervous, but that was it.</p>

<p>Yale interview (only one I've had so far):</p>

<p>It was at the man's house, which was HUUUGEEE!!! I guess I was googly-eyed at it or something and he looked at me strangely. I complimented his house and accidentally went to shake his left hand, which made for an awkward little dance-about.</p>

<p>Once in his living room, the decorations and colors in which I matched strangely perfectly with (weird), he asked me if I wanted something to drink. Instead of politely declining, I just said that I drank a whole bottle of water earlier and that I was fine, thank you.</p>

<p>His son came in halfway through with a bowl of guacamole and asked his dad to taste it, then offered me some. It was really cute.</p>

<p>The interview as a whole was quite good, just funny. And the girl who was scheduled after me showed up early, so my interviewer made her wait outside (freezing!). She -- i kid you not -- stood in the window watching us for the next fifteen minutes. Priceless.</p>

<p>I had an interview at a local hotel that was a fifteen minute walk from my school. I had my Bio lab that day and we were experimenting about diffusion with potatos. So my first thought was as I scrubbed my hands was that the woman would make some comment about me smelling like french fries. When I was walking over, I hadn't anticipated it being so warm and was sweating by the time I got there. So when my interview started, I made some comment about how hot the weather was and I got this look like 'don't you read weather.com?' Needless to say, after that akward moment, the interview went well.</p>

<p>My interviewer asked me what other colleges I was applying to, and I mentioned a couple and stupidly said (kind of obnoxiously) "Yeah but Maryland's my safety school." and the guy's like "Both my kids go to Maryland"</p>

<p>ha juicy08 thats basically what happened to me. ugh. good luck.</p>

<p>I could just see myself saying that during an interview and then going "Come back Shane!" while seeing my admissions hope fade lol.</p>

<p>My phone went off during the interview. I was ****ed, but my EC didn't care. I told him it was a wrong number, which was the case when I checked the logs later on.</p>

<p>The interviewer asked me what animal i would be...i said a tortoise. I HAVE NO IDEA WHY. The guy laughed aloud at me and asked if i was serious and if so why. I thought it would be bad to contradict myself so I just said that a tortoise can live over 300 years (i am not sure if that is true). It was SO PAINFUL</p>

<p>^</p>

<p>Remember Finding Nemo? Sea turtles, at least, can live over 150 years!!!! Haha...</p>

<p>This thread is great. The Op's story is priceless! I don't have any personal horror stories to share but my son rear ended someone (thankfully not the interviewer) after his Rice interview. Unfortunately the interviewer was a witness. There wasn't any damage to the car he hit but he was so flustered from the interview and then the accident that he couldn't really even speak. The lady he hit felt so bad that she called me later to check on him. She kept saying, "He was such a nice boy. I feel so bad for him." You would have thought the accident was her fault.</p>

<p>This makes me laugh when I go back in time to think about this. I had an interview for a very prestigious school (think HYP) which I will leave unnamed, because I have been attending now for three years. I had three separate encounters with admissions reps which all ended up being interviews. The first one was at school at transfer day and I was walking by my current schools display and looking the other way and thinking wow this girl is hot! I walked over to her and began to lay on the charm, turns out she was the rep for my current school, and anyway she sends me a letter of encouragement to apply and a date of when a private information session is being held. So I go to the information session, about 12-15 people there and a different rep was giving the presentation. She was equally gorgeous if not more, after the presentation I laid on the charm and had her laughing and all googly eyed. That next week SHE sends me a letter of encouragement to apply. That same week I get a phone call from another lady asking for an interview but this time by phone. My interview was for 1PM EST, anyway for some reason it did not dawn on me that there was a three hour time gap (West Coast). So it was 945 AM my time I had just woken up and smoked a joint. For whatever reason when I'm high I can write like 15 pages an hour and Ace every paper I write. So I started writing my English philosophy paper and I realize at like 959 AM that its 1259 EST, it was like my intuition was alerting me that I needed to be doing something at that very moment in time. So I figure it out and make the call exactly at the right second in time my interview was planned. My interview was so one sided, she had a very comforting sort of bubbly voice so I felt comfortable. The interview lasted exactly 11 minutes and 45 seconds. After three questions she felt she had enough information and I could sense she was charmed by my philosophy. I really did not mean to be high for the interview because well I thought I had three hours to myself to pump out a 10 pager and relax in my own thoughts before the interview. Anyway in retrospect I guess that is how it was supposed to happen as the stars lined up for me and I was accepted.</p>

<p>You had an interview.........while high?..................and you try to charm each one? You're some daredevil aren't you?</p>

<p>Most of my interviews have been great, but there have been moments.</p>

<p>When the Yale rep came to visit my school, for instance.
Yale rep: So, what made you think about Yale?
Me: Well, actually, my grandfather went there, and I've always had a negative impression because he was a sort of... negative person, you know? But my cousins go there now and they love it, and I just keep hearing so much about it that I really like.
Yale rep: What do you mean, "negative?"
Me: Well, it's like Yale is the only thing that ever happened to him. He even introduces himself to everyone he meets as "Yale 56."
Yale rep: What's wrong with that?!</p>

<p>Er, whoops.</p>

<p>Dare devil of the mind, philosophy major. Look... A great smile and never being intimidated, followed by radiating positive energy outward from the soul all the time = influence over other's making a choice. That influence = ability to write your own future.</p>

<p>Yes I was high but I really didn't mean to be for the interview, it was the way my path laid itself out for me. I don't recommend it unless your mind can handle it. The anticipation of the decision is the hardest part on the mind, imagine you are waiting for your decision and you know you accidentally got high before your interview (luckily over the phone)... Can most minds bear the stress of that factor over the coming weeks of anticipation of an admssion desicion to a top school??? No... That stress buried my world to a new low... But there is a streamline balance of everything living in the world, thus = the higher you are the harder you fall, now reverse the statement and apply to my scenario of waiting for a decision, that new low I had never felt before followed by the acceptance decision created a new feeling inside of me that was much higher than if I had not experienced the stress previously to the acceptance.</p>

<p>I DO NOT recommend this course of action to gain acceptance.</p>

<p>^ Good thing. Advocating drug use probably wouldn't be a good thing.</p>

<p>I don't have any awkward moments yet, but I am probably the most awkward conversationalist ever so I will keep this thread in mind! Some of these stories are hilarious.</p>

<p>
[quote]
...and you know you accidentally got high before your interview (luckily over the phone)...

[/quote]
</p>

<p>"Hey buddy, I got into Yale while I was drunk."</p>

<p>"Wow! Dang! O_o..."</p>

<p>Agh... in my Columbia Interview, I asked my interviewer (a physicist) what the Engineering school was like. And so, of course, I had to awkwardly cover it up by pretending I was asking about something else, which just left him confused.</p>

<p>I've only had one interview so far, and it was for a prestigious LAC. It had some really awkward moments and some great moments.</p>

<p>It was being held in this massive Border's, and once I got inside I saw that my interviewer was still speaking with an earlier person. Trying to kill a few minutes (but not be late), I went to the bathroom. When I got back, they were still deep in conversation. I realized that there was a book I needed to pick up for my Government class, but it was on the top floor. So I just headed up the stairs to hunt for my book, and after I found it, I was afraid that coming back down the stairs would draw attention to me like I was impatient (the store was pretty empty). So I just hung around on the top floor and peered over the railing to spy on the interviews below me and see if they were done yet. At one time, I almost dropped my book off the balcony... Jeez.</p>

<p>The interview itself was pretty good, except that about halfway through I was going to show him some of my journal. I sometimes have trouble maintaining eye contact, so I was determined this time to look him in the eye as much as possible. So when I reached for my journal, I didn't look away to find it, but instead just reached out beside me with my hand. I couldn't find it, so I kept just groping the air beside me for like two minutes, unblinkingly, until I finally broke contact and realized that the journal was under the table in my bag. I was SO embarrassed but I pray he didn't notice.</p>

<p>Fortunately after that the interview took a big upturn. We discussed my writing (he was an English major) and he seemed totally fascinated that I was interested in neuroscience and cognitive science.</p>