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Comment by _clhx | Hacker News Reader

An interview can be positive and not lead to a job.

I went on a lot of interviews (maybe close to 100) before starting my own business, and I'd say at least 9/10 of them were very positive.

By positive: I felt we both left the interview a bit happier than we went in. We both had a legitimate good time, and enjoyed it. It wasn't a grind, both people got to know each other.

I'd say I had a 10% offer rate. The most common "why didn't you select me?" follow up answer I got was "we need someone who is an expert in XYZ language." Sometimes it was even that they need someone who is an expert in ABC library (when I was already pretty-much an expert in the language.)

The ones that did lead to job offers I didn't want after the interview.

The other 1/10 was because they had me take an IQ test, or do some really super long project, or meet with literally all 20 people in the company, or they made me sit in the lobby for 2 hours past the meeting time.

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> I'd say I had a 10% offer rate. The most common "why didn't you select me?" follow up answer I got was "we need someone who is an expert in XYZ language."

I would think this is something that should have been made clear from the get-go in the initial technical phone interview.

Anyone who goes to an in-person interview should expect, at minimum, that the interviewers have done their homework.

For example, if they just want Stanford or MIT grads, fine. But to bring someone into an interview - which may involve more than a day of travel, lost vacation time etc - just to tell them they went to the wrong college afterwards, that's plain infuriating and shows complete lack of courtesy.

> The most common "why didn't you select me?" follow up answer I got was "we need someone who is an expert in XYZ language." Sometimes it was even that they need someone who is an expert in ABC library (when I was already pretty-much an expert in the language.)

There's nothing really wrong with that as long as they advertise such and make it clear before even starting the interview process that you won't be hired unless you're a library ABC or language XYZ expert. The problem comes when they don't advertise that, bring you in anyway, and waste everybody's time.

2 hours? wow. and you stayed?

I had already took the day off, and they did update me every 20 minutes or so. They also gave me water and snacks before I even knew to wait, and I had my laptop.

It wasn't that big a deal, but they didn't have a good reason to make it not a deal breaker.

I once showed up to an interview only to discover that the people who were supposed to interview me had traveled to another state. This was only after I had taken time off work and been escorted from the military base security gate to the ramshackle, unmarked building that did not in any way resemble a clean and healthy workplace.

Someone eventually called me to reschedule, and it took every last ounce of my willpower not to perform a verbal auxiliary anus installation over the phone.

To name names and shame the shameful, it was SAIC (before they split into SAIC and Leidos).

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