My favourite job interview that went too far... I applied for a sysadmin/netadmin job at a 24x7 facility that basically can't go offline. As many 9s as possible. So they required a rather senior tech for the position and I surprisingly did qualified. The requirements were very steep like 10 years experience, loads of certs etc. You know the type.

I got the interview. First I needed to fill out paperwork before I could go onsite. It was general 'this is a factory and is dangerous blah blah, do you have experience' which sure I do. I've worked in countless factories, several were even more industrial and dangerous than theirs.

I get onsite and I'm business casual. First thing I'm told is, "the interview got rescheduled to 30 minutes later so everyone was available.' but they failed to tell me...

Then I get told that I'm dressed to 'froo froo' but I said that business casual seems appropriate. I sat there the ~45 minutes for the interview completely alone. Eventually I get brought to the interview and the conference room is packed. Well over a dozen people there to interview me.

In the interview they explained everything they actually needed. They didn't need just a senior sysadmin and netadmin who must know the tech so well they know how to fix issues instantly. There will also be no other IT people, you're responsible for everything from outlook to factory software. They also needed DBA and someone who can go on the floor to be a labourer sometimes. I answered 'I am always happen to help in an emergency but I don't know anything about how to work the factory floor." At this point I was pretty well done the interview but happy to continue and exercise that skill.

So they ask me what would be one of my top achievements. Given the no-downtime nature they would appreciate my story. I was onsite at a large enterprise and was doing cisco aironet changes as well as some core vlan to leaf changes in relation to a new ssid I was deploying. That all went great. There was another team who was onsite, literally IBM bladecenter supervisor was being paid to fully update a bladecenter. He got to patching while I was working. When i finished i got back together and asked how it was going and they said great. Ive done those firmware patches before, they are certainly annoying but given I'd spent fair amount of time doing my job I was already curious. They ought to have completed already.

I stood around and was trying to be helpful but then the IBM tech decided he needed to go for a smoke. After he came back in from his smoke his hands were shaking like mad. He couldn't type on the keyboard anymore. Middle of the night outside the secured building isn't a safe place to be, I asked if everything was alright. He said he needed another smoke and left for another smoke and he never came back. Quick note, we ended up not paying any $ for the tech. He had a mental breakdown because he realized he applied the wrong firmware to the networking card. It no longer functioned.

Long story short, I took lead to figure out what was even going on. I checked each of the chassis ports and found all traffic was coming over the first port. I broke LACP on the switch and using a single gig port the entire bladecenter operated the next day no big trouble. We were easy 2 hours out of the maintenance window but real major consequences was still an hour ahead. So getting up and running was huge keeping their business running.

So interviewer's response? 'That's the best story you have? a total failure that I would blame you for?'

I answer, "Perhaps I didn't tell it well. The owners sure appreciated my work and even got us the chefs table at a steakhouse as thanks."

His reply, "how much do you want? you seem to think you're worth more than you are."

I replied, "I am worth what someone will pay me for my skills. It's not just salary but benefits as well. I would expect this position described to me has a significant budget."

He pressed me for a number but I said "I'm not 100% what a position like this would pay, it has steep requirements and I don't have many competitors. I believe you will be fair market value you will offer."

He replied, "If I give you too much, we won't have budget for equipment. Typically equipment purchases come out of the technician's budget."

I was 100% certain I wouldn't want the job so I replied, "I would estimate this position would be $25/hr plus the usual benefits." LOL, ok my estimate might have been really far off but when he heard my number his demeanor changed bigtime. He started talking about all the benefits of working there. One of the benefits was that 'sometimes you can even come into the air conditioning and sit at your desk.' like omg.

Obviously they offered me a job at the $25/hr which i had a hearty laugh at.