The longest interview in the world!

CaptainComedy

CaptainComedy

CaptainComedy

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Ok today I had an interview with what I think is going to be an awesome company, Im so hyped about it I can't wait to start if I get it! I had my 2nd and final interview today, there are 3 candidates they are choosing and Im one of their favourites :) go me.

Anyway, today my interview was meant to start at 2:30 and last 2 hours max..... I went in at 2:15 to show eagerness, and at 7pm I finish talking with them I leave :eek::confused: what the hell happened for 5 hours and 15 minutes! Well we had a deep chat about their web site (which I wont give out) and how basic it currently is and what we want to do with it and the guy that made it. He's done a really bad job of it to be fair and they asked if I could say what I dont like about it and I said "I dont want to upset anyone..." The guy that made it gave a php based website with as little php as possible, the design was dog aweful, Im not going to go into it because I was there for ages, dont get me started on his coding structure, mixing his php with his front end coding and no annecdotes! I mean I comment almost every line I do that another coder might ponder on and do see the little work he had done - PAID work he had done... I nearly cried for them.

Anyway yeah so the first part of the interview was a good chat about where we wanted the site to go and what was wrong with it at the moment, then the asked me to take a particular issue they had with the site (an image flaw) and get it working - I said "Im sorry but this coding structure is so bad it would take longer to fix it than to start from scratch, build a external css and front end structure and just include that. So I did that in 10 minutes no problem, he then told me it took the guy 3 days to do that part... I mean what kind of coders are out there where it takes someone 3 days to make an image upload and display. Its simple query structuring.

Anyway after that then I start to pick on their previous coders work with its lack of structure blah blah blah. then I had to spec a machine I wanted to work from - your welcome OCUK, I used your shop to buy just about every product and it cost me no more than £300 for a coding machine - bit much I guess it will work well and last a while. Then I specced another rig for encoding media etc from here again which was nice and still in their budget so I'll leave it to them to decide.

Then I met the companies owner and we had a nice chat (3 of us - owner, financial director and me) about the site, our enthusiasm for it and music (its a music based company) and the huge potential it has.

While we were talking I said I liked classical music and the director pulls out a cd that had orchestral music as he plays a fair bit of instruments and was in one before - I just had a listen and its pretty awesome I gotta say (not sucking up it is acutally pretty awesome).

By the end of it me and the financial director was having a friendly chat (norwegian - cool guy) and was just talking about living in london, my bro and what he does here etc. Man Im so psyched, I asked about the other candidates one they werent too fussed about, but the other guy was similar to me where he has some enthusiasm, and some experience and they are going to interview him tomorrow.... whether it will be a 5 hour and 15 minute interview I would like to know!

But that was probably the most entertaining and enjoyable interview I have ever been in.

I switched my phone on, I had 4 missed calls from my parents who thought I had food poisoning from a crumpet (wtflol) 2 missed calls from my recruitment agent to see how it went (that was at 5pm lol) and 4 text messages asking how it went and where was I. I've yet to tell my recruitment agent how it went but I look forward to telling her tomorrow.

I dont mind if that guy gets it before me tbh though, he was made redundant from his current job and probably needs this job as he will have bills to pay etc where as I am just trying to move into london and have no ties.... So I kinda feel guilty if I get it.... but I guess if Im the better candidate for the position I guess thats it.... I'm just excited to find out the answer because even if I dont get it - I had a GREAT interview :D FIVE HOURS AND FIFTEEN MINUTES!

Whats the longest you guys had????
 
Wow that is a long interview.

Sounds awesome though, and great you have built a good relationship structure with them already. It is always better to work with someone who is easy to chat with and not as good as the guy thats a right git and unhelpful.

Good luck mate.
 
Begbie said:
Wow that is a long interview.

Sounds awesome though, and great you have built a good relationship structure with them already. It is always better to work with someone who is easy to chat with and not as good as the guy thats a right git and unhelpful.

Good luck mate.
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thanks

Yeah they turned 14 - 15 people away and a lot was because they didnt have the right attitude, didnt feel they would get on or they would make it and not make it easy to understand for a new coder if someone else joined the team.

This is gonna be so great if I land this, Im gonna work my *** off and enjoy it! It's what I've always wanted to do lol. Work at something I enjoy :)
 
Raymond Lin said:
I wouldn't want to jinx it for you but i would think you got this in the bag :)
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haha yeah you watch they give it to the other guy - I wouldnt mind, just know how well an interview can go.

The bit I laughed was when the owner of an international company gives me his demo cd lol. Quite possibly the funniest moment I have been involved with ever.
 
My longest interview thus far, 10 minutes maybe :p The other job I didn't even need an interview. But then again I do part time + summer jobs around uni.

Sounds like you and your potential employers really clicked, all the best!
 
i actually had an interview today myself aswell (no joke :D) but it was not as long as yours and did not include music or worries about poisioned crumpets :D
i think i got the job also, my agent said that there was only one other candidate that probably wasn't what they were looking for, but meh you never know till you get the call i guess. ;)
 
Nice one, sounds like it's in the bag. :)

I do wonder if companies just quickly make up some dodgy, badly coded website on purpose for potential candidates to pick out flaws, etc.
 
Pestilence said:
Dear God with that length of time I really do hope you get the job! I'd be absolutely gutted if they told me I'd lost out.
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I agree. But then again this nothing compared to what some of the large graduate employers put you through.
 
codec said:
I went in at 2:15 to show eagerness, and at 7pm I finish talking with them I leave :eek::confused: what the hell happened for 5 hours and 15 minutes!
Click to expand...

Surely that's 4 hours and 45 mins.

Anyway, sounds like it's a job you would really enjoy and I hope you end up getting it.
 
Pestilence said:
Dear God with that length of time I really do hope you get the job! I'd be absolutely gutted if they told me I'd lost out.
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TBH thats only the 2nd company I have ever had an interview with! the first company was a nightmare! I wasnt interested in what they did, they was looking for someone with 4 years industry experience but a graduate??? :S doesnt make sense.

But with these guys the first interview I had was awesome and then todays (2nd) even better. If I dont get it I dont care (I do for obvious reasons but) because I get the interview experience on how to assert and present myself, I was more eager than the interviewer at times and bringing up features for their site that they hadnt even realised, streaming TV for their competitions was just one idea they wanted but they hadnt even considered the coding involved and features for it to make it worth while.
 
How much does it pay?

Most of my interviews for my job starting may lasted about 3 hours plus 1 hour test so pretty similar apart from mine being a pita.
 
Its a graduate position so £25k start off, but because Im the lead designer and the company is about to grow exponentially, I will be made manager and they said they want to employ a team of 5 over a duration of 5-6 months starting from january. Crapping my pants because when their site snowballs its gonna be so intense, I'll grasp the oppertunity by the ***** as its exciting and a challenge though. Still I gotta get the confirmation first hehe... still having to tell myself that and this has been going on since 7pm...
 
For my current job I had 2 interviews:

1. 3 hours technical, analysis, modelling, project management
2. 5 hours technical test, OPQ test, HR interview, technical test de-briefing

It's not unusual to have interviews like this for top companies.

:)
 
I had a "24 hour" final round interview for a graduate job. Arrived around lunchtime, had interviews and problem solving exercises till around 6pm, then brought out for dinner and drinks. They kept plying us with drinks - there were only about 6 of us that had made it that far - then brought us back to our hotel. Next day there were more interviews and discussions with the CEO / CTO etc.

Twas stressful indeed, and I didn't even get the job!
 
AMEC asked me to come to London for a 8hr Interview day. I sent a nice email telling them no :)

KaHn
 
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