I had an interesting job interview…

So the other day I had a job interview in a corporate office close to Dublin City centre.

There were two people interviewing me. Someone from HR and the department’s manager. The HR guy was very friendly and smiley. The departments manager was weird. He shook my hand and didn’t make eye contact. Fair enough.

They proceeded to ask the usual questions … “what’s your biggest strengths?”, “what’s your biggest weaknesses?”, “where do you see yourself in five years time?” and other generic rubbish.

The department’s manager then asked me a hypothetical question regarding contracts and clients and what would I do in a certain specific scenario etc. I wasn’t sure how to answer that. I do not appreciate when interviewers throw these curveballs. Obviously I’m not trained for it yet, but I answered it as best I could. He looked unimpressed with my answer.

When leaving the interview, the HR guy was all smiles and shook my hand and thanked me twice for taking the time to come in. The department manager again didn’t make eye contact, and shook my hand without saying anything.

I got a call from them offering me the job. I told them that I had to refuse. The person who I’d be working under did not even give me the courtesy of a proper handshake or eye contact. If that’s how he treated potential suitors, then I dread to think what working under him would be like as I didn’t fancy 8 hours of that behaviour from a manager each day. The person on the phone said that they understood and would I reconsider, he’s not always like that. I told them that confirmed his demeanour wasn’t a once off. I refused, thanked them for the offer.

Moral of the story? Be happy.