The Worst Interview(er) of my Life

Hey all,

Apologies if I selected the wrong flair.

Early this week, I had the worst interviewer of my life, and I wanted to share that experience. The original post was just a wall of text (3000+ words; this is ~1000), so I used ChatGPT to summarize a bit. Hopefully, it’s still readable and entertaining. I wanted to type this up so others know what’s out there and that having an experience like this does not reflect on you. Some people just suck. I’m definitely not getting this role, I told the company’s owner to fire the guy.

Edit: tl;dr: People are arrogant and suck, but at least you get a story out of it.

I am happy to answer any questions or clarify any details. Anyway, enjoy the read:

I arrived at the office early, checked in, and waited in the lobby. The owner, X, was running late, so the Senior Tech Manager, Y, brought me back. As we walked, he glanced over and asked, “You ready for this?”

“Guess we’ll find out,” I replied, remembering X had hinted that Y liked to “test” candidates.

In the testing area, I was led to a workstation at the front of the room. Y handed me a setup sheet with about 40 bullet points covering configuring a non-client test PC.

The list started with creating an Ethernet cable from scratch using crimping tools provided on the desk. This would usually be straightforward, but I had no instructions for wire placement order, so I looked them up. Without any way to verify my cable (no testing tools were available), the only option was to connect to a live switch, which felt risky from a security perspective, so I did not do so.

Next, I turned to the test PC, which wouldn’t boot. Immediately, it showed two errors: “RAM failure” and “no HDD found.” I disassembled the case and discovered a slim piece of paper lodged under the RAM in the DIMM slot. After removing it, the RAM error was resolved, but I still needed to troubleshoot the hard drive. I tried various SATA cable configurations but eventually found myself in the BIOS, where almost everything was disabled—USBs, SATA, Ethernet. Surprisingly, there was no admin password protecting the BIOS.

I navigated the BIOS settings and re-enabled the essential connections, and finally, the PC booted successfully. Later, I discovered I was the only one of six or seven candidates to catch the BIOS trick, which was a small point of pride. But it underscored the problem with the task: in a real-world scenario, some context would have made the troubleshooting feel less like a guessing game.

After reconfiguring the BIOS, I installed a Windows 10 image from a provided USB, set up an admin account, and removed bloatware using Dell Support Assist. As the two-hour time limit approached, I started documenting everything in detail. Since no Word Processing software was available, I used Notepad, even though the format required was a Word template.

As time passed, I had only documented a portion of the process. I asked Y if he preferred I summarize or complete it in full, and he didn’t respond directly. So, I quickly summarized the main steps and told him I was ready to answer his questions.

With the setup done, I thought the interview would wrap up, but Y had other plans. He pulled out a two-page list of questions, single-spaced, covering everything from network configurations to personal phone preferences. Many questions felt unrelated to the role, and Y’s adopted a condescending, negative tone. When I incorrectly answered an acronym or configuration question, he smirked, chuckled, and moved to the next. The atmosphere became increasingly hostile.

For example, he asked, “How would you rename a device on macOS?”

I replied, “I’d need to be hands-on—Mac is muscle memory for me.”

Y shook his head. “In this role, you’ll need to pick up the phone and walk clients through problems you may not know. That answer proves you can’t.”

I kept calm and responded, “With all due respect, I cannot mentally work through a scenario for a system that I do not have in-depth familiarity with regularly; however, if given this position, I will do everything in my power to make sure that every client is happy and every issue is resolved, every time. If someone is there to teach me, I can learn even faster and help ease the burden. If that answer is not satisfactory, then this is not the position for me.”

When I suggested potential solutions for setting up a printer in an office with only one Ethernet port, Y dismissed each option, saying they “would fail” due to network limitations. I clarified that the question focused on the printer setup, not full network configuration, but Y countered that it wasn’t specified that a network existed—just that clients used a VPN. Trying to piece together a workable solution without context, I admitted that configuring a professional set-up without understanding their existing systems would be challenging. Y, however, reiterated, “That would be a failure.” At this point, I felt ready to leave. However, X finally stepped in, saying, “No one can know everything on day one.”

When asked if I had any questions, I addressed the disconnect directly: “Is there anything today that gives you reservations about my ability to do this job?”

Y sighed heavily. “Yeah. You couldn’t answer half my questions, and the other half had detailed networking follow-ups I didn’t ask because you didn’t know the basics. I don’t think you could do the level one role, let alone the level three you applied for.”

Frustrated, I replied, “With respect, your expectations for this role are unrealistic. You’re asking someone to know server management, networking, and troubleshooting across complex systems—all at entry-level pay. That’s three people’s work, not one Level One. I cannot imagine what level three would be.”

After the interview, X walked me out and apologized for Y’s behavior. He acknowledged that Y’s attitude was difficult but that his role as the sole tech made change challenging. X admitted that four other candidates had either walked out or been rejected due to Y’s high standards and testing methods. Ideally, X would have fired Y, but doing so would have left the company without a tech lead.

I advised X that, as the owner, his reputation and authority were at stake, regardless of Y’s 16.5 years of tenure. I described Y as a mix of two types of techs I’d encountered before: highly knowledgeable but driven by ego, designing tests to highlight his expertise rather than assess fit. He was a solo player, more interested in proving his superiority than fostering collaboration.

I shook X’s hand, offering to consult in the future, but I was clear: I couldn’t join the team until the Y situation was addressed.

Thanks for reading! Good luck in your searches. We’re all in this together.