World’s Craziest Interviews - Part One

After my last job ended, I desperately wanted to get another job because I was so used to the routine that I desperately applied to every possible company in Jeddah. I didn’t take the time to gather myself and figure out what kind of position or company I would want to get into. So I went to every interview, and I won’t lie, they were all so useless. They weren’t looking for me, and neither was I looking for them. But the fact that they called me in just to waste my time and have a chat is what annoyed me the most.

My Resume clearly mentions that I am a Graphic Designer with Digital Marketing skills. However, none of the interviews I went to talked about these skills. They wanted to put me in Sales and Account Management, and to top it all some of them just wanted to have a chat with me because I seemed like an interesting person. Professionalism much?

This is a dumb thing to mention, but my friends always tell me that I have the funniest encounters with people in general. Anyway, mentioned below are glimpses of some of the interviews:

Interview A

An ad agency called me in for the position of a Graphic Designer. I checked out their website but honestly there weren’t enough details for me to understand the kind of clients they worked with. I still went in with hopes of finding out more about their work. As soon as I walked in, the Art Director sat me down and started questioning me and making me feel like my work was shit. He went through each and every project of mine in front of me, and criticized it to no end. I took it all in, because at that time I was really looking for a job and believed that some guy with so much experience had to be right and maybe my work was actually not that great. However, after a while I realized that some of the things he said made absolutely no sense, and he was judging my work based on the Saudi market, whereas all my work at that time was produced for the Indian market. Demographics much? It is a simple detail which I kept mentioning to him, but he just went on an on about how great his work was and how pathetic mine was. In the end, he offered me a pity deal of working with him but because according to him I wasn’t good at designing, he wouldn’t pay me.

Lesson: Anybody who calls you in for an interview and makes you feel like your work is not worth their company, however they are willing to do you a favour and make you work for free so that you get better is totally lying to your face because why would they make you work for their company if your work is shit? They just don’t want to pay you, and this is a trick that a lot of companies use on people, especially on fresh graduates. Trust your work, self development is key, there are a lot of self initiated projects that you could work on to get better, but working with someone who demotivates you all the time is not worth it at all.

Interview B

The next ad agency that I went to was even funnier. The owner called me in but forgot to mention that he was traveling, so his whole junior team sat down to interview me. By this time, I had a really good portfolio and really nice clients on my Resume. However, this team thought that I should show them my creativity so that they can see how quick and creative I am. I went with the flow and I was like alright, tell me what to do. They asked me to design an ad for a phone, which I did in like 20 minutes, the funny part though was that they all sat on my head as if I was taking the SATs and they were invigilating. Once I finished that, they said okay this is good, but now we want you to design an entire campaign which is going to launch in 2 days. I was like Umm what? They are like yes you have to design this because we need it urgently, and a very young girl came and started briefing me about the project. So I politely told her, that the ad that I created was a good enough test, designing a whole campaign for free is not fair if you do not plan to pay me.

Lesson: Designing one visual, or ideating it is a good enough test that would show the company your skills. If they ask for more for free, they are definitely planning to misuse you for a long time.

Interview C

A local agency in Jeddah called me in for the position of a Senior Graphic Designer. Yet again, the owner forgot to mention that he was traveling, so the other designer started interviewing me. This was the time when India and Pakistan were having some serious political issues, so this girl used that situation while interviewing me because she was from Pakistan and I am from India. She’d mention the war every 5 minutes, and honestly she seemed lost during the whole conversation. By the end of it, I told her that I don’t see myself growing at this place professionally, and I walked out.

Lesson: Work is stressful, but sometimes your work buddies make it all worth it. But if the interview focuses more on political issues rather than your work, I don’t think it is worth the stress. Move on and find something better.

Hope these stories put a smile on your face, I will write down Part Two very soon. :)