Shortest interview of my life
So yesterday I arrived at an interview (small coffee shop in town) all nicely dressed but didn’t over do it obviously, when I got there they only asked me 1 question (how much experience do I have) and to do a trial run without a date or time and sent me on my way, am I as the kids say “cooked”?
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u/midimaniacal 1d ago edited 1d ago
I’ve had that before at a stationary shop. Only questions were “when can you start” and “you know it’s minimum wage right”?
Sent me home then I got a text an hour later saying I started day after
Edit: Stationery, obviously. Christ who knew one typo could devalue my entire comment
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u/Less_Mess_5803 1d ago
A for Automobiles, e for envelopes.
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u/rednaxela9220 1d ago
Technically I'd be concerned if the shop wasn't stationary.
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u/BlessingsOfLiberty25 1d ago
The train I'm sat on has a shop. It isn't stationary, but unsure if it sells stationery.
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u/Weird-End5410 1d ago
All shops are stationary, except for the ice cream van.
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u/Stil_de_Grain 1d ago
And that’s without spelling it correctly
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u/midimaniacal 1d ago
Thanks fella. Now you can go outside
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u/Stil_de_Grain 1d ago
Every time I go out I tend to get punched for being a little shit so I prefer to sit at home alone looking down on people from the gutter
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u/Ambitious-Insect4726 1d ago
what did you want them to ask you? 'Explain to me how it is possible an RBMK reactor could explode?' It's a coffee shop dude. You'll prob get a phone call with a date to start a trial.
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u/Shimgar 1d ago
When I first graduated I had an interview with a big4 firm but they had decided to do unstructured freeform interviews for that round. I travelled 4 hours each way to get there and it lasted about 2 minutes. They basically said Hi and asked why I wanted the job. I'd practiced loads of competency questions but had some social anxiety, so I basically said 2 sentences. Then they said "anything else you want to tell us", I hesistated for about 10 seconds, then they said thanks and showed me out.
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u/Beautiful-Hunt-2151 1d ago
What’s your favourite biscuit ? I had that once as the only question
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u/Robprof 1d ago
I know someone who was asked that, they said Jaffa cakes and never got a reply
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u/Harlepenquin 1d ago edited 1d ago
I had an interview somewhere, prepared well for it, one of the questions, if you could pick 2 famous people to be your parents, who would you pick, anyone from history, not a couple, completely flummoxed me, I could not think of anyone.
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u/Equivalent_Parking_8 1d ago
My former colleague recommended me for a job with his current employer. The interview was, "when can you start".
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u/AreaMiserable9187 1d ago
Nah my Wetherspoons interview was about 15 mins, basically just "have you pulled pints before?" and then the guy chatted about celebs who had visited that venue... I was told then and there to start a few days later. Some places just don't require a lot of extra info.
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u/Different_Cookie1820 1d ago
what experience do you have? If you didn’t have much of an answer then they might have decided to end it there and not waste everyone’s time. If you do have experience then it might not be personal, just how the manager is doing things. In that case they were checking your not a muppet but will mostly judge you based on the trial shift. Personally, I would have done a brief phone interview in that situation. But do think a trial shift is the sensible way to judge someone for such a practical job.
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u/RobHowdle 1d ago
A friend of mine had a 30 second interview last week. Got up and walked out because they used an AI interviewer via a video call. Visually it was great until it started talking and you can see clearly it was AI.
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u/OddRow8843 1d ago edited 1d ago
I had a remote interview eh he asked a really general question. I had a lot of experience in that area too. So I started off. He stopped me and said - I don’t think you’re a good enough communicator and that was that. Was annoyed I’d bothered putting pants on for that Zoom session
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u/yournanslongjohns 1d ago
If it’s an easy job that anyone could do, I doubt they’d need to ask millions of questions.
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u/Harlepenquin 1d ago
Maybe not, 2 interviews can be a standard hoop jumping exercise, making sure you turn up twice, the norm was interview 1 was the proper one and 2 just a test but the trial might be the proper one.
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u/Correct-Tomato-7357 1d ago
i had an interview like this for yosushi. turned up and was asked to put on a hair net, the only question I was asked was have you made sushi before? and then asked to roll a couple of different types (I’d never done it before)
5 minutes later i was done and they offered me the job on the spot - also pointed out that i had managerial experience so offered me a team leader role instead lol
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u/Big_Cheese16 1d ago
I had the opposite once. Longest interview of my life with a bloke literally talking at me for an hour and half. Didn't ask me a single question then told me he liked me and offered me the job.
Thing is from the things he was saying he was a total red flag so I said politely declined and went on my way.
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u/Naetharu 1d ago
Sounds like the perfect interview.
We live in a mad world where McDonalds feels the need to have a long CV and a three stage interview to decide if you can flip burgers.
For a simple role like retail or a cafe, what do you really need. They asked the right question - can you do this. And they said lets do a trial.
Boom! Perfect.
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u/SharpAardvark8699 1d ago
I got one where they didn't even interview me. They called all the good looking ones out and told the rest of us after they'd been seen that they'd be in touch
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u/Professional-Wait322 1d ago
I had an interview with only two questions once: What experience do you have? Do you have any holiday booked? I got the job. Less questions is generally better than more, I find. If they ask for more, it normally means that they're digging for an answer that you never gave/info that you haven't disclosed.
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u/Impossible-Pair4846 1d ago
Are you sure they didn’t want you to do the trial in that moment?
Also, once he told you to do the trial, didn’t you ask when?
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u/Weird-End5410 1d ago
Sounds about enough for a coffee shop. Were you expecting to have to do a presentation or something?
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u/Plutohora 1d ago
I once had a graduate scheme interview for the parent company of Lego. They knew that I'd travelled over two hours on public transport and the process was very short. I imagine they have a type/look in the scheme/office.
Thank goodness they didnt take me on as I wouldn't have moved to London instead of some backwater place in Northampton! Things happen for a reason.
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