Stupidest thing you/interviewer have said in an interview

Interviewer: What do you find as the strength of Anderson?
Me: Stan....derson's entrepreneurship program is very strong and supportive...

Somehow I still got in....

LOL is it acceptable to give Kudos for these bloopers?? I'm going to go ahead and do it...it takes a lot to admit an interview flub.

After an interview for my first ever job where we talked mostly about football. I told him i played in goal and he was saying the company needed a goalkeeper for their team...

Interviewer "I`ll ket you know when you can start erm... if we decide to hire you"

I got the job

Wow - I told my tuck interviewer that I picked my undergrad major:
"Because I didn't know what I wanted to do and it was among the hardest major to get into at most schools. This way if i wanted to change majors i could probably do so easily."

I didn't realize that was a flub until i read the posts above =)

My MIT interview this year was one of the worst experiences:

*********************************************************************************************************************
After the interview I had, I was so ashamed to tell the way some things went, but now it seems I can
tell after all...

I was in a friend's house, and he told me that the place for the interview was around 5 min by cab from his house, so I woke up 2 hours before, to read my essays and prepare myself.

The fight

*Round 1: *
I was shaving, then I cut myself, it was 40 minutes before the interview, and my neck just didn't stop bleeding, then I thought: "ok man I still have 20 minutes", but perhaps that my heart started to pump even harder, and the bleeding could just not stop, then, using all methods I know and I could find at my friend's house, I decided 10 minutes before the scheduled time that I should go anyway, with a paper tissue with me to stop the f%&# bleeding. I went to my interview I just could not find a taxi free, I started panicking, REAL PANIC! Then I saw one taxi going to the "wrong" direction, and I decided to take it anyway. I got to the place around 3 minutes late - I know is not that bad, but anyway it's bad - and I put the paper tissue in my neck and saw that at least the bleeding stopped.

*Round 2: *
The interview, it's stated here:
https://www.gmatclub.com/forum/103-t5053 ... &start=340

One thing I didn't mentioned, at the end of the interview I wanted to ask a last question regarding the MS option, but when I was about to ask my brain went blank, I just forgot what I was asking . Then I said:
I'm sorry, but I forgot, my mind went blank (is this the right word?). Then she started to tell me how procedures were then I remembered the question, and asked anyway... I was screwed anyway...

*Round 3 - The knockout: *
After everything, my interviewer said: !Ok now I need your official transcripts!" I thought: HECK, with this bloody cut I forgot that, and said: "I don't have it with me right now, is it ok if I send later?" and thought - I'm the world greatest MORON EVER! and thought, ok, it's done I have no chance at all...

But the next day I sent it by FedEX, I know it got there in 2 days, and sent a very warm thank you letter, I think it worked out, after all...
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(One of) my stupidest answer to an interview was in responding to the common "Name 3 of your strengths". Simple enough, right?

Well, my mind went blank too, so I frantically searched my now hollow brain for a 3rd adjective. Grabbing upon the first one that floated by, which many people have called me, I said "Umm... and kind!"

"Kind"? "Kind"?? What interviewee says they're "kind" in a job or business school interview??

Stealing shamelessly from fingerscrossed, my moment comes during a job interview for a summer internship:

Interviewer: "This job is particularly demanding since most our business takes place over summer, and we want to know you will be able to handle the load. Can you tell us a weakness and what you're doing to improve?"

Now my mind went blank...this was terrible, so naturally I said, after thinking for about 2 minutes: "Umm...I guess when I get a lot of work to do, I get sorta overwhelmed..." (kicking myself already).

Naturally, I did not get that job. But the best part was the internship I did get paid better and was right across the hall from those guys, and every time my interviewers saw me they looked at me like "how in the world did he get a job there?"

This happened with me during one of the interviews I got invited to.
I live in Mumbai (earlier known as Bombay) in India and the traffic scene is a mess here especially during rush hour. I got stuck while reaching the venue and finally reached the place with seconds to spare. I jumped out of the cab, then rushed down some long corridors and up a flight of stairs. So when I finally land up at the reception, I am already panting and pulling my pants up!
I was escorted into a room where a lady was to interview me. Then the jig begins. After we exchange pleasantries, the lady appears to be sitting down, so after all the exertions, I decide whole-heartedly to plonk myself down. Then I realise she was pulling a fast one and while indicating that she would sit down, straightened herself up and then handed me her card. So now she was standing and I was grinning like a jack-ass with my ass on the seat. So I got up in a jiffy and hand her my card.

Moments later I think I spot her about to sit down. So once again, I go plonk on the seat and surprise surprise, she is still standing! This time, offering me a glass of water. Was it that apparent? I thought I was puffing and panting without it showing so obviously. Anyways, I once again spring out of the seat and cross my heart, I wouldn't sit down till she sat down and invited me to. Finally, she did sit down but it took me a couple of seconds to register that the dance had ended.

I was applying for a job at Sony, for their international junior program in Europe. It was my first serious job interview after uni.

Interviewer: "So, what would you like to do in a couple of years?"
Me: "asset management"

I didn't get the job.

I got the same question at my Wharton interview, I also screwed up!

So I say open-minded, because I travelled a lot, bla bla bla, then analytical (not ideal but still ok) because I can make the links between different elements, bla bla bla, then I blanked; so I just said: "I'm a genuinely friendly guy". As soon as I said that I was thinking "wow that was pretty poor".

Turns out I still got accepted!

After answering the other school's I was applying to.... Columbia, Harvard, MIT and Wharton and being queried my criteria for choosing school's once admitted given the "huge differences between the said school's and Cornell"... I planned to highlight among other things my experiences with members of Cornell's Women's management council but instead it came out as Wharton's women..Cornell's women...the women's mangement council...I got waitlisted.

Is it common for schools to ask you what other schools you applied to? That was on the no-no list for our interviews as possible questions.

Also, I am a relative newbie to these forums, what is UE/E?

As to the original poster, funny thing I heard was in response to a question about life passions, someone said profitability and efficiency. wtf?

None of my school interviews asked me. But I would not have minded telling them, since all four schools I applied to had similar culture and offerings.

UE - Ultra Elite Schools - Hjort's own "cluster system" ranking - H/S/W, MIT, Kellogg, Chicago, Columbia

E - Elite Schools - Haas, Anderson, Tuck, Stern, Fuqua, Yale, Johnson, Darden, Ross

I love that "profitability and efficiency" story you told us at A-days. It was brilliant.

Interviewer: Which other schools have you applied to?
Interviewee: Give long pitch about the great program at their neighboring school
(after some time...)
Interviewer: Well, you can cross-register there

LOL
HBS/MIT?

Very old thread but I figured i would resurrect it during this Interview Season. You have your stories?

As you can see, dumb interviewers happen but all these guys got in somewhere. Don't stress. It will work out.

During my last year at college I was invited to some "career event" at Procter and Gamble. The event included small speeches by local office's executives from various lines of services, some presentation on company in general, food and drinks - nothing unusual.

At the end we had some GMAT-like test and a survey to fill, which included some general questions and a question on which line of service we would chose to apply for at P&G.

Having no idea on if I'd like to actually apply, I selected "Finance" (my major) and completely forgot about it.

In a couple of weeks I've got a call inviting me to the first round of interviews. Three interviews, to be precise, each taking about 30 minutes.

So, I was at their office, and the first guy entered the conference room. His first question was "So, why would you like to work in Supply Chain?"

I actually had no idea why I would, but being caught unexpectedly answered something, got the next question and so on. After all I ended up being interviewed three times for a position I never applied to.

I did my best during the first interview, but then thought - "What the hell, I'll never work in supply chain anyway!". So, the second interviewer came in and asked a usual question on how I see myself in five years. Well, I answered, I am an experienced professional, doing corporate finance....etc. - How working in supply chain will help you to develop in corporate finance? - Well, everything is somewhat connected within a business, you cannot just view each part separately, and supply chain peformance certainly affects financial results and then we have a larger picture....

Obviously, I didn't get an offer Never regretted about it, though.