<story><title>I&apos;m sorry I bit you during my job interview (2011)</title><url>https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/im-sorry-i-bit-you-during-my-job-interview</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>firefoxd</author><text>This made my day. Bursted out laughing while waiting in line in an immigration office.&lt;p&gt;Many years ago, I interviewed somewhere where the HR manager gave me hell. It was a roller coaster emotions. She would say something funny, I would laugh and then she&amp;#x27;d take note seriously. Out of the blue, she would ask about my childhood, then switch to why do I look stressed. I had 6 technical interviews before her that went well. I had just lost a family member, talking with her was a nail in my coffin. I was surprised when they called me back.&lt;p&gt;Two years at the job, a deranged guy accosted us at lunch with my team. He made everyone feel uncomfortable before leaving. Turns out, this was the guy I had replaced. After he was hired he turned into a lunatic who would threaten anyone who questioned his code. The stress test HR made me go through was designed to filter these people out.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;d like to believe I&amp;#x27;m not a psycho since I passed the test, but I don&amp;#x27;t think it did what it was designed to do. Two of my coworkers are now convicted murderers. One of them with a famous televised trial that just ended last month.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>ryandrake</author><text>Seems like a lot of us have worked with that &amp;quot;deranged guy.&amp;quot; We had a guy who would _mostly_ keep to himself, do his programming job, eat lunch by himself, but then, every so often, he&amp;#x27;d come up to you by the water cooler and just say something random and moderately disturbing, like &amp;quot;You know, I sleep with a gun under the pillow and a bullet in the chamber&amp;quot; and then just turn around and walk out of the break room. He would also stand in your cubicle doorway blocking your exit, and talk at length about his background in the military and intelligence agencies, and keen interest in Russian sensor technology, or some other unhinged topic--for hours or until you forcibly walked under his arm to leave. He was eventually fired for taking something too far (it wasn&amp;#x27;t disclosed to the rest of the office). He had to be escorted out by security while he yelled that he was going to come back to the office with one of his AK-47s and mow it down. We had a cop stationed outside the office for a few weeks after that just in case. Fun times!</text></comment>
<story><title>I&apos;m sorry I bit you during my job interview (2011)</title><url>https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/im-sorry-i-bit-you-during-my-job-interview</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>firefoxd</author><text>This made my day. Bursted out laughing while waiting in line in an immigration office.&lt;p&gt;Many years ago, I interviewed somewhere where the HR manager gave me hell. It was a roller coaster emotions. She would say something funny, I would laugh and then she&amp;#x27;d take note seriously. Out of the blue, she would ask about my childhood, then switch to why do I look stressed. I had 6 technical interviews before her that went well. I had just lost a family member, talking with her was a nail in my coffin. I was surprised when they called me back.&lt;p&gt;Two years at the job, a deranged guy accosted us at lunch with my team. He made everyone feel uncomfortable before leaving. Turns out, this was the guy I had replaced. After he was hired he turned into a lunatic who would threaten anyone who questioned his code. The stress test HR made me go through was designed to filter these people out.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;d like to believe I&amp;#x27;m not a psycho since I passed the test, but I don&amp;#x27;t think it did what it was designed to do. Two of my coworkers are now convicted murderers. One of them with a famous televised trial that just ended last month.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>tibbetts</author><text>Many years ago I had a job interview that included a personality test. I didn’t take the job, for other reasons. But I always wondered what had gone wrong in the past such that a personality test for engineers was in order. I’m now glad to know. I also wonder how many problematic malcontents I would have found had I gone to work there.</text></comment>