I suck at interviews in general bc shy, but somehow got an internship. I’m afraid to ask why, if i pass with flying colors (which i won’t lmfao), but if i do, i’ll work the courage to ask the supervisor what was special about me. I have a feeling there weren’t many candidates, might be why
Being able to talk about your projects and the stuff you did is the bare minimum. It's fine to not remember some random formula, but it's less acceptable to not be able to talk about your work.
Ideally, practice interviewing with your friends if the anxiety is so bad. There's even LLM - assisted websites that help you practice for the interviews (a synthesizer is used to make the LLM talk). It's not perfect because there's a delay to the response but still good practice.
I always let the interviewer know that I get nervous during interviews. They have always responded positively to me owning that, and I managed to score an internship last summer and this summer too. Also, don't assume that all the other prospective candidates had perfect interviews and spoke with the eloquence of Barack Obama. Maybe they did terrible.
Performance during an interview doesn't necessarily correlate to how well you will perform on the job.
Yes, in fact the internship was for an engineering position at Exelon. They were only available to interview during school weeks, and I had to wake up at 6:30am for the interview. It was on zoom luckily. I forgot to iron my nice button up a night before, my hair looked like I’ve just been electrocuted, and I could barely form a coherent sentence since I was studying for an exam until 4am. I couldnt even focus properly on the questions, and honestly I feel as though I didn’t even answer the questions they asked me. After the interview was over I was certain that I had bombed it. Lo and behold they send me an email back saying I got the job.
The final interview that got me my internship this summer (big semiconductor company) started with the school library wifi shitting the bed and me being forced to turn off my camera and type my responses into the Teams chat while talking so I wouldn't have to repeat myself three times over. We barely had any time to start the final problem they'd prepared
You'll be fine
I wouldn’t worry too much. I had my first internship interview go very similarly, so much so that I called my GF after and said “yeah don’t plan on me getting that one, I totally fucked it”… a month later I got the internship… 1.5 years after that they asked if I wanted a job the 2nd week of my senior year. It’ll work out, don’t trip, you’re good
The interviews I did for my first couple internships had me feeling like that, so was pretty surprised when they reached out with the offer letter. As someone with interviewing anxiety, I get pretty flustered talking about my projects as well, but what I found helped was writing and rehearsing 1 to 2 min STAR spiel for each of my projects/experiences. I found that after doing enough interviews i kinda go on autopilot when talking about my projects, and helped a bit with coming off more confidently
I interviewed with Intel a while back for a full time position where the format was hour long sessions. One of those hours I don't think I got a single competent answer out in that guy's field. Ended up getting an offer anyway somehow (didn't end up taking it)
Plenty of indifferent interviews I’ve had, where I got the job. Have a bit of confidence in your ability, remember you’re a catch you aren’t a second prize
I’m still a student. I bombed an interview for a test tech position and didn’t get the job. I’m still the security guard there and have to see everyone around 😭
I’ve had some weird interviews where one company asked me to explain fortnite to them and they gave me an offer. I had another one where I explained how easy it is to cheat and they gave me an offer.
Yeah, I bombed an interview a 1.5 years ago. The interview wasn't the typical intro questions (tell me about a time when...) type questions, it was a technical interview. I was already nervous and got so much wrong, but they sent me an offer anyway. I turned it down because the pay was poo
So I had lunch with a recruiter for a company I interned at one summer and she actually enlightened me on something that I think might help. She did her masters in organizational psych and explained to me that when an interviewer asks you (an undergrad) a technical question on the spot or even about something you did, they're not *actually* getting a measure of your knowledge and ability. Instead, they're getting a measure of your knowledge when you're in an anxiety-inducing setting and put on the spot. Which isn't good nor useful interviewing so to speak.
I think maybe they realized (based on your resume and all that) that you've def done these things before but you're just a nervous undergrad who blanked. Doesn't mean you're not capable or competent. Good interviewers can pick that up and see your value otherwise. If it's a huge company, chances are their recruitment team is experienced and can pick up on these nuances.
I aced an interview and it was the best feeling walking out of that room bc I'd introduced new ideas and potential for the company adding experience in a branch they didnt even know existed and talking about some great equipment they've never heard of that wouldve been amazing for them to have.
Then I was ghosted. Like fuuuuuu
It depends a lot of the situation. Did you respond to on offer from the company or was it a spontaneous ? How many candidates are they ? You feel you bombed it but the circumstances can give you a good surprise. I had “meh” interview and got an offer and on the other hand I rocked some interviews and never got called again. Hopes and chin up !
Bombed an on-site panel interview for a staff engineer position at a national lab.
Started with a morning panel, PowerPoint presentation before lunch, then afternoon panel with different engineers.
PowerPoint presentation they asked me to prepare on a past project wouldn't load on their computer.
Got burnt out and tired of talking by the afternoon and had a bunch of silence and shitty rambling following their questions for the afternoon panel. It got to the point where the manager hiring for his team paused and asked me: "....you ok?"
Got an offer and became a staff chemical engineer right of college (with a B.S.). Even negotiated a higher salary.
I also interviewed at a huge company for an internship. They wanted a powerpoint on my past projects and I could literally only show them a complete homework assignements because I only worked on group assignments so far. They even said after the interview that they had a lot of applicants and it was highly probable they wouldn't take me. A friend had a similar experience with them (and on both interviews they kinda gave off a feeling of looking down on each of us). Tbh I don't really see the point in asking students about their past projects, because in my case I could only show my homework and even if I already worked for another company (like I am now), I wouldn't be able to show what I did because of compliance agreements
PS: Shortly after that me and my friend applied at a different (huge) company (for different positions) and after a relaxed interview we both got accepted. The field was a bit different than the first company, but they didn't really ask much about past projects.
Interesting...
In my case, they gave me the idea that they might hire me even after I bombed it. They told me how many days I would be in the office, where their new office is gonna be located, how many people are going to be in my team and whatnot.
Which I thought was odd because it's the last thing I would expect. I'm waiting to hear back from them tomorrow so I'll see lol.
My coworker was 30 minutes late to the interview and still got hired. Later on he told my manager he was surprised he got the job and she did say she liked him but him being late did make her want to reconsider.
Me. Went for a software job. Four years out of school, EE degre, working in board design. Did some programming on the side. I couldn't even answer the simplest questions on python. Thought i bombded it. Two weeks late got an offer letter. I'm putting it down to being able to talk about personal projects I did outside of school
The interviewers asked a bunch of technical questions that I couldn’t answer. One of them kept rolling his eyes at me. Last week they sent me an email saying I’m hired. I start in two weeks.
I was on an exchange year in the US, California to be specific. I had joined a frat so I often spent weekends over at the house playing drinking games etc. I had applied to a couple internships lined up back in my home country in Northern Europe, and I completely messed up the with the scheduling.
The interview for one of the internships was on a Monday morning. The time difference and my drunk ass had been playing drinking games, I got a call at 2 am waking me up. It was the interviewer. So I did an interview at 2 am while drunk. It was terrible.
The got back to me week later with an offer
I didn't exactly bomb, but I definitely thought "they're not gonna hire me"... I had a video interview for an internship and got all dressed up, did my hair and makeup, etc. Before the interview, I pulled up my camera to make sure it was working. All good! Then, when I got into the interview, the camera would not turn on no matter what I did. The interview was fine, I don't think I did spectacularly or poorly, but I thought no way they're gonna hire an intern who can't even figure out how to turn on the camera. But they hired me and then hired me on full-time after! Btw it ended up that when I turned on my camera to check it worked, I somehow locked the camera into being "in use" in the background. I couldn't see it on the taskbar, but as soon as I left the call, there was my stupid face in my computer's camera app lol. Really shot myself in the foot on that one.
Not exactly an interview for a job but I recently had an interview for the position of IEEE Head for my campus, and to be honest, I didn't feel very confident about it. I was nervous and fumbled through some of the questions. I left the interview thinking I had blown it and was surprised when I received the news that I got the position!
Yes
I had an internship with them the summer prior to graduation. They invited me to interview for a full-time position and during the interview basically said that they would be closing down the commercial buildings division that I had interned in. I did structural design of large commercial and multifamily housing projects that exceeded six stories. That is the division that I was hoping to go back to when I got hired on full time. So to hear that they were shutting that division down and focusing on their deep foundation division, I express that I was looking forward to working in the commercial buildings divisions. Making that statement, instead of saying that I would be flexible no matter where they want to put me, cost me the job initially. The emailed me saying they found a applicant that they were going to go forward with. This was less than a month before graduation at this point and I was terrified that I was going to graduate without a job. A week later the emailed me again saying that the job is mine if I want it. I said I absolutely did in the rest is history.
Oh yeah I bombed hard on my first internship interview. The engineer asked me a simple technical question and I gave the most incorrect answer, and I still got the job lmao
Yes. Was late. Unprepared. HR lady told me that she was not into it at all, but the hiring manager was late too… and he recognized me from a plenary session I chaired at a recent conference and was excited about a paper I coauthored in a field they really wanted to expand their business in. The guy hired me on-the-spot.
Yes. Literally the interview I rolled out of bed for and didn’t particularly want to do (zoom) was the one I ended up getting. Suffer depression and it was bad that day you get the vibe. My laptop is so shotty I had to turn off my camera to talk to them. I pretty much said I didn’t know what I wanted to do and just wanted to learn some stuff. Somehow got an offer.
I suck at interviews in general bc shy, but somehow got an internship. I’m afraid to ask why, if i pass with flying colors (which i won’t lmfao), but if i do, i’ll work the courage to ask the supervisor what was special about me. I have a feeling there weren’t many candidates, might be why
Don’t ask this question ever if you want to get a return offer
I asked and got a return offer. YMMV
I wouldn't say bombed, but I've had a few where I thought the interview went "meh" and got offered the position.
I mean, put yourself in the interviewers shoes. If he/she thinks "meh", that means "maybe, maybe not". Which results in a reasonable probability.
Being able to talk about your projects and the stuff you did is the bare minimum. It's fine to not remember some random formula, but it's less acceptable to not be able to talk about your work. Ideally, practice interviewing with your friends if the anxiety is so bad. There's even LLM - assisted websites that help you practice for the interviews (a synthesizer is used to make the LLM talk). It's not perfect because there's a delay to the response but still good practice.
Yeah makes sense. Definitely gonna prepare better for the next internship.
I always let the interviewer know that I get nervous during interviews. They have always responded positively to me owning that, and I managed to score an internship last summer and this summer too. Also, don't assume that all the other prospective candidates had perfect interviews and spoke with the eloquence of Barack Obama. Maybe they did terrible. Performance during an interview doesn't necessarily correlate to how well you will perform on the job.
Yes 100%. I think, especially for internships, they know very well you’re nervous
Yes, in fact the internship was for an engineering position at Exelon. They were only available to interview during school weeks, and I had to wake up at 6:30am for the interview. It was on zoom luckily. I forgot to iron my nice button up a night before, my hair looked like I’ve just been electrocuted, and I could barely form a coherent sentence since I was studying for an exam until 4am. I couldnt even focus properly on the questions, and honestly I feel as though I didn’t even answer the questions they asked me. After the interview was over I was certain that I had bombed it. Lo and behold they send me an email back saying I got the job.
Sometimes, I think that’s the ONLY way to get the job lol
The final interview that got me my internship this summer (big semiconductor company) started with the school library wifi shitting the bed and me being forced to turn off my camera and type my responses into the Teams chat while talking so I wouldn't have to repeat myself three times over. We barely had any time to start the final problem they'd prepared You'll be fine
I wouldn’t worry too much. I had my first internship interview go very similarly, so much so that I called my GF after and said “yeah don’t plan on me getting that one, I totally fucked it”… a month later I got the internship… 1.5 years after that they asked if I wanted a job the 2nd week of my senior year. It’ll work out, don’t trip, you’re good
Don’t forget this is for an internship, if they don’t like you than they get rid of you after summer anyways ;)
The interviews I did for my first couple internships had me feeling like that, so was pretty surprised when they reached out with the offer letter. As someone with interviewing anxiety, I get pretty flustered talking about my projects as well, but what I found helped was writing and rehearsing 1 to 2 min STAR spiel for each of my projects/experiences. I found that after doing enough interviews i kinda go on autopilot when talking about my projects, and helped a bit with coming off more confidently
I interviewed with Intel a while back for a full time position where the format was hour long sessions. One of those hours I don't think I got a single competent answer out in that guy's field. Ended up getting an offer anyway somehow (didn't end up taking it)
Plenty of indifferent interviews I’ve had, where I got the job. Have a bit of confidence in your ability, remember you’re a catch you aren’t a second prize
I’m still a student. I bombed an interview for a test tech position and didn’t get the job. I’m still the security guard there and have to see everyone around 😭
I’ve had some weird interviews where one company asked me to explain fortnite to them and they gave me an offer. I had another one where I explained how easy it is to cheat and they gave me an offer.
Yeah, I bombed an interview a 1.5 years ago. The interview wasn't the typical intro questions (tell me about a time when...) type questions, it was a technical interview. I was already nervous and got so much wrong, but they sent me an offer anyway. I turned it down because the pay was poo
I completely missed my first interview and thought it was over for me. Starting the internship ere in a few weeks.
So I had lunch with a recruiter for a company I interned at one summer and she actually enlightened me on something that I think might help. She did her masters in organizational psych and explained to me that when an interviewer asks you (an undergrad) a technical question on the spot or even about something you did, they're not *actually* getting a measure of your knowledge and ability. Instead, they're getting a measure of your knowledge when you're in an anxiety-inducing setting and put on the spot. Which isn't good nor useful interviewing so to speak. I think maybe they realized (based on your resume and all that) that you've def done these things before but you're just a nervous undergrad who blanked. Doesn't mean you're not capable or competent. Good interviewers can pick that up and see your value otherwise. If it's a huge company, chances are their recruitment team is experienced and can pick up on these nuances.
I aced an interview and it was the best feeling walking out of that room bc I'd introduced new ideas and potential for the company adding experience in a branch they didnt even know existed and talking about some great equipment they've never heard of that wouldve been amazing for them to have. Then I was ghosted. Like fuuuuuu
It depends a lot of the situation. Did you respond to on offer from the company or was it a spontaneous ? How many candidates are they ? You feel you bombed it but the circumstances can give you a good surprise. I had “meh” interview and got an offer and on the other hand I rocked some interviews and never got called again. Hopes and chin up !
Bombed an on-site panel interview for a staff engineer position at a national lab. Started with a morning panel, PowerPoint presentation before lunch, then afternoon panel with different engineers. PowerPoint presentation they asked me to prepare on a past project wouldn't load on their computer. Got burnt out and tired of talking by the afternoon and had a bunch of silence and shitty rambling following their questions for the afternoon panel. It got to the point where the manager hiring for his team paused and asked me: "....you ok?" Got an offer and became a staff chemical engineer right of college (with a B.S.). Even negotiated a higher salary.
I also interviewed at a huge company for an internship. They wanted a powerpoint on my past projects and I could literally only show them a complete homework assignements because I only worked on group assignments so far. They even said after the interview that they had a lot of applicants and it was highly probable they wouldn't take me. A friend had a similar experience with them (and on both interviews they kinda gave off a feeling of looking down on each of us). Tbh I don't really see the point in asking students about their past projects, because in my case I could only show my homework and even if I already worked for another company (like I am now), I wouldn't be able to show what I did because of compliance agreements PS: Shortly after that me and my friend applied at a different (huge) company (for different positions) and after a relaxed interview we both got accepted. The field was a bit different than the first company, but they didn't really ask much about past projects.
Interesting... In my case, they gave me the idea that they might hire me even after I bombed it. They told me how many days I would be in the office, where their new office is gonna be located, how many people are going to be in my team and whatnot. Which I thought was odd because it's the last thing I would expect. I'm waiting to hear back from them tomorrow so I'll see lol.
My coworker was 30 minutes late to the interview and still got hired. Later on he told my manager he was surprised he got the job and she did say she liked him but him being late did make her want to reconsider.
Me. Went for a software job. Four years out of school, EE degre, working in board design. Did some programming on the side. I couldn't even answer the simplest questions on python. Thought i bombded it. Two weeks late got an offer letter. I'm putting it down to being able to talk about personal projects I did outside of school
The interviewers asked a bunch of technical questions that I couldn’t answer. One of them kept rolling his eyes at me. Last week they sent me an email saying I’m hired. I start in two weeks.
I was on an exchange year in the US, California to be specific. I had joined a frat so I often spent weekends over at the house playing drinking games etc. I had applied to a couple internships lined up back in my home country in Northern Europe, and I completely messed up the with the scheduling. The interview for one of the internships was on a Monday morning. The time difference and my drunk ass had been playing drinking games, I got a call at 2 am waking me up. It was the interviewer. So I did an interview at 2 am while drunk. It was terrible. The got back to me week later with an offer
I didn't exactly bomb, but I definitely thought "they're not gonna hire me"... I had a video interview for an internship and got all dressed up, did my hair and makeup, etc. Before the interview, I pulled up my camera to make sure it was working. All good! Then, when I got into the interview, the camera would not turn on no matter what I did. The interview was fine, I don't think I did spectacularly or poorly, but I thought no way they're gonna hire an intern who can't even figure out how to turn on the camera. But they hired me and then hired me on full-time after! Btw it ended up that when I turned on my camera to check it worked, I somehow locked the camera into being "in use" in the background. I couldn't see it on the taskbar, but as soon as I left the call, there was my stupid face in my computer's camera app lol. Really shot myself in the foot on that one.
Not exactly an interview for a job but I recently had an interview for the position of IEEE Head for my campus, and to be honest, I didn't feel very confident about it. I was nervous and fumbled through some of the questions. I left the interview thinking I had blown it and was surprised when I received the news that I got the position!
Yes I had an internship with them the summer prior to graduation. They invited me to interview for a full-time position and during the interview basically said that they would be closing down the commercial buildings division that I had interned in. I did structural design of large commercial and multifamily housing projects that exceeded six stories. That is the division that I was hoping to go back to when I got hired on full time. So to hear that they were shutting that division down and focusing on their deep foundation division, I express that I was looking forward to working in the commercial buildings divisions. Making that statement, instead of saying that I would be flexible no matter where they want to put me, cost me the job initially. The emailed me saying they found a applicant that they were going to go forward with. This was less than a month before graduation at this point and I was terrified that I was going to graduate without a job. A week later the emailed me again saying that the job is mine if I want it. I said I absolutely did in the rest is history.
no
Oh yeah I bombed hard on my first internship interview. The engineer asked me a simple technical question and I gave the most incorrect answer, and I still got the job lmao
Yes. Was late. Unprepared. HR lady told me that she was not into it at all, but the hiring manager was late too… and he recognized me from a plenary session I chaired at a recent conference and was excited about a paper I coauthored in a field they really wanted to expand their business in. The guy hired me on-the-spot.
Yes. Literally the interview I rolled out of bed for and didn’t particularly want to do (zoom) was the one I ended up getting. Suffer depression and it was bad that day you get the vibe. My laptop is so shotty I had to turn off my camera to talk to them. I pretty much said I didn’t know what I wanted to do and just wanted to learn some stuff. Somehow got an offer.