Did you ever seriously mess up in a job interview?

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I interviewed for an Engineering Technician position, and when one of the interviewers asked me whether I would prefer to be a supervisor or one of the lower-level employees, I blurted out that supervisors don't really do anything. The second interviewer said, "wow."

I once compared the company i was interviewing for with another company in response to an interview question. I realized too late that i gave the "other" company a better review than the company i was interviewing for.

I believe this is a case of appealing to the wrong audience. That is, corporate political incorrectness.
To answer though, I once got a nose bleed while interviewing for a bank teller job.

Once when doing a graded mock interview in college I randomly started to cry. I had been terrified of not passing and dreaded the interview for days.

I guess she felt sorry for me because she passed me anyway.

In answer to the OP: I said in an interview, one time: "I'd rather work alone"----then, as an afterthought: "Not that I mind working as part of a team"----too late!! LOL

I attended a job interview in 1987 and, as I was taking my leave of the interviewers, I told them "I'll let you know".

Don't worry too much about it. I often mess up and say the wrongs things in several interviews before I land a job and it just so happens to be the "right" job for me. You just have to be more aware of what you say. We have a tendency to be very honest and blunt, but sometimes we forget that people want to hear a "certain" answer. It always helps me to formulate a sort of script so I don't mess up by saying the wrong things. Don't sweat it too much, you will get another shot but I think you need to practice interviewing more.

Interviewing is too much b.s. for me. I signed up with vocational rehab and specified that I needed help with job placement because I don't interview well. I can't concentrate on following basic interviewing etiquette if I have to simultaneously worry about giving "proper" rather than truthful answers. It takes extra time and mental energy to translate my answer into whatever form interviewers find acceptable.

I agree, interviewing is major BS. They do not want truthful answers, they want fluff. But, I realized that if I wanted a job, I would give them fluff. Really, I thought of it as just a boost to my intelligence that I was able to say cliche things and have them eat it up. After the interview, though, they never really bothered me again or expected me to say any of those things to keep up with the charade. So, essentially, I played their game and it worked. You need to take a proactive approach though. I tend to write down every question that I know they are going to ask and write a corresponding "NT" answer that I know they would want to hear. It has worked remarkably well and knowing the basic premise of what I am going to say beforehand really helps my confidence. I really encourage you to try it this way. I often go over my many answers for hours before the interview, but it seems to pay off as I am asked back and usually land the job.

Try thinking of what the appropriate answer is and then find a way to express it truthfully. Work backwards. Things can be twisted to truth in what I guess is etiquette. It totally sucks. I hate that the world works this way, but it seems to be the game.

hahaha!

Once I was interviewing a younger male, with I think one other female with me as I interviewed. Possibly two females. The guy kept winking at us after he'd answer. I'm pretty sure he was just nervous and trying to joke with us, but it was so bizarre we couldn't remember anything he said to us. Even our papers had notes of "winking!" all over them.

I didn't hire him.

A more pertinent question for me to answer would be: Have I ever NOT messed up in a job interview?

And the answer would be a resounding no.

The last 8 years or so I have been on the other side of the table - hiring.

The hardest part of interviewing is that the candidate will obviously hide all their warts - it is your job to ferret them out. I hated that part.

My approach to an interview was to describe the job as thoroughly as possible, then used a technique (I forget the name) where you ask them to answer questions based on a specific real life situation, not a theoretical answer. (I think it is behavior based interviewing. That way if a person is talking about the time they had a disagreement with their boss that actually happened they have less time to think about the politically correct answer and they have to talk from their actual experience and believe me it opens up the discussion and sometimes give you a little glimpse into what they would actually do in the real world.

Dont get me wrong, I usually wanted to hire everyone and ended up thinking I would really like to see this person develop and grow in their career. Those are the parts of being an employer that I like.

I once had an interview for a tech job at a *very* socially-hip, sales-oriented, trendy dotcom. The technical interviews were a breeze as we were on safe ground both in subject matter & who I was talking to. Then came the interviews with managers of other depts. One said, "I need coffee, let's go grab some coffee" and proceeded to walk down to the coffee shop on the ground floor. The crowded, busy, loud coffee shop. Filled with smells, sun flashing off car windows as they drove by, and the manager exercising her social skills with everyone she recognized *while doing the interview with me*.

My sensory issues were saturated. I felt like I was barely hanging on to *any* conversation with her, let along one that would determine if I got a good assessment for the position. We were sitting at a cafe style table in between inside and outside ...and...I fixated on a chihuahua sniffing around on a leash. I couldn't look away. It was as if I was using staring at it to block out everything that was overwhelming. She got my attention (finally?) and seemed a bit put out that I'd not been focused on *her* instead. I *think* without looking away from the dog I blurted out something rambling about "a rat dog". Not really sure.

Needless to say, that was the end of that interview. Which was okay with me in retrospect as I could not have worked in that environment (which I later found out was indeed expected).

While what you said is funny and true in a lot of ways, that's definitely the wrong thing to say to a supervisor if you want him to like you and give you the job.