Terrible work interviews

[Aori]

So I've been struggling finding work, rarely even get interviews and sometimes when I do they are disastrous.

I've applied to most places locally and really haven't heard back from most. I ventured online and applied for telecommuting positions like customer support. I ended up getting an interview with Apple. Got past the first phase interview, short and sweet. The second was a bit more in depth, went fantastic they set me up for my next interview a week later.

So my third phase interview with Apple. It started off alright, the older lady looked and sounded like she knew as much about computers and technology as my 4 year old. Of course Apple doesn't really care about your technical knowhow in the third interview. We got to a point where she said ok, lets do a roleplay. (I did a roleplay in the second interview as well) I say ok, she begins like this "I'm a woman who just dived into a pool to save her drowning child, my phone was in my pocket and it no longer works, will you replace it for me" Then silence. She is just staring at me. I said I'm sorry, I thought we were doing a roleplay. She said we are, it is your turn. The morbid unnatural nature of it all just dumbfounded me, I couldn't process. I'm pretty sure at the point I had the deer in headlights look.

So shes, well lets try another roleplay, she does the same thing with a different story. I fumble my way thru and she is like ok thats good enough, you'll receive an email in a week or two then hung up. I clearly didn't get the job.

What should I have done? How would you have handled the situation? have you had any similar interviews that just left you speechless?

[Gamdwelf]

You get the customer a new phone. In phone service the asshole customers are right.

[Revi]

Without knowing anything about their policies, I would have replaced it for her. It's an extraordinary situation and disregarding me just wanting to be nice, denying it could lead to a PR nightmare.

[Malachi256]

[Aori]

You get the customer a new phone. In phone service the asshole customers are right.

Apple doesn't replace phones without Applecare, regardless of circumstance.

Wasn't the point though, I was asked to do a roleplay and was given a situation with no person to roleplay with. How do you act out a one-sided customer service call?

[Cyanotical]

i'd have answered the question like this:

"im not aware of Apple's water damage policy, but i believe the best course of action would be to not only replace her phone, but to give her an upgraded model free of charge, this will instill lifelong brand loyalty. i could deny the claim for water damage, but this was obviously not a case of misguided judgement or carelessness and refusing this claim would cause her to hate the Apple brand forever, a single loss on a phone is worth gaining a lifelong customer."

[Revi]

Apple doesn't replace phones without Applecare, regardless of circumstance.

Wasn't the point though, I was asked to do a roleplay and was given a situation with no person to roleplay with. How do you act out a one-sided customer service call?

"I would have told her that..."

Or just jump into it, and the interviewer could add in.

[Yvaelle]

I've never been left speechless by a question - but it's alright to ask for clarification - or to offer to refer her to a manager (in the roleplay).

As example, a woman who dove into a pool to save a drowning child may end up on the news, if she's pissed that Apple won't replace her phone - that could reflect negatively on the company. Even if it's against official policy it's still worth getting confirmation on a tough situation like that - because it could have other impacts on your business - in that sense it's a loaded question (which is also why she's asking it).

Remember that in any interview, what they are looking for is your thought process - not your answer. They will intentionally ask questions that are meant to stump you, to confuse you - because they want to see how you react and think: that is what matters to your job, not if you get the question 'right'.

Reminds me of this though

[Aori]

I've never been left speechless by a question - but it's alright to ask for clarification - or to offer to refer her to a manager (in the roleplay).

As example, a woman who dove into a pool to save a drowning child may end up on the news, if she's pissed that Apple won't replace her phone - that could reflect negatively on the company. Even if it's against official policy it's still worth getting confirmation on a tough situation like that - because it could have other impacts on your business - in that sense it's a loaded question (which is also why she's asking it).

Remember that in any interview, what they are looking for is your thought process - not your answer. They will intentionally ask questions that are meant to stump you, to confuse you - because they want to see how you react and think: that is what matters to your job, not if you get the question 'right'.

Reminds me of this though

There was no roleplay though, am I misunderstanding what a roleplay is? With regards to a customer service roleplay you would have an interaction between 2 people. There was no interaction with the interviewer like in the second interview. It wasn't a what would you do in this situation question, she specifically said roleplay.

[Yvaelle]

There was no roleplay though, am I misunderstanding what a roleplay is? With regards to a customer service roleplay you would have an interaction between 2 people. There was no interaction with the interviewer like in the second interview. It wasn't a what would you do in this situation question, she specifically said roleplay.

You didn't respond though - I assume the interviewer would have taken the role of the lady the moment you had given your response.

[Darsithis]

I've never had a bad interview myself but I've had bad interviewees. A few:

1 - One person applied to work as a software engineer at our company despite having a resume filled with truck driving experience
2 - One person called my (then) project manager and said "I don't actually code anything, I just cut and paste from Google what I need"
3 - I interviewed this kid who seemed really nice but his technical skills were lacking when he showed me a program he wrote. The entire program was one gigantic class file filled with every method he needed for it. Took almost 100 pages to print it all (why he didn't just email it I'll never know)
4 - Had another guy put on his resume that he is an expert in "wiring up event handlers", which is something the IDE does for you anyway

[Aori]

You didn't respond though - I assume the interviewer would have taken the role of the lady the moment you had given your response.

The first one she gave me the entire scenario, there was no beginning to start the roleplay.

She didn't respond in the second one, I was left acting by myself.

[Reeve]

I'd say, "Oh wow, was your child OK? I'm glad you were able to rescue them!" Then what I would do from there would depend on company policy, and the willingness of my boss to bend. I'd tell the customer, "Let me see what I can do for you," then I'd go talk to the manager to see if there was something we could do to help them. I'd then leave the decision in the manager's hands.

If I were the manager, and assuming I were empowered to make decisions like this, I'd give her the replacement.

[Deleted]

She was testing to see if you bothered to do a little background research the policies of the company online. Not at all an unreasonable request after 2 interviews.

Unfortunately you can't use the excuse that "I was put of by the severity of you're question because you can beat your bottom dollar she will respond with "well a customer will ask questions like that".

Before an interview I would read up into the background of the company, polices, stats, staff stories.

[the game]

Apple doesn't replace phones without Applecare, regardless of circumstance.

Wasn't the point though, I was asked to do a roleplay and was given a situation with no person to roleplay with. How do you act out a one-sided customer service call?

The point was to tell her what you would do in that situation. I don't think it was meant to be an actual conversation.

[Deleted]

There was no roleplay though, am I misunderstanding what a roleplay is? With regards to a customer service roleplay you would have an interaction between 2 people. There was no interaction with the interviewer like in the second interview. It wasn't a what would you do in this situation question, she specifically said roleplay.

Maybe you should of talked like you would to a normal customer having a problem with her phone. As in, she might of been testing your "bullshit meter" . If it was a real scenario, the woman on the other end could of been lieing about the circumstances that led to her phone being underwater but decided to lie about saving a child :P . Even if she did that, you had no way of knowing since you weren't there, so ....business as usual. That's how i would of gone about it.

[Icathian]

Without knowing anything about their policies, I would have replaced it for her. It's an extraordinary situation and disregarding me just wanting to be nice, denying it could lead to a PR nightmare.

Exactly. Replacing the phone is nothing compared to the free advertising you would get if you did something nice to this woman, or the backlash from this woman going to the media to tell the world how heartless Apple is.


This is..very obvious. If you're struggling so bad that you begin to stutter and stare at the person like that, you have to work out your social skills a bit more. Or maybe if you're not that kind of person, just start putting yourself as the customer. I think you're too afraid to give a wrong answer, failing to see that the right answer is most often than not the easiest one.


You gotta put in your head that THEY should be the ones glad to have you around, not the other way. An interview like that works both ways, don't be afraid of talking and asking them questions as well, take the initiative and make up a roleplay as well to give them a different example.


To answer your question directly, this is what I would've said:

"Well, first i'd analyze the situation and figure out if the person is telling the truth, judging by her tone of voice etc, just so we're sure that this is not just someone that wants a new phone.
Then, i'd ask her to send the phone back to Apple, where we would check if the phone indeed broke due to deep water damage. If that's the case, we would consider this a special situation and give the customer a replacement, since this is a very sensitive matter. We could easily have a lifetime customer thanks to this event, so definitely worth it."

[Stockers]

There was no roleplay though, am I misunderstanding what a roleplay is? With regards to a customer service roleplay you would have an interaction between 2 people. There was no interaction with the interviewer like in the second interview. It wasn't a what would you do in this situation question, she specifically said roleplay.

She was giving you the scenario.

You would start with:

Hello Madam, how can I help you today?

"I jumped in a pool to save my drowning kid, now my phone wont work."

Oh wow that was very brave of you, are you both ok? Now lets see what we can do about this phone for you...

and so on.


I have done many role plays, from both aspects, you give the person a scenario, in my experience it has always been on a typed document and they are given a short time to prepare (5 mins), they then enter the room and are expected to instigate the event.

[Cyanotical]

the thing is though if you give interviews, after a few hundred you can tell people's personality and skill by a few answers, and when you have 100 interviews for 1 position, you do anything and everything to eliminate as many candidates as possible. and given that OP was on phonescreen number 3, they are definitely still eliminating, final selection is almost always done in person. and yes, personality is a very valid thing to eliminate people for.

in this case i would say that they want someone they need to do as little hand holding as possible, with almost no background info, OP was given a scenario, and then choked. they want someone who can immediately run with the problem without needing to ask more questions. OP is not it. but don't sweat it, if your personality and skills don't match what a company is looking for, you probably don't want to work there anyway.

[Gamdwelf]

She might to be using role play in the strictest sense, but that doesn't mean you can shut down in an interview.