can I cut short a whole day of horrible, rude interviews?

by Alison Green on January 22, 2025

A reader writes:

I’m a recent grad, and I’ve been searching for my first full-time position. Recently, I was invited to second round of interviews for an event planning position at a national organization with a recognizable name. It included a schedule of seven virtual half-hour interviews with different groups of people at the organization and a request for me to prepare a 10-slide presentation of a potential event for the organization and challenges I might face. I thought seven interviews were overkill for such a junior position, especially as the organization does not specialize in event planning, but I was happy to participate.

The seven interviews were horrifyingly awful. In the very first one, I was asked a very technical question about a product the organization produces. In response, I was clear that I was new to the field, did not know enough technical info to answer the question successfully but was excited to learn, and tried to redirect to my event planning experience. I was then reprimanded by the person who asked the question for not having knowledge that I think would take several degrees and 10 years in the field to acquire. The other three interviewers seemed to take their cues from the first interviewer, and were very dismissive. Their tone was along the lines of “You definitely don’t know this, but how do you…” including saying those exact words to me. They were correct, I did not know!

I clicked into the next Zoom link utterly certain it was not the right role for me. Each of the remaining interviews, with the exception of one with five similarly junior employees who I would not actually be working with, was similarly challenging. I was asked questions that I was very uncomfortable answering, with very little relevance to the role and the responsibilities: for example, how I would solve a crisis like the Israel-Palestine conflict, or tackle a hate crime that had happened to a specific employee, enacted by an employee in the next group to interview me, who they named. All cameras were off for my presentation, and I wasn’t asked a single question — including by my potential direct supervisor, present on the call, who left it to me to wrap up the meeting in dead silence.

I’ve since found another role, where I was asked sensible, relevant questions during the hiring process, but I can’t help wondering about how I should have handled that series of interviews. Was there a way I could have pulled out of the entirety of the planned day and consideration for the position after the first interview of the day? Was there a way I could have expressed feedback — perhaps to the very lovely HR person — after the truly horrific day of interviewing? And frankly, why would they have that many people (I want to say a total of 50) take the time to interview me?

For what it’s worth, I don’t think I was underqualified for the position. The first round was an interview with someone from HR, and my understanding of the role was that I would provide support logistics for the several large conferences the company hosts — booking rooms, tracking RSVPs, sending invitations, and the like. They clearly decided they didn’t want me during the first 10 minutes (I sent an email the next day thanking them for their time and politely withdrawing), but I am genuinely confused about how and why the day went the way it did.

They asked how you would solve the Israel-Palestine conflict in a job interview for a junior events planning position?!

Or how you would solve a hated crime perpetrated by one employee against another, then sent you to interview with the doer of the crime?!

WTF?!

Yes, you can cut short an interview if it becomes clear that you’d never want to work there or that moving forward isn’t a good use of anyone’s time. Most of the time it makes sense to see out an interview through to the end — since the employer might have a different opening in the future that you would be considered for if you make a good impression now — but there are a few situations where it makes more sense to just call it to a halt:

* if an interviewer is being abusive or insulting

* if you’re in the middle of a day-long series of interviews (and so it’s not a matter of just getting through the next 30 minutes, but of investing hours more of your time and theirs)

* if it becomes clear that the job is absolutely not right for you for an easily explainable reason that you’re comfortable being straightforward about (for example, it turns out the job was advertised as mostly X but turns out to be mostly Y and you hate Y, or the hours are obviously not the right fit)

In those situations, it’s fine to say something like:

* “I really appreciate your time, but as we’re talking I’m realizing that this wouldn’t be the right match for me.”

* “As we’re talking, I’m realizing that this job wouldn’t be right for me, and since I want to be respectful of your time I don’t think it makes sense for me to continue with the rest of the day’s meetings.”

* “It sounds like this job is really focused on X. I’m actively trying to move away from X and focus on Y, so this doesn’t sound like it would be the right match. I don’t want to take up more of your time so why don’t we wrap up here and you can focus on other candidates.”

Again, the bar should be fairly high for doing this, but in situations like the ones above it’s a reasonable choice.

To your other questions: It would be fine to give feedback to the HR person afterwards! You could say that the questions gave you a very different idea of the role than she had (and be specific about the two questions you shared here because those are %$&*#!) and/or that the interviewers were dismissive to the point of rudeness. As for why they’d have that many people interview you: they’re terrible at hiring! That explains basically all of this.

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{ 195 comments }

{ 195 comments… read them below or add one }

  1. cele*

    LOL. As a Senior Events Manager, this is absurd. Interviewing with FIFTY people for a junior planning position?! Asking how you would solve global conflicts?! Consider this a bullet dodged, imo.

    Reply ↓
    1. The Prettiest Curse*

      Yes, as a fellow events planner, I completely agree that these questions (and the entire interview process) were beyond ridiculous. I plan conferences in an area in which I had zero knowledge/experience of before starting this job. We have people with the knowledge that I don’t have and it works fine! Maybe they thought they were testing your ability to be diplomatic and stay calm in tough situations with those ridiculous scenarios – but actually, they were telling you that they have no idea how to interview people to successfully identify candidates with the skills they need for this role.

      I would be willing to bet money that this events department is an absolute dumpster fire that couldn’t organise successful tea party for teddy bears, much less an actual conference.

      Reply ↓
      1. cele*

        Totally agree. Prior to this job, I worked at an organization that really, truly had no idea what goes into an event, and it was SO difficult to get what I needed. That’s definitely not the kind of place you want to learn logistics!

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    2. Ama*

      Yeah this is definitely an org that doesn’t know what questions to ask a potential event planner which probably means they don’t actually know what an event planner does. And as someone who worked for an org like that (I regularly had to defend the skills of the event planners I was contracting with because senior management seemed to think I “shouldn’t be spending time” giving them details like what set up we wanted for the room and a briefing on who our VIP attendees were) – OP is definitely better off without this particular job.

      Reply ↓
      2. Meaningful hats*

        I was once the sole event planner for a company that held multiple large-scale events per month. Nobody there understood why I burned out after 18 months because, “The venue staff sets up the tables and everything so what do you even have to do?”.

        Reply ↓
        1. The Prettiest Curse*

          Ohhhh, screw those people. I hope they has a rude awakening when they discovered exactly what you were doing all day after you left!

          Reply ↓
    3. Chauncy Gardener*

      I’m actually visualizing this completely screwed up team now all high-fiving each other because they made it into AAM.
      It’s the only logical scenario!

      Reply ↓
    4. Munich Insecurity Conference*

      They were not asking LW to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

      They were gauging how she deals with difficult people, or people who want to be controversial or tendentious.

      Those personality types show up very frequently for conferences, especially for “ideas” conferences like TED Talks, or the World Economic Forum, or Renaissance Weekend.

      Reply ↓
  2. CTA*

    I was once invited for a day of several hours of interviews with a company. In the instructions, the company stated that they reserved the right to cut the interview short and cancel the remaining ones if they deemed fit. So if a employer can decide to cancel the rest of my interviews because they don’t deem me fit (after I block out an entire day for them), then I could definitely withdraw if I saw it fit. On the day of the actual interview, none of my interviews were canceled (I didn’t get the job either, but I found opportunity elsewhere). This was during the peak of Covid when all interviews were remote, so I have no idea if that employer still has that policy of cutting interviews short and canceling the rest.

    Reply ↓
    1. Antilles*

      The situation is so bonkers that it makes me wonder if it’s the opposite version of that:
      The company was required by company policy that you must interview X candidates, but had already decided on their preferred candidate. They didn’t want to actually cancel the interviews themselves because The Policy Requires X Candidates, but hoped that by sending the interviews completely off the rails, OP would pull out.

      Reply ↓
        1. Artemesia*

          In academic hiring it would not be unusual for a candidate over two days to be judged by 50+ people in one on one and panel interviews and then in. multiple presentations.

          Reply ↓
          1. lebkin*

            The idea that you’d go through 50 people once for interviews is more than I’d ever want to do. That it’d a regular thing in academia? That’s a whole field of nope for me.

            Reply ↓
            2. Higher Ed Person*

              I mean, I’ve interviewed at 7 higher educational institutions for TT faculty positions, and I don’t think I’ve come close to speaking with 50 people. This varies highly by field.

              Reply ↓
            3. Charlotte Lucas*

              And then there are the informal parts of that. I remember being a grad student and invited to go to lunch with other grad students and a candidate. I wasn’t an official part of the hiring process, but they wanted our impressions on candidates. (This was a desirable invitation, because it was also a free lunch at a fairly nice restaurant.)

              Reply ↓
          2. Happy meal with extra happy*

            Academia is such an outlier, though, that I don’t think you can/should compare its hiring practices to any other field.

            Reply ↓
            1. Rex Libris*

              Academia is an outlier in practically everything. A friend of mine was a professor before they just couldn’t take the politics, mismanagement and power struggles between the deans and the tenured faculty any more and noped out. They find the world of public non-profits a bastion of sanity, common sense and good business practice by comparison.

              Reply ↓
            2. Irina*

              Dutch academia datapoint: at my youngest daughter’s graduation, she went forward to sign the papers and her phone which was beside me on the chair went “blip”. “You have a text,” I said when she came back, and it was a job offer (in her exact field). Had the job for 5 years until she went on to an even better fit.

              Reply ↓
          3. Elitist Semicolon*

            Especially at a state school, where there may be a mandate that the committee interview everyone who meets the basic quals. (Staff positions, not faculty positions.) Departments learn to be very specific about what they set as their basic qualifications in order to avoid having to do 40 first-round interviews.

            Reply ↓
          4. AnotherSarah*

            For sure–but at least in my experience, on committees and as a candidate, the questions are relevant and what you need to do at the on-campus interviews is standard, and also relevant.
            I was once asked a bonkers question but I knew it was coming, because that particular person was really hung up on the issue and asked it of everyone, and the search chair told me to look out for it and to know that it didn’t reflect on the job or the desires of the committee as a whole (and it wasn’t nearly as bonkers as the qs here).

            Reply ↓
    2. TechWorker*

      Was your objection that they ‘reserved the right to do it’ (quite normal, imo) or that they explicitly told you that they had? (Less normal, perhaps).

      I don’t think it’s super respectful of a candidates time either to ask you to spend a full day if it’s clear you’re not the right fit for the position 15min in. Like, I definitely wouldn’t cut short an interview if it’s only 45min or an hour, but a full day is a lot of time to invest on both sides if it’s clearly not going to work out.

      Reply ↓
      1. Silver Robin*

        I did not read it as an objection, but rather as arguing that if the employer side is definitely willing to do it, regardless of the amount of time set aside, the interviewee should feel just as empowered.

        Reply ↓
  3. Anonym*

    OP, you sound clear headed and sensible, and like a great asset to any organization. If you end up deciding to give feedback to the HR person, please consider sharing an update. Congratulations on landing the job with a decent, reasonable organization!

    Reply ↓
    1. NotAnotherManager!*

      I agree with this. LW’s sense of normal is dead on, and I’m so glad that they decided to do an early gut check rather than warp their excellent sense of normalcy to what sounds like a terrible workplace. Really good judgment and also glad they landed a job somewhere else!

      Reply ↓
    2. Hats Are Great*

      OP, you should also consider reporting this to your college’s career services office, so they can warn future grads, or possibly interrogate the HR team there why they treated one of their alumni so terribly.

      Reply ↓
    3. Chauncy Gardener*

      100% agree with this!
      I wish I was hiring an event planner. You sound incredibly level headed and intelligent.
      Good luck!

      Reply ↓
  4. Antilles*

    how I would solve a crisis like the Israel-Palestine conflict,
    I don’t know, but if I had the magic answer to a decades-long conflict, I sure as hell wouldn’t be interviewing for (checks post) a logistics support position for event planning.

    Reply ↓
    1. Rex Libris*

      I would have totally, with a straight face, said “I’m afraid the White House has asked me not to divulge that.”

      Reply ↓
      4. Velawciraptor*

        Or “I’m so sorry. I didn’t realize this was an interview for a diplomatic position. I’m certainly not qualified for such work. Do you by any chance have the link for the event planer interviews I was supposed to be in?”

        Reply ↓
    3. tamarack etc.*

      “I understand event planning can be a contentious field, but I didn’t realize your events were at that level of conflict.” (No, don’t say that. But it’s so absurd it’s perfectly ok to pull out.)

      Reply ↓
      1. Silver Robin*

        Idk, I think it might actually be fair to say something like “Based on your questions, it sounds like there is quite a bit of conflict between stakeholders for these events. Can you speak more to how event planning normally goes here and what obstacles you envision I would face?”

        Reply ↓
    4. MigraineMonth*

      “Well, I would check how many chairs would comfortably fit into the event space for the peace conference, then I’d follow up with the caterers to make sure there were sufficient halal and kosher options…”

      Since we all know that the key to resolving hundred-year intractable international conflicts with regional and global ramifications comes down to the skills of the event planner.

      Reply ↓
      1. Silver Robin*

        Wildly incorrect but I now want to read a thriller from the point of view of an event planner who works for some highly sensitive diplomatic mission and the success of the treaty comes down to the canapes served at the reception…

        Reply ↓
        1. Carol the happy*

          Do the diplomats stab at each other with those little frilly toothpicks, or do they joust with drink umbrellas?

          I really need to know. (rolls eyes and sighs….)

          Reply ↓
        2. The Prettiest Curse*

          The special, Nobel Peace prize-winning canapés are on a secret catering menu that can only be accessed by correctly solving a series of bizarre hypothetical interview scenarios.

          Reply ↓
      2. Phony Genius*

        Well I remember a recent photo of a meeting between the two sides (one of the failed cease-fire meetings). I noticed at the center of the table there was a well-placed array of bottles of water for all the participants. Somebody had to arrange for that. But I am sure that the person who had the job of planning that aspect of the meeting went through a much simpler interview process.

        Reply ↓
  5. Alton Brown's Evil Twin*

    Yikes. It’s like you were being set up to fail.

    On the bright side, you found the unicorn organization that actually cares about what you figured out in your 3am dorm-hallway philosophical discussions!

    Reply ↓
    1. Aggretsuko*

      These people sound insane and “set up to fail” is accurate. You’re trying to event plan, not solve peace in the Middle East!!!

      Reply ↓
      1. Kiwi*

        I mean, that would be a REALLY big event to plan! Poor OP, I can’t imagine facing something like this as a recent grad

        Reply ↓
    2. Hoary Vervain*

      And now I’m over here digging wistfully and kinda wishing I still believed I had all the answers…we were definitely convinced at three am in our dorms that if someone just listened to us it’d all work out…

      Reply ↓
    3. Wendy Darling*

      I went to a liberal arts college so I knew some 22 year old stoners with EXTENSIVE ideas about how to bring about peace in the Middle East and tbh having to talk to those guys for 45-60 minutes sounds like just punishment for asking that question in a job interview.

      Reply ↓
      1. DramaQ*

        I went to a liberal arts college so I knew some 22 year old stoners with EXTENSIVE ideas about how to bring about peace in the Middle East and tbh having to talk to those guys for 45-60 minutes sounds like just punishment for asking that question in a job interview.

        LMAO now I wish the LW had said “Hold on, according to my college experience that is a question for me to answer while I’m high .. .be right back” then disappear off camera for a few minutes.

        Reply ↓
    4. Cyndi*

      I don’t think anything I ever “figured out” in those conversations actually stuck in my head past, oh, whatever time I sobered up afterwards.

      Reply ↓
  6. Olive*

    As a junior events planner myself, the hardest part of my position is having to solve global conflicts rooted in centuries of intersecting trauma. It’s a tough job, but someone has to do it

    All jokes aside, WTF indeed, they will be lucky if anyone makes it through all that!

    Reply ↓
    1. But Of Course*

      I was shocked to learn, when I stepped into events planning on a temporary basis a few years ago, that interpersonal hate crimes were now part of my brief, but I remain proud of my work on the fighting in the Tigray region; I think there’s real hope for a lasting peace there as a result of the professional development conference I planned.

      Reply ↓
      1. Delta Delta*

        When I was a college intern helping to plan events at a land conservancy one of my bigger summer projects was to plan an evening walk to look for owls. I almost couldn’t pull it off because I also had to solve the conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea. Luckily I got that done AND we saw 6 owls.

        Reply ↓
    2. a bright young reporter with a point of view*

      That question especially is so clearly fishing for the interviewee’s politics and not their logistical thinking. What could they have possibly said that would be remotely relevant to the job?

      Reply ↓
      2. Conferring scientist*

        I was one of the professional society volunteers on the convention committee for my scientific organization for many years. If the role would involve being asked to directly interface with conference attendees, I can imagine asking a candidate how they would handle attendees informing them about an incident of hate speech/harassment/etc., or a political protest disrupting an event. But “what would you do if pro-[Israel/Palestinian] protestors started disrupting the keynote session” is not “how would you solve the entire Israel-Palestine conflict”. Yikes.

        Reply ↓
        1. The Prettiest Curse*

          This was a ridiculous question to ask and they definitely shouldn’t have asked it, for many reasons. However, as an events person you do sometimes get thrown into complicated, high-stress scenarios in the middle of a busy event. The ability to handle those scenarios diplomatically without totally freaking out is essential. So the people who devised those scenarios may have thought of them as a kind of stress test to see how the OP would react under pressure. However, they failed to consider that fake stress test scenarios are generally considered to be an ineffective interview tactic and – at best – make the people using them look like they lack empathy and communication skills in addition to being terrible interviewers.

          Reply ↓
      3. Box of Kittens*

        This for sure, and maybe it’s reaching, but it makes me wonder if the OP is a minority and the company culture is just uniquely bigoted? You’d think that would be unlikely since surely, surely 50+ people can’t be so bigoted they’d target OP in multiple different interviews, but depending on the company culture it could be possible. ???

        Reply ↓
    3. And thanks for the coffee*

      Yes, if you can propose a way to handle this ongoing issue (that has not been solved by many wise peacemakers) we’ll make you an offer to be a junior events planner. Instead of president?

      Reply ↓
    4. LoraC*

      Well I’d plan an event that brings everyone to the table and have them hash it out! First figure out which relevant parties would be on the invite list, any dietary restriction, the approximate number of days this hypothetical meeting would take place, any security escort concerns, etc.

      I’d be stubbornly trying to redirect all the questions back to event planning.

      Reply ↓
    5. some dude*

      As a hiring manager, I can’t tell you how hard it is to find candidates who are adept at solving conflicts rooted in centuries of intersecting trauma. How can I expect you to do a good job scheduling meetings or processing payments if you can’t solve one of the more intractable issues in human history?

      Reply ↓
      1. Carol the happy*

        “I can’t speak to the Middle East crises, because my diplomatic training involved the Venusians with their global warming, and their conflict with the Jovian Lunar contingent.

        The closest I’ve come to solving the Terran Middle East is to ensure that the Atlantean Contingency had water helmets that completely covered their gill flaps so they didn’t die before dessert at every breakout meal.

        Sheesh. OP, just be glad you dodged that ICBM. (Pun intended.)

        Reply ↓
  8. Jackie Daytona, Regular Human Bartender*

    Wow.

    Maybe they wanted a specific candidate but have rules around interviewing a certain number. So they sabotaged you with bonkers questions so they could get their way. Otherwise… I got nothing.

    Reply ↓
      2. MrDoubt*

        maybe they figured that if they threw the craziest questions at candidates they would at least get some funny stories out of it?

        Reply ↓
    2. NotAnotherManager!*

      That’s a lot of staff time to waste on perfunctory interviews (and having them be uniformly awful). I think it’s just a dysfunctional organization, given how nearly all of the interviews were uniformly batshit.

      Reply ↓
  9. Dawn*

    I hate to just echo Alison, but… THEY ASKED YOU HOW TO SOLVE THE ISRAEL/PALESTINE CONFLICT??!!!

    Yes, you can run away at full speed at that point; no reasonable, rational human being thinks that’s a normal or acceptable question to ask in a job interview (unless maybe the specific job you’re interviewing for is diplomat in the Middle East!,) let alone an entire panel of human beings who apparently all had no problem with this question.

    What in the good lord’s name is going on at that organization….

    Reply ↓
      1. Dadjokesareforeveryone*

        Two words: Gas leak. It’s the only thing I can think of that would drive such large numbers of people to behave in such a baffling manner.

        Reply ↓
    2. Shenandoah*

      There’s nothing funny about what’s going on there, but I burst out laughing at that line. Incredible, galaxy brained choices going on there.

      Reply ↓
      1. Dawn*

        I mean, honestly, what else can you do?

        I think I’d burst out laughing in the interview if I were asked that, because I genuinely wouldn’t know how else to react to such a patently absurd question.

        Reply ↓
  10. MsM*

    In addition to offering HR feedback, I’d post a detailed Glassdoor review. (And not just because I want the organization outed. Although I totally do.)

    Reply ↓
  11. katertot*

    An overly-generous read is that the employees all thought this was a ridiculous way of hiring, so you were the unfortunate recipient of some coordinated malicious compliance. Seems like they weren’t really interested in hiring someone, but rather demonstrating how awful this process was designed. Doesn’t excuse the rudeness on their parts, but I bet it was pretty effective in chasing away any quality candidates. I also probably would have stuck it out for the whole day just to see how far it would go, but Alison’s advice for gracefully bowing out is good.

    Reply ↓
    1. A Poster Has No Name*

      I had a similar thought. The malicious compliance stories from last week made me wonder if this is a situation where this company, say, routinely has people from every department interview all candidates and they want to make a point of how ridiculous that is.

      Agreed that it wouldn’t explain the rudeness to the candidate, though. Presumably they know perfectly well that the candidate won’t know answers to technical questions, so no need to be a jerk about it.

      Reply ↓
    2. MigraineMonth*

      Malicious compliance is supposed to punish the one who created or is enforcing the ridiculous policy, not the people with the least power in the situation (in this case, the interviewee).

      Reply ↓
  12. M*

    I know it must have felt awful and demoralising in the moment, and my deepest sympathies to the OP, because *yeesh*, but this is so bad it sounds like performance art. What on earth. I’d have tapped out when a potential colleague reprimanded me for not having irrelevant-to-my-hypothetical-role specialist knowledge, or at best held out for the second interview slot to see if it was just an unusually bad-at-interviewing team that I’d drawn for the first slot of the day.

    In this case, since it was Zoom-interviews with a range of people, a quick email to the reasonable HR person who set up the second round interview day to let them know it sounds like they’re looking for someone with a lot of specialist knowledge outside the event-planning space, so you’re tapping out. If you’re still on a call when you send it, same said out loud to the people you’re talking to.

    Reply ↓
  13. Lisa*

    Fifty people is ridiculous. I’ll say though, for our College Recruiting onsite interviews, before which point you’ve been through an initial on-campus interview for general fit, we do have people do at least six different interviews. Part of this is that we will be hiring for multiple positions for new-grads and it’s a chance for all the possible departments to get time with you. We divide up the topics and each interview is focused on a different one. Each would be with at most two people though!

    Hiring for non-College Recruiting positions, you’d have at most two or three interviews, one of which would be strictly technical.

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    1. MigraineMonth*

      Six seems like a lot for a new grad position. Why is it important every possible department meet with them?

      I say this as someone who had someone from a X department sit in on one of my interviews, and I still have no idea why. It definitely made me worry that I’d misunderstood the role I was interviewing for. (I hadn’t, and after being hired I’ve never seen anyone from that department ever again.)

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      1. Lisa*

        Because when you’re a fresh grad without a lot of experience, there are a lot of places you might be a good fit, but it’s difficult to tell from a resume. We’re clear up front about that, and that it was also an opportunity for them to feel out the departments/roles on their side as well.

        This was done as an event where we brought in multiple interviewees in the same day, so the interviewers were each talking to a few people, and at the end of the day they would get together to discuss and also tell HR who they were interested in making an offer. I think it’s not that unusual as a system for new-grad hiring.

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      2. Ama*

        I will say that, because it was for event planning, if the event planning team was expected to be centralized and work with all the other departments on their individual events it would make some sense for a *representative* from each department be in one of the interviews, but that would also assume they were going to ask questions specific to their events.

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    1. epicdemiologist*

      I am also extremely tickled at the prospect of their hiring a junior event manager who spends all his time bloviating about how he’d solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and how he’ll handle Coworker X’s inevitable eventual hate crimes against Coworker Y.

      Reply ↓
      2. The Prettiest Curse*

        As an event planner, the thought of attending an event run by these people sends so many shivers down my spine that Alison should re-run this letter on Halloween. (The documentaries on Woodstock ’99 and the Fyre Festival are like horror films for me, because I can see every single mistake that the event planners are making.)

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  15. Riley*

    As soon as you realize that an employee committed a hate crime against another employee *and wasn’t fired immediately,* you are good to nope on out of that entire process.

    Reply ↓
    1. Dawn*

      I think it was intended as a hypothetical – it just happened to be a very stupid and (probably) offensive hypothetical.

      Reply ↓
      1. Falling Diphthong*

        I’m going with “a hate crime that is still in the planning stages, and could be foiled by the junior event planning staff with sufficient use of spandex and capes.”

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      2. But Of Course*

        Doesn’t read like one. I think the LW would have been less shocked if they hadn’t named names and then sent her into an interview with the person who did it.

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      3. Phony Genius*

        If it was a hypothetical, how would you like to be named as the fake perp during the interview? Over and over for every candidate? It’s almost like it could be an SNL sketch:

        “Oh, why am I always the one who did the hate crime? Why can’t it ever be Edgar from Accounting? Have you ever heard his rants about the Welsh?”

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    2. Slow Gin Lizz*

      I am very confused on that point. Someone at the company – and in one of the interview sessions – committed the hate crime or had it happen to them? Re-reading the letter, I guess it happened to someone at the company who was not involved in the interviews and it was done by someone in the interviews. And yes, wtf on that??? What kind of company would say in candidate interviews not only that someone at the company committed a hate crime against someone else at the company, but that the perpetrator is still employed there AND you’re about to meet them in your next interview????

      Talk about being full of bees! That in itself is a giant red flag, never mind the rest of that nonsense.

      Reply ↓
  16. MassMatt*

    It started off with rude questions that did not seem geared toward the actual position, then my jaw dropped at how LW was asked how they would solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and I never recovered.

    You need a Nobel peace prize to work there as a junior event planner?

    These people have no idea how to interview, and clearly it’s not isolated to one or a few people, it’s systemic. They probably fail at a lot of other pretty fundamental things also. Consider it a bullet dodged.

    Reply ↓
    1. Artemesia*

      I’m just sorry the OP didn’t have the capacity or nerve to break into laughter when the Israeli-Palestinian conflict came up.

      Reply ↓
  17. Higher-ed Jessica*

    LW, you didn’t get into the specifics of your answer, but are you in fact able to resolve the Israel-Palestine conflict? If you are, my organization would like to hire you, and also we have a roomful of straw.

    Reply ↓
    2. UKDancer*

      If you are able to resolve the Israel-Palestine conflict and are based in the UK or able to work here, I would also like to recruit you as I have a number of issues where those skills would be useful.

      Reply ↓
    5. MigraineMonth*

      I don’t know about LW, but I do have the skills to fix the Israel-Palestine situation and would love to work for your organization! First, though, I have a large number of exciting real-estate opportunities in bridge ownership you simply cannot pass up.

      Reply ↓
  18. AnonAnon*

    Wow! This is horrific on so many points.
    I’m glad you found another opportunity.

    I was in an interview for an internal role and bowed out after the first or second of 5 ONE HOUR long interviews. It was not for a super high-level role, either. I knew this was not going to be a good fit and I didn’t want to waste anyone’s time.

    The first red flag was that none of the interviewers would interview me in person. This was before Covid and we were all on site. They did it via Teams and all cameras were off. No one, who would have been part of my future team, seemed to have time for the interviews. I felt like I was the quota-filling interviewee. My company at the time, required you to interview so many people even if you knew who you were going to hire.

    While I was in the interviews I started to get intel from co-workers who were either in this group or knew about it and I was not getting great feedback about working on this team and finding out the real reason they were hiring which was to help work the many extra hours of un-paid OT.

    With the help of my current manager, I crafted a message to the hiring manager who I would be meeting with last, and sent it via Teams (because everyone was too busy to actually talk to me) and said that I greatly appreciated the opportunity but at this time, this role didn’t seem like it was a good fit for me (or something like that). I certainly didn’t want to burn any bridges because this was an internal role.

    Reply ↓
  19. Falling Diphthong*

    OP, I think you need to mentally push the framing to a more ridiculous level. Assume that they asked those questions in deadly earnest.

    Someone at a board meeting asked “But how can we solve all these deep-rooted and festering problems in the world?” and someone else said “If we list a job for event planning, and then ask the candidates, one of them might know.” And so that’s what they did.

    Reply ↓
    1. Annie*

      Well, you never know until you ask. Someone might have the answer to World Peace but has never been asked to solve it, right?

      Reply ↓
      2. Phony Genius*

        It’s like the introduction to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. In it, Douglas Adams describes how a girl figured out how the whole world could be happy without having to crucify anybody. Unfortunately, the world was destroyed while she was on her way to the phone to tell people about it.

        Reply ↓
  20. Daniel*

    I have to ask LW: when it came to the hate-crime question, was it a hypothetical crime or one that actually happened? This is total insanity either way, but the former would at least…I can’t finish this sentence. I can’t possibly suggest there’s any redeeming circumstance; there isn’t.

    Reply ↓
    2. Willem Dafriend*

      Yeah, my brain screeched to a halt at the “how would you address Specific Coworker A doing a hate crime against Specific Coworker B? Oh btw A will be interviewing you next.”

      I would have just as many questions if that was hypothetical. In both cases most of the questions would be “wtf”

      Reply ↓
    3. Hell in a Handbasket*

      That’s what I was wondering too. Was it more like, “Imagine a scenario in which Bob did X; how would you handle it?” (wtf?) OR more like “One of our current challenges is conflict on our staff because Bob did X to Mary. How will you deal with this situation?” (WTF????!!!!!)

      Reply ↓
  21. airport gemstone*

    If a junior event planner could solve the Israel/Palestine conflict I think it would be solved by now.

    Reply ↓
  22. Endless TBR Pile*

    This is banana crackers.

    OP, I’d reach out to HR and let them know what happened in your interviews. Worst case, they email back and go “well… yeah, duh.” They may not respond at all, or tell you they’ll “look into it”. In any event, you dodged a bullet and almost definitely do not want to work there.

    Reply ↓
  23. Falling Diphthong*

    Not having knowledge that I think would take several degrees and 10 years in the field to acquire.

    OP, assuming you are correct in this judgment–and I assume that you are dead on, given the nature of the rest of the questions–this is exactly the sort of thing a normal employer would want you to understand. When to give an answer, and when to recognize that you need more information.

    They wouldn’t normally do it in the interview, but it would be an important part of your first months on the job: That you knew when to dive in, and when to ask a clarifying question, and of whom, and how to efficiently formulate the question so it was brief and clear but also had the relevant details.

    Reply ↓
    1. MissMuffett*

      The follow up questions tilted their hands though. It wasn’t, we’re trying to see if you’ll just answer with BS to give an answer. They go on with “of course you won’t be able to answer this question either”

      Reply ↓
  24. Library Girl*

    This org sounds like it really puts the bananas in the bananapants. They’re continuing to employ someone who perpetrated a hate crime against another employee? And asking about it in interviews???

    Reply ↓
  25. HB*

    If you could go back in time, my recommendation would be to completely change your 10 slide presentation to an event called “How to Properly Interview an Event Planner” including a breakout session on “Don’t Advertise your Toxic Workplace through Poorly Phrased Questions about Hate Crimes – On Secondhand, Do! Because You Might Do your Interviewee a Favor.” End with a Rickroll and bounce.

    Reply ↓
  26. Discombobulated and Tired*

    I’ve had my credentials and experience sneered at during an interview too, and all I could think was: You saw my resume. NO WHERE did I state I had all the experience and training you are now scorning me for lacking. Did you call me in just to blame me for wasting your time?? Again: YOU called ME. ugh it was decades ago and it still rankles.

    Reply ↓
    1. Tuesday Tacos*

      I actually said that in an interview once. They pointed out I had no experience with this, this and this – of which none were on the job ad. And I said no, I don’t but I am willing to learn. They admonished me for coming to the interview without that experience. I said nowhere did it say you were looking for that (actually it was for a whole different kind of work) and hey, you called me, after (I assume) reading my resume, and now you’re wasting my time. Have a nice day. Then I left.

      Reply ↓
      1. Discombobulated and Tired*

        Good for you! I regret not having the gumption to say that myself. This lady was so mean to me lol.

        Reply ↓
    2. EngineeringFun*

      I had something similar happen to me. I was asked overly technical questions and no personal questions. Lots of gotcha stuff and I was not doing well. It was over zoom and they kept saying how I needed to work weekends. I told HR after that it was not a good look for the company. I wanted out as well but stuck through it

      Reply ↓
    3. whatchamacallit*

      I had someone tell me in an interview for a restaurant server position “You don’t have any serving experience. I’m not sure why I called you in here. I guess I didn’t really read your resume.”

      I, t0o, was a little surprised I got an interview with the lack of experience but YOU EMAILED ME AND SCHEDULED THIS. Clearly they had no consideration for my time but I was shocked they didn’t seem to have any consideration for their own, since they also wasted their own time asking me to come in for an interview.

      Reply ↓
  27. juliebulie*

    “You definitely don’t know this, but”
    WTF? Then why are we wasting everybody’s time?
    It just sounds like they weren’t taking the interview seriously.

    Reply ↓
  28. beagle mama*

    This almost sounds like one of the big management consulting firms, where they ask absurd questions (like how many pigs are there in China) to see how you problem solve/think. But then the hate crime question and reenactment – all the nopes.

    Sorry you wasted your time OP. Add it to your funny/weird stores folder.

    Reply ↓
  29. Jester*

    Wow, I thought an all-day interview I had was bad! I only met with seven people and my worst questions were things like, “how do you deal with difficult people?” when I would have been an assistant to the person they were hinting at was difficult.

    Reply ↓
  30. DEEngineer*

    In my second career job as a young engineer, I interviewed at a company that did a phone screen, an in-person meeting with the hiring manager followed by a plant tour, and then a day that started with a brief presentation (10-20 minutes) about my experience and fit with the company (and a fun fact about ourselves) with all of the people I would meet with, followed by meetings with about 7 people and including lunch with the hiring manager and potential colleague. They told me later that 2 of us got to the final stage. I got the job and worked there for 12 years. It felt like a lot at the time but it was a small, tight-knit team (engineering, quality, purchasing, scheduling, operations, R&D) and the hiring process worked. We skipped the presentation after a few years (there was a particularly memorable one about a sales VP applicant who showed us a photo of himself in costume as Superman) but otherwise generally followed that process to hire other salaried professionals at the site. 50 people is insane! But in my field and area it has been pretty common to interview entry-level salaried professionals with ~6 individuals either in panel interviews (2-3 at a time) or 30 minutes each at the final stage.

    Reply ↓
    1. Kevin Sours*

      Yeah six or seven short one on one interviews doesn’t strike me as odd from a software dev perspective — even for a junior position — because there a just a lot of people you interface with and it’s good to let both sides get a sense of what that relationship is going to be like before hiring. The one’s that are the least useful for the hiring are either difficult to cut politically (I’m not sure the CTO is going to have much to add but in a lot of places they want to be involved) or primarily for the benefit of the candidate (I am in favor of having a peer interview specifically *without* the tech lead present so the candidate can ask awkward questions).

      But 50 people??!?!?!?

      Reply ↓
  32. Emperor Kuzco*

    Also acceptable is pretending your internet failed or Zoom got disconnected, and then following up with a ‘sorry this isn’t the right fit for me!’

    Reply ↓
  33. Alex*

    I mean OBVIOUSLY the Israel-Palestine conflict can be resolved with a well-planned conference reception. We just haven’t found exactly the right junior event planner to carry it out.

    Reply ↓
    1. Artemesia*

      If we have the right ice breaker, Israeli leadership and Palestinian leadership will learn they have many of the same goals and values and peace will reign. Of course the actual answer is the problem has not been solved because neither Israeli or Palestinian leadership have ever wanted to solve it. And certainly never at the same time.

      Reply ↓
    2. HailRobonia*

      Everything at the Middle East Peace Conference was going smoothly until an argument erupts over the “correct” spelling of hummus/homus/houmous.

      But then bring out American chocolate hummus and the entire region will unite in their combined horror of what we do to cuisine here in the US….

      Reply ↓
  34. pally*

    One telephone interview I had was completely banana crackers.

    The interviewer (a director) asked me one question: why was I interviewing for the job?

    I started in on my response. He immediately launched into a 12-15 minute rant on how vehemently he despised Millennials. I couldn’t do much more than utter a few “uh-huhs” and “I see’s”. No way to get things on track. He just went on and on, pointing out everything he believed was wrong with Millennials.

    Then he said good-bye and hung up. Rejection email followed promptly afterwards.

    I thought about reaching out to the HR contact to inform them about this experience. Maybe mention that, surely this director isn’t hiring based on generation (i.e. age) is he?

    I wondered if it was a normal thing to reach out to the HR contact about one’s interview experience. But I figured I’d just look like a whiner and just never applied to that company again.

    For the record, this was a huge multinational company where I would really like to work. Just not for that director.

    And, I am not a Millennial. Not by a long shot.

    Reply ↓
    1. HonorBox*

      I don’t think you’d look like a whiner, for two reasons. First, HR should know that the interviewer didn’t even allow you to answer a single question. That’s not helpful in recruiting and hiring. And second, because the interviewer is definitely bordering on something illegal (and maybe more than bordering) because he’s actively suggesting that he’s basing his decision on age. You’re not a Millennial, but what if you were? You were just told that this person has a thing against people of a certain age.

      Reply ↓
      1. Zephy*

        Age discrimination is only actionable in one direction (discriminating against individuals over 40), but since us Millennials are now entering our forties, maybe in another ~8-10 years we’ll actually be able to put the kibosh on that BS once and for all.

        Reply ↓
  35. Can't Pass Again*

    On a silver lining POV, now that I’m a senior manager and interview candidates as a part of my job, I still think back to a terrible interview when I was in my mid-20’s and work really hard to not be an interviewer like that.

    Reply ↓
  37. Anne Shirley Blythe*

    This was the interview from hell, and I’m so sorry you endured this. This is one of the most bizarre interviews I’ve heard about, and I’ve been working for 30 years and reading Ask a Manager for 10.

    Reply ↓
  38. Ama*

    One of my first jobs out of grad school was an admin job for an academic whose actual research focus *was* the history of the Israel-Palestine conflict and even he didn’t didn’t ask me about it during the interview process!

    He is to this day one of the best bosses I ever had, and we did actually talk about his research a bit after I was hired, but he was a good boss because he recognized the job skills he was hiring me for were unrelated to my understanding of or interest in his research topic.

    Reply ↓
    1. Slow Gin Lizz*

      I don’t think this one counts since these people weren’t actually bosses, but there should definitely be a vote for Worst Interview of the Year too.

      Reply ↓
      1. Ama*

        I do think we may need a Worst Hiring Process award, we already have this one and the one with the 31 essay questions.

        Reply ↓
  40. Annony*

    Was this a trick question? Is the answer “I wouldn’t because that is clearly beyond the scope of my job and expertise”?

    Reply ↓
  41. Sam I Am*

    Wow…just wow. That’s so bananas. I heard about an all-day interview where the company invited all their final-round candidates on the same day and then stuck them in a conference room together to eat lunch, and I thought *that* was bad. This blows it out of the water! Hypothetical hate crimes by an employee? Huh?

    Reply ↓
    1. MigraineMonth*

      …I don’t see anything indicating they were hypothetical. I mean, I *hope* they were if they’re still employed at the company, but…

      Reply ↓
  42. MissMuffett*

    Would it be out of line to flat out ask, can you help me understand how that relates to this role of junior event planner?

    Reply ↓
    1. HonorBox*

      I think that’s a fair question, especially if the OP had already rightfully decided this role was not for them. At that point, you’re playing with house money so turning the tables could make them see how ridiculous the questions are.

      Reply ↓
    2. Anne Shirley Blythe*

      That is a perfect, clear-headed question and I would LOVE to hear their answer. But I suspect many of us would be in deer-in-the-headlights mode. While hearing circus music in our heads, to quote Leslie Knope.

      Reply ↓
    3. Caramel & Cheddar*

      That’s a 100% reasonable question to ask. The question itself is ridiculous and probably a good indication you don’t want to work there, so asking can’t possibly harm your chances for a job you can’t possibly want.

      Reply ↓
  43. Anne Shirley Blythe*

    I know it is human nature to want reasons and concoct them, and in this case it is most likely futile … but … if they were trying to judge your ability to deal with the unknown and operate under intense pressure, this was so not the way. It is so far from the way, it is on a different planet.

    And if they had already chosen someone for the position and were just going through the motions, why make the motions so hurtful and insane?

    I hope you will consider leaving a review of your experience on Glassdoor to save other lambs from the slaughter.

    Reply ↓
  44. HonorBox*

    To agree with others… this sounds like one of the (or several) levels of hell.

    I normally wouldn’t suggest sending feedback on a crummy interview process, I think this is an instance where “normal” isn’t even part of the conversation. Tell HR. And tell them the following:

    *The number of interviews was far too many for a junior role. Heck, even for a more senior role, that many interviews is a lot.
    *The fact that the questions were about things that wouldn’t be part of your job and stuff that of course you wouldn’t have technical knowledge about.
    *That you were asked two specific questions that have nothing to do with the work and (likely) nothing to do with the organization. I’m especially appalled at the hate crime one. That’s HR and management level conversation. AND you had to talk to the perpetrator of the hate crime subsequently. It seems like there’s some potential for legal peril for the organization.
    *And while cameras were off for people to whom you were presenting, the direct manager should have had theirs on to start and finish. Putting you in a position to have to wrap things up is not good interviewing and shows poor manners.

    If they’re going to find someone for this kind of role, they really need to think long and hard about how they are interviewing because anyone with any sense and skill is going to be chased away.

    Reply ↓
    1. Anne Shirley Blythe*

      Yes–the legality thing. While my head was spinning, I somehow managed to think “but aren’t they treading dangerous legal waters with the hate-crime claim?”

      I almost wonder if this was some bizarre psychological game–make up a hate crime scenario, then have the interviewee speak to the perpetrator…?

      Reply ↓
  45. Sunny*

    Asking how you’d resolve the Middle East sounds like a roundabout way of checking your politics, OP. Same with the hate crime question. Are you expressing enough sympathy for the right side, etc.?

    I can’t think of any other sane reason to ask such questions, which are so ludicrously out of scope for a junior event planning role.

    Reply ↓
    1. London Calling*

      “Sorry, my plan for the Middle East is with the Nobel Peace Prize committee and I’m under an NDA until they consider it.”

      Reply ↓
    2. Kay Tee*

      I’m thinking this is it, especially since it sounds like this is a large NGO/advocacy org. It’s a very particular strain of dysfunction where work product, interpersonal conflict, and global issues are seen as not just linked but one and the same.

      Reply ↓
  46. Bike Walk Barb*

    I think I only would have been able to muster “That’s a very weird question for this job.”

    I’m imagining answering the weirdest questions with questions of your own that would be legitimate things to ask in a *normal* interview, purely to highlight how utterly bizarre this must have been.

    “How would you resolve the Israeli/Palestine conflict?”
    “That’s an area in which I hope to improve my skills. What sort of training and professional development do you offer on this?”

    Enactment of a hate crime
    “I’d want to be able to take time off if something like that happened to me or if I witnessed it and no one in management responded to illegal behavior appropriately. What’s your PTO policy and do you provide mental health coverage in your benefits package?”

    Reply ↓
  47. Sneaky Squirrel*

    I would be extremely concerned for how their events generally turn out if they believe that they’re comparable to the level of conflict of Israel/Palestine.

    Reply ↓
  48. The Gollux, Not a Mere Device*

    Make sure there are both kosher and halal food choices, so your organization isn’t drawn into the conflict?

    This is just… any one of those would be evidence of poor hiring, but “here are some questions we know you can’t answer” followed by the bonkers questions about Israel and Palestine and about a specific hate crime….?!

    Is everyone at that company so desperate to avoid their real jobs that they would rather be part of this interview?

    Reply ↓
  49. London Calling*

    *I think I only would have been able to muster “That’s a very weird question for this job.”*

    NGL, mine would have been “I’m sorry, what?” followed by “I think one of us is in entirely the wrong interview.”

    Reply ↓
  50. Zona the Great*

    I’d have just walked out in between sessions telling no one. I do this at parties so I’m very good at it.

    Reply ↓
  51. fine-tipped pen aficionado*

    I have no advice to add that hasn’t already been said, just want to shoutout everyone in this comment section for being the funniest people alive.

    Reply ↓
  52. Silver Robin*

    I have read the phrase “how you would solve the Israel-Palestine conflict” so many times that it has merged with “how do you solve a problem like Maria”, which feels like the correct level of absurdity to match whatever the @#$% this interview process was.

    Reply ↓
  54. I Have RBF*

    … for example, how I would solve a crisis like the Israel-Palestine conflict, or tackle a hate crime that had happened to a specific employee, enacted by an employee in the next group to interview me, who they named.

    WTF?? Those aren’t interview questions, they are a farce.

    Israel-Palestine conflict: “When the best diplomats in the world can’t solve it, I doubt I would have anything meaningful to contribute.”

    Hate crime: “Call HR and the police.”

    “I don’t think this position is a fit for me. I’m bowing out. Good luck on finding your unicorn!”

    Seriously, not getting that position is a “bullet dodged” situation. Those folks were bananacrackers.

    Reply ↓
  56. lyk*

    “Oh, I’m sorry, I think there’s been a mistake. I was sent this link to interview for the entry-level event planning assistant. These are obviously questions for a different position entirely. I’ll sign off and contact the admin to get the correct link. Good luck finding your foreign affairs director though.”

    Reply ↓
  57. Just a suggestion*

    It seems so obvious that the interviewers were determined not to hire this candidate before the first interview even got going. The easiest explanation is that they had already decided on someone else but were forced to interview additional candidates. But I do also wonder if there wasn’t some sort of illegal discrimination in play. Like was the candidate of Palestinian descent? Or have a Jewish name? And maybe they thought they could provoke the candidate, somehow? Which might fit with the hate-crime question as well as the “Solve the MIddle East” questionsOr maybe more basic like they didn’t like the candidates skin color or gender identity, and so chose to ask off-the-wall questions that not only doomed them to failure but put them in a humiliating position.

    Reply ↓
  58. H.Regalis*

    Who are these interviewers?! Why would anyone ask this crap? Fingers crossed for you that this is the worst interview you ever have, LW.

    Reply ↓
  59. Lizard Lady*

    I’m getting the distinct impression that this company is full of teams who hate each other. Asking how you would handle a hate crime perpetrated by your next interviewer sounds like they wanted someone who would hate the next team as much as they did, and if you didn’t, at last poison the well for the next group. Maybe that’s why they asked the Israel/Palestine question: their entire organization is full to the brim with antipathy and sometimes outright warfare.

    Reply ↓
  60. Yup*

    My friend with a very, very senior position (VP at multiple big companies) was recently gotcha-ed at an interview for a new company. The person she was going to replace, who was moving to another department, asked her questions that were impossible for her to answer (think: How would you, potential VP of the bakery division, grow the wheat used in our flour?). She was totally flummoxed and it threw her right off. It was cruel and deliberate.

    I feel like interviews are too often turning into opportunities to ah-HA! potential employees rather than gauge a good fit. Do people really want to hire the biggest bullsh*tters?

    Reply ↓
  62. ubotie*

    Me reading the letter: ….This is for an event planning position??? A junior event planner position???

    Was the employee who was the victim of the hate crime one of the interviewers? Either way, did they know in advance that their trauma would be included as an interview exercise or that their perpetrator would be one of the interviewers? I mean, WTF. to all of it.

    Is this that Smile Time charity place that does the cleft palate surgery?

    Reply ↓

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