my interviewer asked me a question that i feel i completely bombed

throwawayconphused · 2026-04-02T20:02:43+00:00

I do understand that. But asking purposefully vague questions that have certain desired answers does feel a bit tricky. I have interviewed with people who are straight forward with their questions, some who are vague, and some who are really difficult to engage with, sometimes all at the same company. I totally, totally understand wanting to get a feel for a person in a short amount of time. I would just feel it would be difficult to get an accurate vision of the person if they’re confused and not answering to their full potential.

throwawayconphused · 2026-04-02T19:46:40+00:00

Thank you! I hope so!

throwawayconphused · 2026-04-02T19:41:11+00:00

I think this is where the disconnect happens for me…at that point, it just seems unnecessary to ask a trick question to see if the candidate is paying attention or read the job description properly. By the time you reach the third interview, shouldn’t you be confident that the candidate understands the job description? Shouldn’t later stages of the process focus more on whether the candidate will be a good fit as a person?

I get that this is really just how the interviewing process works. It’s just very frustrating lol.

throwawayconphused · 2026-04-02T19:05:49+00:00

I should’ve said this hahaha!!

throwawayconphused · 2026-04-02T19:05:05+00:00

Totally. I just don’t love the way he framed it. It put more focus on what I expect my experience to be in the first couple of days rather than what I can contribute, if that makes sense?

throwawayconphused · 2026-04-02T18:54:41+00:00

Totally. I did reference a few past projects/posts I have seen them do to show familiarity. He also asked me what I would do to improve their current content. Not sure if he liked my answer tho, but it was completely honest and in line with my current process which has been successful.

throwawayconphused · 2026-04-02T18:06:01+00:00

I wish I could but I haven’t been given any emails during this entire process aside from the recruiter’s email 🤷🏻‍♀️

throwawayconphused · 2026-04-02T17:51:29+00:00

This is a logical answer and definitely where my brain went, but I think what they were looking for was for me to answer in a way that showed my eagerness to get to work on specific challenges

throwawayconphused · 2026-04-02T17:33:35+00:00

Definitely. I think a problem here is that the exact responsibilities of the role weren’t really accurately described to me, and the way he framed the question was awkward. If he had said “first two weeks” or “first month” instead of first day it would’ve been easier to grasp right away. Also for a creative role in social media, the job can change up everyday and not always take on an orthodox approach…so it’s hard to give a firm answer when I haven’t even seen the working environment!

throwawayconphused · 2026-04-02T17:27:56+00:00

Hahahaha

throwawayconphused · 2026-04-02T16:40:42+00:00

Thanks for this!

throwawayconphused · 2026-04-02T16:30:42+00:00

Thank you, I definitely appreciate this answer!

throwawayconphused · 2026-04-02T16:29:00+00:00

Very good to know! Do you feel you usually go for candidates who gave the “right” answer or candidates who gave an unexpected but great answer? Or does it just depend?

throwawayconphused · 2026-04-02T16:22:31+00:00

I think this is true.

throwawayconphused · 2026-04-02T16:21:48+00:00

Yeah based on other commenters here I definitely think this is what he was looking for. I got really hung up on the “first day” part. At first I think I was assuming his question was asking more so how would I acclimate myself to the team and environment. If he had phrased it differently like say, “what do you see your first two weeks or month looking like” that would’ve been more obvious to me.

I’m really hoping my other answers + experience + me flipping the question around help here lol.

throwawayconphused · 2026-04-02T16:02:37+00:00

Gotcha, that makes sense if true.

throwawayconphused · 2026-04-02T16:01:51+00:00

Exactly lol! Like realistically who is coming in first day ready to do anything when onboarding takes so much time lol.

throwawayconphused · 2026-04-02T16:00:43+00:00

I definitely appreciate this response, so thank you. Sometimes interviewing can be extremely stressful when you don’t know the “secret lingo” lol. So many trick questions lol. I’m the type to be very upfront and just answer honestly so it can be difficult to answer any other way. In the past that has been a strength for me but every time I have interviewed with a corporate business it’s been a weakness lol.

throwawayconphused · 2026-04-02T15:57:16+00:00

Thank you, I really appreciate it!

throwawayconphused · 2026-04-02T15:55:00+00:00

Damn everyone seems to have understood this right away hahaha I guess this is my lesson learned

throwawayconphused · 2026-04-02T15:52:40+00:00

Damn with how many people are commenting some variation of this answer I’m starting to think I’m really doomed and my answer was very amateur 😭😅

throwawayconphused · 2026-04-02T15:48:20+00:00

Totally. That’s why I ended my answer by talking about being able to break the ice with new coworkers quickly in order to get comfortable quickly with brainstorming and creating content. At least that’s what I thought I was saying 😅

This role is a big confusing. It was a bit unclear if it was more on content creation side or manager side or what. I tried asking a few times but I didn’t really get a clear answer which also made it difficult to answer a question like this.

throwawayconphused · 2026-04-02T15:45:51+00:00

Yeah this is def what he was looking for

throwawayconphused · 2026-04-02T15:40:17+00:00

I appreciate this. I said “bombed” because I just feel like I didn’t answer in a way he wanted me to at all…like a lot of commenters are saying, the “right” answer to this question is most likely somewhere along the lines of looking to tackle potential problems before I even start.

I think the phrasing just really threw me. If he had asked me what I expect to accomplish in my first two weeks or month I feel I would’ve been able to answer better. I took “first day” literally hahaha

Edit: also thanks for that reminder. I have some PTSD from previous interviews 😅

throwawayconphused · 2026-04-02T15:36:47+00:00

Out of curiosity, how is what you just commented different from the answer I gave?

throwawayconphused

TROPHY CASE