I’d Google it
They had asked me to prepare a 15-minute presentation (standard in that field) . When I walked in, they announced they’d changed their mind and only wanted five slides. I cracked a small joke saying, “I hope the title slide didn’t count.” Silence.
I was using one of their laptops and she’d left Skype on, so message notifications were pinging up throughout the presentation.
We got through the presentation and then they shared me with an output from an experimental methodology I didn’t know how to do (which they must have known). They asked me to interpret it.
I know the basic principles, so explained what I was looking at but wasn’t able to get into the real detail. They scoffingly asked how I’d expect to manage the job. I looked the lead dead in the eye and said “I’d Google it.
With a PhD from Oxbridge and years of research experience, I’m more than capable of looking up a new technique.”
One of the other interviewers got very offended, stood up and got right in my face and said “analyze it.” I walked out. The door opened outwards, and I must have pushed it quite hard open because it closed quite hard and bumped open again, just as I loudly muttered “twats.”
I’ve regretted how I handled a few situations in my career, but not this one.
/ACatGod