Interview talk story

Building off of David Bernstein's interview stories, Eric at Is That Legal? describes his own close encounters of the interview kind -- and not so kind. I agree with him that he was set up in this incident. I don't necessarily know that what the lawyer in this story did was unethical, strictly speaking, but it was certainly unprofessional, in my opinion.

Fortunately for me, I don't have any specific interview stories like that one. I certainly have stories where I cracked a joke, and the interviewer didn't get it at all... leading to a very awkward gap in the conversation. I have also heard second-hand of women who have been hit on during interviews... but my experience hasn't been so colorful.

However, I do have a friend -- yes, a real friend, not an urban legend friend -- who told me one of his interviewing stories. He, a progressive democrat, had a telephone interview with the Department of Justice for a summer job. That would be the Ashcroft Department of Justice, by the way. The guy on the phone, who may or may not have been an appointee, asked him the usual stuff and then went on to probe his knowledge of constitutional law. One question that telephone-interviewer-guy asked my friend was particularly interesting -- "So what do you consider to be the most poorly decided SCOTUS case?"

My friend... well, he could have answered Korematsu v. United States and probably been safe with that (despite the administration). Or even less controversial, he might have answered Plessy v. Ferguson. Or he could have gone with a more contentious issue and then proceeded to explain why he disagreed with something like Bowers v. Hardwick.

But did he choose any of those? Um, no.

What did he answer? Why Bush v. Gore of course!

And then there was silence on the other end of the line.

And then the interviewer guy said something like, "I see." whereupon my friend probably slapped his hand to his forehead and groaned to himself.

BUT he ended up getting the job.