[dlsa]

Bad and rude interviewers imply even worse colleagues, supervisors and managers. Its a measure of the overall company culture and not simply just their professionalism.

Its ok to continue the interview but its also ok to finish, leave and never return. They're as much under investigation for fit as you are. Hold them to your standards.

You got a glimpse of what working with them would be like in future. I'd say you found them lacking. Can you imagine a code review with that person?

[hef19898]

I'm always drawn between leaving on the spot or staying and dropping out of the process later. In practice, I prefer to stay. Waste their time, try to do as well as you can, practice interviewing, gain experience. And then professionally and politely drop out of the interview process. Just because the interviewers are unprofessional and unpolite doesn't mean you have to be.

All that assumes that the interviewers' behavior was "just" rude, if the cross line like sexism, racism and similar thing the solution is standing up and leaving. Their is only so much you can learn from abusive people.

[bitexploder]

Asking “Hey, where did bob just go?” is not rude. Leaving an interview where you have been purposefully insulted and treated poorly is also not rude right? Why burn your time when you know you won’t accept any offers. Just seems like there are better ways to spend time.

[retrac]

Playing dumb, if you can with a straight face, isn't rude in response to rudeness, IMO. And it can be quite effective. It's one thing to insult someone; it's quite another to have to explain how and why you were insulting them. "Huh? Whaddaya mean? I'm not sure I get it..." works well on overly offensive jokes too. Usually. Some real jerks will double down though and happily explain in excruciating detail.

[bonestamp2]

If they play dumb you can say, "this seems like a good time to ask, what is the company culture like when people have technical disagreements?"

[twiddling]

That is a great questions for candidates to ask and I wished more of them did. Another one I like is "How does your organization change course when they realize they are on the wrong one?".

[mirntyfirty]

Agreed although I’ve had interviews that taught me quite a bit about the company and the interviewer. This then became useful career information for industry practices and useful skills to develop.

[mrozbarry]

Leaving doesn't have to be rude. If there's no reason to work on your interview skills, you can simply say "I appreciate your time, but I don't think I'm a good fit for _company name here_." You don't have to give any further reason. You are the boss of your time and effort, so don't waste it if you don't have to.

[zdragnar]

Invert that phrase. "__company__ isn't a good fit for me". Be clear that you are leaving on your terms.

The interviewer may still tell people that you gave up halfway through, but if anyone else is listening or the interviewer is accidentally honest, it is more likely to trigger change by emphasizing that the company is losing you rather than you are losing the company.

[mrozbarry]

I think that's a valid approach, too. It might just depend on the interviewee which is better. The inverted phrase is a bit more direct and dominant (which I don't think is bad), so I don't think it fits everyone's personality. That said, my recommendation is simply to be polite and leave, and do it on your own terms.

[Clubber]

>"I appreciate your time, but I don't think I'm a good fit for _company name here_."

I would also suggest this; it signals to the other interviewers that they just lost a potential candidate because of John Doe's behavior. They might take action, but they need to understand the consequence of having that guy on the team, or at least in the interview room.

[mysterydip]

Would "I don't think your company is a good fit for me" be better wording (to show it's not your skills but their culture), or would that be too aggressive?

[irvingprime]

Too narcissistic.

[hef19898]

And perfectly fitting in such a situation. Being polite and professiobal avout breaking an interview of doesn't mean you cannot be "arrogant" doing it.

[laserlight]

Not at all. It is what it is.

[irvingprime]

+100

[sumthinprofound]

Anytime I have brought colleagues in to interview a candidate, during the introduction, I'll note that "Bob from devops will be joining us, but he may get called away" based on the circumstances however I would not appreciate a coworker stepping out without an explanation for the candidate as that would reflect horribly on the organization in my opinion.

[b3morales]

We'd also expect Bob to say something like "Oh crap excuse me, sorry, the server's on fire" as he leaves.

[sumthinprofound]

Absolutely!

[hutzlibu]

"Waste their time"

You would waste your own time, too, with this approach.

[Hasu]

Sure, but if there are n interviewers, I get to waste n minutes of the company's time for each minute of my own wasted. For some panel interviews I've been in, this can be a significant multiplier that makes it worth it even if spite didn't already.

[worik]

Often when interviewing for a job the interviewee has the time...

[roflyear]

One of my regrets interviewing is not walking out on a all day 10+ hour in-person interview.

I was asked to show up at 8am, but I was not told I would not be leaving the office until 6pm.

Also, I was told it was a direct hire - when I got the offer for something like $35/hr in a major city as a mid level programmer, I sorta lost it on the recruiter. No vacation, purely contract work through the recruiter.

More or less lied to during the entire process. I guess some candidates are happy to get a job and just put up with it? It has to work sometimes...

[devnulll]

I open discussions with recruiters - typically Exec Recruiters who are normally cold/warm-calling on LinkedIn - and the conversation goes like this:

* "We have this amazing CTO / CIO / VP Role."

* "What's the pay range for this role?"

* "We pay market rates"

* "I'm currently making $X at my fancy FAANG role. Can you beat that?".

* "Oh. Nevermind".

It's helped, but there are still false promises made.

[jrockway]

I think this really comes down to the equity grant and whether or not you think that you can personally move the needle. If you're a junior engineer getting your second job, it's a little bit of a scam to be sold on equity. You probably aren't so good at programming that you'll carry the entire company to success; you're being hired because you're a warm body for cheap. But if you're the CTO or VP of Engineering and you're good at that kind of role, then you certainly have the opportunity to build a team that can do better than the average startup, and thus your equity could really be worth something.

[hutzlibu]

"I guess some candidates are happy to get a job and just put up with it? "

Sadly yes and they don't have a choice, but anyone accepting that shit who do have a choice are lowering the standard for everyone else.

[the_only_law]

I had a weird case where the team absolutely loved me, and had even extended verbal offer, but a surprise final interview with a low-level executive cost me the job.

[ryandrake]

Similar story: I once went through all the rounds with a company, it was obviously going great, then the recruiter mentioned all candidates need to get the thumbs up from some VP big shot so I needed to talk to him. Well, they scheduled the interview while he was driving, obviously in a convertible. Neither of us could hear each other, and there could clearly be no information exchange. I figured we'd just re-schedule, but the recruiter got back to me to let me know it didn't work out, and they wouldn't be moving forward. Crazy times!

I would have had to move across the country and they recently laid off 1000 (50%) of their staff, so in retrospect I figure I dodged a bullet, but wow!

[irvingprime]

I've found that the more rounds of interviews there are or the more people involved, the greater the chances of one person causing the whole deal to go south. I have been in similar situations. Six straight interviewers said to hire me. The seventh one said no and that was that.