I had a sole proprietor guy flat out laugh in my face when I produced in my portfolio a copy of a letter I had written in a previous job as an example of my ability to write "professional correspondence". He didn't even look at it, saying that it was a silly idea to think that an interviewer would be interested in my writing skills.

The next day a firm that called to arrange an interview with me requested that I please bring along an example of my professional correspondance.

That first guy? Bankrupt six years later. Asshole.

It's interesting what some firms value above others. I've had my portfolio called both genius and worthless by various employers. The corporate firms seemed to dislike it and the design firms seemed to really dig it. I've found that being uncompromising in what and how I present myself to firms seems to weed out the ones that I didn't really want to work for in the first place. Of course that could be my swollen ego dancing around. :D

When I was sending hundreds of resumes to anybody within about 20 miles of me, looking for an internship, I was vaguely surprised when a mid-profile firm with VERY nice work called me up within about half an hour of my emailing my resume. They were a bit out of my way, but worth it to do such good work. I went in, and was promptly told that they were in the market for a mid-level designer who had graduated at least two years previously. I told them that I was a third year student looking for a summer job, possibly part time through the next school year, and physically pointed to the "Objective" section of my resume, which stated this in no uncertain terms. The interviewer basically replied, "oh. well. It's always nice to see up-and-coming talent, anyway."
Apparently the guy had been too busy to look any further than the fact that I had relevant experience, including at the objective or education sections of the resume. Bloody waste of time, gas, and hope.

Yeah, I love it when they ask all sorts of stupid questions, the answers to which are in plain English right there on my resume, and then act surprised when I give them the same answer verbally.

If some of these morons are somehow able to run successful firms, I figure I should have no problems whenever I'm finally ready to launch my own firm.

Realize, that they have only so much time to spend on resumes everyweek. Usually very little time is given to any submission, from what I understand a cursory glance at your work and a tally of experience. You can usually tell how many resumes firms get based on how much they know about your portfolio. For example, a firm I interviewed with recently took the time to peruse my website including several outside links, they're very small though and don't typically recieve a lot of portfolios (or so I'm told) Where as some larger more well known firm that I send stuff too, took well over a month to finally reply. I was told at one interview that they essentially have huge stacks of resumes that they go through every few weeks or so depending on time. It sucks that they don't take more time on actually finding out about the people they'd like to interview but I think it just may be a fact of life.

indeed it is. all comes down to luck and contacts more often than not anyway.

And to be honest if you're just a bit famous the number of underqualified applicants goes up logarithmically and sifting the resumes becomes a serious pain. A friend with an office in London often gets queries from Canadians looking for work soly on the basis of a shared birthplace. Can't imagine the junk that must go through OMA's place.

but back to the topic... my worse interview was with an office in London that I liked well enough but within minutes of meeting the principal instantly decided i could never work for him. Can you say toff? He was clearly interested in hiring me and showed me where i would work and so on, but I couldn't hide my dislike for him no matter how I tried. It was that damn turtleneck sweater of his, and the accent kept making me shudder. Anyway i didn't have the balls or experience to tell him no outright and instead we went through this incredibly awkward exchange over thirty minutes when he finally realised that I disliked him immensely and we would never be able to work together.

I left that interview with mixed feelings because i was still in need of a job (and a work permit) and i had just let both slip through my fingers. But I had an offer a few days later with a more interesting office, and for about 5000 pounds more, so worked well after all. i suppose the lesson is to walk away from places where the vibe just ain't there...

oh, jump just reminded me of another interesting one. Not worse than the other one I posted, just wierd.

My friend and I were both interviewing to basically work directly for an owner on a big preservation project. We drove in together, and just waited while each other interviewed. Something about the guy rubbed me the wrong way- he gave off kind of a "creepy old man" vibe to me. Other than that, my interview went well enough. She didn't get the same vibe as I did. Well, when the guy called up a few days later, I told him that I'd already scheduled some interviews for the next day, and I'd like the opportunity to go on those interviews before deciding one way or another. I now see this was not the right thing to say, but it turned out well. He went, "so you'd rather work for these other places?", I said, "that's not what I said. I said that since I've already scheduled the interviews, I feel it would be best to wait until I've gone on them before making my decision." He went ahead and hired my friend instead. Around a week later I started hearing about what a jerk he was. A month or so later, she was fired because she didn't have a car to run his errands for him in (she had stated straight out that she took public transportation). A fumble turned into a save!

see:

http://www.archinect.com/forum/threads.php?id=P18876_0_42_0_C