Interview Gone Wrong

You can always tell when an interview has gone horribly wrong.

I have done enough interviews on both sides of the table, as interviewer and interviewee, to get a sense of when things are not going to work out.  There's a certain sense to the conversation: the questions are general and there is a lot of silence, the conversation does not have the easy flow of individuals exchanging information but rather a stilted sense that makes one uncomfortable, and a general feeling as the interview continues that questions are being asked more for the sake of form that for actual expectation of information gathering.

Frankly, I end the conversation depressed and feeling like I have wasted both my own and the interviewer's time.

Not all interviews are like this of course, which leads me to wonder if some of this has anything to do as much with the individuals involved as it does with any reality of my lack of fit for a position.  This is possible  I suppose - after all, interviewers come in all shapes and sizes just as interviewees do and questions can be asked in many different ways. And yet sometimes it seems like some of them may actually make an attempt while others are just doing it because this one was required.

Still, it is somewhat depressing to suddenly realize that halfway into a interview that it is simply going nowhere, an exercise in futility for all concerned which must finished because it was started - much like the lunch date that one figures out just after ordering will not work out and yet the food has not yet come so small talk must be made to get through the meal:  Form for the sake of form rather than the sake of function.

I am sure - well, I hope that I am sure - that I will have more of them in the future, perhaps something that may actually lead to to something.  Because interviews themselves are stressful enough - let alone interviews that will simply lead to nothing.