Have you ever walked out in the middle of a job interview?

[highlander]

Sure and its only been this one time, Ive been to my share of job interviews. I dont think any of the parties have the right to humiliate the others, but when you get the feeling this is not the place for you at the interview you might aswell say it. The situation I tried to portrait was that of someone that treated the applicants poorly. If they had shown even a grain of dignity towards me they would have ended the interview and discussed my skills in private and then call me ½ hour later with a no. Not standing outside the door where I could see them discussing it and hear parts of what they where discussing.

Yeah - that doesn't sound great.

These things come down so much to a particular interviewer. I recall hearing about one situation where a person who was interviewing for medical school was "attacked" by the interviewer to the point where she was in tears by the end of it. She was an incredible candidate. It's a great school. She is not a person who breaks down easily. This one interviewer was just a complete ass. What do you do? If it were me, I think I would say something polite to the fact that maybe this isn't the place for me, thank him for his time and yes I would walk out. I actually got really angry when she told me about it. There is simply no excuse for an interviewer to act that way.

 

[CrystalViolet]

No, but I have massively f-up a few.
There was one I was very glad not to get the job though. I just got this vibe, it would be a nightmare job.
I was late, not my fault at all, but the train was cancelled, and I rang ahead explaining. Not a good start, but you know, public transport in Sydney. I had planned to be there with an hour to spare.
Finally got there, and the first interviewer walks up to the most attractive women in the room, and asks if she is me...I'm not impressed. His face falls when he realises it's actually me, he's interviewing. The geeky red headed women with glasses.
When we sit down, the second interviewer quite obviously takes a shine to me, but the first interviewer starts lecturing me on appropriate clothing. By the way, I was wearing black pants, nice boots, and a nicely cut long line jacket of conservative cut which unfortuantly was red. It was then that the second interviewer who took sympathy on me, and my obvious bewilderment, and informed me this was mormon funded organisation. I blinked because I thought I was going for a lab tech job, not some religous posting...any way the interview got progessively more uncomfortable, as the first interveiwer was obviously a pervy lech, and a sexist pig. All of my answers to his questions were wrong, and the second interviewer was valianty defending me (seriously) as I got "told off" for every answer. At one point, he said to the first interviewer "Actually logically speaking, she's right. She obviously knows her stuff, and I just think you are unwilling to acknowledge that she may have a valid points." The atmosphere become distinctly icy after that, but then I knew I didn't have the job because the first interviewer wasn't sexually attracted to me (Terrible basis for selecting staff members working in a lab). That was the one interview I could honestly say, I wish I had walked out of. I knew as soon as he walked up to the other women, my suspision confirmed when he lectured me on appropriate clothing (while looking at my chest region which was well covered I might add). I mean, you really can't mistake me for being anything other than a nerdy lab rat. The other woman was dressed in baby pink frills (and stilettoes!), and seriously I've never seen any lab tech dress like that. Not even for an interview - it's not appropriate.
It never even occured to me a medical lab would be funded by a religous group! It's kinda of wrong.

 

[PeaceBaby]

SuchIrony, it sounds like you have the right attitude coming out of this interview.

Maybe this job isn't the right fit, but you never know how that person may remember you in the future for another job. Frequently, companies look more for the right person rather than just the right information. So always stay positive and confident even if you discover that you don't have the complete qualifications for the role.

As an interviewee: lol, as a fine example, my last contract ... went into the interview and discovered they wanted a ColdFusion programmer ... I didn't know CF but still got the job.

Years ago though, in one interview I was the person to stand up first as a sign to end it. I was trying to get my first job as a web dev, and when I got to the interview discovered the company managed a portfolio of porn sites, something that was not stated in the ads or during my phone interview. It just wasn't material I was interested in working on. I politely went through the first 20 minutes of the interview, thanked the person for their time, and left. You can extricate yourself in situations that seem to have no benefit in a polite and respectful way - if you feel your personal safety is somehow at risk though, trust your instincts, and take assertive control.