There was this girl who went to an interview. She had prepared all the common questions but then the interviewer started asking really personal questions like her family's financial situation in a very blunt way. It made her extremely uncomfortable and she couldn't focus on answering well.
One horror story is when a student was asked a really difficult question about a complex theory right at the start. The student froze and couldn't answer at all. It threw off their whole interview and they felt so embarrassed.
Unexpected questions are common. For example, questions that are way out of the scope of normal prep. This can catch students off - guard.
One of my friends went to a college interview and was really nervous. He accidentally called the interviewer 'Mom' at the start. The interviewer just laughed and it broke the ice. My friend then relaxed and had a great interview.
There was this situation where the HR interviewer was asking inappropriate personal questions. Things like relationship status in a way that made the interviewee uncomfortable. This is not only unprofessional but also made the whole interview seem more like an interrogation than a job interview.
In an interview once, the room was freezing cold. The employer didn't seem to notice or care. I was shivering while trying to answer their questions. And on top of that, they were asking really personal questions that had nothing to do with the job, like about my family's financial situation. It was a very uncomfortable experience.
I once had an interview where the technical questions were way beyond the scope of the job description. They started asking about very advanced algorithms that I hadn't really studied in depth. I felt so unprepared and it was really nerve - wracking. I left the interview feeling really down about my skills.
One common element is unprepared interviewers. They might not have read your resume properly before the interview and ask you basic things that are already on there. Another is a very uncomfortable or intimidating interview environment, like a super cold room or an interviewer who stares at you in a really unfriendly way.
One horror story is when an interviewer asked a very personal and inappropriate question about a celebrity's family member's health issues. The celebrity was visibly uncomfortable and the interview took a really awkward turn.
A student walked into the interview room and immediately felt an intimidating atmosphere. The interviewers were very serious - looking and didn't give any reassuring smiles. Then, during the interview, they were constantly interrupted while trying to answer questions. This made the student lose their train of thought multiple times and they felt like they couldn't get their full ideas across. It was a very disheartening experience for them as they thought they could have done much better if they had been given a chance to fully express themselves.
I heard of a case interview where the technical equipment failed. The candidate was all set to present a complex data analysis case, but the projector didn't work and there was no backup plan. The candidate had to struggle to explain the graphs and data just verbally, which was a nightmare as it was hard to convey the full picture without the visual aids. It made the candidate seem less prepared than they actually were.
A student had prepared extensively for the wrong topic. They thought the interview would focus on a particular area of their subject based on some misinformation. So when the interviewers started asking questions on a different area, the student had no clue how to answer. They tried to bluff their way through but the interviewers quickly saw through it, and it was a really embarrassing and horrible experience for the student.