I'm fortunate, because I've never had an in-person interview, or even a longer phone interview, and not gotten the job. Please don't take this statement the wrong way, it's not because I'm oh-so-awesome, it's that I only apply for jobs that I'm very qualified for. I should probably take more risks to be honest. In any event, I only mention this to illustrate that I generally get along perfectly fine with interviewers. A few weeks ago, I had an initial screening call with an Avvo recruiter. It only lasted about 15 minutes, and it was to be the last. That's right, I flunked the phone interview. It started from the moment I answered the phone. Usually, these conversations usually start off with a little bit of small talk to make both parties a little more comfortable. It didn't happen in this case, instead, she blew me off and went right into grilling me in a tone that seemed overly-accusatory at this stage of the game. In retrospect, maybe she was in a hurry, and felt that I was wasting her time by being conversational. There were no technical questions at all, her only concern was why I wanted to work there if I already had a job. I explained, very sincerely and accurately why this was the case, but she didn't seem to understand. "Yeah, but, what I'm saying is, since you already have a full-time job, why do you want to work here? Is it really something you want to did you just inquire just because someone else asked you to ..." (I mentioned that someone had forwarded the job posting to me, and she took this to mean that I had only inquired to please that person, I think.) I have to be honest, it threw me off a bit. I was expecting technical questions, but instead, the only topic of the phone interview was my reasons for leaving my current company, which I had not yet committed to doing. Remember, this was an initial call. Now, I understand the challenges of companies of today's tech industry. Loyalty is a thing of the past to some extent, and companies are no doubt sick of the revolving door of workers. I get that. I honestly do. I am not suggesting that her concerns were invalid. That said, we all have concerns, valid concerns at that. These are professional jobs we're talking about, though. Those of us who work in them expect a basic level of courtesy. I just felt the way in which her questions were asked were hostile and accusatory. Maybe she already had someone in mind, and was just calling to rule me out. Maybe she was having a bad day. Maybe a bunch of potential employees had just flaked out on her. I don't know. I just know that, for whatever reason, she resented having to speak to me, and made it as harsh and brief as possible. She asked if I had any questions, but at this point, I knew what the outcome was going to be. Nonetheless, I asked about their Linux distros or something fairly basic, to which she immediately shot back "I can't answer those kinds of questions". The perfect end to a perfect phone call. A week later I got an email saying they were moving on, and the only thing that surprised me was that it took a week. All things considered, it was surprisingly painless. I half-expected her to show up at my front door, kick me in the groin, then shout "no! no! no!", so I appreciate that I got off easy. Seriously, I respected their decision, and that was that. Looking back, I'm not sure what I could have said or done differently. As I mentioned, it had nothing to do with the job duties whatsoever. Apparently, it was 100% a personal thing. What was really disappointing in all of this is that I was actually a fan of Avvo. I'm an avid reader of the "legal answers" section of their sites, and have even participated myself. Like most in this field, I've had a fair number of opportunities shopped to me throughout the year, and Avvo was the only one I took the time out to try for. That being said, it was obviously disappointing. I have a passion for my job, I work very hard, and always do the best job that I can. Alas, it was not to be. I'm sure we'll both be just fine, and I wish them the very best.