Worst Academic Interviews I'm going to start this thread and add to it. Please feel free to add your interview experiences. I don't think I have a particularly bad or untypical experience, but if it helps someone cope with the weirdness of the historian job market then my work is done #Skystorians

6. You must love us above all others Just thought of another one - I've often wondered if I was in the wrong with this one. Did I break some unwritten academic rule? Thoughts, please? Got an invite to an interview with a week or so notice. It clashed with a conference panel I was chairing.

That's enough for now. I think part of the issue is that although academia (in the UK at least) has become a business, it still often operates a long redundant approach to recruitment. I did have positive experiences, but also enough bad ones to tell me we can and should do better as a profession.

5. Mugging by interview Many of us who have been through PhD study will recall how financially tough it is. Add to that, two small children under three and that will give you an idea of my financial constraints. Got an invite to an interview that involved a flight and a two night hotel stay.

4. You mean nothing to us Got successfully through an interview process on a Thursday and we were told we'd be notified by close of play the following day (Friday) one way or the other.

3. Your work isn't worthy, why are you here? Pt II I attended a large interview panel (8-9 I think) for a poorly paid role at an august institution. Discussion centred on why on earth I had included a non-academic book on my CV.

2. Your work isn't worthy, why are you here? As a freshly minted PhD it was emphasised how important it was to have a 'book' - publish or die as they say. Chuffed with my first academic book in hand (on FDR) I felt confident for the interview.

1. The Filler I made a considerable effort to prepare and attend this interview. Within seconds of entering the room, one of the two interviewers told me, via his constant scowl, that he had no interest in me or the process. Clearly, I was there to make up their numbers with no right of appeal.

I should say I come from a particular place. Academia was a second career I entered in my 40s. Knowing how much better another profession does interviews gives me a certain perspective. I was seeking gainful employment circa 2010-2014 so I acknowledge that those were better times compared to now.

I was weeks out of uni, and applied for a research job at Sunderland university. The interviewer read that I was from Middlesbrough (there's a rivalry), and threw trick questions into the interview to flummox me, laughing when I gave educated guesses. I thought he was checking my wider reading 😔

i went for a (non-academic) two day assessment centre. There were two positions- I was only applying for one. At the end of day two we were told that the position I was applying for had already been filled.