Michael E. Smith's post, "War stories from academic job interviews" is too good not to share. He describes several of his job interview experiences, with characteristic good humor and honesty about the ones that were "bad faith".
A question from a graduate student after my talk effectively destroyed the entire conceptual foundation of my talk. Absolutely buried me! Deader than a doornail. The interviewee's worst nightmare. As soon as the question was posed, I realized I was sunk. Yet I had this flash that the answer to the contradiction was just at my fingertips, but I couldn't bring it in. I did not get an offer (surprise, surprise). Later I figured out how to resolve the conceptual contradiction that burned me, and got some mileage out of it in a couple of articles. In the acknowledgements of one, I thanked an anonymous graduate student for asking the right question at the wrong time. But after that experience, I was bullet-proof at interviews.
I've always had great fun on academic job interviews. There were times when it was obvious I wasn't getting the job, but even so, there were always people in the department I really got along well with. I always look forward to meeting new people and hearing their stories, and sharing mine!
