I was at an interview for a customer support job involving a software product that I know fairly well and no matter what I said, the interviewer began arguing with me. It felt like it started right from the beginning and no matter how I tried to appease her, there was no relief. I knew I didn’t get the job and I felt terrible. Was there anything I could have done? I felt especially terrible when she asked me some off the wall question about how I design the cockpit of an airplane" It didn’t seem to have any relevancy at all to the substance of the job.

Signed:
Stressed Out Samantha

Stress interviewing is not always as off the wall as it seems. First of all, since customer support can be fairly technical and stressful, which are really reasonable questions the interview would cover. Although you may have been pretty uptight, let’s assume that the interviewer just wanted to make sure you could think on your feet. With that in mind, we can also say this interviewer wasn’t interested in putting you at ease, so your mind would relax and you could think both creatively and logically. In fact, it seems like her tactic helped you freeze so this elicits several questions: Is the environment at that company or with this hiring manager in particular very tense and would you be happy if you would be working under constant negative pressure? Second, could you have helped yourself then and there by throwing control BACK to her, so that you took the pressure off yourself. Here’s an example:

Best of Luck!