Weirdest interview ever. Thought I was going in to test the waters and chat like any other interview. Copy ECD didn't show and sent an AD/ECD. Totally fine, it happens.

He proceeds to have me open my portfolio and show him my best work, then critiques it like I'm a student getting a portfolio review. Starts talking over a case study that won a few awards, pauses it, then asks questions that he would know the answer to if he was paying attention. Then goes on to accuse it of being fake,

I like hearing myself talk. What can I say?

I’ve had this happen to me twice. Once, when I was interviewing for a job at Ogilvy, many years ago as a copywriter.

I hadn’t gone to portfolio school and still had found a way to get into the industry, make work, and grow my portfolio. The agency I was trying to leave wasn’t a top agency. But, it was decent and it was part of a top network.

So, I go to the interview. The CD walks in about 15 minutes late and starts having me go through my book. (This was more common at the time.) When I finish, he immediately says, “Where are the awards? Where’s the press? I haven’t heard of any of your work.” He then proceeds to tell me it’s going to be hard to get a job with a book like mine. As if I was the one wasting his time.

The second time was a few years after that. I had gotten a new job and was ready to leave this one. It was a step up in reputation from my former agency. But, I still wanted more.

I reached out to a creative recruiter on LinkedIn to connect. She agreed. When she called me and I told her the types of agencies I wanted to work at, she immediately started critiquing my book. Telling me most agencies probably wouldn’t even look at my book. That she’d been a former copywriter at CP+B. So, she knew what she was talking about.

Since then, I’ve won awards and gotten press. But, I still think about these interactions. I think about them every time someone says they love my book. I think about them every time I receive someone’s book, or am asked to give feedback on it.

Because I know how these interactions can stay with you. So, I try to treat people and their hard work with kindness and I wish more people did the same.

Name and shame

After a good 3 minutes of trashing it, talks about his own career for awhile, and ends the meeting after about 10 minutes. Absolute terrible manners.

Look, you don't have to like everything, and I see award winning campaigns that I don't like all the time, totally fine. But what the hell was that? I felt like an intern getting roasted over spec work. I'm 9 years into my career and have proof all my campaigns ran. Not trying to be self-obsessed, but that was not an interview. I don't really know what that was... Has anyone ever been in this situation?

That has to be the biggest red flag ever. Such an insecure and insensitive person shouldn’t be the face of any agency/company. I would assume that door is now closed. But if helps anything (and you care) I would flag your experience to the recruitment team.

In every interview both parties are being interviewed. You saw who you would be working with, and clearly it’s not a fit. Consider the interview a success.

40 years ago, struggling to make a career change into advertising, I finally managed to snag an interview just before Christmas with the CD of a mediocre B2B agency. ("Their work aspires to 'workmanlike'." an informed observer said of them.) After looking at a few pages of spec and in-house work, he leaned back in his chair, put his interlocked hands behind his head and his feet on his desk, and said, "I'm going to do you a favor that no other CD has probably been kind enough to do for you." He paused. "I'm going to tell you the truth. You have no future in this business. It's too late for you to break in. Have a happy holiday...and reconsider your career plans while you do." His agency went under a few years after that. 40 years later, I'm still working in the business.
#fkem

Sorry to hear this. Sounds incredibly demoralizing and people interviewing deserve better. Some things to make you feel a bit better better.

1. Clients absolutely don’t care about awards, and awards bait is frowned upon in 2025. If an agency interviewing panel is critiquing the work for any other reason than your ability to creatively hit a brief differently than others and make audience/ business impact that was measurable, that is a clear sign the agency is a mess.

2. An interview process is a brand exercise. It affects how you speak about the agency to others and might be someone’s first look behind the curtain at that agency. If the agency hires people who go back and gives an account of that interview and no one blinks an eye? Another red flag.

Sounds like it was someone who felt threatened by you.

I interviewed for a job and the EVP CD spent the entire time showing me his portfolio and trashing the company. No joke, he thought I was there to hire him.

I would’ve had a hard time not saying “okay my turn, let’s go through your portfolio now”

Chill. You were not in an interview really. It was a projection session instead. Has actual zero to do with you really. They had someone else already in mind but couldn’t cancel with you so they were trying to make themselves feel better at your expense, I’d say. As others said, you dodged a big flying bag of fire poop. Bonus is that you made an insecure ECD start talking about how great they are because of the strength of your work. So keep your book right where it is and try taking a meeting with a professional team instead of those asshats.

McgaryBowen called me once for an interview, saying they loved my book, so I took the afternoon off and went in.
Gcd had me wait an hour in the lobby, then sent his secretary to say he couldn’t make it.
Then had me interview with an acd who didn’t seem to have ever interviewed someone before. It lasted 10 minutes.. I decided to walk home and got caught in the rain.

I had one where the ECD wouldn’t look me in the eye… just staring out the glass meeting room wall behind me like he was high as f*. Then offered me $40k lower than my current pay, and HR said I’d never get the money I deserved at Grey.

Sounds like every single cd I have ever worked with in any capacity

I’ve had this happen to me. Sounds like an ass hat.

When I was still quite fresh out of undergrad I had a small design agency owned by European white men reaching out saying they really love my work and wanted to chat. We got on a call. That dude kept taking about how great their founder is (he’s not that great tbh) and sent me a 50-page pdf (yes not website) that brags about the founder. After 30 minutes he finally got to my work. I talked about a few student projects and he started to judge things like - oh you never worked for a Fortune 500 client? It was weird but I thought ok let’s at least end it with grace. When we got to the pay part, things got crazy. That dude basically said I’m too arrogant to ask for the money I was asking for being a new grad and a woman and a POC. I was in shock but was more confused than offended. In 3 weeks I toke an offer 2x my targeted salary.

Some people have no idea how to be good people. I kinda feel bad for them.

Had this happen to me after the hiring manager's boss asked me to interview. I cut it short. No need to waste time.

Been there. Went to an interview at a small shop in the Midwest that was doing fun work. ECD had a meeting so I met with an ACD who shat all over my book. Finally met the ECD, who also shat on my work. I asked why he even brought me in. He said he liked one line on my RESUME. Didn’t even look at my portfolio.