I had a brief and catastrophic telephone interview with an aggressive interviewer. I was referred for this position by someone working at the company. Neither the person who referred me nor the job description mentioned fluent German being required. I double-checked; German language knowledge was not even in the "nice to have" section of the job description, let alone mandatory.

Literally the first thing the interviewer asked was if we could conduct the interview in German. I told her that I could speak some German but was not fluent, so we should do it in English. When the interviewer heard this, she started laughing in a high-pitched voice. It was unexpected, and she repeated that high-pitched laughter for the next two questions regarding my life in Germany.

All this took me by surprise, so I asked if the interview was funny to her. She replied with, and I quote, "yes, this is super funny."

I felt I was being made fun of, so I decided to terminate the interview. This seemed to anger the interviewer, who went on a rant about how I wasted her time and that I should not be living in Germany as long as I had without being fluent. She then switched to German mid-sentence and continued her attack, so I couldn't really keep up. I gave up soon after.

I've never had an interview like this one, and I've conducted many interviews in three different countries. I would not recommend this experience.

Are you fluent in German?