Have you ever had a disastrous job interview? If so, what went wrong?
This was a case of where I almost felt bad for the interviewer who had to put up with me. I'd been out of work for many months and I was only able to find temp and freelance/contract work and was barely paying my bills. On top of that, it was not work I enjoyed, while I was watching many other people around me doing work they not only enjoyed, but that paid a decent living wage.
I managed to get an interview with a small PR firm and if I couldn't get a job, I at least wanted to try to get some freelance work. I went in, I showed my clips, I talked about what I could do, I asked what they did, I researched them ahead of time ... The interviewer was very nice and spent some time with me, but at the end of it, she told me they just didn't need anyone right then.
To this day, I acknowledge it was unprofessional, but I still don't know how I could have stopped myself; I started crying. This was one of the few times in life there was no control over the devastation of being rejected AGAIN (I'd had lots of previous experience that year, especially) and the disappointment of knowing I'd just wasted a bunch of time. She reacted well and was sympathetic, which is about the best you can expect in a situation like that - I mean, it's not like you'll ever get a job with that person ever after.
I said "almost" at the beginning of this because it's difficult to muster much sympathy for someone who has a good-paying full-time job who agrees to interview you while knowing they have nothing to offer you. (And I wasn't pushy when I originally called, and I was not told "we have nothing right now.") I have never figured out why any employer thinks the interview candidate will agree that it's a good idea to be interviewed WHEN THERE IS NO IMMEDIATE JOB OPENING TO BE HAD. "Professional interviewing" for an unemployed or underemployed person is not a sport that they enjoy playing - trust me.