Comment by ristos

I'm not sure how you would handle your specific situation, but my general take on interviews is that the interviewer isn't just screening you, in the sense that they want to know what you did and your skillset and skill level, they're also trying to figure out how well you can navigate interpersonal politics. And the problem is that for a lot of people those two things seem contradictory, because with interpersonal politics we'll intentionally spin things just slightly, not like a politician but just to maintain a good vibe and keep everyone comfortable and engaged. Like imagine if you were in a social gathering, and there's also a girl you like in there that you're trying to impress, and someone asked you about that previous role, you wouldn't drift off into a rant or anything negative because you don't want to kill the vibes of the meeting, you want to look your best because there's a girl you like there, so maybe you'd say something like "ah, it just wasn't a good fit". And if that came up while you were dating that girl you like, and she wanted to dig deeper on it, you wouldn't just repeat the same thing, because it would look like you're being evasive and she would then be on the defensive because she would've felt like she's prying too much, and it would kill the vibe, you'd just say something a little bit more, also keeping it short, and maybe mention something good about working there that you learned, and then not forcefully but try to make some room to move to another subject, or if you can do it slickly without making it feel awkward then you just shift to some other topic that feels engaging without making it look evasive. Again, it's all about maintaining a good vibe. And companies want to know the ins and outs about you, but they also just want to know that you have some social skills in doing stuff like that, because they're running a company with different kinds of people, sometimes from very different backgrounds, and they need the team to work together and feel cohesive. The company and the management are already trying to keep the company afloat and profitable, it's own engineering problem, on top of marketing, on top of operational concerns, they don't want to have concerns around political drama in the office, they want to know that you can be cool. Unless you're a boy genius from Southie, then maybe they'll tolerate a lot of weird shit from you, but you aren't a boy genius from Southie.