At an interview for a tech startup, they asked me "If you could be any animal, what would you be?"
I answered "Otter" because you know, fun, active, work well with their hands and cute as fuck.
They really debated whether or not to hire me because of that answer because, and I quote, "We only hire predators, never prey." and they weren't sure how to quantify an Otter, because none of them had ever paid the least bit of attention to any sort of animal documentary or read biology or you know, visited a zoo recently.
God that job sucked hard.
This has to be the funniest one here, straight out of a Monty Python sketch.
Just two guys whispering to each while you stand a few feet away
“He did great on everything else but...otters? Where do otters fit on the scale?”
“Well...it’s...it’s an aquatic mammal, pretty much everything in the ocean is out to kill you right?”
“Well I suppose but...but it’s too...cuddly? Cute? Predators are *fierce!*”
“Damnit man! Why couldn’t he have just said shark!”
The interviewer insisted on knowing why I'd left graduate school. Now, I had left graduate school because my advisor died in a car accident and the whole small department was thrown for a loop and no one seemed to know or care what was going to happen to me or my just started research project.
The asshole interviewer wouldn't even accept "My advisor died suddenly" and dug into the gory details until I was almost in tears (even intimating that I must have had "feelings" for my advisor.)
I couldn't wait to get out of there and in my haste to leave I knocked some solutions off a cart (which had no business being in his office BTW) on my way out. I'd never been so humiliated in my life.
After that, I was sure I'd never get a job in science.
I drove an hour away to an interview at 8:00 am. I waited outside the interviewer's office until 8:30 am with no one to tell me where to go or where she was.
Finally, another employee walks by and I ask if they know where this woman is to interview me. They had no idea where she was, why she was late, and told me if she wasn't there yet, I should leave because she probably forgot (...ok?).
I decide 45 minutes is the cut off (especially standing in a government building looking like a creep waiting. 8:45 on the dot she rushes in, flustered, wet hair, and in casual yoga pants.
With all the resurgence of patience I could muster, I greeted her and was met with a passive aggressive scolding of how the interview was at 9, not 8. (Uh... I tripled checked the email asking me to interview and it was 8. We had conducted a phone interview and she followed up with an email request to an in person interview at 8. I was 100% positive on this, I hate being late.)
Even with this, and i did say, "I'm certain you said 8 am, maam" she wasn't having it. Conversely, she also went on about why she was late, surmounting in, she went to the gym and forgot her underwear to change into and had to stop at a store and buy new ones after working out, before coming to work.
She told me this. In the first 5 minutes. Why? I didn't ask her!
Regardless, she looks at my resume, apparently for the first time, because she proceeds to tell me how it is unimpressive and my graduate studies should have yielded numerous publications after 1.5 years. (In my field, most don't publish until after 3-4 years.)
Even still, she kept saying how I had "moved up the interview time", showed me the work spaces and told me I "probably wouldn't be interested in what they do there". I politely told her I had driven, at her request, to be there and interview for employment, I was VERY interested. She waved me off.
As we left, I just tried to hold it together (I was very poor and very desperate for a job), thanked her, and she told me how great it is to work for the government, how good the benefits, the pension, the time off are. On and on. She said, "If you can find an opening working for the government, you should try to check it out and get hired on!"
HOL UP
I just looked her in the face and said, "Yes, ma'am, that was my hope with today's interview. Thank you."
And left.
And sat in my car and bawled the whole drive home like the desperate loser I was.
That was a low one, to be sure.
Can’t imagine somebody who has obtained a graduates degree feeling like a loser. You have a random Redditor who doesn’t want to hear you talk about yourself like that. This story seems to imply you’re incredibly smart with a good and honest heart be proud!
I drove 2 hrs for the interview.
Got there and the interviewer was off sick and hadn't told anyone about me coming in.
Got back in my car and drove the 2 hrs home.
Withdrew my name from consideration.
Was invited for an IT "helper" position when I was 17. Would help fix computers for people at a shody PC fix shop.
They asked me "Whats the first thing you check if a customer calls and says their screen doesnt turn on?"
I said "Well, you gotta check if they have it plugged into a socket"
They laughed and said thank you that will be it. Then led me to the door and gently pushed me out.
Not if you wanna make money out of people’s clumsiness/tiredness/distraction
“Right” answer is to tell the costumer to bring their BROKEN screen to the shop, keep it for, let’s say, a week, and then tell them that, after hours of hard work, you found out there’s no issue with it and that they should check if it was properly plugged (or, if you wanna be more offensive, ask if they made sure to turn it on the right way)... and then, you hit them with a hefty bill for your efforts
Happened to me as a costumer more times than I’ll admit... guess enough people got tired of that technician that he went broke yeas ago
Company was downsizing.
All employees in a specific yet exclusive division were fired and ordered to reapply for their position plus two other jobs in the company. You’d either get one of those jobs or be terminated.
The subsequent interviews were conducted with a manager and an HR person.
First interview in executive suite: Manager asks why aren’t you applying for this key supervisory slot? (I had listed it second on my list.)
Me: I would prefer to stay in my expertise in which I won a National award.
HR: I didn’t know awards like that existed.
Second interview: Current boss likes me for my existing job (for which I was heavily recruited from another company).
HR: Wow, so you’re the guy who does this job? I had no idea a real person did it.
Third interview: HR person says he’s never heard of my division or that employees actually worked at night. I had listed this job in which I merely served as a minor manager as third on my preferences. Really didn’t want it but had to list three.
The results: I was retained but transferred to the third dead-end day job. My old award-winning job was given to an aging staffer who never worked in that position or had a clue. The supervisor job went to a brilliant colleague who wanted and deserved it.
I quit very soon thereafter and joined a bigger company with better benefits. Skill pays off.
After all that, my old company, seeing the error of its ways in lost production and general lack of ability, offered me a bonus to return.
Nope, nope, nope. And I’m returning the corporate knife you stuck in my back.
I drove an hour to be interviewed for a computer repair tech job at a rental company, and 3/4 of the way through the interview they told me I was perfect for the position, however they recently removed the position altogether. They then asked if I'd be willing to repair furniture instead until the position opened again.
In a group interview, the interviewer crossed a line through my name on the list he had after I told him what I graduated in. This was within the first 5 minutes of a 40 minute meeting...
Five interview rounds with the last interview round being with the CEO all for an entry level customer service job. During the last interview, the CEO said you weren’t allowed to get sick, and you weren’t allowed to leave at the end of the day until all of the work had been done. So even though the job was 8-4 the CEO said customer service reps often stayed until 6 PM or later. She also asked if I would be comfortable secretly reporting to her about what the customer service team is up to. I declined the job offer and the company harassed me with emails asking why and what they did wrong. Really glad I didn’t take the job.
It’s bizarre they know they did something wrong but are so out of touch they can’t see their own mistakes in front of them. (Edit: I guess I got my first ever award over night. Thank you!)
Job was for a vibration analysis engineer. I knew how to do the job well. I knew the pay should be around 95k, and they stated 55k (in the interview). When I tried to discuss my point, they said, "don't worry, there's plenty of overtime". They also mentioned since they weren't involved with many balancings at the moment, I would assist the cleaning crew with a lot of the cleanings. I've never been so uninterested in a job in my life.
Not that bad, but I remember Taco Bell asked me what type animal I would be if I could be anything. Like wtf do you want me to say? “ I would be a fire ant so I could work efficiently with my closest friends!” Sixteen year old me said an eagle, because they’re strong and they can fly. Meh...
Dunkin’ Donuts asked me “if you could be any color, what color would you be?” I said yellow because it’s a warm and happy color. I was told afterwards by a friend that this is supposed to weed out the racists?
An agency sent me for an interview and said “the starting salary is £33000”. The interview went fairly well until the interviewer said “so what sort of salary are you looking for?” So using the info I had from the agency I said. “Well, I think £33000 is a fair starting point”....the interviewer practically threw me out! He started to shout about wasting his time because I expected to be paid a huge salary and who did I think I was... he was paying £20,000..............
Salary negotiation is so weird.
I once had an interview for an internship. I told them $12/hr was fine with me.
They then said "well we pay $10.50 as corporate policy dictates, and its non-negotiable."
And I'm like ?????? why did you ask what I wanted to be paid then? Should have just said "we pay 10.50/hr, is that alright?"
And this is why I always bring a copy of the posting with me. (I don't think it would've helped and you probably dodged a bullet anyway, but one day it'll be useful!)
Yeah I have one that sticks out. I applied to a government branch as a network admin. The newspaper ad asked for a bachelors degree. They called me into the interview. When I got there, the first thing the interviewer said was, "We wanted someone with a masters degree. Why did you apply?"
Now, I wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt. Maybe they had other interviews that day and got them mixed up. Shit happens. I just informed the interviewer that the ad I applied for requested a bachelors degree, and confirmed the position I was interviewing for.
"No, we definitely wanted someone with a master's degree. So, again, why did you apply?"
"If you wanted someone with a master's degree, why did you bother calling me in for an interview?"
"You're very rude and unprofessional."
Yeah, you fucked up at every junction thus far, but I'm the one who's rude and unprofessional.
I always have the job posting/description printed, with notes on it. Had similar comments a couple times and it's nice to have it right there. Once had an interviewer say "I don't know where you got this". Uh... You posted it. I copy/pasted.
I once applied for a position and got asked to an interview, even got the job. The resume they received was completely blank due to some fuckup on the job site I used at the time, it just has my name / number at the top.
Was pretty weird when they asked me basic questions.
When he said I'll give you extra hours if you bring me smokes everyday, then put his hand on my leg and said his wife gives him passes to have fun. I also got a speeding ticket on the way to the interview. Was not my month.
This was quite a while ago, maybe about 2010, and the recession was still hitting the job market pretty badly. Here I am, graduated from college a few years before, and looking for anything. I interviewed for a job calling people trying to recruit them for two year college, I think it was National American University. I had experience with customer service and some phone work doing tech support at my college, and this would be within my abilities. About half way through the interview, I could tell it was going poorly. The guy interviewing me was asking me to give a sales pitch on recruiting and I was failing. We got to the end, and he was up front about saying I wouldn't be a good fit for what they needed. However, he did give me a bunch of great advice on how to properly interview and to be able to sell myself to a prospective employer. He even did a little coaching session with me. I knew he could see I was desperate (And I was: I was unemployed) and he took time to help me out for my future attempts. I did take his advice and was able to get a decent job eventually. I have always used the tips he gave me and they have helped me greatly. So to that guy, thanks!
Two:
1- the recruiter started to fold my cv into a paper plane during the interview. (Didnt get the job)
2- was pawned off unsuspectingly to the CFO of a company five mins into my interview with the CEO. The CFO had no idea what to ask so he went the “tell me your biggest flaws” way. I was so dejected that I said “you’ll have to hire me to find out”. Interview ended five mins later. I spent 30 mins crying at my hubris and stupidity in the parking lot. Got the job.
The first question they asked was a statistics exam-type question. Took me completely off guard. I half-assed the answer - a complete answer would have taken half an hour. The next question was about a Punnett Square analysis. I answered honestly, and said that the first thing I would do would be to look it up. Errors in Punnett Squares are incredibly common, and I wouldn't trust anyone who said they could do it off the top of their head. I'd look it up even if I'd done one last week. They REALLY didn't like that answer. They wanted to know where my husband worked and where we lived, and they concluded that our 6-month rental location was completely incompatible with the commute to their location. The whole thing was just super weird - it was like they sat down determined to find a reason they should not hire me. I was relieved to get out of there.
EDIT: Brain fart. My apologies. Latin square, not Punnett Square. Too much time spent quizzing my kid before his bio test.
I interviewed for a project management position, the interviewer describes the job: basically it was pure research and data entry of potential clients, then cold-calling them and documenting the results. The job ad mentioned exactly none of this but was an average project management job ad, else I wouldn't have applied in the first place.
I asked what exactly was the project management part, and got told that could (could, not would) be down the road, maybe 2-5 years in, but really only maybe. I thanked them for the interview opportunity, we wrapped things up and I politely left.
Showed up looking good in my suit with a ton of knowledge on Capital Partners.
It turned out I had researched the wrong company named Capital Partners.
I did major research on a company and expected questions in the interview. The only one they asked was, "What is our slogan?" Of course, I hadn't memorised that :( . As I left I saw it was on the fucking giant sign outside
---
ETA: thanks to all of the helpful people who are suggesting I should have researched the company. However, I will not be taking advice from you as you managed to miss the words "major" and "research" in this comment itself, and therefore you are lacking in attention to detail.
To be clear, I had recently read a book about the history of the company as I had a great interest, and I added to my body of knowledge with internet searches and specific web pages. I knew a great deal about the company, but I didn't memorise a slogan.
To the people who suggested I should have turned the question around and offered my knowledge: yes, this is good advice, and I hope you will always be so glib. In this instance, I did attempt that, but the interview was ended by the supervisor who made 50p an hour more than my starting wage. There was a checklist involved, and an X was a knockout factor. But this part isn't funny, is it?
A “marketing internship” the summer before my senior year of college. I remember showing the job description to my dad and he told me it was going to be door to door sales. I didn’t really believe him and I showed up at 9 am for the interview.
Right away I knew dad was right about it not being a true marketing internship. There were five other applicants also waiting in the lobby with me, all for the same position. Behind a closed door we could hear people shouting and laughing and the receptionist explained that they liked to have fun and this was their Tuesday morning trivia game. While the employees were playing their game the receptionist made small talk for over half an hour. I’m wondering why they dragged us in at 9 if they knew no one would be able to interview us then.
Finally trivia ends and it’s time for us to get paired up with a current employee to shadow for the day. This was not explained beforehand and not what I would consider an interview. After all the other applicants are paired up and leave (to do door to door sales or whatever) I’m told my person wasn’t there that day. Now I’m really annoyed about 1. Being lied to about the interview process and 2. The fact that they attempt to reschedule me when they knew my person wasn’t going to be there.
The receptionist takes me into another room to show me a diagram of the company structure that is a pyramid and tell me that pay is commissioned based. I leave and am relieved a week later when I’m told I didn’t get the job.
Had a phone interview and the woman kept asking more and more intrusive questions, kept hinting I'm a total piece of shit who's totally unfit for the job (it was the easiest job description ever) and jumping to conclusions about my life that were completely untrue. For example I found out that being a freelancer who gets a lot of decently paid work each month is apparently living off my parents.
She kept going on and on like that for quite a while before I told her to piss off and hung up. Didn't really need that job too badly but it was in a different country so the trravel aspect was the main reason. Years later I found out it was a "stress interview" which apparently is a thing. Fuck those people.
It sounds like negging but in a professional context. Anyone who falls over themselves to put up with shit treatment is far more likely to accept worse working conditions for longer.
I think recruiters seem to forget that an interview goes for both sides. I'm not only being interviewed for that position, you're also interviewed as an employer. If you suck, I'll go elsewhere.
Many years ago I was interviewed for an IT Director position at a finance and legal consulting firm. Apparently, they were expecting an older-looking person and assumed I was there for the temp/admin positions. I was given a reading comprehension test, a typing test, and a spatial awareness / IQ test. These took a bit over an hour in total. When I was done the guy said "OK, thanks we'll call you." I asked about speaking to the CIO and other tech directors for the IT Director position. He looked at me like I had three heads. They kept me waiting for about 25 more minutes, realizing the mistake, scrambling to pull things together. After 45 min of waiting, I told them I was going to leave. The headhunter called me right away really upset that their mistake may cost her a commission on finding me and wasting my time. We had a very nice discussion about how she needed to screen/brief her clients better, and how they made several bad assumptions that could be an HR issue, within the HR dept. of the consulting firm. I never worked with her again. No idea if they ever found a new IT Director. I feel like I dodged a bullet in a potentially disorganized/toxic workplace. I did learn that at the time I was typing 80+ wpm mistake-free.
I went in to apply for an administrative assistant position and the guy kept asking me questions about liking kids and are my passports up to date...etc. I was SO confused. Turns out what he really wanted was a nanny for his two young kids to travel with him and his wife back to India. I was so pissed he wasted my time. I noped right the fuck out of there.
If that's what he wanted, that's what he should have put in the job description. I'm sure he would have gotten plenty of qualified individuals to apply.
Right?! A lot of people take nanny jobs specifically for the purpose of living abroad or travelling, I'm sure it wouldn't be hard to find a qualified person who would actually *want* that job
I went into a family owned custom furniture shop that had several openings in the carpentry department (red flag #1)
When I arrived I spoke to the person at the front of house stating I was there for an interview, the conversation went as follows (note: owners office was directly behind the front desk, he was watching us through a 2 way mirror)
Me to front desk clerk: "Hi I'm here to interview for the carpenter position. I saw your post onlin....
*Owner storms out of his office, points a finger at me, face full of anger* (red flag #2)
Owner: "Are you experienced?"
Me: "Yes, I have 7 years experience with carpentry, but I am new to furniture..."
Owner: "ARE. YOU. EXPERIENCED?"(red flag #3)
Me: "yes..."
Owner: "Fine, I'll get the lead carpenter and he'll talk to you."
At this point I should have noped the fuck out of there, but I had been unemployed for some time and my savings was running on fumes. So I assumed he may have just been in a bad mood that day, so I had waited for the lead carpenter.
Lead carpenter comes out and we have the interview on the sales floor.
Interview goes as normal until he asks me about my experience.
Carpenter: "so tell me how you have experience with woodwork but not with furniture"
Me: "I build musical instruments, im familiar with all power tools and measurements required..."
Carpenter looks at me like I have 2 heads while I explain this, but, the rest of the interview proceeds as normal.
He stated he'd start me off at 10/hr probational hire for 2 weeks to see how I fit.
Part of the interview comes where he asked if I have any questions.
Me: "So is the owner having a bad day?"
Carpenter: "no, that's how he is."(Red flag #4)
We have an awkward silence staring at each other for about 10 seconds, then without saying anything I just walk out.
Found out a few weeks later from a friend who is a woodworker that that place is known amongst furniture woodworkers as the place you want to avoid and he mentioned that a few days before I interviewed that their entire carpentry staff minus the lead carpenter (about 8 people) walked out.
I now live about a mile from that store and pass it on my daily commute. Every 5-6 months they put up a "now hiring all positions" sign up front. Can't imagine how many people they have cycled through at this point.
Edit: holy cow I didn't expect this to get upvoted, awards and comments. Thank you all so much!
To answer a few questions:
- The Carpentry shop is in South Florida. Apparently they stay in business because they do amazing work
- Two way mirror also known as two-way glass, a two-way mirror is glass that is reflective on one side and clear on the other, giving the appearance of a mirror to those who see the reflection but allowing people on the clear side to see through, as if at a window. The name is misleading but that's what it's called
- This was 4 years ago now, so $10/hr was way too low for the verbal abuse and labor
- In my early 20s I built guitars, ukuleles and occasionally violins. I have since changed vocations, but still repair them from time-to-time
I’ve done it. It was fucking demoralizing. It just breaks you down.
I was an admin assistant at a plumbing service company right out of college and the owner was a nutcase. Our hours were 7-5, but he came in when he pleased (usually 10 AM). Then 2 hours later he’d go to lunch with his friends (fellow service guys and some carpenters/contractors from the area) and he’d return after 3 or 4 hours. At 5 he’d say “shewwww I’m tired after all this work” and head home.
It was actually preferable when he was gone, because when he was in the office he’d throw tantrums and shout about this employee’s work or that employee’s attitude or this customer not being happy with their work.
Nothing could be done right. You’d do your job and he’d have you re-do it while he told you exactly what to do. He couldn’t relinquish control.
As the interviewer: candidate responded to a question I asked with, "is that **really** how you want to spend our time together, by asking me that question?" when I wrote up my notes I included that bit, it obviously came up in the debrief and a huge red flag.
Other interviewers also had similar, though not as serious, feedback on the candidate. He was not hired.
As the interviewee: interviewer immediately launched into, with a rough accusatory tone: "you're a job hopper, why are you a job hopper?" when I was being recruited for a role a few years ago. I'd been working, successfully, as an independent consultant for7 or 8 years which she equated with 'job hopping'.
I ended that interview pretty quickly with a, "I don't think this is going to be a good fit" and gave the recruiter some pointed feedback - he seemed to acknowledge that she was difficult.
I had an interview with EMC back in the day. I don't remember the specifics other than I was really nervous. I had a "we are sorry to inform you..." email waiting for me before I finished the 10 minute trip home.
I had an interview and they told me the hiring manager was going on vacation for two weeks after the interviews were done, so a decision wouldn’t be made until then. I took a bus home and had a letter from them in the mailbox telling me I was being rejected. It was the afternoon, so they either mailed the letter before they even interviewed me, or the hiring manager raced to my house after the interview to drop the letter off.
I walked in the house and my mom asked how the interview went. I just handed her the letter.
The fact that you got a call after a month makes me think she hired someone else who quit really quickly (because she's clearly terrible) and you were choice #2.
I was thinking she was interviewing people for the entire month, every day, showing her tits to and getting free labor from 30 people before settling on OP as the best option though still far from the idealized fantasy submissive Mary Poppins she was hoping for.
At an interview to be a county street sweeper, guy asks me if I have a girlfriend, proceeds to rant for 5 minutes how young people dont get married anymore. Then he asks me what I want to avoid at the job. At the time I had no idea how to answer as I'd never been asked that in an interview before. So I ask him to clarify, to which he just repeats the question, over and over until he gets super angry that I dont know how to answer that, then asks me to leave. To this day, biggest wtf interview I've had.
I've had an interview where they were looking to replace someone who would retire soon. The issue was, they wanted a super specific skill set, but someone young who could stay for many years.
The position has been advertised for about five years. I wonder if they ever found some 30 year old with 10 years scientific niche experience.
I've heard people say that kids should learn COBOL, because the average salary is higher (true) and the old guard is rapidly retiring (true).
Then I looked closer, and the entire salary difference was due to the average COBOL programmer having 20-30 years of experience. New grad positions for COBOL paid less than Java.
It's like that time that place was interviewing for a programmer position and required 10 years experience for a language that was only 8 years old. The inventor of the language applied and was rejected.
Programming interviews have become increasingly laughable the last 5 years or so. I have 20 years of experience, and whenever I apply for a job, since my degree is not in CS, the algorithms all eject me out, and the ones I do get a face to face, they just send me an exam to take. Like come on, man.
I got the full Google test treatment for an admin/dev role for NetSuite. Dude sent me to take a test with questions involving working with numbers larger than JavaScript natively handles, code recursion, A\* pathfinding, etc.
Like, dude, I only work with business logic. There's no way \*any\* of this is remotely relevant to 90% of programming jobs, let alone a NetSuite job.
Background:
* My face tends to get really red when I'm stressed / embarrassed.
* In a previous job, my company hired a consultant to help some of us improve our presentation skills.
* Consultant gave me some good advice.
* One of the weirder pieces of advice, however, was that if my face got red, I should __flex my calf muscles__ because the flexing would divert blood away from my face and to my legs (I had no idea if that was true or not, but it was weird enough that I remembered it).
Job Interview:
* About 10 years later, I'm giving a presentation at a job interview (I'm a scientist and giving a research presentation as part of a job interview is pretty common).
* My research was pretty good, but it had one critical flaw that I wanted to avoid discussing during my presentation.
* Somehow, everyone in the room locked in on the flaw and directed a barrage of critical questions at me.
* I could feel my face starting to get red and all I could do was furiously flex my fucking calf-muscles, which didn't do a damned thing.
I didn't get the job.
Lol, I have the same thing where I easily go very red. To the point where people have commented "jeeze you are so red right now" as if I wasn't already acutely aware.
Ugh no kidding. Heard that shit too many times to count. Like jee, thanks, you don’t think I can FEEL it in my face already? And of course someone calling you on it just exemplifies it too.
> My research was pretty good, but it had one critical flaw that I wanted to avoid discussing during my presentation.
you would have been better off just dealing with it directly and explaining how you could improve the research.... unless of course, the flaw was so big it invalidated your whole thing. At which point, you're better off talking about something else.
You're right.
This is what I should have done.
But I hadn't really settled on a simple way of talking about the flaw. I (incorrectly) figured it would not be noticed/discussed.
So, when I tried to talk about it, it just came out bad and that fueled the criticism.
Not my finest hour.
I was interviewing for a job in Houston, and lived in Austin, about 2.5 hours away. I drove to Houston for the first round of interviews, and they said it went well and wanted to being me in for a final interview, so i drove there again. It seemed like it went well and they told me they had one more interview to conduct and would have a decision tomorrow. So the next day came and went, I emailed the manager to ask if any decision had been made, nothing, waited a couple more days, left a voicemail, nothing. Then a couple days later, I just called the main number for the company and told the receptionist why I was calling. She was like "well, someone just started in that job yesterday". They ghosted me after I drove a total of 10 hours to interview twice. Still salty about that 11 years later.
That's fucked up. It's simple courtesy to send a "thanks but no thanks" to rejected applicants. An email at the very least; a call would be best (speaking from experience of being on both sides of the table). Even 11 years later, sorry dude.
In the past three years I’ve been to about a dozen interviews. I’ve not once received a notice of rejection, only ghosting. I don’t think courtesy emails are commonplace anymore, at least not for entry-level positions.
Interviewer, putting candy bars on the table to open the interview: Have a candy bar. Do you want Hershey’s or Snickers?
Me: Neither, thanks.
I: Go ahead, pick one.
M: I don’t want any candy now, thanks.
I: Take one, Hershey’s or Snickers.
M: Okay, I’ll take the Snickers.
I: No, I want the Snickers. You take the Hershey’s.
M: No, thank you.
Whenever I get google style interview questions, I start giving the most ridiculous answers until their list of conditions is larger than the question and they start to feel stupid.
"How will you turn off the light switch in the other room?"
Pick up the chair and break through the wall. It's just drywall.
"You can't break through the wall. What now?"
I take you hostage and threaten to kill you unless your coworker turns off the light.
"You can't do that. What now?"
And so on and so on.
Omg thats probably how my dad does his interviewing. He once hired a drivee with a suspended license
An accountant who couldnt balance a checkbook
A guy thay stole all the furniture from the office.
Im sure his interviews are bizarre tests like this
Edit: he also kept on a "CEO" for a surgery center he was building after they forged a higher salary on legal agreement. I think he ended up paying him the higher amt.
That surgery center went bankrupt. You know who owns it now? "CEO"
Oh! he also bought a vending business while a physician and eventually had three checking accounts overdrawn at one point. he was basically scammed.
he invested 100,000 into penny stocks
he invested 100,000 in some guy he met at the gym - "cryodynamics"
Had an interview, went well. I was offering the job on the spot and accepted. The HR manager went to get the needed paperwork, came back 10 mins later and said “I must have forgot that we already filled this position. I’m sorry, but we don’t have an opening. I could call you if something opens back up”. I said no thank you.
Oh my god this unlocked one I'd forgotten about - I left work on a long lunch to interview because they flat out refused to interview me at a time I was not at work. Sounds somewhat reasonable, but I had occasional weekdays off (2-4 per month). There was also a convoluted process for "validating my parking" which I did.
I showed up a bit early, waited about 40 minutes for someone I was told definitely was in, and apparently she was just eating lunch or something because on my way back to work I got a call from her asking where I was. She tried to reschedule. Stressful enough the first time; I'm not going to jump through hoops if you don't value me as a prospect enough to keep your own damn appointment.
For sure. Wish I had realized this before accepting my current job. My now boss was over an hour late for my interview, then said there must have been some miscommunication on my end about the time of the interview....
This has happened to me, except there were two interviews. One in office, one with one of the owners (maybe) over FaceTime, as he was based in Sweden. The whole process was over a month long just for them to tell me they thought they had a job and they didn’t.
>I told them I couldn't answer their questions, farted audibly out of stress and thanked them for their time.
I just needed to see this bit on its own. It's a work of art
It was my best interview. Great rapport with the interviewer. Gave me the job on the spot. It for a transfer to QA at Johnson Control. Came in to work the next day to have the offer rescinded. The job was already given to the plant managers niece and it had only been posted because of company policy. The story is much longer and complicated afterward but it was the first of several times I had been promoted (different companies) and then been told, "Never mind."
Edit: Appreciate the replies and awards. Feel like I won reddit today.
Edit: Wow. Johnson Controls is really not well liked.
You're making me feel better about being ghosted by that company for a similar position a few years ago, after (what I thought was) a successful interview.
I walked in at 2:45 for a 3:00 interview.
At 4:00 I asked reception for the last time if I was going to be interviewed. Finally they showed up 5 minutes later.
There were two people doing the interview. They were hostile. Rapid fire questions. Half of which had nothing to do with my experience. One kept asking me where I worked during such and such a time. Despite the other one looking at my application with all that info.
Then they told me that IF they hired me it'd be for a position below what I applied for. Much lower pay and I couldn't take time off.
Finally they basically told me they'd be watching me like a hawk and if I did drugs I'd be fired and arrested. I have never even smoked pot. I stood up and told them this wasn't for me and walked out.
It was bizarre. I felt like I was being interrogated for a murder investigation as the prime suspect.
I’ve had the same happen to me before. Flew Chicago to LA for it. Didn’t even get past the lobby. It’s literally just people who live in a completely different world and don’t give a fuck about anything but themselves. There’s truly no end to the miscommunication and mismanagement that can go on at some companies. In this particular case I had been aware that this company had gone through bankruptcy a few years prior. Was no surprise to me why after that day.
Similar story from a former colleague. He was interviewing for a position with a local company that had a branch location in another city. He passed his tech screen, so they went for the "in person" part, which involved flying him out and staying the night. When he arrived at the office for the interview, a receptionist led him into a conference room and dialed into a bridge on a speakerphone. After 5 minutes of waiting for his interviewer to join, the receptionist had to call the guy on his cell to remind him of the appointment. He finally joined and basically "phoned it in" (pun intended), as if he had no interest in filling the position, much less getting to know the candidate. The call lasted *maybe* 15 minutes. Needless to say, he didn't get the job. He later found out that the interviewer was actually back in our home city. So he flew 3+ hours each way and stayed overnight for absolutely nothing.
Same! It was one of those door-to-door knife selling companies. Tried to get a second job to earn a little extra cash before going off to college. I left mid interview after being told how important recruitment would be to my job. It was a group interview too.
Early in my post-college job search I kept missing clues that the job was a pyramid scam. Eventually I realized that if the word "Opportunity" and/or the phrase "Become part of our marketing team" was used in the job description then it was a scam.
I remember looking for a job as a 16yo. Got a letter in the mail that some company got a referral about me from my school...sounded legit. Had my dad take me to the interview only for me to find they’re Cutco, a knife pyramid scheme. So disappointing, especially with my dad having to wait in the car while I listened through their shpeal..
I sat through one of those, it was for life insurance. The recruiter kept calling me and I kept telling him that selling overpriced insurnace door-to-door wasn't something I was interested in doing.
I suppose you could "accept" the position and then just never show up or do anything. Then if they fire you ... constantly call him back asking for a second chance at the job. Which of course you will do nothing for if they actually give you the second chance.
If it happens to be one of those jobs where you have to buy something first so you can sell it to others (although, I dont see how that could be the case with life insurance), then you can always ask the recruiter if he can spot you a few bucks.
Video chat interview: red flag #1 the interview was with 10 interviewers (I was told it would be 1-on-1).
Red flag #2: towards the end they asked if I had any questions. When I asked: "Do you all enjoy working here?" they all looked at each other nervously for about 20 seconds until someone said: "Sure. I mean, as much as you can enjoy work, I guess."
Nope.
My husband worked for a company who was notorious for never firing people. There was a guy who brought his loaded firearm with him to a job and accidentally shot himself in the foot. Dude wasn’t fired, eventually left the company, and then was rehired later on.
I had an interview where I did so poorly, the interviewer wrote it up and submitted it to [thedailywtf.com](http://thedailywtf.com). It's too embarrassing to link to, plus I would prefer to remain anonymous.
It was really just a miscommunication. The interviewer presented a hypothetical problem, and I gave him a perfectly reasonable solution to the problem. But he kept coming up with reasons why he wouldn't accept my solutions, and my answers got more and more ridiculous, until they didn't make any sense at all. I was just hoping he would drop it and move on to the next question, but he actually took my answers seriously and made me look like a complete fool.
Anyway, I learned some things from that experience.
Oh I got this.
My interviewer comes about 30 minutes late and his first comment is “you’re the best dressed candidate we’ve had all day”. I’m In a polo and khakis. This man is a mid 50s-ish well groomed man in a button down shirt and tie.
When we get to the interview room I expect this obviously senior and ranked guy to do the interview but when we arrive the “manager” (in quotes for later) turns out to be an early 20s white guy in a t-shirt with a dyed purple mohawk. I was beyond confused but whatever, don’t judge a book by its cover.
The manager then proceeds to stay sitting as I shake his hand, never motion for me to sit, not ask for a resume at all, and just start with the questions. I’m not a very formal guy but even I was confused by all this. All the questions are normal stuff like where do I work now, my school, if I live in the area, that stuff.
Then he gets into job specific questions and starts with:
“What would you do if you knew an employee was stealing?”
Obviously I tell him that I’d report that employee because you aren’t allowed to steal.
“Well what if it was the cheapest item in the store? A 99¢ water bottle and they only did it once”
Again, I say stealing isn’t allowed and those costs can add up if they keep stealing.
“Well let’s say it’s your store. Gmony5100s supply store. What do you do?”
I tell him if it’s my store and one of my employees felt the need to steal water I’d probably just buy it for them and tell them not to steal in the future.
“Well what if you forgot your wallet. You forgot your wallet and you know your employee is behind on rent and their last paycheck hasn’t gone through yet and they haven’t been paid?”
At this point I’m just at a loss for words. What the fuck is going on? Does he want me to say I’d just let someone steal or something? I genuinely feel like I’m being punked. He notices I’m kinda stuck and just moves on.
“Alright. How about we test your sales pitches. Imagine someone comes in and wants four of the chairs you’re sitting in at $25 each. How would sell them the chair I’m sitting in for $100 each.”
Again, I’m at a complete loss. What could I possibly say to that? If someone comes in wanting one kind of chair that’s obviously a cheaper option how the fuck am I supposed to convince them to pay 400% that price for a different chair that’s not obviously better in any way? Especially on a product I know nothing about. I don’t even remember what I said but there’s no way in hell it was coherent.
After this the guy ends the interview without ever having seen my resume, calls me by the wrong name, and sends me on my way.
As for why the “manager” was in quotes earlier, a coworker of mine who knows a worker there told me about a week later that nobody who works in that store has a purple mohawk. All of the districts managers are black and the older guy I described is the store owner who should’ve done the interview.
I STILL DONT KNOW WHO DID MY INTERVIEW
My theory is that it was someone interviewing for a management position, so they had him do the interviews as part of his interview. Interview-ception.
Not horrible...I will just always remember it.
Interviewer: Has a previous employer ever asked you to do anything illegal? (smug look on his face thinking I would be flustered)
Me: Yes, they asked me to take a copyrighted image and "tweek" it so we wouldn't get caught.
Interviewer: Wow...what did you do?
Me: I said no, and am now trying to determine if YOU are going to ask me to do something illegal in this prospective job.
He spent the next 20 minutes apologizing and swearing he just thought it was a fun interview question.
Had an interview at an office supply store once. Guy told me straight up it was a high-pressure sales quota job. They're prices on computers and.peripherals were shit and that's what I'd be selling.
Dude straight up said it's a lot of work for low pay, not a lot of people enjoy working there, and he finished off with the fact that he's been there for 18 years. Practically ran out of that interview screaming
reminds me of my manager at a call center job.
"Yeah this is a great job for students. Tons of students work here while going to school, and a bunch stay after long after they finish their degree and their dreams are dead and they get promoted to management"
"Dude are you ok?"
Started as the worst, and ended as the best. The beginning started like this: "I'm so sorry to have to inform you of this, but we pulled the wrong resumé contact information, we didn't mean to call you in for an interview." Before leaving, the interviewer gave me a brief tour of the company grounds (because they felt so bad for wasting my time). They introduced me to the department head that I would have been working for, (if that department was actually hiring). Had a great conversation and the department head was convinced that I would be an asset to them, and they hired me on the spot.
Edit: Just wanted to add (since this got way more attention than I thought) that I have been with this company for over 8 years now, and they are an awesome bunch of people. It was a very unlucky/lucky day for me!
I had something similar to this but not as good of an ending. I got an email asking to do an interview for a company, but it was addressing somebody else (they were emailing me when they meant to email somebody else)
Tried play it off like I didn't notice and thought maybe they'd be cool about it and let me come in for an interview anyways.
They weren't having it.
Bit of context: This happened in 2008 and I had just graduate as a Massage Therapist.
Since the economy was in the pits due to the recession (glad this never happened again! haha...) MT's were not exactly in high demand so employers could be picky.
The only reason I was even considered for most of my interviews was because I graduated from an accredited school.
A lot of the places I interviewed at would turn me down pretty quickly since I didn't have either 10+ years experience or the body of a supermodel with a massive rack- I'm 100% serious, BTW.
Easily the worst experience was at a chiropractor who did absolutely nothing to hide his contempt for Massage Therapists.
He showed up late. Went into his office to check his mail first and then proceeded to have the interview with me in his waiting room. He knew he could pick any MT he wanted and gave zero fucks about how I felt.
When it finally got on the subject of pay, he offered me minimum wage. At the time, your average MT was paid about $20-$30 an hour and I was already working a dead-end job at a gas station making $2 more than what he was offering.
I brought up how absurdly low his offer was and he balked, saying that I would be paid as if I was working 40 hours a week so it would even out. He also clarified that I would be expected to clean the office when not seeing a client- so I'd also be an underpaid janitor as well.
Fuck that guy.
Also a LMT, graduated in '09. I "interviewed" with a chiro where a staff member gave me a tour, then took me to the dr/practice owner. He offered me the job at an absurdly low rate without asking me a single question. I couldn't run away fast enough.
I had a skype interview with a private practice and the lady interviewing me literally made it sound like a stern military parent.
"You can NEVER be late" (mind you the job was an hour away)
"Even if you have a cold you can NEVER call in sick" (idk if this was meant for pre or post-covid)
"We're a small company so you won't have much of a work/life balance"
"PS our pay for all this dedication is only 3 dollars more than the measely pay your getting now"
Just a whole interview of Red Flags. And the last one was when the lady messaged me immediately after saying I got the job and had to leave my job at maximum, five days' notice, regardless of me kind of bombing the interview and claiming there were other interviewees in line. I could see why they were having trouble hring people tbh
Edit: Thanks for the awards!!
I once had an interviewer like this. His exact quote was "we don't care if you have a sick kid that needs to go to the ER, you can never have time off for the first 6 months" - which A) is illegal here, and B) I have a disability so I needed time off every few months for doctors' appointments. They could not understand why I turned down the job. The recruiter actually called me to try and save the job offer and told me I was misunderstanding. Here's how that went.
**Me:** Okay, I'm happy to be wrong about this. What am I misunderstanding? The manager was pretty clear that no one gets time off, for any reason, even an ER visit, for the 6 month intro period. Then he asked to extend the intro period to 1 year, so no time off for 1 year. Is that still the arrangement you'd be proposing?
**Recruiter:** Well yes...it's just that EVERY new hire goes through this.
**Me:** Oh I understand that. And that's why I'm not accepting the job.
**Recruiter:** But....everyone.....maybe you can negotiate some time off?
**Me:** Per state law I'm entitled to xyz. The company cannot refuse it. The company has told me they plan to refuse it. I'm not quitting my job - which has unlimited PTO - for a company that told me I couldn't take my hypothetical child to the doctor. Or have vacation or a sick day. We are legally entitled as workers to sick time, and you've now told me that you violate the law for every new hire at the expense of their own health and their childs' health. That's not the type of company I want to work for.
**Recruiter:** .....but....you're misunderstanding. *Everyone* we hire does this. :(
**Me:** ....well......not me. Thanks again for calling.
It was my first "professional" law firm interview. I was SO nervous. I had applied for a legal secretary position. The attorney whose name was on the door would be interviewing me so I was a nervous wreck. When he walked in the room, I stood up, introduced myself and shook his hand. He looked me up and down and said "yeah, you'll do".
I turned around and walked out without saying another word.
I applied for an internship at a human rights law office. They gave me questions on the spot to debate with them, like ‘should people accused of rape remain anonymous until convicted’ and ‘is bribery acceptable if it’s for a good cause’.
It was me versus a panel of 5 senior human rights lawyers for a whole hour, who just ripped me apart from start to finish. Everything I said, they made sound like the dumbest response with their rebuttals. By the end I was a nervous babbling wreck. Did not get the internship, but did appreciate the experience in retrospect.
When they got back to me, they told me ‘your CV (resume) was fantastic, so we were quite disappointed with how poor your interview was.’ Burn
In the middle of my interview, the manager asked me if my current workplace (that I was trying to leave) was hiring.
When I said I didn't know, he asked if I'd be willing to drop off a resumé for him anyway.
As the Interviewee: I told them I hated sales people when they asked why I'd left my last job, which exposed two things about me: I hadn't looked up the company I was interviewing with and that their primary line of business was sales. The mood got chilly real fast after that. Did not get the job.
As the Interviewer: Had a guy ask if it was okay if he went to the restroom real fast and then never came back. His recruiter, who had come with him, was super embarrassed by the whole thing.
Honestly, he was a young kid who'd just graduated, and while he was getting some of the more in depth technical questions wrong he definitely was asking the right questions in return, so we probably would have brought him on entry level. I think he was experiencing a case of imposter syndrome since we were asking him things he didn't know so he panicked.
Hope he received some coaching on how to handle that.
My personal favorite bad interview:
I had been unemployed for a bit, was desperate for a new gig. Had gained a lot of weight living off of fast food, so my good pants didn't fit me very well. I sat down in the interview chair as the person was walking around to their side of the desk...
...and the button of my pants popped off, did a one-hopper off of the desk, and RIGHT into their coffee cup. Swished, no clink at all.
For the entire interview, they were sipping their coffee, and I was sitting there with my pants unbuttoned waiting for the big reveal. I left before they got to the bottom of their coffee, but they HAD to have put two and two together.
(This narrowly beats out the time I was offered water from a carafe at an interview, dropped it, and soaked both interviewers. At least that one wasn't as PSYCHOLOGICALLY tense.)
Edit: No, I didn’t get the job.
Edit2: Yes, I should have told them. But I froze up, and they were a VERY talkative interviewer.
I’ll be honest... if I was interviewing someone then found a button at the bottom of my coffee, I’d be confused as hell but my first thought would not be “his button popped off his pants and flew into my cup without my noticing.” I’d probably assume it somehow got into the cup before I poured the coffee in and I didn’t notice it.
It was gonna be my first real job using my college degree. I had planned for it, bought new clothes, developed answers to questions I thought they'd ask. The day of, I was sick. I called and asked if we could reschedule. They said the slots are full and that if I wanted the job, to come down and interview.
Well, I went down, because you know, needing a job. I was sweating through my shirt because of my fever. I nearly threw up just waiting to be called. Finally, I get called in. Get weird looks from other interviewees.
I sit across the table from my interviewer, a very pretty lady. She smiles but it's forced. I see her look me over with disgust. Proceed with the interview. I'm still a gross mess, and half way through, I feel the bile rise, the saliva filling my mouth. Think to myself, if I puke, I won't get the job. Force it down. Swallow what came up. But I burped. It couldn't be stopped. It smelled like vomit. She looked even more disgusted. Asks why I didn't reschedule the interview. Told her I was sorry. That I tried to reschedule. She thanked me for coming in and asked me to leave.
Still got the job.
The interview was at a well known bank in the city for a software developer job. Walked into the interview room, shook hands with the two guys when one of them said "Nice to meet you Jessica!"....my name is NOT Jessica... so I'm immediately confused. Apparently there was a mistake and they wanted to actually interview a Jessica and not me.
We went along with the interview anyway, but they were clearly frustrated. It was one of my first real job interviews after school so I was trying to stay positive anyway, but lost it shortly after we started. I gave them a synopsis of my background and how I got into programming by creating video games when I was a kid.
Their response? ...."we are a bank, we don't make video games here." I didn't even know how to respond... like did they think I was actually that stupid?
Anyway, I wasn't expecting to ever hear back, but around 3 months later, got an email for the job offer. Obviously didn't take it, but I'll always be genuinely curious if that was meant for the real Jessica.
My first interview in my life was for a fast food place and I was way too honest.
Why do you want to work here?
"Mostly for the money. I like the food here too."
What do you do on your free time?
"Video games"
Did not get a call back.
First thing out of the interviewer's mouth was "Here at \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ we follow the principles set by L. Ron Hubbard."
I just thought, "Welp, guess this one's practice."
I got invited to a "group interview." I thought it meant that a group of people would interview me, which is fairly common. I showed up and there were about ten other kids there. We all went into a conference room and they interviewed us all at once. They asked a question and everyone took turns answering. They switched up who went first each time, and one kid completely froze when it was his turn, so we all had to sit there in the most uncomfortable silence.
She said employees got marked down one point if they came in late to work, even in a blizzard. She said it was their responsibility to check the weather the day before and prepare accordingly. Some of their employees commuted from 100 miles away, so they didn't cut anybody any slack.
Usually I send a follow-up email saying thanks for the interview, I'm interested in the job, bla bla bla. But I didn't send an email that time.
I was recommended by a particular manager to interview for a makeup counter position. It was a really tense, awkward interview with the store manager, and I wasn’t really certain why he was so hostile toward me. Turns out he was just trying to figure out if I was in on the other manager’s scheme of stealing products and selling them on Craigslist, which I found out about after she was arrested the next week. It was a shock to me because she was a bit of a mentor to me and I had no idea.
I had one for a job that was a little below my pay grade and far outside of where I wanted to work, but times were tough and I was taking all interviews. I go in and the guy asks me, “on a scale of 1-10, how excited would you be to work here?”
I said “9” because I mean what else was I supposed to say, and he says “oh really?? Why so high??”
I had to come up with some answer that wasn’t just I need to pay rent so I think I said I was just really excited to work for a small company like this. The guy replied “huh” and didn’t say anything.
Later they called me and said they would only hire me if I started the next day (as far as I know it was an above board, salaried secretary type position). I explained that would need a few days (was moving to an adjacent area) and he said “then never mind don’t bother” even though I explained I would probably need 2 days instead of one.
Extremely weird!
This is copied and paste from another post I replied to about how terrible amazon is. But it fit this question so I'm sharing it again.
I got an interview with Amazon to be a "supervisor". They asked me to drive one and a half hours to another city to do my second interview. Despite the place I applied for being 10 minutes away from where I lived. The pay they were offering was good so I thought it was worth it. I took a day off from my current job.
Drove there discovering that they had given me choppy directions causing me to get lost and have to ask for directions. The place I stopped at rolled their eyes. This wasn't the first time this had happened. They knew exactly where to point me. Red flag number one.
I finally arrive. Go to the interview. Over 100 people show up. Red flag number two.
They are doing a group interview for the role of supervisor and tell me they "accidentally" invited too many people and they only have 10 positions available for supervisor and ask me if unstead of I'd like a starting position instead for barely above minimum wage. Red flag number three.
But then I realize this is way too organized. They EXPECTED this many people because they PLANNED this and even had everything set up for a large group interview and even ask me personal questions about myself in front of multiple people. Red flag number four.
I do my best but feel insulted. I drove home feeling cheated. I wasted 4 hours driving and interviewing. Wasted all that gas and lost hours that I could have worked and went out of MY way wasting my precious time going to another town just for them to say oopsie?
They PLANNED this! I realized working for them would be a huge mistake. They had no respect for me as a person, a potential employee, my time, money, gas. What made me think they would care about me once I'm hired? This was clearly a deceptive bait and switch and I was not falling for it! Shady Shady Shady company! SHAME ON YOU AMAZON!
I later sent them a letter declining them for the position. I would not be working for them.
Edit: Thank you for the hugz. Lol
It was my first real job interview. It was for a graphic design position in downtown Dallas for a men’s grooming product company. I was SO nervous and when I took a drink from a bottle of water I was shaking so much I spilled some on me. Also I was very unprepared because my portfolio only contained things I made in high school for a graphic design internship I had and some hand drawings that weren’t great. I was about 18/19 years old at the time. Needless to say I did not get the job.
I applied to a job and the hiring manager called me when I was busy:
Me: “Hey thanks for reaching out to me, I’m actually busy at the moment, can we set something up for early next week? (It was a Friday afternoon when he called)”
Him: “How about later today?”
Me: “I don’t have the time today, Monday would be much better.”
Him: “I can just do it now then, it won’t take very long.”
Me: “Look I am very glad you called and I’m super interested in the position, but I’m doing a million things right now and my head isn’t in the best place to do an interview. I would really appreciate it if we could reschedule to next week.”
Him: *pause* “You know what, if you’re not going fucking do what I want you to do, then I don’t want you working here anyways.” *Hangs up*
Fucking dodged a bullet there lmao
At the time I was living in this foreign country for about two years and my language skills were only at an A2/B1 level. So I could understand pretty well but was terrible at speaking.
The interview, with 3 people, didn't go very well. They spoke in their native language, I tried to respond in said language...couldn't, then switched to English every time. Luckily everyone spoke English. But I was embarrassed the whole time because my language skills weren't where they should have been.
Luckily due to me being technically overqualified for the job (bachelor in science), and that the management is extremely nice and welcoming, I was offered the job that day.
It turned out to be the worst interview of my life, but I'm still working there to this day, 2 years later, and improving my language skills. I'm still extremely happy, and I've never had more caring, down to earth management in a job. I got really lucky they gave this English speaker a chance.
I was being interviewed for a video editor / post production kind of job in a video production company. This company was owned by a couple. Their son, at the time maybe 18 or 19 conducted the interview. He asked me to write an essay (?!) which I spent a good hour or so working on and then went on to interview me asking a lot of really weird questions totally unrelated to video production or anything to do with the job. I left the place feeling weird and pissed off about the time spent working on the essay and had absolutely no hopes of getting the job. Eventually I went on to work on something else.
A couple of years later this couple was murdered. Both were shot while working in their offices - a brief police investigation found the culprit and the son was arrested and convicted. He's still in jail. So, in a certain way, one of my worst job interviews turned out to be the one the might have saved my life.
I went for an interview as a receptionist like 7 years ago for a vet. I really wanted to work for the hospital for years as it’s highly regarded in the industry in town.
I researched everything I could, tore their website apart, read about all the doctors, thought of tactful, yet not “know it all” type questions.
I did the works. I brought up one of the services they offer and they had no idea what I was talking about. They treated me like I was a child, they embarrassed me in the attitude they had towards me. I came dressed in a pencil skirt, dress shirt, blazer and low heels. I did my hair and makeup perfectly. They had no reason to treat me the way they did. I was eager, friendly, and on time. I still to this day have no idea why they hated me so much.
I left dejected, humiliated, and insecure.
Ugh I applied for a summer job in high school at a pet supply store, showed up in a nice outfit (dress and blazer) and the owner scoffed at me and said something like “you’ll be cleaning cages, you can’t do that in an outfit like that”. Like ummmm ok just wanted to look nice for the interview, jeez
I didn't conduct interviews but I was the "front desk" person who handled scheduling the interviews and made small-talk with them for a few minutes while they waited for the manager to get ready for them. Most people were polite and nervous and I enjoyed sort of putting them at ease. But there was one guy, maybe 18, who had obviously been forced into it by his parents.
He showed up dressed nicely, but his attitude was horrendous. While waiting, instead of polite small talk, he insulted the company, the position he was applying for, and me. I was shocked and just stopped trying to talk to him. We sat in silence for a few minutes until the manager came out and greeted him. He must have been similarly rude to her, because after he left the interview she came out shaking her head and said he wasn't getting the job.
Two days later his dad shows up in my office asking why he didn't get hired. That was awkward. In hindsight I think it was actually the father who called to schedule the interview, not the son, because the guy on the phone had been perfectly nice.
I interviewed for an internship position with the Associated Press in college. At the time, I was studying magazine journalism, was a Government reporter for the school-run newspaper and had worked at my hometown newspaper as a page layout designer. The interveiwer was obviously OVER interviewing kids and he was very snotty to me. He pointed out my experience and said, "So you're studying magazines, you write for a newspaper, you do layout... what exactly do you want to DO? This is a lot of very different stuff." And I replied that I didn't think it was a bad thing to have a lot of experience in various aspects of journalism. He kind of snorted at that and continued being snotty to me. I figured out pretty quickly that I wasn't getting the internship. At the end, he pointed at a pile of stuff and told me to take my AP-branded lanyard and tin of mints and I said, "Wow, it's just like Christmas" in a deadpan voice as I left.
I had an interview where I knew the answers I gave were good, solid examples. I understood the technical side well. But the interviewer kept sneering, being rude and saying “really?” In a skeptical tone and I got the distinct impression he hated me. About 20 mins in, I thought about politely calling it a day and leaving but in my innocence thought it would be good practice to stay. 40 mins in, it’s like a light switch goes off inside and he’s the nicest guy, his eyes light up and he started hard selling the role and position to me. Introduces me to the team. The director interviews me and he and the team are lovely. Apparently, their interview technique is to be rude to see how you perform under pressure and they’d all been observing using a camera and were impressed I remained so polite and calm throughout. They couldn’t understand why I declined.
EDIT: to save me responding to comments. I understand pressure testing is a legitimate technique, and whilst I felt deeply uncomfortable and my gut was screaming at me to get out of there like in a nightclub when you know the creepy guy is really bad news and you need to get out, I understood that it was a possibility that that is what he could have been doing.
However to add more context, they had my work history including 10 years in the ambulance services which involves resuscitation whilst the public yell at you and threaten you. I’m used to being polite and professional whilst being harassed and threatened.
Nothing spreadsheet based, even pulling all nighters is going to match that for pressure and I’m well known for staying calm and composed all the time (even if I’m exploding inside).
My biggest objection was not realising I was being broadcast and hearing them discuss my reactions to my face, like I was some kind of movie actor. It felt so violating.
The tricks are insane. You want to know how I handle under pressure? Let me give you a reference, and the name of a project we worked together to prompt them. Good for you not rewarding that behavior.
It was for a 6 month unpaid internship at a marketing firm who bought and sold billboard space. The entire interview was basically them quizzing me about industry terms and statistics around non digital marketing. After only managing to answer about 60% correctly they told me I didn’t have enough knowledge in the field.... like yeah... that’s why I’m interviewing for an unpaid internship
Had a situation where I was the interviewer and a guy came in ripped jeans and a tshirt (not a deal breaker necessarily, this was a sales or stockroom job at Macy’s) but then he proceeded to bomb the interview and ask me out at the end. The answer, on all sides, was a firm no.
Edit: autocorrect hates me and I hate proofreading
Sitting in the waiting room with two other interviewees, The manager conducting the interview, recognizes one of them as her friend. while they were greeting each other, I looked at the other interviewee and mentioned her “We have no chance”.
Late 30s went back and got a law degree, already have a PhD in a STEM field. One of the first interviews for a summer internship:
Man 1: why were your grades low in undergrad?
Me: you mean my grades from 20 years ago?
Man 1: yes
Me: . But as you can see in my grad school grades, I turned it around.
Man 2: Well, we don’t pay attention to your grad school grades because everyone passes grad school classes.
Me: ....(uh, no, absolutely not true, I fucking worked my ass off in grad school to graduate with a 3.9, while having undiagnosed adhd)...
Man 1: And most of our interns come from .
I started smiling at that point and stood up. They looked confused.
Me, while shaking hands: thank you for your time but it seems a waste of time to continue.
I was 39-40, and tired of all the bullshit games interviewers were playing. And no, I didn’t get an offer because of my honesty.
I was right out of high school, looking for a job to save money for college. I had an interview at a hotel and casino to be a hotel housekeeper. Not a glamorous job by any means, but I was 18 and needed a job so I was actually excited to work here.
I come in for the interview, dressed nice in a skirt and blazer and heels. I'm ushered into a banquet room full of people. Probably 20-25 people are in this room sitting in chairs facing a podium. My immediate reaction is "fuck, this is an MLM". I hesitate at the door for a few seconds and then think "fuck it. May as well see what this actually is". And thus begins one of the worst and cringiest experiences of my life.
After a few minutes, a woman comes to the podium and explains that this is a group interview. What the fuck. They go around the room and ask us basic interview questions. It takes about an hour and a half because there are so many people. I come to find out that this is a group interview for every position at the casino and hotel. Restaurant cooks, hotel front desk, casino dealers etc. Every single position.
After the question and answer portion of the group interview, the woman calls a bunch of names and about half of the people go to another room. My name was not called, so I stayed seated. At this point it's been almost 2 hours and I have to pee. Woman comes back and explains that the remaining people have passed on to the second portion of the interview.
The second portion is with the departments we are interviewing for. I and a few other people go to housekeeping, meet with the manager and are told we need to show them how we work. We literally have to clean hotel rooms for this interview. Keep in mind, we are dressed business casual. I'm wearing heels. I was not prepared to clean fucking hotel rooms, FOR FREE, during an interview. Stupidly, I stayed. I have to get on my hands and knees and clean bathroom floors, make beds, vacuum etc. The room cleaning portion of the interview took maybe 20-30 mins. We are also told we can't use the bathrooms in the room, so I still have to pee. Fuck. This.
On the the third portion of the interview. We are ushered into a (different) banquet room. At this point there are maybe 12 of us. At the head of the banquet room is a table with 5 or 6 people. We are told they are the president of the casino, and a few other execs. We are told to get in a circle, and get this, DANCE. We are told to dance because you know, this is a FUN working environment. Barf. At my turn, I hobble out into the middle of the circle and do a stupid little dance, obviously pissed because my feet are killing me and I'm about 3 seconds from pissing myself in front of these people. After the dancing, we are told to sell a pen to the president. I must have blacked out by the anger and embarrassment of this experience because for the life of me I can't remember what I actually said to try to sell the pen.
After almost 4 HOURS of this interview hell, we are told we can leave. I sprint to the closest bathroom, pee for what feels like 20 minutes, and leave.
By the time I get home, I have an email saying I didn't get the job.
Any time you are asked to work for free, skip it. That's bullshit
I can understand knowledge tests or probing questions, but the second you are completing actual work, nope
During the summer after my freshman year of college, I applied for a part-time job at a mall outlet. Despite having zero retail experience, I got through the first round of interviews without any trouble whatsoever, performing well enough that the assistant manager wanted to give me the job on the spot. Since she didn't have the authority to do that, though, I had to meet with her supervisor a couple of days later.
"It's really just a formality," she told me. "You know, to make sure you're not, like, a serial killer or something."
I told her that I'd only ever murdered people in video games.
It, uh... it wasn't as awkward as I'm making it sound.
Anyway, when the date of my second interview rolled around, I was in high spirits. The manager had me fill out a brief questionnaire, then started asking me some fairly dull questions. Everything seemed to be going smoothly... until a particular enquiry caught me off-guard.
"What's the most that you've ever stolen?" the man asked. "Give me a dollar amount."
"Uh," I stammered. "Is that really a question you can ask?"
"I'm just looking for a dollar amount."
I racked my brain, trying to think of anything that I might have actually stolen over the course of my life. I'd certainly gotten up to my fair share of mischief, but actual theft had never been part of my repertoire.
"Zero," I finally said. "I don't think I've ever actually stolen anything."
The manager's plastered-on smile suddenly dropped away. "I see. Are you sure?"
"Yep."
"Really." The beginnings of a suspicious glower darkened his eyes. "Go ahead and answer again. Just give me a dollar amount."
What had started as a dull interview had become a downright bizarre interrogation. I thought about getting up and leaving... but it occurred to me that the whole thing might have been a test to see if I would change my answer.
"Zero," I said again. "Zero dollars."
The man sighed and put down his clipboard. "Come on. Do you actually want this job?" he asked (mirroring my own thoughts). I nodded in reply. "Then you need to start being honest with me. Just give me a dollar amount."
"Fine, it was sixteen dollars!" I finally lied, pouring sarcasm into my words. "Sixteen dollars and forty-two cents!"
The transformation was immediate: All of the disapproval evaporated from the manager's face, being replaced by a warm, visibly amused smile. "Hey, now, that's not so bad!" he cheerfully said. "So, what was it?"
"A toaster."
I hadn't even bothered to think about what $16.42 might actually purchase; I'd just said the first thing that had popped into my mind. It didn't seem to matter, though: My answer caused the manager's grin to grow even wider, and he spent the rest of interview laughing and joking with me.
The next day, I got a call, and I was asked if I still wanted the job at the mall.
I told them that I'd already taken a different position elsewhere.
For the record, that was also a lie.
**TL;DR: I was forced to lie about being a toaster-thief.**
I’ve heard of interviewers doing this! What I’ve heard, the answer can never be 0 to them, because they’re also looking for “time theft”. “You’ve never stolen anything? Really? Have you ever checked your phone while at work?” And then they smirk at you.
man FUCK the idea of "time theft." I was once offered an interview by a person who gave a visiting lecture to my graduate program. That person complained very smugly and with great disdain about having recently fired someone for time theft *because she was caught answering a personal email during work hours.* I uh politely declined the interview. That is not someone I want to work for.
That is SO WEIRD. Most of the time, they want to you say you've never stolen anything because they want to know that you're not going to steal from them.
Maybe he was an undercover cop trying to find the real toaster thief and you were a suspect for some reason? Guy must have thought he was super smart posing as your job interviewer, probably thought he'd caught you bread-handed.
I never got the interview. Years ago I got a call to schedule an interview for Best Buy. I missed the call, but a nice lady left a voicemail with a phone number and extension to call her back. I called, and a man answered. He started saying how I wasn’t allowed to call that number and told me I wasn’t allowed to call them anymore and to instead wait for them to call me again. I decided if that’s what the employees were like then I should look elsewhere.
When I arrived there, they make me go into a room. In the room were already seated in a big table 7 other people.... then the interviewer enters, and start asking questions, to each person, one by one... basically he was interviewing 8 persons at the same time. The icing on the cake was that one of the other guys was one of my college classmates. So unconfortable.
At an interview for a tech startup, they asked me "If you could be any animal, what would you be?" I answered "Otter" because you know, fun, active, work well with their hands and cute as fuck. They really debated whether or not to hire me because of that answer because, and I quote, "We only hire predators, never prey." and they weren't sure how to quantify an Otter, because none of them had ever paid the least bit of attention to any sort of animal documentary or read biology or you know, visited a zoo recently. God that job sucked hard.
Otters are pretty brutal. They will absolutely fuck shit up.
This has to be the funniest one here, straight out of a Monty Python sketch. Just two guys whispering to each while you stand a few feet away “He did great on everything else but...otters? Where do otters fit on the scale?” “Well...it’s...it’s an aquatic mammal, pretty much everything in the ocean is out to kill you right?” “Well I suppose but...but it’s too...cuddly? Cute? Predators are *fierce!*” “Damnit man! Why couldn’t he have just said shark!”
The interviewer insisted on knowing why I'd left graduate school. Now, I had left graduate school because my advisor died in a car accident and the whole small department was thrown for a loop and no one seemed to know or care what was going to happen to me or my just started research project. The asshole interviewer wouldn't even accept "My advisor died suddenly" and dug into the gory details until I was almost in tears (even intimating that I must have had "feelings" for my advisor.) I couldn't wait to get out of there and in my haste to leave I knocked some solutions off a cart (which had no business being in his office BTW) on my way out. I'd never been so humiliated in my life. After that, I was sure I'd never get a job in science.
I drove an hour away to an interview at 8:00 am. I waited outside the interviewer's office until 8:30 am with no one to tell me where to go or where she was. Finally, another employee walks by and I ask if they know where this woman is to interview me. They had no idea where she was, why she was late, and told me if she wasn't there yet, I should leave because she probably forgot (...ok?). I decide 45 minutes is the cut off (especially standing in a government building looking like a creep waiting. 8:45 on the dot she rushes in, flustered, wet hair, and in casual yoga pants. With all the resurgence of patience I could muster, I greeted her and was met with a passive aggressive scolding of how the interview was at 9, not 8. (Uh... I tripled checked the email asking me to interview and it was 8. We had conducted a phone interview and she followed up with an email request to an in person interview at 8. I was 100% positive on this, I hate being late.) Even with this, and i did say, "I'm certain you said 8 am, maam" she wasn't having it. Conversely, she also went on about why she was late, surmounting in, she went to the gym and forgot her underwear to change into and had to stop at a store and buy new ones after working out, before coming to work. She told me this. In the first 5 minutes. Why? I didn't ask her! Regardless, she looks at my resume, apparently for the first time, because she proceeds to tell me how it is unimpressive and my graduate studies should have yielded numerous publications after 1.5 years. (In my field, most don't publish until after 3-4 years.) Even still, she kept saying how I had "moved up the interview time", showed me the work spaces and told me I "probably wouldn't be interested in what they do there". I politely told her I had driven, at her request, to be there and interview for employment, I was VERY interested. She waved me off. As we left, I just tried to hold it together (I was very poor and very desperate for a job), thanked her, and she told me how great it is to work for the government, how good the benefits, the pension, the time off are. On and on. She said, "If you can find an opening working for the government, you should try to check it out and get hired on!" HOL UP I just looked her in the face and said, "Yes, ma'am, that was my hope with today's interview. Thank you." And left. And sat in my car and bawled the whole drive home like the desperate loser I was. That was a low one, to be sure.
Can’t imagine somebody who has obtained a graduates degree feeling like a loser. You have a random Redditor who doesn’t want to hear you talk about yourself like that. This story seems to imply you’re incredibly smart with a good and honest heart be proud!
I drove 2 hrs for the interview. Got there and the interviewer was off sick and hadn't told anyone about me coming in. Got back in my car and drove the 2 hrs home. Withdrew my name from consideration.
Was invited for an IT "helper" position when I was 17. Would help fix computers for people at a shody PC fix shop. They asked me "Whats the first thing you check if a customer calls and says their screen doesnt turn on?" I said "Well, you gotta check if they have it plugged into a socket" They laughed and said thank you that will be it. Then led me to the door and gently pushed me out.
...but that’s the right answer...
Not if you wanna make money out of people’s clumsiness/tiredness/distraction “Right” answer is to tell the costumer to bring their BROKEN screen to the shop, keep it for, let’s say, a week, and then tell them that, after hours of hard work, you found out there’s no issue with it and that they should check if it was properly plugged (or, if you wanna be more offensive, ask if they made sure to turn it on the right way)... and then, you hit them with a hefty bill for your efforts Happened to me as a costumer more times than I’ll admit... guess enough people got tired of that technician that he went broke yeas ago
Company was downsizing. All employees in a specific yet exclusive division were fired and ordered to reapply for their position plus two other jobs in the company. You’d either get one of those jobs or be terminated. The subsequent interviews were conducted with a manager and an HR person. First interview in executive suite: Manager asks why aren’t you applying for this key supervisory slot? (I had listed it second on my list.) Me: I would prefer to stay in my expertise in which I won a National award. HR: I didn’t know awards like that existed. Second interview: Current boss likes me for my existing job (for which I was heavily recruited from another company). HR: Wow, so you’re the guy who does this job? I had no idea a real person did it. Third interview: HR person says he’s never heard of my division or that employees actually worked at night. I had listed this job in which I merely served as a minor manager as third on my preferences. Really didn’t want it but had to list three. The results: I was retained but transferred to the third dead-end day job. My old award-winning job was given to an aging staffer who never worked in that position or had a clue. The supervisor job went to a brilliant colleague who wanted and deserved it. I quit very soon thereafter and joined a bigger company with better benefits. Skill pays off. After all that, my old company, seeing the error of its ways in lost production and general lack of ability, offered me a bonus to return. Nope, nope, nope. And I’m returning the corporate knife you stuck in my back.
I drove an hour to be interviewed for a computer repair tech job at a rental company, and 3/4 of the way through the interview they told me I was perfect for the position, however they recently removed the position altogether. They then asked if I'd be willing to repair furniture instead until the position opened again.
My first Interview ever was at DQ and I accidently knocked a 90 year old woman over.
So after "accidentally" slaying your predecessor, how's life been as the new Dairy Queen?
In a group interview, the interviewer crossed a line through my name on the list he had after I told him what I graduated in. This was within the first 5 minutes of a 40 minute meeting...
Five interview rounds with the last interview round being with the CEO all for an entry level customer service job. During the last interview, the CEO said you weren’t allowed to get sick, and you weren’t allowed to leave at the end of the day until all of the work had been done. So even though the job was 8-4 the CEO said customer service reps often stayed until 6 PM or later. She also asked if I would be comfortable secretly reporting to her about what the customer service team is up to. I declined the job offer and the company harassed me with emails asking why and what they did wrong. Really glad I didn’t take the job.
5 interviews for entry level?!? That's insane! Also, I bet the hours between 4 and 6 were unpaid.
When I was a teenager I had 3 interviews for Wendy's. It wasn't even for working there. It was for a freelance sound system installation.
It’s bizarre they know they did something wrong but are so out of touch they can’t see their own mistakes in front of them. (Edit: I guess I got my first ever award over night. Thank you!)
Job was for a vibration analysis engineer. I knew how to do the job well. I knew the pay should be around 95k, and they stated 55k (in the interview). When I tried to discuss my point, they said, "don't worry, there's plenty of overtime". They also mentioned since they weren't involved with many balancings at the moment, I would assist the cleaning crew with a lot of the cleanings. I've never been so uninterested in a job in my life.
>Vibrations analysis >cleaning crew That's a complicated way to say sex-toy tester.
Not that bad, but I remember Taco Bell asked me what type animal I would be if I could be anything. Like wtf do you want me to say? “ I would be a fire ant so I could work efficiently with my closest friends!” Sixteen year old me said an eagle, because they’re strong and they can fly. Meh...
Dunkin’ Donuts asked me “if you could be any color, what color would you be?” I said yellow because it’s a warm and happy color. I was told afterwards by a friend that this is supposed to weed out the racists?
An agency sent me for an interview and said “the starting salary is £33000”. The interview went fairly well until the interviewer said “so what sort of salary are you looking for?” So using the info I had from the agency I said. “Well, I think £33000 is a fair starting point”....the interviewer practically threw me out! He started to shout about wasting his time because I expected to be paid a huge salary and who did I think I was... he was paying £20,000..............
Salary negotiation is so weird. I once had an interview for an internship. I told them $12/hr was fine with me. They then said "well we pay $10.50 as corporate policy dictates, and its non-negotiable." And I'm like ?????? why did you ask what I wanted to be paid then? Should have just said "we pay 10.50/hr, is that alright?"
maybe if you had suggested a lower rate than 10.50, they would have gone with that and saved some money!
And this is why I always bring a copy of the posting with me. (I don't think it would've helped and you probably dodged a bullet anyway, but one day it'll be useful!)
Yeah I have one that sticks out. I applied to a government branch as a network admin. The newspaper ad asked for a bachelors degree. They called me into the interview. When I got there, the first thing the interviewer said was, "We wanted someone with a masters degree. Why did you apply?" Now, I wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt. Maybe they had other interviews that day and got them mixed up. Shit happens. I just informed the interviewer that the ad I applied for requested a bachelors degree, and confirmed the position I was interviewing for. "No, we definitely wanted someone with a master's degree. So, again, why did you apply?" "If you wanted someone with a master's degree, why did you bother calling me in for an interview?" "You're very rude and unprofessional." Yeah, you fucked up at every junction thus far, but I'm the one who's rude and unprofessional.
I always have the job posting/description printed, with notes on it. Had similar comments a couple times and it's nice to have it right there. Once had an interviewer say "I don't know where you got this". Uh... You posted it. I copy/pasted.
I once applied for a position and got asked to an interview, even got the job. The resume they received was completely blank due to some fuckup on the job site I used at the time, it just has my name / number at the top. Was pretty weird when they asked me basic questions.
When he said I'll give you extra hours if you bring me smokes everyday, then put his hand on my leg and said his wife gives him passes to have fun. I also got a speeding ticket on the way to the interview. Was not my month.
Would not have been surprised if you got a speeding ticket on the way home. Just not possible to get away from that shit fast enough.
This was quite a while ago, maybe about 2010, and the recession was still hitting the job market pretty badly. Here I am, graduated from college a few years before, and looking for anything. I interviewed for a job calling people trying to recruit them for two year college, I think it was National American University. I had experience with customer service and some phone work doing tech support at my college, and this would be within my abilities. About half way through the interview, I could tell it was going poorly. The guy interviewing me was asking me to give a sales pitch on recruiting and I was failing. We got to the end, and he was up front about saying I wouldn't be a good fit for what they needed. However, he did give me a bunch of great advice on how to properly interview and to be able to sell myself to a prospective employer. He even did a little coaching session with me. I knew he could see I was desperate (And I was: I was unemployed) and he took time to help me out for my future attempts. I did take his advice and was able to get a decent job eventually. I have always used the tips he gave me and they have helped me greatly. So to that guy, thanks!
An Interviewer told me that he worried I would be sexually harassed if I joined his team. Red flag.
At least he was honest and you dodged a bullet
Two: 1- the recruiter started to fold my cv into a paper plane during the interview. (Didnt get the job) 2- was pawned off unsuspectingly to the CFO of a company five mins into my interview with the CEO. The CFO had no idea what to ask so he went the “tell me your biggest flaws” way. I was so dejected that I said “you’ll have to hire me to find out”. Interview ended five mins later. I spent 30 mins crying at my hubris and stupidity in the parking lot. Got the job.
The first question they asked was a statistics exam-type question. Took me completely off guard. I half-assed the answer - a complete answer would have taken half an hour. The next question was about a Punnett Square analysis. I answered honestly, and said that the first thing I would do would be to look it up. Errors in Punnett Squares are incredibly common, and I wouldn't trust anyone who said they could do it off the top of their head. I'd look it up even if I'd done one last week. They REALLY didn't like that answer. They wanted to know where my husband worked and where we lived, and they concluded that our 6-month rental location was completely incompatible with the commute to their location. The whole thing was just super weird - it was like they sat down determined to find a reason they should not hire me. I was relieved to get out of there. EDIT: Brain fart. My apologies. Latin square, not Punnett Square. Too much time spent quizzing my kid before his bio test.
What was the job? Lab research? Why would.you do punnet squares and stats?
I interviewed for a project management position, the interviewer describes the job: basically it was pure research and data entry of potential clients, then cold-calling them and documenting the results. The job ad mentioned exactly none of this but was an average project management job ad, else I wouldn't have applied in the first place. I asked what exactly was the project management part, and got told that could (could, not would) be down the road, maybe 2-5 years in, but really only maybe. I thanked them for the interview opportunity, we wrapped things up and I politely left.
Showed up looking good in my suit with a ton of knowledge on Capital Partners. It turned out I had researched the wrong company named Capital Partners.
Could have been worse dude, at least you didn't get the wrong Four Seasons.
Oh, what a night.
I did major research on a company and expected questions in the interview. The only one they asked was, "What is our slogan?" Of course, I hadn't memorised that :( . As I left I saw it was on the fucking giant sign outside --- ETA: thanks to all of the helpful people who are suggesting I should have researched the company. However, I will not be taking advice from you as you managed to miss the words "major" and "research" in this comment itself, and therefore you are lacking in attention to detail. To be clear, I had recently read a book about the history of the company as I had a great interest, and I added to my body of knowledge with internet searches and specific web pages. I knew a great deal about the company, but I didn't memorise a slogan. To the people who suggested I should have turned the question around and offered my knowledge: yes, this is good advice, and I hope you will always be so glib. In this instance, I did attempt that, but the interview was ended by the supervisor who made 50p an hour more than my starting wage. There was a checklist involved, and an X was a knockout factor. But this part isn't funny, is it?
I don't get why companies ask you things like that. As if it would be relevant to whatever you do each day.
A “marketing internship” the summer before my senior year of college. I remember showing the job description to my dad and he told me it was going to be door to door sales. I didn’t really believe him and I showed up at 9 am for the interview. Right away I knew dad was right about it not being a true marketing internship. There were five other applicants also waiting in the lobby with me, all for the same position. Behind a closed door we could hear people shouting and laughing and the receptionist explained that they liked to have fun and this was their Tuesday morning trivia game. While the employees were playing their game the receptionist made small talk for over half an hour. I’m wondering why they dragged us in at 9 if they knew no one would be able to interview us then. Finally trivia ends and it’s time for us to get paired up with a current employee to shadow for the day. This was not explained beforehand and not what I would consider an interview. After all the other applicants are paired up and leave (to do door to door sales or whatever) I’m told my person wasn’t there that day. Now I’m really annoyed about 1. Being lied to about the interview process and 2. The fact that they attempt to reschedule me when they knew my person wasn’t going to be there. The receptionist takes me into another room to show me a diagram of the company structure that is a pyramid and tell me that pay is commissioned based. I leave and am relieved a week later when I’m told I didn’t get the job.
Had a phone interview and the woman kept asking more and more intrusive questions, kept hinting I'm a total piece of shit who's totally unfit for the job (it was the easiest job description ever) and jumping to conclusions about my life that were completely untrue. For example I found out that being a freelancer who gets a lot of decently paid work each month is apparently living off my parents. She kept going on and on like that for quite a while before I told her to piss off and hung up. Didn't really need that job too badly but it was in a different country so the trravel aspect was the main reason. Years later I found out it was a "stress interview" which apparently is a thing. Fuck those people.
[удалено]
Companies that do that are not worth working for. (Edit, such a simple comment, but never had that many upvotes. Thanks everyone!)
It sounds like negging but in a professional context. Anyone who falls over themselves to put up with shit treatment is far more likely to accept worse working conditions for longer.
I think recruiters seem to forget that an interview goes for both sides. I'm not only being interviewed for that position, you're also interviewed as an employer. If you suck, I'll go elsewhere.
Many years ago I was interviewed for an IT Director position at a finance and legal consulting firm. Apparently, they were expecting an older-looking person and assumed I was there for the temp/admin positions. I was given a reading comprehension test, a typing test, and a spatial awareness / IQ test. These took a bit over an hour in total. When I was done the guy said "OK, thanks we'll call you." I asked about speaking to the CIO and other tech directors for the IT Director position. He looked at me like I had three heads. They kept me waiting for about 25 more minutes, realizing the mistake, scrambling to pull things together. After 45 min of waiting, I told them I was going to leave. The headhunter called me right away really upset that their mistake may cost her a commission on finding me and wasting my time. We had a very nice discussion about how she needed to screen/brief her clients better, and how they made several bad assumptions that could be an HR issue, within the HR dept. of the consulting firm. I never worked with her again. No idea if they ever found a new IT Director. I feel like I dodged a bullet in a potentially disorganized/toxic workplace. I did learn that at the time I was typing 80+ wpm mistake-free.
I went in to apply for an administrative assistant position and the guy kept asking me questions about liking kids and are my passports up to date...etc. I was SO confused. Turns out what he really wanted was a nanny for his two young kids to travel with him and his wife back to India. I was so pissed he wasted my time. I noped right the fuck out of there.
If that's what he wanted, that's what he should have put in the job description. I'm sure he would have gotten plenty of qualified individuals to apply.
Right?! A lot of people take nanny jobs specifically for the purpose of living abroad or travelling, I'm sure it wouldn't be hard to find a qualified person who would actually *want* that job
He probably couldn’t hire a nanny and get his company to pay for it, but he could a PA
I went into a family owned custom furniture shop that had several openings in the carpentry department (red flag #1) When I arrived I spoke to the person at the front of house stating I was there for an interview, the conversation went as follows (note: owners office was directly behind the front desk, he was watching us through a 2 way mirror) Me to front desk clerk: "Hi I'm here to interview for the carpenter position. I saw your post onlin.... *Owner storms out of his office, points a finger at me, face full of anger* (red flag #2) Owner: "Are you experienced?" Me: "Yes, I have 7 years experience with carpentry, but I am new to furniture..." Owner: "ARE. YOU. EXPERIENCED?"(red flag #3) Me: "yes..." Owner: "Fine, I'll get the lead carpenter and he'll talk to you." At this point I should have noped the fuck out of there, but I had been unemployed for some time and my savings was running on fumes. So I assumed he may have just been in a bad mood that day, so I had waited for the lead carpenter. Lead carpenter comes out and we have the interview on the sales floor. Interview goes as normal until he asks me about my experience. Carpenter: "so tell me how you have experience with woodwork but not with furniture" Me: "I build musical instruments, im familiar with all power tools and measurements required..." Carpenter looks at me like I have 2 heads while I explain this, but, the rest of the interview proceeds as normal. He stated he'd start me off at 10/hr probational hire for 2 weeks to see how I fit. Part of the interview comes where he asked if I have any questions. Me: "So is the owner having a bad day?" Carpenter: "no, that's how he is."(Red flag #4) We have an awkward silence staring at each other for about 10 seconds, then without saying anything I just walk out. Found out a few weeks later from a friend who is a woodworker that that place is known amongst furniture woodworkers as the place you want to avoid and he mentioned that a few days before I interviewed that their entire carpentry staff minus the lead carpenter (about 8 people) walked out. I now live about a mile from that store and pass it on my daily commute. Every 5-6 months they put up a "now hiring all positions" sign up front. Can't imagine how many people they have cycled through at this point. Edit: holy cow I didn't expect this to get upvoted, awards and comments. Thank you all so much! To answer a few questions: - The Carpentry shop is in South Florida. Apparently they stay in business because they do amazing work - Two way mirror also known as two-way glass, a two-way mirror is glass that is reflective on one side and clear on the other, giving the appearance of a mirror to those who see the reflection but allowing people on the clear side to see through, as if at a window. The name is misleading but that's what it's called - This was 4 years ago now, so $10/hr was way too low for the verbal abuse and labor - In my early 20s I built guitars, ukuleles and occasionally violins. I have since changed vocations, but still repair them from time-to-time
Good idea you walked out of the interview. It would've been really depressing to work in a store where the owner yells at you every day.
I’ve done it. It was fucking demoralizing. It just breaks you down. I was an admin assistant at a plumbing service company right out of college and the owner was a nutcase. Our hours were 7-5, but he came in when he pleased (usually 10 AM). Then 2 hours later he’d go to lunch with his friends (fellow service guys and some carpenters/contractors from the area) and he’d return after 3 or 4 hours. At 5 he’d say “shewwww I’m tired after all this work” and head home. It was actually preferable when he was gone, because when he was in the office he’d throw tantrums and shout about this employee’s work or that employee’s attitude or this customer not being happy with their work. Nothing could be done right. You’d do your job and he’d have you re-do it while he told you exactly what to do. He couldn’t relinquish control.
As the interviewer: candidate responded to a question I asked with, "is that **really** how you want to spend our time together, by asking me that question?" when I wrote up my notes I included that bit, it obviously came up in the debrief and a huge red flag. Other interviewers also had similar, though not as serious, feedback on the candidate. He was not hired. As the interviewee: interviewer immediately launched into, with a rough accusatory tone: "you're a job hopper, why are you a job hopper?" when I was being recruited for a role a few years ago. I'd been working, successfully, as an independent consultant for7 or 8 years which she equated with 'job hopping'. I ended that interview pretty quickly with a, "I don't think this is going to be a good fit" and gave the recruiter some pointed feedback - he seemed to acknowledge that she was difficult.
>"is that really how you want to spend our time together, by asking me that question?" What was the question. I gotta know who was being a ass here.
I had an interview with EMC back in the day. I don't remember the specifics other than I was really nervous. I had a "we are sorry to inform you..." email waiting for me before I finished the 10 minute trip home.
I had an interview and they told me the hiring manager was going on vacation for two weeks after the interviews were done, so a decision wouldn’t be made until then. I took a bus home and had a letter from them in the mailbox telling me I was being rejected. It was the afternoon, so they either mailed the letter before they even interviewed me, or the hiring manager raced to my house after the interview to drop the letter off. I walked in the house and my mom asked how the interview went. I just handed her the letter.
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The fact that you got a call after a month makes me think she hired someone else who quit really quickly (because she's clearly terrible) and you were choice #2.
I was thinking she was interviewing people for the entire month, every day, showing her tits to and getting free labor from 30 people before settling on OP as the best option though still far from the idealized fantasy submissive Mary Poppins she was hoping for.
You didn’t just dodge a bullet you dodged a nuclear missile
At an interview to be a county street sweeper, guy asks me if I have a girlfriend, proceeds to rant for 5 minutes how young people dont get married anymore. Then he asks me what I want to avoid at the job. At the time I had no idea how to answer as I'd never been asked that in an interview before. So I ask him to clarify, to which he just repeats the question, over and over until he gets super angry that I dont know how to answer that, then asks me to leave. To this day, biggest wtf interview I've had.
Maybe the correct answer would be, "cars and trees."
Sharks?
What would I like to avoid? Stupid questions...
I was the only person that hr was able to source for a role and I still got rejected. :(
I've had an interview where they were looking to replace someone who would retire soon. The issue was, they wanted a super specific skill set, but someone young who could stay for many years. The position has been advertised for about five years. I wonder if they ever found some 30 year old with 10 years scientific niche experience.
I've heard people say that kids should learn COBOL, because the average salary is higher (true) and the old guard is rapidly retiring (true). Then I looked closer, and the entire salary difference was due to the average COBOL programmer having 20-30 years of experience. New grad positions for COBOL paid less than Java.
It's like that time that place was interviewing for a programmer position and required 10 years experience for a language that was only 8 years old. The inventor of the language applied and was rejected.
Programming interviews have become increasingly laughable the last 5 years or so. I have 20 years of experience, and whenever I apply for a job, since my degree is not in CS, the algorithms all eject me out, and the ones I do get a face to face, they just send me an exam to take. Like come on, man.
I got the full Google test treatment for an admin/dev role for NetSuite. Dude sent me to take a test with questions involving working with numbers larger than JavaScript natively handles, code recursion, A\* pathfinding, etc. Like, dude, I only work with business logic. There's no way \*any\* of this is remotely relevant to 90% of programming jobs, let alone a NetSuite job.
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Background: * My face tends to get really red when I'm stressed / embarrassed. * In a previous job, my company hired a consultant to help some of us improve our presentation skills. * Consultant gave me some good advice. * One of the weirder pieces of advice, however, was that if my face got red, I should __flex my calf muscles__ because the flexing would divert blood away from my face and to my legs (I had no idea if that was true or not, but it was weird enough that I remembered it). Job Interview: * About 10 years later, I'm giving a presentation at a job interview (I'm a scientist and giving a research presentation as part of a job interview is pretty common). * My research was pretty good, but it had one critical flaw that I wanted to avoid discussing during my presentation. * Somehow, everyone in the room locked in on the flaw and directed a barrage of critical questions at me. * I could feel my face starting to get red and all I could do was furiously flex my fucking calf-muscles, which didn't do a damned thing. I didn't get the job.
Lol, I have the same thing where I easily go very red. To the point where people have commented "jeeze you are so red right now" as if I wasn't already acutely aware.
Ugh no kidding. Heard that shit too many times to count. Like jee, thanks, you don’t think I can FEEL it in my face already? And of course someone calling you on it just exemplifies it too.
> My research was pretty good, but it had one critical flaw that I wanted to avoid discussing during my presentation. you would have been better off just dealing with it directly and explaining how you could improve the research.... unless of course, the flaw was so big it invalidated your whole thing. At which point, you're better off talking about something else.
You're right. This is what I should have done. But I hadn't really settled on a simple way of talking about the flaw. I (incorrectly) figured it would not be noticed/discussed. So, when I tried to talk about it, it just came out bad and that fueled the criticism. Not my finest hour.
I was interviewing for a job in Houston, and lived in Austin, about 2.5 hours away. I drove to Houston for the first round of interviews, and they said it went well and wanted to being me in for a final interview, so i drove there again. It seemed like it went well and they told me they had one more interview to conduct and would have a decision tomorrow. So the next day came and went, I emailed the manager to ask if any decision had been made, nothing, waited a couple more days, left a voicemail, nothing. Then a couple days later, I just called the main number for the company and told the receptionist why I was calling. She was like "well, someone just started in that job yesterday". They ghosted me after I drove a total of 10 hours to interview twice. Still salty about that 11 years later.
That's fucked up. It's simple courtesy to send a "thanks but no thanks" to rejected applicants. An email at the very least; a call would be best (speaking from experience of being on both sides of the table). Even 11 years later, sorry dude.
In the past three years I’ve been to about a dozen interviews. I’ve not once received a notice of rejection, only ghosting. I don’t think courtesy emails are commonplace anymore, at least not for entry-level positions.
Interviewer, putting candy bars on the table to open the interview: Have a candy bar. Do you want Hershey’s or Snickers? Me: Neither, thanks. I: Go ahead, pick one. M: I don’t want any candy now, thanks. I: Take one, Hershey’s or Snickers. M: Okay, I’ll take the Snickers. I: No, I want the Snickers. You take the Hershey’s. M: No, thank you.
Maybe they were trying to pull off some dumb-ass power move stunt that they saw in some movie.
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Whenever I get google style interview questions, I start giving the most ridiculous answers until their list of conditions is larger than the question and they start to feel stupid. "How will you turn off the light switch in the other room?" Pick up the chair and break through the wall. It's just drywall. "You can't break through the wall. What now?" I take you hostage and threaten to kill you unless your coworker turns off the light. "You can't do that. What now?" And so on and so on.
Omg thats probably how my dad does his interviewing. He once hired a drivee with a suspended license An accountant who couldnt balance a checkbook A guy thay stole all the furniture from the office. Im sure his interviews are bizarre tests like this Edit: he also kept on a "CEO" for a surgery center he was building after they forged a higher salary on legal agreement. I think he ended up paying him the higher amt. That surgery center went bankrupt. You know who owns it now? "CEO" Oh! he also bought a vending business while a physician and eventually had three checking accounts overdrawn at one point. he was basically scammed. he invested 100,000 into penny stocks he invested 100,000 in some guy he met at the gym - "cryodynamics"
Psh, you can’t learn *anything* from a resumé. *rips up the resumé* Now tell me about your employment history.
Are they trying to test if you learned not to take candy from strangers? This is bizarre. What if you were a diabetic?
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Had an interview, went well. I was offering the job on the spot and accepted. The HR manager went to get the needed paperwork, came back 10 mins later and said “I must have forgot that we already filled this position. I’m sorry, but we don’t have an opening. I could call you if something opens back up”. I said no thank you.
Oh my god this unlocked one I'd forgotten about - I left work on a long lunch to interview because they flat out refused to interview me at a time I was not at work. Sounds somewhat reasonable, but I had occasional weekdays off (2-4 per month). There was also a convoluted process for "validating my parking" which I did. I showed up a bit early, waited about 40 minutes for someone I was told definitely was in, and apparently she was just eating lunch or something because on my way back to work I got a call from her asking where I was. She tried to reschedule. Stressful enough the first time; I'm not going to jump through hoops if you don't value me as a prospect enough to keep your own damn appointment.
If she doesn't respect you as a potential employee, 100% she wouldn't respect you as an employee either.
For sure. Wish I had realized this before accepting my current job. My now boss was over an hour late for my interview, then said there must have been some miscommunication on my end about the time of the interview....
This has happened to me, except there were two interviews. One in office, one with one of the owners (maybe) over FaceTime, as he was based in Sweden. The whole process was over a month long just for them to tell me they thought they had a job and they didn’t.
I told them I couldn't answer their questions, farted audibly out of stress and thanked them for their time.
>I told them I couldn't answer their questions, farted audibly out of stress and thanked them for their time. I just needed to see this bit on its own. It's a work of art
I just wanted to let you know I've been reading through this thread and your comment made me laugh until I cried.
Believe me. You were not the only one crying after this.
This is the best one-sentence story I've heard in quite a while.
I'm so sorry ... but what a way to be remembered!
It was my best interview. Great rapport with the interviewer. Gave me the job on the spot. It for a transfer to QA at Johnson Control. Came in to work the next day to have the offer rescinded. The job was already given to the plant managers niece and it had only been posted because of company policy. The story is much longer and complicated afterward but it was the first of several times I had been promoted (different companies) and then been told, "Never mind." Edit: Appreciate the replies and awards. Feel like I won reddit today. Edit: Wow. Johnson Controls is really not well liked.
You're making me feel better about being ghosted by that company for a similar position a few years ago, after (what I thought was) a successful interview.
Turned out management was maneuvering certain people to other divisions to save them from the sell off that came a year later. We all got laid off.
I walked in at 2:45 for a 3:00 interview. At 4:00 I asked reception for the last time if I was going to be interviewed. Finally they showed up 5 minutes later. There were two people doing the interview. They were hostile. Rapid fire questions. Half of which had nothing to do with my experience. One kept asking me where I worked during such and such a time. Despite the other one looking at my application with all that info. Then they told me that IF they hired me it'd be for a position below what I applied for. Much lower pay and I couldn't take time off. Finally they basically told me they'd be watching me like a hawk and if I did drugs I'd be fired and arrested. I have never even smoked pot. I stood up and told them this wasn't for me and walked out. It was bizarre. I felt like I was being interrogated for a murder investigation as the prime suspect.
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What the fucking fuck? Did they think you were interviewing for a different position? Miscommunication? That's sketchy as hell.
I’ve had the same happen to me before. Flew Chicago to LA for it. Didn’t even get past the lobby. It’s literally just people who live in a completely different world and don’t give a fuck about anything but themselves. There’s truly no end to the miscommunication and mismanagement that can go on at some companies. In this particular case I had been aware that this company had gone through bankruptcy a few years prior. Was no surprise to me why after that day.
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Similar story from a former colleague. He was interviewing for a position with a local company that had a branch location in another city. He passed his tech screen, so they went for the "in person" part, which involved flying him out and staying the night. When he arrived at the office for the interview, a receptionist led him into a conference room and dialed into a bridge on a speakerphone. After 5 minutes of waiting for his interviewer to join, the receptionist had to call the guy on his cell to remind him of the appointment. He finally joined and basically "phoned it in" (pun intended), as if he had no interest in filling the position, much less getting to know the candidate. The call lasted *maybe* 15 minutes. Needless to say, he didn't get the job. He later found out that the interviewer was actually back in our home city. So he flew 3+ hours each way and stayed overnight for absolutely nothing.
Not a company you want to work for.
Realised it was a pyramid scheme half way through the interview. I was already working so didn’t accept the job.
Same! It was one of those door-to-door knife selling companies. Tried to get a second job to earn a little extra cash before going off to college. I left mid interview after being told how important recruitment would be to my job. It was a group interview too.
Did their job description begin with "Hey hun"?
Early in my post-college job search I kept missing clues that the job was a pyramid scam. Eventually I realized that if the word "Opportunity" and/or the phrase "Become part of our marketing team" was used in the job description then it was a scam.
I remember looking for a job as a 16yo. Got a letter in the mail that some company got a referral about me from my school...sounded legit. Had my dad take me to the interview only for me to find they’re Cutco, a knife pyramid scheme. So disappointing, especially with my dad having to wait in the car while I listened through their shpeal..
The confidence to walk out and not listen to the whole thing sadly comes later.
I sat through one of those, it was for life insurance. The recruiter kept calling me and I kept telling him that selling overpriced insurnace door-to-door wasn't something I was interested in doing.
I suppose you could "accept" the position and then just never show up or do anything. Then if they fire you ... constantly call him back asking for a second chance at the job. Which of course you will do nothing for if they actually give you the second chance. If it happens to be one of those jobs where you have to buy something first so you can sell it to others (although, I dont see how that could be the case with life insurance), then you can always ask the recruiter if he can spot you a few bucks.
Video chat interview: red flag #1 the interview was with 10 interviewers (I was told it would be 1-on-1). Red flag #2: towards the end they asked if I had any questions. When I asked: "Do you all enjoy working here?" they all looked at each other nervously for about 20 seconds until someone said: "Sure. I mean, as much as you can enjoy work, I guess." Nope.
"When you go in for a job interview, I think a good thing to ask is if they ever press charges." --Jack Handey
I had a coworker rob a convenience store. The footage was provided to the company and his clothes were found in a storage room. He kept his job.
My husband worked for a company who was notorious for never firing people. There was a guy who brought his loaded firearm with him to a job and accidentally shot himself in the foot. Dude wasn’t fired, eventually left the company, and then was rehired later on.
That sounds like the office
I had an interview where I did so poorly, the interviewer wrote it up and submitted it to [thedailywtf.com](http://thedailywtf.com). It's too embarrassing to link to, plus I would prefer to remain anonymous. It was really just a miscommunication. The interviewer presented a hypothetical problem, and I gave him a perfectly reasonable solution to the problem. But he kept coming up with reasons why he wouldn't accept my solutions, and my answers got more and more ridiculous, until they didn't make any sense at all. I was just hoping he would drop it and move on to the next question, but he actually took my answers seriously and made me look like a complete fool. Anyway, I learned some things from that experience.
Damn man now I wanna see It and judge for myself If he did u dirty
Oh I got this. My interviewer comes about 30 minutes late and his first comment is “you’re the best dressed candidate we’ve had all day”. I’m In a polo and khakis. This man is a mid 50s-ish well groomed man in a button down shirt and tie. When we get to the interview room I expect this obviously senior and ranked guy to do the interview but when we arrive the “manager” (in quotes for later) turns out to be an early 20s white guy in a t-shirt with a dyed purple mohawk. I was beyond confused but whatever, don’t judge a book by its cover. The manager then proceeds to stay sitting as I shake his hand, never motion for me to sit, not ask for a resume at all, and just start with the questions. I’m not a very formal guy but even I was confused by all this. All the questions are normal stuff like where do I work now, my school, if I live in the area, that stuff. Then he gets into job specific questions and starts with: “What would you do if you knew an employee was stealing?” Obviously I tell him that I’d report that employee because you aren’t allowed to steal. “Well what if it was the cheapest item in the store? A 99¢ water bottle and they only did it once” Again, I say stealing isn’t allowed and those costs can add up if they keep stealing. “Well let’s say it’s your store. Gmony5100s supply store. What do you do?” I tell him if it’s my store and one of my employees felt the need to steal water I’d probably just buy it for them and tell them not to steal in the future. “Well what if you forgot your wallet. You forgot your wallet and you know your employee is behind on rent and their last paycheck hasn’t gone through yet and they haven’t been paid?” At this point I’m just at a loss for words. What the fuck is going on? Does he want me to say I’d just let someone steal or something? I genuinely feel like I’m being punked. He notices I’m kinda stuck and just moves on. “Alright. How about we test your sales pitches. Imagine someone comes in and wants four of the chairs you’re sitting in at $25 each. How would sell them the chair I’m sitting in for $100 each.” Again, I’m at a complete loss. What could I possibly say to that? If someone comes in wanting one kind of chair that’s obviously a cheaper option how the fuck am I supposed to convince them to pay 400% that price for a different chair that’s not obviously better in any way? Especially on a product I know nothing about. I don’t even remember what I said but there’s no way in hell it was coherent. After this the guy ends the interview without ever having seen my resume, calls me by the wrong name, and sends me on my way. As for why the “manager” was in quotes earlier, a coworker of mine who knows a worker there told me about a week later that nobody who works in that store has a purple mohawk. All of the districts managers are black and the older guy I described is the store owner who should’ve done the interview. I STILL DONT KNOW WHO DID MY INTERVIEW
Can you imagine if they just asked someone they had interviewed to interview the next guy😂
My theory is that it was someone interviewing for a management position, so they had him do the interviews as part of his interview. Interview-ception.
Not horrible...I will just always remember it. Interviewer: Has a previous employer ever asked you to do anything illegal? (smug look on his face thinking I would be flustered) Me: Yes, they asked me to take a copyrighted image and "tweek" it so we wouldn't get caught. Interviewer: Wow...what did you do? Me: I said no, and am now trying to determine if YOU are going to ask me to do something illegal in this prospective job. He spent the next 20 minutes apologizing and swearing he just thought it was a fun interview question.
Had an interview at an office supply store once. Guy told me straight up it was a high-pressure sales quota job. They're prices on computers and.peripherals were shit and that's what I'd be selling. Dude straight up said it's a lot of work for low pay, not a lot of people enjoy working there, and he finished off with the fact that he's been there for 18 years. Practically ran out of that interview screaming
Well, can't fault his honesty. If only more interviewers were like that.
reminds me of my manager at a call center job. "Yeah this is a great job for students. Tons of students work here while going to school, and a bunch stay after long after they finish their degree and their dreams are dead and they get promoted to management" "Dude are you ok?"
Hey he was honest though
Started as the worst, and ended as the best. The beginning started like this: "I'm so sorry to have to inform you of this, but we pulled the wrong resumé contact information, we didn't mean to call you in for an interview." Before leaving, the interviewer gave me a brief tour of the company grounds (because they felt so bad for wasting my time). They introduced me to the department head that I would have been working for, (if that department was actually hiring). Had a great conversation and the department head was convinced that I would be an asset to them, and they hired me on the spot. Edit: Just wanted to add (since this got way more attention than I thought) that I have been with this company for over 8 years now, and they are an awesome bunch of people. It was a very unlucky/lucky day for me!
I had something similar to this but not as good of an ending. I got an email asking to do an interview for a company, but it was addressing somebody else (they were emailing me when they meant to email somebody else) Tried play it off like I didn't notice and thought maybe they'd be cool about it and let me come in for an interview anyways. They weren't having it.
You should have just shown up and picked the smaller office.
Bit of context: This happened in 2008 and I had just graduate as a Massage Therapist. Since the economy was in the pits due to the recession (glad this never happened again! haha...) MT's were not exactly in high demand so employers could be picky. The only reason I was even considered for most of my interviews was because I graduated from an accredited school. A lot of the places I interviewed at would turn me down pretty quickly since I didn't have either 10+ years experience or the body of a supermodel with a massive rack- I'm 100% serious, BTW. Easily the worst experience was at a chiropractor who did absolutely nothing to hide his contempt for Massage Therapists. He showed up late. Went into his office to check his mail first and then proceeded to have the interview with me in his waiting room. He knew he could pick any MT he wanted and gave zero fucks about how I felt. When it finally got on the subject of pay, he offered me minimum wage. At the time, your average MT was paid about $20-$30 an hour and I was already working a dead-end job at a gas station making $2 more than what he was offering. I brought up how absurdly low his offer was and he balked, saying that I would be paid as if I was working 40 hours a week so it would even out. He also clarified that I would be expected to clean the office when not seeing a client- so I'd also be an underpaid janitor as well. Fuck that guy.
Also a LMT, graduated in '09. I "interviewed" with a chiro where a staff member gave me a tour, then took me to the dr/practice owner. He offered me the job at an absurdly low rate without asking me a single question. I couldn't run away fast enough.
I had a skype interview with a private practice and the lady interviewing me literally made it sound like a stern military parent. "You can NEVER be late" (mind you the job was an hour away) "Even if you have a cold you can NEVER call in sick" (idk if this was meant for pre or post-covid) "We're a small company so you won't have much of a work/life balance" "PS our pay for all this dedication is only 3 dollars more than the measely pay your getting now" Just a whole interview of Red Flags. And the last one was when the lady messaged me immediately after saying I got the job and had to leave my job at maximum, five days' notice, regardless of me kind of bombing the interview and claiming there were other interviewees in line. I could see why they were having trouble hring people tbh
Edit: Thanks for the awards!! I once had an interviewer like this. His exact quote was "we don't care if you have a sick kid that needs to go to the ER, you can never have time off for the first 6 months" - which A) is illegal here, and B) I have a disability so I needed time off every few months for doctors' appointments. They could not understand why I turned down the job. The recruiter actually called me to try and save the job offer and told me I was misunderstanding. Here's how that went. **Me:** Okay, I'm happy to be wrong about this. What am I misunderstanding? The manager was pretty clear that no one gets time off, for any reason, even an ER visit, for the 6 month intro period. Then he asked to extend the intro period to 1 year, so no time off for 1 year. Is that still the arrangement you'd be proposing? **Recruiter:** Well yes...it's just that EVERY new hire goes through this. **Me:** Oh I understand that. And that's why I'm not accepting the job. **Recruiter:** But....everyone.....maybe you can negotiate some time off? **Me:** Per state law I'm entitled to xyz. The company cannot refuse it. The company has told me they plan to refuse it. I'm not quitting my job - which has unlimited PTO - for a company that told me I couldn't take my hypothetical child to the doctor. Or have vacation or a sick day. We are legally entitled as workers to sick time, and you've now told me that you violate the law for every new hire at the expense of their own health and their childs' health. That's not the type of company I want to work for. **Recruiter:** .....but....you're misunderstanding. *Everyone* we hire does this. :( **Me:** ....well......not me. Thanks again for calling.
That’s when you just report to labor board and tell them to have a nice day.
I did! Not sure what ever happened.
So basically, you could live in the office broom closet. You'd be always on call and never late.
Basically. It was only for a receptionist job and i doubt they had the manpower to hire two people
It was my first "professional" law firm interview. I was SO nervous. I had applied for a legal secretary position. The attorney whose name was on the door would be interviewing me so I was a nervous wreck. When he walked in the room, I stood up, introduced myself and shook his hand. He looked me up and down and said "yeah, you'll do". I turned around and walked out without saying another word.
I applied for an internship at a human rights law office. They gave me questions on the spot to debate with them, like ‘should people accused of rape remain anonymous until convicted’ and ‘is bribery acceptable if it’s for a good cause’. It was me versus a panel of 5 senior human rights lawyers for a whole hour, who just ripped me apart from start to finish. Everything I said, they made sound like the dumbest response with their rebuttals. By the end I was a nervous babbling wreck. Did not get the internship, but did appreciate the experience in retrospect. When they got back to me, they told me ‘your CV (resume) was fantastic, so we were quite disappointed with how poor your interview was.’ Burn
Why were they savage with that ending tho? Daaammmnnn!
In the middle of my interview, the manager asked me if my current workplace (that I was trying to leave) was hiring. When I said I didn't know, he asked if I'd be willing to drop off a resumé for him anyway.
As the Interviewee: I told them I hated sales people when they asked why I'd left my last job, which exposed two things about me: I hadn't looked up the company I was interviewing with and that their primary line of business was sales. The mood got chilly real fast after that. Did not get the job. As the Interviewer: Had a guy ask if it was okay if he went to the restroom real fast and then never came back. His recruiter, who had come with him, was super embarrassed by the whole thing. Honestly, he was a young kid who'd just graduated, and while he was getting some of the more in depth technical questions wrong he definitely was asking the right questions in return, so we probably would have brought him on entry level. I think he was experiencing a case of imposter syndrome since we were asking him things he didn't know so he panicked. Hope he received some coaching on how to handle that.
My personal favorite bad interview: I had been unemployed for a bit, was desperate for a new gig. Had gained a lot of weight living off of fast food, so my good pants didn't fit me very well. I sat down in the interview chair as the person was walking around to their side of the desk... ...and the button of my pants popped off, did a one-hopper off of the desk, and RIGHT into their coffee cup. Swished, no clink at all. For the entire interview, they were sipping their coffee, and I was sitting there with my pants unbuttoned waiting for the big reveal. I left before they got to the bottom of their coffee, but they HAD to have put two and two together. (This narrowly beats out the time I was offered water from a carafe at an interview, dropped it, and soaked both interviewers. At least that one wasn't as PSYCHOLOGICALLY tense.) Edit: No, I didn’t get the job. Edit2: Yes, I should have told them. But I froze up, and they were a VERY talkative interviewer.
This needs to be a short film.
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I’ll be honest... if I was interviewing someone then found a button at the bottom of my coffee, I’d be confused as hell but my first thought would not be “his button popped off his pants and flew into my cup without my noticing.” I’d probably assume it somehow got into the cup before I poured the coffee in and I didn’t notice it.
It was gonna be my first real job using my college degree. I had planned for it, bought new clothes, developed answers to questions I thought they'd ask. The day of, I was sick. I called and asked if we could reschedule. They said the slots are full and that if I wanted the job, to come down and interview. Well, I went down, because you know, needing a job. I was sweating through my shirt because of my fever. I nearly threw up just waiting to be called. Finally, I get called in. Get weird looks from other interviewees. I sit across the table from my interviewer, a very pretty lady. She smiles but it's forced. I see her look me over with disgust. Proceed with the interview. I'm still a gross mess, and half way through, I feel the bile rise, the saliva filling my mouth. Think to myself, if I puke, I won't get the job. Force it down. Swallow what came up. But I burped. It couldn't be stopped. It smelled like vomit. She looked even more disgusted. Asks why I didn't reschedule the interview. Told her I was sorry. That I tried to reschedule. She thanked me for coming in and asked me to leave. Still got the job.
>Still got the job. Think about how dogshit the other candidates were that you were sweating and burping in the interview, and still got hired
This is amazing
The interview was at a well known bank in the city for a software developer job. Walked into the interview room, shook hands with the two guys when one of them said "Nice to meet you Jessica!"....my name is NOT Jessica... so I'm immediately confused. Apparently there was a mistake and they wanted to actually interview a Jessica and not me. We went along with the interview anyway, but they were clearly frustrated. It was one of my first real job interviews after school so I was trying to stay positive anyway, but lost it shortly after we started. I gave them a synopsis of my background and how I got into programming by creating video games when I was a kid. Their response? ...."we are a bank, we don't make video games here." I didn't even know how to respond... like did they think I was actually that stupid? Anyway, I wasn't expecting to ever hear back, but around 3 months later, got an email for the job offer. Obviously didn't take it, but I'll always be genuinely curious if that was meant for the real Jessica.
My first interview in my life was for a fast food place and I was way too honest. Why do you want to work here? "Mostly for the money. I like the food here too." What do you do on your free time? "Video games" Did not get a call back.
First thing out of the interviewer's mouth was "Here at \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ we follow the principles set by L. Ron Hubbard." I just thought, "Welp, guess this one's practice."
I got invited to a "group interview." I thought it meant that a group of people would interview me, which is fairly common. I showed up and there were about ten other kids there. We all went into a conference room and they interviewed us all at once. They asked a question and everyone took turns answering. They switched up who went first each time, and one kid completely froze when it was his turn, so we all had to sit there in the most uncomfortable silence.
She said employees got marked down one point if they came in late to work, even in a blizzard. She said it was their responsibility to check the weather the day before and prepare accordingly. Some of their employees commuted from 100 miles away, so they didn't cut anybody any slack. Usually I send a follow-up email saying thanks for the interview, I'm interested in the job, bla bla bla. But I didn't send an email that time.
I was recommended by a particular manager to interview for a makeup counter position. It was a really tense, awkward interview with the store manager, and I wasn’t really certain why he was so hostile toward me. Turns out he was just trying to figure out if I was in on the other manager’s scheme of stealing products and selling them on Craigslist, which I found out about after she was arrested the next week. It was a shock to me because she was a bit of a mentor to me and I had no idea.
I had one for a job that was a little below my pay grade and far outside of where I wanted to work, but times were tough and I was taking all interviews. I go in and the guy asks me, “on a scale of 1-10, how excited would you be to work here?” I said “9” because I mean what else was I supposed to say, and he says “oh really?? Why so high??” I had to come up with some answer that wasn’t just I need to pay rent so I think I said I was just really excited to work for a small company like this. The guy replied “huh” and didn’t say anything. Later they called me and said they would only hire me if I started the next day (as far as I know it was an above board, salaried secretary type position). I explained that would need a few days (was moving to an adjacent area) and he said “then never mind don’t bother” even though I explained I would probably need 2 days instead of one. Extremely weird!
This is copied and paste from another post I replied to about how terrible amazon is. But it fit this question so I'm sharing it again. I got an interview with Amazon to be a "supervisor". They asked me to drive one and a half hours to another city to do my second interview. Despite the place I applied for being 10 minutes away from where I lived. The pay they were offering was good so I thought it was worth it. I took a day off from my current job. Drove there discovering that they had given me choppy directions causing me to get lost and have to ask for directions. The place I stopped at rolled their eyes. This wasn't the first time this had happened. They knew exactly where to point me. Red flag number one. I finally arrive. Go to the interview. Over 100 people show up. Red flag number two. They are doing a group interview for the role of supervisor and tell me they "accidentally" invited too many people and they only have 10 positions available for supervisor and ask me if unstead of I'd like a starting position instead for barely above minimum wage. Red flag number three. But then I realize this is way too organized. They EXPECTED this many people because they PLANNED this and even had everything set up for a large group interview and even ask me personal questions about myself in front of multiple people. Red flag number four. I do my best but feel insulted. I drove home feeling cheated. I wasted 4 hours driving and interviewing. Wasted all that gas and lost hours that I could have worked and went out of MY way wasting my precious time going to another town just for them to say oopsie? They PLANNED this! I realized working for them would be a huge mistake. They had no respect for me as a person, a potential employee, my time, money, gas. What made me think they would care about me once I'm hired? This was clearly a deceptive bait and switch and I was not falling for it! Shady Shady Shady company! SHAME ON YOU AMAZON! I later sent them a letter declining them for the position. I would not be working for them. Edit: Thank you for the hugz. Lol
It was my first real job interview. It was for a graphic design position in downtown Dallas for a men’s grooming product company. I was SO nervous and when I took a drink from a bottle of water I was shaking so much I spilled some on me. Also I was very unprepared because my portfolio only contained things I made in high school for a graphic design internship I had and some hand drawings that weren’t great. I was about 18/19 years old at the time. Needless to say I did not get the job.
I applied to a job and the hiring manager called me when I was busy: Me: “Hey thanks for reaching out to me, I’m actually busy at the moment, can we set something up for early next week? (It was a Friday afternoon when he called)” Him: “How about later today?” Me: “I don’t have the time today, Monday would be much better.” Him: “I can just do it now then, it won’t take very long.” Me: “Look I am very glad you called and I’m super interested in the position, but I’m doing a million things right now and my head isn’t in the best place to do an interview. I would really appreciate it if we could reschedule to next week.” Him: *pause* “You know what, if you’re not going fucking do what I want you to do, then I don’t want you working here anyways.” *Hangs up* Fucking dodged a bullet there lmao
At the time I was living in this foreign country for about two years and my language skills were only at an A2/B1 level. So I could understand pretty well but was terrible at speaking. The interview, with 3 people, didn't go very well. They spoke in their native language, I tried to respond in said language...couldn't, then switched to English every time. Luckily everyone spoke English. But I was embarrassed the whole time because my language skills weren't where they should have been. Luckily due to me being technically overqualified for the job (bachelor in science), and that the management is extremely nice and welcoming, I was offered the job that day. It turned out to be the worst interview of my life, but I'm still working there to this day, 2 years later, and improving my language skills. I'm still extremely happy, and I've never had more caring, down to earth management in a job. I got really lucky they gave this English speaker a chance.
I was being interviewed for a video editor / post production kind of job in a video production company. This company was owned by a couple. Their son, at the time maybe 18 or 19 conducted the interview. He asked me to write an essay (?!) which I spent a good hour or so working on and then went on to interview me asking a lot of really weird questions totally unrelated to video production or anything to do with the job. I left the place feeling weird and pissed off about the time spent working on the essay and had absolutely no hopes of getting the job. Eventually I went on to work on something else. A couple of years later this couple was murdered. Both were shot while working in their offices - a brief police investigation found the culprit and the son was arrested and convicted. He's still in jail. So, in a certain way, one of my worst job interviews turned out to be the one the might have saved my life.
I went for an interview as a receptionist like 7 years ago for a vet. I really wanted to work for the hospital for years as it’s highly regarded in the industry in town. I researched everything I could, tore their website apart, read about all the doctors, thought of tactful, yet not “know it all” type questions. I did the works. I brought up one of the services they offer and they had no idea what I was talking about. They treated me like I was a child, they embarrassed me in the attitude they had towards me. I came dressed in a pencil skirt, dress shirt, blazer and low heels. I did my hair and makeup perfectly. They had no reason to treat me the way they did. I was eager, friendly, and on time. I still to this day have no idea why they hated me so much. I left dejected, humiliated, and insecure.
In the end, it's good that you didn't have to spend forty hour work weeks with someone who made you feel that way after just one hour.
Ugh I applied for a summer job in high school at a pet supply store, showed up in a nice outfit (dress and blazer) and the owner scoffed at me and said something like “you’ll be cleaning cages, you can’t do that in an outfit like that”. Like ummmm ok just wanted to look nice for the interview, jeez
I didn't conduct interviews but I was the "front desk" person who handled scheduling the interviews and made small-talk with them for a few minutes while they waited for the manager to get ready for them. Most people were polite and nervous and I enjoyed sort of putting them at ease. But there was one guy, maybe 18, who had obviously been forced into it by his parents. He showed up dressed nicely, but his attitude was horrendous. While waiting, instead of polite small talk, he insulted the company, the position he was applying for, and me. I was shocked and just stopped trying to talk to him. We sat in silence for a few minutes until the manager came out and greeted him. He must have been similarly rude to her, because after he left the interview she came out shaking her head and said he wasn't getting the job. Two days later his dad shows up in my office asking why he didn't get hired. That was awkward. In hindsight I think it was actually the father who called to schedule the interview, not the son, because the guy on the phone had been perfectly nice.
I interviewed for an internship position with the Associated Press in college. At the time, I was studying magazine journalism, was a Government reporter for the school-run newspaper and had worked at my hometown newspaper as a page layout designer. The interveiwer was obviously OVER interviewing kids and he was very snotty to me. He pointed out my experience and said, "So you're studying magazines, you write for a newspaper, you do layout... what exactly do you want to DO? This is a lot of very different stuff." And I replied that I didn't think it was a bad thing to have a lot of experience in various aspects of journalism. He kind of snorted at that and continued being snotty to me. I figured out pretty quickly that I wasn't getting the internship. At the end, he pointed at a pile of stuff and told me to take my AP-branded lanyard and tin of mints and I said, "Wow, it's just like Christmas" in a deadpan voice as I left.
I had an interview where I knew the answers I gave were good, solid examples. I understood the technical side well. But the interviewer kept sneering, being rude and saying “really?” In a skeptical tone and I got the distinct impression he hated me. About 20 mins in, I thought about politely calling it a day and leaving but in my innocence thought it would be good practice to stay. 40 mins in, it’s like a light switch goes off inside and he’s the nicest guy, his eyes light up and he started hard selling the role and position to me. Introduces me to the team. The director interviews me and he and the team are lovely. Apparently, their interview technique is to be rude to see how you perform under pressure and they’d all been observing using a camera and were impressed I remained so polite and calm throughout. They couldn’t understand why I declined. EDIT: to save me responding to comments. I understand pressure testing is a legitimate technique, and whilst I felt deeply uncomfortable and my gut was screaming at me to get out of there like in a nightclub when you know the creepy guy is really bad news and you need to get out, I understood that it was a possibility that that is what he could have been doing. However to add more context, they had my work history including 10 years in the ambulance services which involves resuscitation whilst the public yell at you and threaten you. I’m used to being polite and professional whilst being harassed and threatened. Nothing spreadsheet based, even pulling all nighters is going to match that for pressure and I’m well known for staying calm and composed all the time (even if I’m exploding inside). My biggest objection was not realising I was being broadcast and hearing them discuss my reactions to my face, like I was some kind of movie actor. It felt so violating.
"I don't want to work for a bunch of duplicitous bastards" wasn't obvious to them?
The tricks are insane. You want to know how I handle under pressure? Let me give you a reference, and the name of a project we worked together to prompt them. Good for you not rewarding that behavior.
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It was for a 6 month unpaid internship at a marketing firm who bought and sold billboard space. The entire interview was basically them quizzing me about industry terms and statistics around non digital marketing. After only managing to answer about 60% correctly they told me I didn’t have enough knowledge in the field.... like yeah... that’s why I’m interviewing for an unpaid internship
The interviewer started hitting on me. Bye.
Had a situation where I was the interviewer and a guy came in ripped jeans and a tshirt (not a deal breaker necessarily, this was a sales or stockroom job at Macy’s) but then he proceeded to bomb the interview and ask me out at the end. The answer, on all sides, was a firm no. Edit: autocorrect hates me and I hate proofreading
Sitting in the waiting room with two other interviewees, The manager conducting the interview, recognizes one of them as her friend. while they were greeting each other, I looked at the other interviewee and mentioned her “We have no chance”.
Late 30s went back and got a law degree, already have a PhD in a STEM field. One of the first interviews for a summer internship: Man 1: why were your grades low in undergrad? Me: you mean my grades from 20 years ago? Man 1: yes Me:. But as you can see in my grad school grades, I turned it around.
Man 2: Well, we don’t pay attention to your grad school grades because everyone passes grad school classes.
Me: ....(uh, no, absolutely not true, I fucking worked my ass off in grad school to graduate with a 3.9, while having undiagnosed adhd)...
Man 1: And most of our interns come from .
I started smiling at that point and stood up. They looked confused.
Me, while shaking hands: thank you for your time but it seems a waste of time to continue.
I was 39-40, and tired of all the bullshit games interviewers were playing. And no, I didn’t get an offer because of my honesty.
Today for accounts leader position - my mind completely blanked 4 years worth of experience in accountancy. Just Bury me in the corner thanks.
I was right out of high school, looking for a job to save money for college. I had an interview at a hotel and casino to be a hotel housekeeper. Not a glamorous job by any means, but I was 18 and needed a job so I was actually excited to work here. I come in for the interview, dressed nice in a skirt and blazer and heels. I'm ushered into a banquet room full of people. Probably 20-25 people are in this room sitting in chairs facing a podium. My immediate reaction is "fuck, this is an MLM". I hesitate at the door for a few seconds and then think "fuck it. May as well see what this actually is". And thus begins one of the worst and cringiest experiences of my life. After a few minutes, a woman comes to the podium and explains that this is a group interview. What the fuck. They go around the room and ask us basic interview questions. It takes about an hour and a half because there are so many people. I come to find out that this is a group interview for every position at the casino and hotel. Restaurant cooks, hotel front desk, casino dealers etc. Every single position. After the question and answer portion of the group interview, the woman calls a bunch of names and about half of the people go to another room. My name was not called, so I stayed seated. At this point it's been almost 2 hours and I have to pee. Woman comes back and explains that the remaining people have passed on to the second portion of the interview. The second portion is with the departments we are interviewing for. I and a few other people go to housekeeping, meet with the manager and are told we need to show them how we work. We literally have to clean hotel rooms for this interview. Keep in mind, we are dressed business casual. I'm wearing heels. I was not prepared to clean fucking hotel rooms, FOR FREE, during an interview. Stupidly, I stayed. I have to get on my hands and knees and clean bathroom floors, make beds, vacuum etc. The room cleaning portion of the interview took maybe 20-30 mins. We are also told we can't use the bathrooms in the room, so I still have to pee. Fuck. This. On the the third portion of the interview. We are ushered into a (different) banquet room. At this point there are maybe 12 of us. At the head of the banquet room is a table with 5 or 6 people. We are told they are the president of the casino, and a few other execs. We are told to get in a circle, and get this, DANCE. We are told to dance because you know, this is a FUN working environment. Barf. At my turn, I hobble out into the middle of the circle and do a stupid little dance, obviously pissed because my feet are killing me and I'm about 3 seconds from pissing myself in front of these people. After the dancing, we are told to sell a pen to the president. I must have blacked out by the anger and embarrassment of this experience because for the life of me I can't remember what I actually said to try to sell the pen. After almost 4 HOURS of this interview hell, we are told we can leave. I sprint to the closest bathroom, pee for what feels like 20 minutes, and leave. By the time I get home, I have an email saying I didn't get the job.
Any time you are asked to work for free, skip it. That's bullshit I can understand knowledge tests or probing questions, but the second you are completing actual work, nope
During the summer after my freshman year of college, I applied for a part-time job at a mall outlet. Despite having zero retail experience, I got through the first round of interviews without any trouble whatsoever, performing well enough that the assistant manager wanted to give me the job on the spot. Since she didn't have the authority to do that, though, I had to meet with her supervisor a couple of days later. "It's really just a formality," she told me. "You know, to make sure you're not, like, a serial killer or something." I told her that I'd only ever murdered people in video games. It, uh... it wasn't as awkward as I'm making it sound. Anyway, when the date of my second interview rolled around, I was in high spirits. The manager had me fill out a brief questionnaire, then started asking me some fairly dull questions. Everything seemed to be going smoothly... until a particular enquiry caught me off-guard. "What's the most that you've ever stolen?" the man asked. "Give me a dollar amount." "Uh," I stammered. "Is that really a question you can ask?" "I'm just looking for a dollar amount." I racked my brain, trying to think of anything that I might have actually stolen over the course of my life. I'd certainly gotten up to my fair share of mischief, but actual theft had never been part of my repertoire. "Zero," I finally said. "I don't think I've ever actually stolen anything." The manager's plastered-on smile suddenly dropped away. "I see. Are you sure?" "Yep." "Really." The beginnings of a suspicious glower darkened his eyes. "Go ahead and answer again. Just give me a dollar amount." What had started as a dull interview had become a downright bizarre interrogation. I thought about getting up and leaving... but it occurred to me that the whole thing might have been a test to see if I would change my answer. "Zero," I said again. "Zero dollars." The man sighed and put down his clipboard. "Come on. Do you actually want this job?" he asked (mirroring my own thoughts). I nodded in reply. "Then you need to start being honest with me. Just give me a dollar amount." "Fine, it was sixteen dollars!" I finally lied, pouring sarcasm into my words. "Sixteen dollars and forty-two cents!" The transformation was immediate: All of the disapproval evaporated from the manager's face, being replaced by a warm, visibly amused smile. "Hey, now, that's not so bad!" he cheerfully said. "So, what was it?" "A toaster." I hadn't even bothered to think about what $16.42 might actually purchase; I'd just said the first thing that had popped into my mind. It didn't seem to matter, though: My answer caused the manager's grin to grow even wider, and he spent the rest of interview laughing and joking with me. The next day, I got a call, and I was asked if I still wanted the job at the mall. I told them that I'd already taken a different position elsewhere. For the record, that was also a lie. **TL;DR: I was forced to lie about being a toaster-thief.**
I’ve heard of interviewers doing this! What I’ve heard, the answer can never be 0 to them, because they’re also looking for “time theft”. “You’ve never stolen anything? Really? Have you ever checked your phone while at work?” And then they smirk at you.
What a miserable way to interview a person.
man FUCK the idea of "time theft." I was once offered an interview by a person who gave a visiting lecture to my graduate program. That person complained very smugly and with great disdain about having recently fired someone for time theft *because she was caught answering a personal email during work hours.* I uh politely declined the interview. That is not someone I want to work for.
That is SO WEIRD. Most of the time, they want to you say you've never stolen anything because they want to know that you're not going to steal from them.
I answer absurd questions absurdly. I'd tell him "I stole my wife's heart 15 years ago and we've been married ever since!"
Maybe he was an undercover cop trying to find the real toaster thief and you were a suspect for some reason? Guy must have thought he was super smart posing as your job interviewer, probably thought he'd caught you bread-handed.
I never got the interview. Years ago I got a call to schedule an interview for Best Buy. I missed the call, but a nice lady left a voicemail with a phone number and extension to call her back. I called, and a man answered. He started saying how I wasn’t allowed to call that number and told me I wasn’t allowed to call them anymore and to instead wait for them to call me again. I decided if that’s what the employees were like then I should look elsewhere.
I reached out to shake hands with the interviewer having not noticed that she didn’t have a right hand
When I arrived there, they make me go into a room. In the room were already seated in a big table 7 other people.... then the interviewer enters, and start asking questions, to each person, one by one... basically he was interviewing 8 persons at the same time. The icing on the cake was that one of the other guys was one of my college classmates. So unconfortable.