People Share Their Job Interview Horror Stories

We all know the job interview butterflies.

We sit outside the office or wait for the phone call and our foot taps at rapid speed. We run through some rehearsed answers, but worry that they'll ask a slew of things we never even considered. We try not to sweat too much.

Often, it turns out alright. We may not get the job, but we're respectable, give solid answers, and learn a lot about the place we're trying to get hired.

Other times, however, all of our far-fetched worries seem to come to life.

Curious to hear just how bad an interview can go, Redditor UIGrimsen asked:

"What was your worst job interview?"

Plenty of people had some truly bizarre stories to share. Part of these train wrecks were bad luck, and part were the insane antics of the people giving the interview.

But for us, they're simply hilarious.

Literally Screaming

"I applied for a job in a Planetarium, the interview was conducted in a big dome."

"Problem was, another part of the Planetarium staff was doing fire alarm tests during the interview. The dome amplified the sound so much, it was deafening. The interview staff acted like nothing was going on. We had to shout so we could hear each other."

-- Quaternaire

Untimely Death

"My mom raises chickens … and during COVID one of them got sick (not COVID). She had it inside to feed water hourly to try to nurse it back to life. My mom has to run an errand so I'm in charge of this chicken for the afternoon."

"I was on a phone screening with a candidate for a position in my office and this chicken starts having a seizure and dies on the middle of this phone call. I look over and it's laying almost like it was crucified."

"The candidate heard the commotion and asked if everything was ok … Which I relied 'yeah, the chicken just died.' "

"She withdrew her application the next morning."

-- poniesgalore

Suffocating

"1.) I walked in as the HR lady farted"

"2.) it was a small office with no windows"

"3.) I asked her questions about their employee retention rate that she couldn't answer"

"4.) the fart stayed the duration of the interview"

"5.) I hope the fart got the job, because I didn't want it"

-- RedShadowIV

A Very Instructive Moment

"Applied to work at a vet clinic. Veterinarian did the interview while spaying a cat, apparently one of the cleanest and quickest surgeries they do. I fainted."

"Was not offered the job (after I woke up)."

-- Remembers_that_time

Bringing In Backup

"Interviewed someone for a call centre job and when we got to the salary part, he takes out his phone, calls his mother and puts her on speakerphone to help negotiate his salary like he was getting a job in the C suite. Did not get hired."

-- AUSavage77

"Dude showed up 35 minutes late for his own interview. I wanted to just cancel it and tell him too bad, but my big boss told me to go ahead since we really needed the position filled."

"Interview starts and he tells us he can only stay for 10 minutes since he's on call at his other job while here with us and that technically he's supposed to be no more than 10 minutes away from his site - which is an hour away. I asked him what he'll do if he gets a call while he's at the interview."

" 'Oh, I always just turn the phone off and pretend there's bad service' "

-- kor_hookmaster

Former Flat Earthers Explain What Finally Made Them Come Around | George Takei’s Oh Myyy

Severely Underqualified

"A couple hours into the interview/intro training, I was given paperwork to fill out for my new dog grooming job. Which would have been great except that I had applied to be a cashier and had never owned a dog, much less groomed one."

"When I brought that up to the trainers, they didn't seemed concerned at all. They said there were no cashier slots, that opening must have been left up by mistake, but dog grooming is fun and I'd like it. They seemed surprised when I left the paperwork on the table and congratulated them on wasting all of our time. Never shopped at that pet store again either."

-- Sporkicide

Others shared moments when their excitement was deflated instantly. They encountered such closed-minded interviewers that there was almost no need for discussion.

That Bus Perk

"As an interviewee It was when I applied to a job as a Junior programmer and in 5 minutes the guys goes 'look, I'll be honest, there is no job, you can get an internship, no pay, we offer the bus pass' "

-- Commercial-Energy839

Plains, Trains, and Automobiles Later...

"I took vacation days to interview, bought my own plane ticket, and paid for my own hotel. First thing the interviewer said was, 'I have no intention of hiring you. This is just a courtesy because I knew your brother.' I had 8 more hours left in my interview day. It was painful."

"They ended up offering me the position many weeks down the road because they couldn't fill the position. I politely declined and got a very passive aggressively worded survey to fill out explaining why I passed."

-- seeing_red415

There's a Right Answer??

"Wanted to work at H&M, got interviewed by the worst person ever."

"One question was and I am legit not lying, 'What is your favorite color and why?' "

"I answered 'baby blue because it's calming and not too harsh to the eyes.' My interviewer then said Oooh, sorry! Red is what we were looking for. And then proceeded to show me the exit."

-- JamesDelRey

Reliving the Nightmare

"During college I applied for a bunch of jobs at Ikea. I got an interview followed by a rejection email. A week later they called me for another interview. I got another rejection email. They interviewed five times for five different positions."

"I got rejected all five times. I'm still salty about it two decades later."

-- emily_is_a_dpp

Unsought Advice

"Part way through the interview the boss lady had something come up and got her assistant to show me around while she was busy. As soon as we were out of earshot this guy tells me to get out while I can."

"Apparently the boss was a slave driver on a sinking ship, and either that was true and I should leave, or this guy is insane and I should leave. So in the second part of the interview I declined the offer."

"That set the boss off like a firework which made me think the guy's warning was sincere. It was the first time I'd turned down a job and felt kinda empowering so her venom didn't stick, and I had a strawberry milk waiting for me outside that topped it off."

-- obscurereferences

Last, some shared the times they arrived for the interview excited and enthusiastic, but quickly learned how out of their league the position was.

These interviews looked more like brutal interrogations from the FBI than job interviews.

All the Principals

"Fresh out of college, I was looking for my first teaching job. I applied at a small district for an elementary school position."

"I walked in, expecting the principal and a few teachers. Instead I had the superintendent of the district, some high-level admin, and every single elementary school principal in the district. Probably 15 people in all. They peppered me with questions for 45 minutes."

"I had zero experience, just my student teaching. I did not get the job."

-- edgarpickle

Tough Room

"The interviewer was just stone cold, I tried to work in some small chit chat to break the ice but the most I got was a smirk. Then came the technical questions. I botched every question and each time he gave me a hard 'no' then proceeded to condescendingly explain why I was wrong."

"Luckily I landed a job with a different company shortly after but man that interview really destroyed my confidence."

-- JustBeenRevoked1

Shove Your Masters

"Finished up a masters degree in physics. Got a phone interview and was was told it would be an introductory chat. Was confronted with a technical interview panel (over the phone) of 6 PhDs, 4 of which had graduated from the research group I had just left. We walked through my research project in about 10 minutes."

"Then the pain began... felt like I'd only learned kindergarten physics."

-- A-Meezy

An Extremely Intimidating Position

"Got an interview for a job as a floor manager at a gigantic steel foundry. I have some background in metallurgy so I thought it'd fit. It paid $90k and I was qualified resume-wise. I got there, turned out it was a group interview with three other applicants, to hear the pitch."

"If something messes up, the company loses $100,000 (some shockingly high amount, I don't remember if it was exactly 100k) per hour and it's your sole responsibility to fix it. They said you'd have to be on call 24/7 to handle anything that comes up."

"I got to the solo part out of curiosity and the interviewer they put me with said something to the effect of 'I know this job sounds bad, but actually it's even worse.' I was desperate for a job because I didn't land one straight out of college, but I was glad not to hear back from them after the interview..."

-- Kersikai

Here's hoping you don't have a job interview scheduled and this just amplified your anxiety 1000%. The nice thing to remember is that these horror stories are few and far between.

Want to "know" more? Never miss another big, odd, funny, or heartbreaking moment again. Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.

job interview

People Break Down Which Toxic Behaviors Are Still Considered Socially Acceptable

Photo by Louis Hansel on Unsplash

Some years ago, I had to advise a college friend to stop chasing the girl he was interested in at the time. She'd already turned him down. Explicitly. At least two or three times.

He wouldn't take no for an answer and didn't see anything wrong with his behavior.

Perhaps he'd seen too many movies where the guy eventually breaks through the girl's defenses and essentially coerces her into going out with him?

Keep reading... Show less
toxic behavior

People Explain What Their Parents Could Have Done Better When Raising Them

Caleb Woods/Unsplash

Parents make mistakes. We want to believe that parents are doing there very best to raise their kids, but sometimes they do more harm than good.

Research into childhood trauma didn't actually begin until the 1970s, so we don't have as much knowledge about our mental health as adults as we might like.

However, a study that followed 1,420 from 1992 to 2015 found conclusive results about childhood trauma:

"'It is a myth to believe that childhood trauma is a rare experience that only affects few,' the researchers say."
"Rather, their population sample suggests, 'it is a normative experience—it affects the majority of children at some point.'"
"A surprising 60 percent of those in the study were exposed to at least one trauma by age 16. Over 30 percent were exposed to multiple traumatic events."

Not all of the things our parents do that were not so helpful technically classify as trauma, but it definitely has an effect on us as we get older.

Keep reading... Show less
parenting

People Share Their Absolute Saddest Love Stories

Ann on Unsplash

Breaking up is something that never gets easier.

Keep reading... Show less
loss

People Divulge The Biggest Insider Secrets From Their Professions

Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash

On the outside, so many professions and careers look glamorous, financially enticing, and fun.

Often we sit back in our own lives and wallow in our dead-end jobs with that "wish I could do that for a living mentality!"

But if you look a little closer or, much like Dorothy Gale in OZ, just wait for a Toto to push the curtain back, you'll see that a lot more is going on behind the scenes.

And the shenanigans we don't see, make all that fun... evaporate.

So many careers and high power industries are built on a foundation of lies, backstabbing, and stress. And not in that fun "Dynasty" way.

That quiet, dead-end gig may not be so bad after all.

Redditor MethodicallyDeep wanted hear all the tea about certain careers, by asking:

What is a secret in your industry that should be talked about?
Keep reading... Show less
biggest secrets from professions