Redditor AntonK777 wanted to discuss all the times the in person job search went seriously south. So they asked everyone to share:
"What was the worst job interview you've had?"
Steak knives. I tried a company selling steak knives.
It is a pyramid scheme.
Withdrawn
job interviews GIFGiphy"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."
lent12
Death
"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 a**hole 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."
feliciates
"Otter"
"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 f**k."
"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."
rileysweeney
"helper"
"Was invited for an IT 'helper' position when I was 17. Would help fix computers for people at a shoddy PC fix shop."
"They asked me 'What's the first thing you check if a customer calls and says their screen doesn't 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."
IgnasP
It's a No.
william h macy interview GIF by ShowtimeGiphy"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."
Testosteroxin
How do some people get into management positions?
Are YOU Hiring?
Season 3 Nbc GIF by The OfficeGiphy"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 resume for him anyway."
Errorboros
Real Tears
"Two: 1- the recruiter started to fold my cv into a paper plane during the interview. (Didn't 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."
Cleverpseudonym4
Instead of...
"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."
DigitXer0
Bad Vibrations
"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 balances 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."
Bender3455
Whoops
Shield Knock Over GIF by Assassin's CreedGiphy"My first Interview ever was at DQ and I accidentally knocked a 90 year old woman over."
Sometimes unemployment is the better option while you wait.
One Reddit user asked:
Hiring managers of Reddit, what are some red flags you've gotten during an interview/on a resume?
So I've bombed some interviews, but I have never ever in my life pulled any of this. The dog licking guy ... just ... what?!
Lick Every Last Drop Of Sweat
dog licking GIF by Badass BKGiphyWe interviewed a guy once for an engineering position. We Asked the typical, " what do you like to do in your free time?" He said he really enjoyed taking his dog with him on a long run to decompress (so far so good)
—then he went into excruciating detail of how his dog likes to lick every last drop of sweat off his body as he undresses for the shower. It was cringey!
We figured if he didn't have the innate judgement to keep that Info to himself in an interview, that he likely wouldn't exercise good judgment with our customers.
Snatching Defeat From The Jaws Of Victory
I was hiring for a field technician position and brought three equally qualified candidates in for interviews. They all had sufficient experience with other contractors so all I really cared about was how they presented themselves and how they spoke to someone in a position of authority.
First two candidates were excellent. I figured it was going to be a super tough choice between the two of them at least. Then the third candidate completely blows away the other two in how he presents himself. He's clearly very gifted and is super ambitious and I'm about ten seconds away from telling him he'll receive and offer before the end of the week.
He starts telling me he's excited for this opportunity because he feels his current employer is going under because of some poor business decisions over the last year. Signing contracts that they can't complete and things like that.
I ask an open ended question like "how would you do it better?" And this fella tells me something to the effect of:
"Well, I don't know much about business but one time I was working on interac (credit card) machines and found a way to add my personal bank account information to the machine. So I did that to help boost my personal income because I figured it wouldn't be easy to trace. But don't worry I cleared it all up with the cops and had to pay all the money back. Oh and that's what the company should have done - find a way to generate passive income until something more profitable came along."
I was floored. I just stared at him. I couldn't even respond. He just confessed to a felony and flat out told me he believed companies should do the same thing.
He asked me straight up how that story would affect his chances. I told him I had other candidates that probably fit the role a little better but would keep him in consideration for future opportunities.
- anonymat
School Days
Had a guy come in wearing his HS wrestling medals. I don't recall exactly how old he was, but minimum age for the job was 21 so he was at least that.
I did similar. Had an interview for a mobile phone shop and brought in my rowing trophies from university. I was 22 and still cringe at that.
My defense is I'd been applying for loads of different jobs and not getting anywhere so thought I'd go more visual.
There is a local lawyer that has a commercial about how he was good at football so that's why he should be on your "team". How does being good at football translate to being a great legal mind? And no its not in Texas.
- fied1k
"I Hate The Truth"
I was interviewing a candidate for a technical position ( electronic design )
I handed them a dry erase marker and asked them to draw ( this particular easy circuit) on the white board and explain how it works.
The candidate stood in front of the white board looking uncomfortable and I heard them say under their breath "I hate the truth"
"Is It A Flesh Colored T-shirt?"
My boss had a zoom interview with a dude who didn't bother to put on a shirt. He didn't get the job.
It was for a job as a baker in Ontario. Apparently he looked like he just rolled out of bed. No shirt. My boss barely remembered his interview answers because she spent the whole time thinking "why isn't he wearing a shirt? is it a flesh coloured t-shirt. Nope."
Punching Proficiency
fight you chuck norris GIF by GritTVGiphyThis one kid was very proud of the fact that he got so mad one time, he punched a couple windows on a bus and broke them. Somehow he thought this was a good story to tell us in the interview.
Maybe that's why I've struggled with getting interviews previously... I have failed to list my punching proficiency on my resume.
Yes, anger management and destruction of proper is exactly what we look for in an employee.
Having A Meeting About Not Hiring Them EVER
The building was key card access, so everyone else had to sign in with security. Because we work with special needs populations, certain things are simply not allowed in the building. All of this is explained when they get the interview.
Security asks me to come talk to this guy because he has a chain wallet, a key ring with a pill holder and a pepper spray bottle - all of which is banned. He is refusing to leave at security to come in for his interview. I tell him those are the rules.
Interview goes acceptably until I ask how he would handle a client offering him money or favors in return for privileges or contraband. He laughed and asked how cute they were.
The job he was applying for would have had him on a ward with teenagers. I literally had a meeting about how we were not hiring this person EVER later that day with others just in case he tried to interview again with another manager.
Wardrobe Change
Some years ago (my early 20s) when I was first promoted to a supervisory position, my manager was demonstrating interview techniques. He asked me to collect the lady coming in from reception so I could get a first impression.
She was smartly dressed in a trouser suit and carrying quite a large bag, I would guess age around 50. She asked who would be doing the interview so I gave the job title and she asked to clarify if it was male or female, so I confirmed it was male. This was when it got weird.
She asked to use the bathroom on the way to the interview meeting room, so I showed her where it was and waited outside for her.
10 minutes later (and now late for the interview)she came out, total change of outfit. Now it was mini skirt, very low top, high heels and hair down. We carried on to the meeting room for the interview and I sat and watched my managers interview technique dissipate.
She was constantly crossing and uncrossing legs, leaning forwards and playing with her hair. The interview lasted 15 minutes and I ended up showing her out. She didn't get the job but it gave us a helluva laugh.
Media Matters
I was managing a sushi restaurant owned by an Asian family who are actually Chinese not Japanese, this will be an important fact in a moment.
We were hiring and a guy came in to hand in his resume. He had a full length leather jacket on and slicked back long black hair.
He handed me his resume and told me he was fluent in Japanese from watching anime. Safe to say, this was not an important skill at a restaurant owned by a Chinese family in a mainly white town. I did not call him for an interview.
- Rule34FF
We had someone claim to be bilingual in English and Spanish (a requirement for the position). When the Spanish speaking manager began asking questions, the applicant revealed she only knew what she had picked up from watching telenovelas.
That was just one portion of her highly entertaining interview. Another highlight was when she tried to hide her grocery bags in our lobby plants while she was waiting.
Trying To Hide My Expression
I wasn't the manager, but was part of the hiring process.
My boss would walk over with the interviewee, who was supposed to sit with me so I could show them about a half hour of "a day in the life". I was also the laid back part of the interview to see if they said something incredibly stupid.
This time, when I looked up, I very quickly had to hide my expression. It was someone that I had worked with previously, and had absolutely hated.
Not only would she have been a bad fit personality wise, but her work ethic was god awful. The interviewee automatically assumed she had it in the bag, and dropped her veneer of professionalism.
She sat back, leaned back in the chair, and told me that I didn't need to show her anything, she was sure she would get the hang of the job "sooner or later" and since I was there, I would absolutely get her in.
My boss came back to get her, and I walked into her boss' office and sat down. When my boss walked back in, she asked what the look on my face was for when she brought the interviewee over. She knew something was up, but couldn't tell what.
I explained what it was like working with her before (unprofessional, uncoachable, played by whatever rules she decided she wanted to follow), and then what she had done in this interview.
My boss and her boss then called the agency and said that they needed new candidates.
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Priceless....
michael jackson popcorn GIFGiphyI worked for a small company, and this resume got passed around. Turns out it was someone I'd worked with at my previous company.
He was claiming to be the lead developer on a project that I wrote from the ground up with one other person (not him).
I told my boss that we should interview this person for entertainment value only, and why. So we did. I left people with the gotcha questions to ask, and he tried to bull his way through each one. I was the last interviewer, and the look on his face when I walked through the door was priceless.
Written by Hand....
I was interviewing internal candidates for a job at our location. The job posting asked for your last review and a letter of interest, basically a cover letter.
We have computers and printers available for any employee to use but one woman in her 40s, pretty intelligent, decided to hand write her letter of interest on a scrap piece of 5"x7" ripped paper. WTF? The kicker was she wrote in the letter something like "I bet nobody else took the time to write a personal hand written letter."
I was interviewing an external kid in his early 20s for an entry level stocking job. I asked one of the stock questions "Give me an example of a time you had a disagreement with a coworker?"
He goes into a story about some trivial argument where he and another coworker ended up getting into a fist fight at an A&W Restaurant. I felt kind of bad that he thought I that was an OK story to tell at a job Interview.
"What is the attitude of a satellite?"
I was the candidate for this one. Due to how the Indian College system works, I was forced to participate in a written test for a company which did aerospace focused software. I was not interested in actually clearing the test. 10 years later, I still remember answering "What is the attitude of a satellite?" With "The satellites attitude i.e. mood describes whether or not it wishes to remain in orbit.
Satellites with a bad attitude are normally scrapped otherwise they may decide to crash out of orbit or get into fights with other satellites".
(I had continued this for a 6-7 line paragraph)
I wonder what the evaluators thought of me....
Crush It.
I had a job posting out and a potential candidate reached out to have a chat about the role (senior management position). I told him my calendar was up to date and to book me.
He booked me for 1pm the following day with his phone number in the "location". At 1:02pm I call his number. He was waiting for his food at a burger place.
So we're chatting, he gets his food and says "I'm going to crush this burger while we talk."
He was shocked when he didn't get a formal interview.
@ "don't be stupid"
sanford smh GIFGiphyNot so much an answer, but I've seen a shocking amount of resumes and applications with really awkward and unprofessional email addresses. Before being a position where I reviewed resumes I never would have thought so many people would provide and email address like "baddest_b*ch420" or sexymama_69" to a potential employer, but a lot of people do.
The Bare Minimum
I wasn't necessarily an employer, but i was a manager of a small restaurant. The owner valued my input but i couldn't hire or fire anyone without his permission.
I had a kid bring in his application, and i guess he was making jokes and forgot to fix it. Under "expected pay" he wrote "minimum crap".
He was hired and he was not a good fit.
Nevermind.
It wasn't really anything on the resume or application. Still very entertaining.
Hiring for a call center position in my Department. Man passes the phone interview (done by the CEO of the company) and was told to come in for the face to face interview with the managers of the department.
He shows up and answers a few questions before asking what job he was applying for at the company. I replied that it was for a call center position and he looked disappointed. He then began asking if there were any other positions open (there were not at the time).
I begin to end the interview and I ask him about his past experience. He says that he was always upper management. Then asks if we were hiring for a CEO position at the company. No Dude... No. You literally talked with our CEO during the phone interview. Position is filled. Thanks. Ended the interview after that part.
It was one of the worst interviews that I have ever been through. He was unbelievably un prepared and applying for an entry level position.
Serving Time.
Not an employer but I worked in HR back in the '70s. One applicant under the question regarding convictions wrote that he'd served 6 years in prison for the murder of his wife's lover. He finished by saying that he and his wife were back together.
You're Released
We were hiring externally for an account manager and that void was highly coveted by many of the supervisors on the account. Hired this one guy and told him he had to go through the agent training and we would see where he is at, but under no circumstance was he to tell anyone what he was hired to do.
First day of training he introduces himself to the whole company as the next account manager, blows off training completely, and bombs the final knowledge test.
He was released.
Just Pray.
I Will Survive Jesus GIF by hoppipGiphyHad someone put down "Jesus" for a reference.
Without a last name and contact details? That's pretty unprofessional.
"Kleptoes"
Had a chef once apply with, "good at helping my coworkers thieve whilst the restaurant is at its busiest."
I'm sure he meant thrive but us chefs aren't to be trusted.
At my old job, I think if someone put that on their resume they'd be hired on the spot. I liked to joke that we probably should've stopped searching for people at Kleptomaniacs Anonymous meetings.
"So.... Rong"
GiphyI was working in retail in high school when someone came and dropped off a paper application. In the section about criminal history they checked yes they had prior convictions. In the space provided to state what the legal issues were they simply wrote "rong place rong time". We kept that application around for a while.
"Touchdown"
I received a resume that was just their high school football accomplishments, no other experience written down. There was even a link to his highlight video. He also included a head shot of him in his football pads. He was 24.
Sports CVs usually include a picture of you like that. As well as teams/competitions you've played in, highlights, your weight, height, etc. That sort of thing.
A sports CV is meant to be a profile for you as an athlete. To send to teams you want to join. Or something your agent sends to teams for transfers.
You don't use a sports CV for a actual job with the public. That makes no sense.
"Clowning"
GiphySaw a resume that, under the education tab, went from "Marine Officer Training School" to simply "Clown School."
Not even the specific one, just "Clown School."
"Listen Y'all..."
Old retail manager used to joke about one candidate he interviewed. A felony charge isn't a deal breaker for them so they ask applicants to be honest about them. "So about that drug charge... I just want y'all to know I wasn't usin' it, I just sold it."
"A Cup of Pee"
Hiring for a convenience store in the US, so we always scraped the bottom of the barrel and hired anyone who showed up to the interview. In this particular region, meth was so rampant that we drug tested potential employees. I did the interview, gave the kid the urinalysis kit to bring to the clinic a block away, called the clinic and said you can expect him shortly to administer the pee test. He never showed at the clinic.
Didn't answer his phone. He came back to the store a week later, proudly holding a cup of urine that he was there to turn in. I asked him politely to please take the cup of pee out of my store and to never return. He looked confused. I then asked him why he didn't go directly to the clinic after the interview. He said he wanted to wait till he could pass the drug test! God bless his simple heart.
"Woah Willie...."
GiphyAn applicant for a job as a paid tenor soloist in performing a series of Bach cantatas was asked:
Please list sacred choral works (including cantatas) for which you have served as tenor soloist.
He responded: "None. But I can sing "Shotgun Willie" in the style of Willie Nelson."
"Hey Vanna"
In the cover letter: "I have a 2011 Toyota Corolla" and "I keep things organized with STICKERS!!!" Caps and multiple exclamations and all.
Different girl ignored the instructions to apply online, showed up in jeans and a baseball cap, asked if we were still hiring and when we said yes, she threw her arms in the air like Vanna White on Wheel of Fortune and shouted, "here I am!" My coworkers said the look on face was priceless.
"Paperwork"
I had someone bring in a resume that was scrawled out on notebook paper ripped from a spiral bound notebook and they didn't even tear off the edge so it was clean!
This was for a high level position. They wore a suit, carried a portfolio (which I assume had a spiral notebook in it) and never offered a word as to why they jotted down a resume in the parking lot.
"Why You Should Hire Me"
GiphyWhenever anyone gets an interview to work in my department, our whole team looks over their resume and can ask the applicant questions. There was a guy who applied for a mid-career position and had a few connections with some higher ups in our company.
So they immediately scheduled an interview for him without actually reviewing his resume. When our team looked at his resume, he had it titled "Why You Should Hire Me" and had a bunch of run-on sentences and misspelled words. Our team was confused and thought he made a mistake. Apparently, he thought he had the job because of his connections, so he didn't take the whole applying process seriously. He didn't get the job.
