Job interviews can be hellishly stressful! Even if you’ve got the right skills, experience, and emotional intelligence to back you up, a part of you is still nervous about putting your best foot forward. But have you ever imagined what the situation would be like if the roles were reversed, if you were the interviewer? Unfortunately, far from every job candidate is stellar… to put it mildly.
In a brutally honest online thread, interviewers spilled the tea about the very worst candidates that they’ve ever had to interview for work. These people were practically dripping with entitlement, and it’s a wonder they’ve ever found a job anywhere. Check out the stories below. It’s a crash course in what not to do when you’re looking for employment!
#1
Easy.
I was interviewing for a junior programmer position. We were looking for someone to train for a cheaper rate.
Kid pretty fresh out of college shows up for the interview with his mom. Now, this is OK. Things happen sometimes. One time a girl’s car was in the shop. One time it was over 100° outside and dad asked if he could sit in the lobby. No big deal.
But this mom insisted on going into the interview room with her son. I asked her if she planned to show up to work with him every day for his full shift. She said no so then I told her that I was going to have to interview him alone.
At this, she INSISTED that she go into the interview room with him and she WOULD NOT TAKE NO FOR AN ANSWER.
So I responded with, “OK, in that case, this interview is over.” The kid got the biggest grin I have ever seen at seeing his mother punished for this sort of behavior. I genuinely hope that he could finally cut the cord and make something out of his life.
Image source: PRMan99, freepik
#2
She had a pretty middle of the road resume with 2 years of relevant experience. I reviewed the notes for her first interview with HR which basically said that she was polite but nervous. I was conducting the technical interview.
I started off by establishing that she had done well in the first interview to try to alleviate some of her stress. She argued with me, insisting that it had not gone well. Whatever, maybe that’s how she’s expressing anxiety. I moved on, trying to boost confidence by handing her a softball question. I presented a simple problem that was exactly tailored to the type of work she had been doing with a platform that I was familiar with. It was the type of problem that you would almost certainly experience multiple times if you had worked with this product for a short amount of time. She accused me of sexism for questioning her resume (which is the literal function of an interview) and refused to acknowledge the question.
At that point, I offered her some coffee, and stepped out to call HR, legal, and security. I assumed that she was a litigious predator looking to sue a company for discrimination, so we had security escort her from the building as HR observed, and legal immediately took possession of my notes and audio recording. Sure enough, she sued. Her case was dismissed, she appealed, and it was dismissed again. Then, she sued me personally and her case was dismissed.
Image source: Nevermind04, cookie_studio
#3
A woman that went off on massive tangents every single question.
For example;
Q: You said you had negotiation training, can you explain exactly what you received?
A: Yes, I went to training on with my current role. We got driven to the place by the rudest taxi driver I have ever meet! He was was eating some chips with toppings on it! Like cheese and stuff! Have you ever had American Cheeder? It’s to die for…etc.
We had to constantly interpret to get her back on track. It was a panel of three and two of us thought it was insanely funny and had to hide our faces. It was super obvious but the lady didn’t notice. One of the panel though had no time for this and was getting really angry.
During one question the lady ended up talking about a seal that she saw on the beach and my coworker put up their hand and just ‘For the love of God stop’. We then concluded the interview. You would have no idea this woman totally bombed this as she was happy as Larry and chatting away.
The woman then said “I look forward to hearing from you” my coworker responded with “Well you really shouldn’t”
It was easily the best/worst interview I have ever been a part of, and I think about that woman and her seal often.
#4
Had an older gentleman interview. At the end I explained that the background check form is sent to his email and all he has to do is go fill it out. He didn’t understand this concept at all, despite me explaining it 4 times. He kept asking me where he would have to take the paper work, I said there is no paperwork it’s just a form you fill out online (like our application) & it’s all done electronically. He then asked who does it, I told him the company name, & he insisted that somehow our county would need to process the information & how did he do that? I kept telling him, all you do is open the email, click the link, fill it out and click submit. Boom done… he left still confused and said he’d have someone at home explain it.
Crazy enough we did hire this guy and when I called him to schedule his orientation he yelled at me because the 4pm class time was too late, even though I had told him there was also a 9am morning class the next week he could attend. He still kept yelling about how “no one wants to do it that late, we have lives, my day’s already started I can’t interrupt my day that late.” He had no concept that 1. We hire people for 3rd shift jobs or people who already have day jobs and 2. The world does not revolve around your ideal schedule.
Edit: wow this got waaaay more attention than I thought it would lol. To answer a few questions, we were just hiring for very basic warehouse work and if you pass a background your pretty much automatically hired. We were in peak season and desperately needed people so we said f**k it, he’s seasonal and will be gone in a month anyway. He did apologize profusely at the end of the phone call and didn’t cause any more issues after that phone call, thank god. But I still kept my distance from him.
Image source: httphaimish, katemangostar
#5
Acted like she was interviewing us the entire time. I could see on her face that she really thought she had us under her thumb with her s****y attempt at manipulation; trying to convince my co-owner and I that WE needed to impress HER. She admitted she had no interest in the main components of our business, and no experience in the field what-so-ever.
At the end of the interview she shook my hand and said “We will be in touch.” Who is “we”??
She e-mailed me a week later letting me know she would be taking the position with us (as though we had offered it to her). I politely told her we were not interested, and used my business term for “f**k you”: “Best of luck to you in your future endeavors.”.
Image source: KensAscot, wocintechchat
#6
I was interviewing at a hiring event, and had a few people scheduled for interviews that completed the application online and did the pre-screening interview over the phone. For people that did not, they could get stuck there for over an hour waiting to go through the multi-step process, so I took appointment times seriously. I was the only person hiring for my department so anyone applying for anything in housekeeping had to do an interview with me, specifically.
One girl was not on time for her appointment so I started working through the other 6 or so applicants that had already been there 45 minutes. Shortly after I started one interview the girl finally showed up, about 25 minutes late. The woman signing everyone in happened to be the recruitment manager for the region, and the girl that showed up late was rude to her when she wasn’t immediately sent to me to interview. The recruitment manager told her that I was with someone and would be available soon, but the girl could *not believe* how rude we were to “bump” her appointment and not be available for her. She got up to complain to the recruiter several times, called her unprofessional and disorganized, and s**t like that. So I got done with the interview I was in and the recruitment manager pulled me aside to warn me.
At this point I’m just humoring the girl and planned to do a quick 3-5 minute interview so I could get to better applicants. This girl told me how incompetent the “receptionist” was on our walk to the interview room. I asked the same basic questions I ask everyone and instead of talking herself up she explained that every coworker she ever has is horrible and lazy. She said that as a mother of 2 she’s much more organized than other people. She insinuated that I was incompetent at my job for not being able to see her right when she walked in. Like I felt like I had to defend myself during her interview it was so bad. She was a horrible person! Don’t know why she thought insulting everyone would get her a job.
Image source: RaineBearNW, DC Studio
#7
Came in wearing overalls to an interview for an accountant position with a university’s department of engineering.
Me: “This position requires you to speak English and French, do you speak French fluently?”
Overalls: “No.”
Me: “Um, okay. Do you have experience working in finance?”
Overalls: “No.”
Me: “Do you have similar experience or education that would make you suitable for this position?”
Overalls: “No.”
Me: “Okay that’s all, thanks. Have a good day.”
Overall: “Do I have the job?”
Me: “No.”.
Image source: Zodree
#8
Had a lady show up and interviewed with her child and husband. I told her she was welcome to let them sit in the lobby while we interviewed, but for some reason she declined. So we did an entire interview while she held a toddler.
Image source: last_711_hotdog, freepik
#9
I used to work part time as a phoner where I would cold call strangers and ask them to take surveys about social media, politics and other topics. You never know who you get through because the numbers are either randomly generated by a computer or sold to the company from online contests people have participated in. I have lots of weird, fun and sad stories but this one takes the price.
One day an old man answered the phone and I confidently started my script:*”Hi! You’re talking to (my name). I’m calling from (companys name) and just wanted to ask you if you want to participate in an interesting survey about social media?”* The nice old guy answered:”*I’m sorry but my wife just passed this night and I really can’t focus on anything else right now.”* I was in shock and just told him to please accept my condolences and wished him a lovely evening. This experience really made me think about some deep stuff. Here I was, 19 years old and full of life, calling an old man I assume was 80 years+ who just lost his wife that f*****g same evening to ask him to take a stupid, unimportant survey about Social Media he probably don’t even use. It really put things into perspective.
Image source: anon
#10
His dad followed him into the interview. At first we thought he was just there to drop off his son, but he entered the interview room. My supervisor even tried to stop the dad from entering, but once he saw his dad not going into the room he went back out.
We both didn’t have the heart to shut them down right then and there. So we went along with the process. The kid seemed nice enough but the problem was the dad was answering all of the question till the point where my supervisor got flustered and told the dad to let his son answer the questions.
When his dad let the son answer the question he would look at his dad while speaking to us. He could not maintain eye contact with either of us. It was hilarious as it is sad. After the interview the dad is almost begging us to take his son. It was a really low risk position, so we let him in.
He lasted about 3 months and never got through probation. The other technicians came together and said it was too dangerous to keep him in the team. We gave him pretty much the lowest risk job there is and still he manage to find ways to scare the s**t out of us.
Image source: manymoreways
#11
I interviewed Avril Lavigne over the phone about her second album. It was an interview for radio. I knew she was trying hard to be the ‘Alanis Morisette song-writer’ kind of performer. So I launched into a series of questions about her songwriting process: Do you start with lyrics or music? Do you write on piano or guitar? Those kinds of questions. Her response was “It’s like, just really like, organic.” End of answer. Everything after that was nonsense and yes or no answers to open-ended questions. It was a rough one. Super glad when it was over. Didn’t air a single second of it.
Image source: cruisefromottawa, Avril Lavigne
#12
I run gyms. The jobs we have are admittedly easy, but we still like to give people a clean place to workout in and a friendly person to speak with when you come in.
Gentleman in his 50’s comes in, 10 minutes late, hops off a motorcycle wearing beat up jeans and a shirt that was very close to Zach Galifinakis’ wolf howl shirt from the Hangover. Walks in, ignores my current front desk staff walks to the middle of the gym and asks, “Where’s Fyghter?” I had been waiting for him so I introduced myself and we walked back to my office. The whole time he is talking about how much he used to lift and how every woman in the gyms he used to workout in, would just throw themselves at him. We sit down and I am already irritated. I ask a few normal interview questions. I tell him that I want to cover the job duties so if we hire him he knows what I expect. He gets visibly irritated but I ignore it and keep talking. He blurts out about three sentences in, “I mean, it’s a gym right? These f***s practically run themselves?” I asked him to leave and he called me a millennial soft a*s that didn’t know my a*s from a hole in the ground.
D*******g.
Image source: Fyghter
#13
I was a manager in a grocery store. We were interviewing for our overnight manager that I would be overseeing.
He showed up. Weighed approximately 500lbs, not that it’s bad but that job was very physical, and had dandruff on his stomach. I could see droplets of grease in his hair. He had pasta and coffee stains on his white gym shorts that he was wearing.
His answers revolved around comparing himself to new school management (which I was) and kept saying how “f****n great” he was. He kept circling back to how awesome his old school style was and that all new school managers should look up to him.
He did not answer his questions thoroughly and kept beating around the bush. When I concluded the interview he got up and that’s when *it* hit me… right in the face. I swear to Christ that guy hadn’t showered or wiped his a*s in at least a week.
I showed him out. Called him a few days later with some constructive criticism. I explained that old school management had its merits (huge fan of the old school style myself) but the political landscape of business has changed a significant amount. I also told him that the turnover rate for this position was high so he could apply again when it opened up.
He called me every single day for two weeks asking me to reconsider. Apparently he has lost over 200lbs since then.
Image source: anon
#14
This was just a few days ago!
I was the 3rd interview for her and everyone was just gushing about her experience.
From the very start I got a weird vibe from her that I couldn’t place…until she started answering questions.
I was already leaning toward no after she interrupted me multiple times and said she wasn’t really tech savvy (retail job but very social media heavy).
To nail this coffin shut, she touched me.. multiple times. I think she was going for the sweet little old lady vibe but it wasn’t working. First came the shoulder rub and then the leg rub.
I couldn’t get her out of my office fast enough.
Don’t touch people in an interview unless it’s a handshake!
Image source: haylibee
#15
Had a young gentleman come in, not dressed for the occasion posture was horrible as he was slouched over on the table. The interview committee introduces themselves and give him the chance for an introduction. He just says “Look, I’m going to be real honest. My dad is making me go on interviews or else he’s going to stop paying my bills.” We continued through the interview and he actually answered questions genuinely but it sucked wasting time on somebody we knew we were not going to give the position.
Image source: el_monstruo, pvproductions
#16
Man brought his own lunch to an interview because he was into lifting and needed to make sure he ate at certain times. Started eating said meal during interview.
Image source: Kiki_Masala
#17
Mid 20s girl comes for an interview. We asked her why she wanted to work in the medical field and she proceeded to start bawling her eyes out and telling us a story of her dead grandpa. She couldn’t compose herself. We had to stop the interview altogether to get her tissues. We asked how long it had been since he passed (assuming it was recent by her intense emotional reaction). Nope. He died when she was 8.
NEXXXXXT.
Image source: Blindingnight
#18
This one didn’t even make it to the interview table.
Was set to interview some Bozo at 2:30pm. I would usually get into work around 9:30-11:00am. I arrive at 10am and Co-Worker was totally stunned that Bozo called at 8am and demanded my personal mobile number so he could call/text me that he wanted to come in earlier because he had “important s**t” to do that afternoon and he wanted to come in earlier. Co-Worker denied Bozo his request. Bozo then said, “Ok, well when does he get in? I’ll just be there waiting” Co-Worker accurately advised Bozo this was a BAD idea. Bozo gets angry with Co-Worker and threatens her “When I get hired as your new boss, you can kiss your job goodbye sweetie”
Called Bozo and promptly cancelled the interview. Bozo then got aggressive towards me.
Runner Up: Multi-color hair dude who got fired from Target for making his co-workers fell unsafe, but he “only wanted to k**l a couple of them”
I did not hire him.
Image source: anon
#19
Job interview: Had someone no-show on an interview. They called back a week later to see if they got the job.
Press interview: We had given our main camera operator the day off and our other camera operator showed up five hours late with no notice. Our sound recordist called in sick. I got to conduct one of our highest profile interviews while simultaneously operating camera and sound. Someone accidentally formatted the card minutes later and all the footage was lost.
Image source: broganisms
#20
Not an interview, but received a resume with applicants name, address, phone, email, birthday….and one bullet point under work experience that said “wore shoes to work and work shirt.” I did not offer this individual an interview.
Image source: anon
#21
A girl who gave one word answers. She got the job because the director knew her.
#22
Hiring for maid company..
Question 1: how does cleaning make you feel? Answer: “I mean, It’s annoying and gross but you pay good”
Question 2: if you found a $100 bill under the bed what would you do?
Answer: “I should say turn it in but I’m honest-I’d stick it in my pocket, they obviously didn’t need it if it’s there”
No question 3, bye now.
Image source: DawdlingPinkLady
#23
I once gave an interview to a guy that had like ten years’ worth of programming jobs but couldn’t write a single line of code to solve the interview question. It was apparent in about ten minutes that he wasn’t going to figure it out, but we either couldn’t or wouldn’t just cut it short and show him the door.
Image source: VanFailin, freepik
#24
Quite a while ago now, something like 14-15 years, a guy turns up for an interview.
– He is completely unintelligible;
– He’s brought his SCJP (Sun Certified Java Programmer) certificate with him but clearly doesn’t know any Java; and, best of all
– His work permit is tied to his current employer.
My second story is when I was the interviewee.
The interviewer’s question was “how would you reverse the order of bits in a byte.” Because I had been working on very memory constrained devices I came up with a solution that used register rotation and the carry bit to do it super efficiently.
The interviewer never said speed was the most important point and he’d been looking for a lookup table answer.
My solution was probably comparably fast simply because it was all done on the cpu with no memory access but he didn’t get that.
I still think he was a terrible interviewer and I am quite glad I didn’t get the job.
Image source: anon
#25
In my old job, we were hiring for a web content person to update the site with products, blogs etc – he admitted in the interview that he hadn’t even looked at our website.
Afterwards he asked for feedback and was told the truth, then pleaded to still be considered. From memory he said “I’ve looked at the website now!”
In my current job, we’ve just interviewed for a marketing officer. We were explicit in what they should provide (I.e. examples of their work online). One girl didn’t provide anything but a CV that talked exclusively about her time at university.
When she found out she wasn’t progressing to interview, she demanded a reason – then sent a long, highly-strung email about how a family member had passed away during university and she was proud of her grades, and had definitely written blogs and stuff (still, no links).
It was passive aggressive and weird. She may as well have written RED FLAG fifty times in her email.
Then, one girl who DID come into interview gave off very odd vibes… Like bad voodoo. She’d mistakenly written on her CV that she was currently looking for jobs in a different European city (we’re in the UK).
Our director decided not to ask her about it to save her embarrassment but we had explicitly asked for ‘great attention to detail’ and she had given some awful answers so I waited until the last minute and asked her 😈 She turned bright red and became passive aggressive looool.
I asked her, “If we offered you the job, and then a company in this other city offered you the job, which one would you pick?”
I was giving her the opportunity to reel it back – but she said, “Probably this one because it would mean I wouldn’t have to move.”
🤦🏻♀️ smh.
Image source: moonseas
#26
I do group interviews and after everyone introduces themselves and discusses their career goals, I ask “What does everyone here have in common? What sets you apart?” This question lets me see into an applicant’s team mentality and how they believe they’ll fit into our company culture. I ask the applicants to write their answers down for us to discuss later.
One time, I had a group of 5 applicants, 4 of the 5 being African American. When I asked this question and told them to write it down, the only caucasian woman looks around, surprised, and blurts out “Well, we’re all woman, but I’m the only WHITE one!”
I was MORTIFIED.
Thankfully, one of the other applicants was on her toes and stated “You’re supposed to write it down so that we don’t steal each other’s answers.” The other 3 applicants were shooting daggers at her with their eyes. The caucasian woman giggled and jotted it down, but I immediately knew she was not moving on to the next phase of interviews. I did, however, move forward with the applicant who spoke up. She has fantastic customer and problem resolution skills.
Image source: kimtay17, pikisuperstar
#27
Working in staffing so I’ve got few. The people that always smell like s**t and don’t bathe are always up there. The room shouldn’t stink 10 minutes after you leave.
But the worst would have to be the single mother of 5 who had zero ambition or will to work. Didn’t even try to answer questions. Told me multiple times idk. I was practically serving up answers for her and she just wouldn’t be genuine. Asked how many more questions I had because she needed to leave. Lady, I know you needed that job but I just couldn’t hire you compared to the others who took it serious.
Image source: darksquidlightskin
#28
I did recruiting for small businesses and ask behavioral questions. Fastest interview ever was this m**h-head.
“Everyone makes mistakes, right? Tell me about a mistake you made at a past job, what the results were and how you rectified it.” 20-something went on to tell me about ‘getting suckered into’ selling m**h to make more money, then got several coworkers hooked on it, then stared distributing large amounts to her team on the reg, then got fired and became a prostitute to support her habit, then landed in jail for solicitation, possession with intent, giving false information to police and resisting arrest. She was recently released from jail and wanted to hurry the interview because she was on her way to a house party with all her old friends. I asked point blank if she was holding and she said, “not yet” with a wink.
Image source: BargleFlargen
#29
Happy cake day!
Fortunately I’ve never had any particularly bad interviews. There are plenty of candidates who don’t get the job, but there’s nothing wrong with that.
The person who taught me the most about interviewing is a female coworker and she’s got some doozies. Let’s call her “Coworker” or “CW” for short.
When we’re onboarding new interviewers, we have them shadow people who have been interviewing for a while to better understand how the process works and what we are looking for. One time, CW was interviewing a candidate and had a new interviewer shadowing her. The shadowing interviewer was male. Throughout the interview the candidate kept addressing the shadow interviewer instead of CW. You may be thinking “Most candidates probably talk to the shadow and CW is just blowing it out of proportion.” I can tell you from experience that it’s very rare for candidates to direct many questions to the shadow. Most of the time the shadow is ignored by the candidate.
I’ve heard similar stories from other female friends and coworkers. I used to be one of those “she’s blowing it out of proportion” people, but I’ve seen enough examples to realize that it’s a real thing. As a dude I have very little first-hand experience though.
Image source: leavingonaspaceship
#30
Interviewed a candidate in an empty restaurant inside my hotel. I asked him if I could get him a drink (since I was getting a glass of water for myself). He asked for a jack and coke. It was 10 am on a Tuesday.
Image source: tamere2k
#31
I was a recruiter at an agency and had a candidate call in and tell me his impressive qualifications on the high-paying job I was trying to fill.
He shows up in a dirty white t-shirt, greasy hair, pants 3 inches too short and the kicker was – the c****h was completely ripped out and **his underwear and balls were hanging out**. Fastest interview I ever conducted just to give him the courtesy of one.
I sanitized the lobby chair and interview chair.
Image source: whateverspicegirl, DC Studio
#32
My SO works in finance and interviewed for a credit controller, candidate seemed reasonably nice and chatty and they asked about her current job where it went downhill quicker than OP’s mum on a first date.
She proceeds to whip out print outs of her current sales ledger with (some of) the individuaos, companies and amounts they owed her current employer. SO ended the interview on the spot and said she needed to report a data breach to the candidates employer.
Image source: citizen_erased85
#33
A month ago we interviewed an engineer who was extremely charismatic and had years of relevant experience. My partner asked him for a college transcript after 15 minutes. The interview goes very smoothly and we really like the guy. At 30 minutes, my partner pushes the transcript to me. At 40 minutes, I take a look at the transcript
to find a ~2.1 cumulative GPA with his major GPA about the same.
I thought, ok sure this guy got some consistent Cs and Ds, but maybe he absorbed a lot and just tested poorly? I asked him about experience working through some technical engineering challenges that involved some science or math. Suddenly all of his glow faded and he seemed like he stopped having fun. He was unable to come up with any technical examples.
We liked him a lot until that point and whole-heartedly wished him the best, but didn’t extend an offer.
Image source: Syntactic_Acrobatics
#34
A young guy came into my pizza shop wearing a dirty t-shirt and basketball shorts asking if we were hiring, I told him to come in the next day for a screening interview. Comes in the next day wearing the same t-shirt and basketball shorts. and this time he’s brought a deck of playing cards with him. I proceed through the interview and learn he’s an aspiring magician, and that’s cool he has something he’s passionate about. At one point he flat out asks me if once he’s learned how to make pizzas if instead, he could just do magic tricks for the customers. I said no and immediately ended the interview.
Image source: fistymd
#35
This is by far the weirdest interview I have ever experienced which also made me wonder what do you do when your interviewer is crossing the line
I was being interviewed for a graphic design position at very well known tradie servicing company
I applied for the job the night before and the next day around 5pm I get a call from an unknown number. I thought for sure it was the company I had applied for the night before. I thought I’d answer and politely ask if I could call back tomorrow as I had to stay back and work on a urgent job. He said he would only be 5mins and then he would let me get back to it…he was not
During the phone interview he discovered that I lived around the corner from where he works and asked if I could come in right now for an interview. I said it’s currently 5pm and even though I live around the corner I’m currently at work which is 1h away. I suggested if he didn’t mind an after hours interview I could do the next day. He agreed
After a 30min phone interview I finally get off the phone and get back to work. He then proceeds to message my phone asking a few follow up questions which I found weird but went along with it and answered his follow up questions. First red flag
The next day I left work early in hopes of getting to this job interview on time but then it all goes down hill. He calls me mid way through me driving to his office and tells me he needs to change the meeting location to a suburb I wasn’t familiar with. I informed him that if he changed the location this would effect the time I meet him. He agreed and I asked him to send me the new address. I figured he was doing me a favour by meeting me after hours so I should go with it.
He sends through the address and I put it into Google Maps only to discover it was a McDonald’s. Second red flag
Traffic was terrible that day making it such a mission to get to this guy. After 2h of hell I finally made it. Mind you, throughout all of this he is still calling and messaging me
I let him know I’ve made it and go inside and wait. I’m waiting a good 10mins and he finally shows up but he isn’t alone. He brought his kid to my interview @ McDonald’s, because sure why the hell not. I was already weirded out by having my interview at McDonald’s and then him bringing his kid along just made it even weirder. All alarm bells are ringing at this point. I needed to get away from this guy
He tells me to stay put as he orders a Happy Meal for his kid and then proceeds to sit down infront of me with his kid on his lap whilst his kid ate some McDonald’s
It was really hard to take him seriously and answer questions as professionally as I can. He was also on his phone and taking calls during my interview and I was just so taken aback. I find out he was actually the CEO of the company which made it even more messed up
During our interview we find out we had a mutual friend. I didn’t think much of it at the time but it will later haunt me. He was also pretty keen to talk to my current boss but I had told him my boss doesn’t know I’m looking but please call these references instead
The interview ends and I’m already thinking to myself no way am I accepting his job, I knew this guy wanted me though but I didn’t want him. Didn’t want to deal with that crazy
The next day I find out he started to call and harass our mutual friend for more information on me when I hadn’t given him permission to do so nor had I put my friend as a point of contact. This made me very uncomfortable because there was nothing stopping him from calling up my work place and asking to speak with my boss
He does call one of my approved references though which was my creative director but was actually trying to organise a deal between him and my work place. He wanted to utilise my position to his advantage which really pissed me off. He wanted me to work at my current job 2 days a week and then work for him 3 days a week. My creative director went along with it too which made me more angry!!
Either way, I thought this guy was messed up and I decline his job offer. He then asked me to work for him on weekends and I said no
I thought that was the end of it but nooooo, it wasn’t. He then organises a meeting with my creative director AND my boss and comes into my office
I was unfortunately the closest to the door so would always greet people. When I saw his face I was so bloody cold to him. I couldn’t believe he crossed the line and came into my work place and I couldn’t believe my creative director even allowed it! Either way, he became a client of ours and we all started doing work for him. everyone referred to him as my ‘mate’ and my creative director told me my boss knows I’m looking for a job thanks to this guy. I refused to do work for this guy because it was just so bloody weird and messed up. I felt sick to my stomach and was so stressed out
Get this, my creative director also got a bonus for getting him on board which made me even angrier and more of a reason to leave that God d**n place. What a unethical way to get a client
He was truely a disgusting human who used me to his advantage and I didn’t even work for him. Just had an interview. Even though I’ve moved on since then that really has haunted me and makes me angry that I couldn’t do anything when he was being really unprofessional.
Image source: anon
#36
Interviewee here, but it wouldn’t surprise me if I was the worst for this interviewer.
I had moved to a new city/state about 3 weeks before. Prior to moving I hadn’t spent a lot of time in the area, I moved because my family had moved here after I graduated high school and I needed a place after I screwed up college.
This is my first interview in my new city. I am all prepared and since this is early 2000s, I even had directions printed from Mapquest! But I don’t have a cell phone or GPS in my car.
I head out to the interview and it says to turn on this street. But I can’t find the street. I go home, call, ask for directions and basically told the last 2 or 3 blocks (which is not where I was lost.) I head back out and try again. I am driving up and down the main street, even back tracking and measuring distance to match up the street and while there is a street here (a major one) the street name wasn’t right at all.
I finally went home, now very late, and called saying I was lost and had just moved here and I needed directions from this point. Turned out the interviewer didn’t know either, they had to find another employee to give me directions (which basically was “the street changes names at that intersection, that is why the distance was right and the name wrong”)
10 minutes later, I an there but a total mess at this point and an hour late. I walk in and introduce myself. The interviewer came out, looked me up and down and told me there was no chance for the interview because I was so late and they had other people. No, they couldn’t reschedule, if it had mattered that much to me I should have been there on time.
Looking back now, I get it. It was an entry level job and I am sure they had a dozen or more interviews, none of whom were an hour late or calling for directions. I totally screwed it up and now I can laugh at myself. But at 20 and trying to prove I wasn’t a total screw up, this was another nail in a coffin filled with them.
Image source: nonameplanner
#37
Not my story, but worth sharing. A coworker of mine went to an interview, and when he came back he told us how well it went. He repeated that, when asked what would be the first thing he’d do on his first day, his response was, “well, I’d clock in.” Other coworker and I were baffled he thought that was a good answer and both agreed it was very unlikely he’d get the job.
He didn’t get the job.
Image source: caterjaysavanjon
#38
Guy had a finger puppet f****h. I was helping interview for a restaurant I was working at. He asked if he could bring finger puppets to the tables. Yeah, he didn’t get a job. But he also didn’t bring a pen to fill out the application so that was my first red flag.
Image source: anon
#39
Had an interview no-show during peak season. Dude showed up, I asked if he was so-and-so, and he said “yeah”. Aside from mostly grunting like a cave-man, he had an odor that caused me to condense the interview I to a few short and sweet questions.
Turns out the no-show actually rescheduled for later that day and I missed the memo.
Never found out who that guy was or how he got into the office.
Image source: BigPterodactyl, freepik
#40
I sat in on an interview that was awkward on BOTH sides.
The woman had indicated on her application that she’d had a misdemeanor. My boss asked about it at the end of the interview, and she said she’d gotten a DUI charge a few years back, in college. He asked her a few follow-up questions about it: how much she’d been drinking, if she still drank, WHAT she drank. She eventually just figured f**k it, I guess, and gave us all the dirty details about how she’d just walked in on her boyfriend f*****g her sister and how it led to her kind of losing it in a bar downtown.
I spent a lot of time pretending to be interested in reading her cover sheet.
Image source: anon
#41
I’m a reporter. I’m also autistic.
I have a couple where those two things have interacted in some…fun…ways.
For example: I had one interview where I finished talking to a lady and was shutting off my recorder when she took it upon herself to give me some unsolicited advice (“Now you did a very good job, but you should make more eye contact”) with no indication that she had ever been a reporter or anything of the sort.
I just said “Ma’am, I have autism” and left.
Image source: anon, katemangostar
#42
Dude got so worked up that he couldn’t divide 15 by 2. He just froze. I usually love running interviews. I did not love running that one.
Image source: unrequitedlove58
#43
Not my story. But a former employer of my brother had the best story ever.
Guy came into the building inquiring about openings. It was a medical records data entry type place, so some entry level positions usually open. They asked the guy if he had a resume. He said no. They told him to drop one off or email it in and they’d set up an interview.
The next day the guy is back. He has a sheet of paper in his hands that was clearly printed from Notepad (default font and everything). The paper is entirely blank except the top left corner which says:
“I work at century lonk”
My brother and I joke to this day about working at century lonk.
Image source: B_Huij
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