Applying for a job can be stressful, since most of us actually want to work at a place that has the best pay and benefits. Naturally, it simply stands to reason that the better the job, the more stringent the requirements. Most folks would look at that and think, ok, I need to educate myself and build up some experience, but there are a select few who just see them as guidelines.
Someone asked “Interviewer, what was the worst applicant you have ever interviewed?” and HR specialists shared their horror stories. So get comfortable as you scroll through, upvote your favorites and be sure to share your own tales in the comments.
#1
Had a guy s**t himself because he got sick the morning of the interview and was giving it his all. Helped him with onsite gym to clean up and had his wife come get him. Interviewed him a week later out of pity and he showed up and was hired on the spot. He got my job when I left the company a few years later.
Image credits: jaugernatofass
#2
The applicant was rude and dismissive when I went to meet him in the lobby! I think he assumed I was the receptionist.
He did not get the job.
N.B. Being rude to the receptionist is also not okay.
Image credits: Killer_leuttece
#3
The worst one my wife's told me when she was interviewing someone for a sandwich place was three questions one after another that the interviewee couldn't have made themselves seem dodgier.
Q. "If I get hired can I get an advance on my first months pay?"
A. "No sorry, that's not something we're allowed to do"
Q. "Ah ok... Will I be doing cash drops at night from the safe?"
A " No, only supervisors have access to the safes"
Q "Will I be working on the till?".
Image credits: Daedalus_0_
#4
To the guy working at American TV and Appliance in Appleton, WI on August 9th, 1993, I think I may have been your worst. I was 21 and my mother had passed away two days previously, quite unexpectedly. I have no idea wtf I was doing going in for a job interview that day. I remember I did not stop crying for one minute, and the look on your poor awkward lower management face still haunts me to this day.
I am truly sorry.
#5
O I got this one
B2B Sales Position when I was interim sales manager. Guy comes in with colored spiked hair, wearing ripped jeans with his Baby Mama and his crying baby...yes...but wait no its gets better.
Guy arrives 30 minutes late as well! I was on the call with a customer so I was busy and wasn't that inclined to interview someone who was late and showed up dressing unprofessional.
As the guy is waiting for me he tells the secretary he has to go cash a check and get his baby some milk...
I finally come out and ask the secretary where he is, she informs me he left to go cash his check and buy his baby some milk...and I'm like "wow"
I go back into my office
an hour and half later he comes back, I'm in a meeting with the GM he's told to wait. Keep in mind by this point
* He's brought his baby with him to an interview
* He's brought his girlfriend with him to the interview
* He arrived 30 minutes late
* He left to go buy his baby some milk & cash a check
* He's now 2 hours later
* He's unprofessionally dressed for a B2B sales job interview
* He's unprofessional to our sectary as well in regrads to his comments and behavior
But it gets better
I come out and greet him and the first thing he says to me "My time is valuable, I don't like waiting for you" and I'm standing there in shock...and I go excuse me? He says "I'm here for the interview, and my time is valuable and your constantly too busy to talk to me...lets get this interview over with so I can start" and I'm like "Wow"
So I smile and say "Well I got great news, the interview is over we won't be moving forward with your application"
He protests, I ask "Did you even bring a resume?" He said "No" and I'm like "Alright our interview is over, good bye"
I was amazed, my secretary said he stood there for like 5 minutes just staring into space wondering wtf just happened to him. When his girlfriend stood up and asked the sectary "Does that mean we aren't going hire him?" and the sectary said "I believe so"
He left after that.
Image credits: sting2018
#6
I was filling a truck driver position for a construction company. Guy came in for an interview. He didn't have a drivers license.
Image credits: Ascarea
#7
A female applying for a professional career position came to the interview in a "Minnie Mouse" outfit. When asked about it, she said she was going to a party after and was worried she wouldn't have time to change.
We gave her PLENTY of time to change...
Image credits: anon
#8
Had an older guy in his 40s show up ten minutes late, answer the phone after introducing himself, and proceed to yell at his mother for 15 minutes while I was standing there waiting on him to finish. “Ma, I’m at work, I’ll call you back! Shut up ma, I’ll call you back!” ....and so on.
Then once he finally sits down I realize he is hammered drunk. Face is cherry red, he is sweating, and the unmistakable smell of booze on his body odor and breath.
He told me he would be a store manager one day, I just humored him since I had time to k*ll. Weirdest interview I’ve ever experienced, but also the worst.
Image credits: King_Rhymer
#9
Not me, but a very close friend - interviews a guy for an engineering management position. The applicant spoke in third person the entire interview. “Bruce excels at....” and “Bruce has experience in....” and “Bruce thinks this position sounds promising.” I’m making up these examples but the dude was totally serious.
Image credits: DonutsAndDopamine
#10
Had a young woman interview to be a cashier.
She was chewing gum, which was already not great to me. (Not a game changer, but, who doesn't know better these days?)
She then proceeded to give me her work history. She was currently working her first job of three weeks, but couldn't get good transportation to the town over. Before that she volunteered some place for a *week* before she quit because she couldn't get rides. She claimed this job was closer, and that she could quit tomorrow and come here. Red flag for questionable dependability, but I could look past it, since I'm a softie.
But the final nail in the coffin was when I asked: "What is your weakness?" I always try to make it a joke about "oh you always get this one in an interview" to kind of ease tension. This chick says, and I quote:
"My weakness is customer service."
Honey, you're interviewing for the *CUSTOMER SERVICE DEPARTMENT.*
I have hired about 80% of people I interview. I just can't look past "My weakness is the only qualification I need to get this job.".
Image credits: anon
#11
Guy comes in for an interview for an entry level software development position. He's fresh out of college, just like we were looking for.
Apart from some alarmingly bad breath, the interview itself was going just a bit below average. He seemed a little slower than other applicants, but what really k*lled it happened about 30 minutes into the interview, when we were interrupted by the receptionist.
Apparently someone had double parked their Subaru Outback in two very clearly labeled Motorcycle spots out in front of the building. These short, narrow spots are not at all long enough to hold a car, and he was literally blocking in someone's jeep. The owner of said jeep, was trying to get to the hospital for a family emergency of some kind, and everyone in the company had been running around looking for the owner of the Outback to get them to f*****g move. Of course it was the dumb-as-bricks interviewee.
#12
Had a friend who interviewed someone for their residency at a hospital. A few minutes in the applicant let out a super loud long fart but didn't say anything. He said him and the whole interview panel all just sat there awkwardly for a minute before a co-worker asked another question and they all basically just pretended it didn't happen.
Image credits: mizerybiscuits
#13
I've got a good one. It's long but bear with me.
So a couple of years ago when I was managing a pub, I interviewed a lovely girl and it was all going great-loads of experience, seemed smiley and chipper in general, just what we needed-until we got to discussing shift patterns and hours requirements.
This girl was a student so she just wanted part time hours. Great, she could fill in our busy periods at the weekends, I thought, but she actually wanted Monday to Wednesday shifts preferably in the daytime. WTF! I closed my diary and said unless she can give us one weekend night and one weekend day shift then we can't proceed as this is a city centre pub and those are our busy periods.
Out of the blue, her personality completely changed and she flipped her lid at me, saying I was exploiting students and that a large part of going to Uni was having a social life, which I wouldn't understand. She said that I was just another corrupt manager taking advantage of young people and the reason I worked in a pub was because no one would hire me because I was too stupid and didn't have an education like her.
Now I'm used to dealing with drunk, angry people so a whiny, 20 year old wouldn't normally touch the sides but she'd touched a nerve and I was fuming. I stood up and roared "How dare you? I have a Russell Group education which I notice you do not and I choose to work here because I normally enjoy it. Now GET THE F**K OUT!" Off she went, tail between her legs.
This wasn't the end of it though, oh no.
A couple of weeks later, we'd had a really busy Saturday night so I decided to take my guys out for a post-work pint. They 'd worked hard, they deserved it. Who should be working in the bar we went to but Weekday Only girl-on a Saturday night at 1.30am no less. She saw me and was clearly uncomfortable with my presence but she avoided me so all cool. A couple of rounds in though, I was at the bar and I saw WDO girl turn to the Manager, talking frantically and pointing in my direction. She was really worked up about something.
It's a good time to point out that on our little strip of pubs, bars and restaurants, all the Managers know each other, talk to each other and are very supportive in general. It's a lovely community.
So the Manager finishes what he was doing and goes back of house with WDO. Not long after, she emerges, in tears, with her coat and bag in hand and is escorted off the bar. As she walks past me she picks up a full pint and chucks it in my face and screams that I'm a f*****g b***h. I'm stunned but she leaves and I attempt to dry myself off. As I'm doing so, the Manager explained to me that she had gone to him saying that she'd seen me selling d***s in the toilets and that I'd threatened her with a beating if she told the doormen or Manager, and that I should be removed and barred. He'd taken her off the bar, tore her a new one and sacked her on the spot.
Needless to say we both spent the next couple of week's making sure no one in the area hired this girl. Interestingly two of those places had already trialed her and thought she was lovely like I did.
What a psycho!
#14
I used to work for a very large animation studio, and we would hire quite a few animators / illustrators (to train up to be animators). We would always get hundreds of applicants and as I was one of the TD's I would be roped in to do interviews. All I was interested in was seeing raw talent and motivation. We were hiring for a couple of junior positions and so these qualities really were the most important as most of the junior's resumés are going to be pretty thin on experience.
This one girl comes in and she is currently working for a small animation studio that I used to work at (which was a nightmare environment so she already had my sympathy and respect for lasting so long), so she had already pinned herself to the in-tray a bit. She talked a really good game; she was young but really motivated and had learned in some good colleges and had (as far as I could tell) done some of the crappier jobs in production / animation.
At the end I like to look through their folio and showreel to see what they have done (again, I usually see a lot of college work or personal work and some light corporate and promotion animation work) and get them to talk me through it. This girl opens the folio and talks through her (strong) college work and then the next few pieces are *my work*, work that I had done at the company she is now at. I went very quiet, and my interview partner (another TD) was like: 'what's up?' so I said: 'I used to work for ***** and this is my f*****g work.'
She went bright, bright red and then burst into tears. She hated the company and (apparently) I was a bit of a legend after leaving (HTF did that happen?!) and she felt she was always working under my shadow and all she ever worked on was crappy wire removal or matte cleanup. I gave her a long lecture about plagiarism and using someone else's work as your own.
You know, even with all that, she did *have* talent and I liked her route to where she was now. So we gave her a second chance.
She got one of the spots. Still there and we keep in touch!
Image credits: mrshev
#15
CV looked pretty decent for someone applying for a senior software engineer role - showed years of experience in all the various bits of technology we used. One or two spelling errors, but nothing that stood out as alarms.
Candidate shows up 30 minutes late to the interview (I'll let this slide, we give a bit of allowance lest things overrun). Could not really communicate in English. When asked about his experience using a specific tool said he had never heard of it before, and when asked why it appears on his CV replied "the recruiter told me to put it there". Turns out the recruiter had basically edited the candidate's CV almost entirely.
What was scheduled to be a 90 minute interview lasted 10. The recruiter got a bollocking too.
#16
Had a guy spend a whole hour talking about how his last job was out to get him and the owner covered it up. And it was a large financial institution that he was a super high up in and now they have blacklisted him and he can't find work anywhere and he can't get out of bed and do his normal routine until he smokes himself out. And he was too nervous for the interview so he had to smoke in order to drive to the interview to calm his nerves. He asked how we thought he did and I told him the Second step was a d**g test, so not so well.
Image credits: berandom1984
#17
I was conducting a phone interview with a candidate applying for a role as a prison officer.
Me: "Tell me Daniel, what made you decide to leave the army?".
Him: "I was dishonourably discharged."
Me: "Could you tell me more about that?"
Him: "I was sent to army prison."
Now to explain, it takes a special type of person to be a prison officer; tough, strong and with a lot of situational awareness. It can actually benefit a candidate to have come from a tough background and minor offences might actually make someone more aware and capable in this type of job. Obviously you need someone to be honest, but unlike many roles, a small criminal record is not a rule breaker in this case.
Me: "I understand. For this role, there may be types of offences which are permissible. Would you be able to tell me the nature of the offence?"
Him: "I can't."
Me: "If you don't disclose the offence to me, I can't put you forward. If you do then I can note the offence and there's a chance you can still proceed in this role."
Him: "I can't tell you."
Me: "Are you sure?"
Him: "I can't tell you."
Me: "Ok. Thanks for your time."
At that point I was curious as to what exactly happened in the army and the fact that he didn't tell me made me think it was serious but I guess I'll never know.
Lighter Story:
For manual jobs we required all candidates to do the Manual Aptitude Test. This means that they must demonstrate safe lifting techniques, basic awareness of safety codes etc.
During one MAT a candidate was instructed to lift an empty cardboard box but pretend it was heavy. (Bend at the knees not at the back etc.)
He proceeded to moan and groan under the weight of the 'heavy' box and heaved it up slowly. He got the job.
#18
So hard to pick one...
Maybe the internal candidate who showed up drunk?
Maybe the person who asked me to remind him what job he was interviewing for?
Or maybe the person who spend the entire 30 minutes of the phone pre-screen telling me how much he needs the job. Did not get to the first question.
This is for a professional position at a large engineering company.
Image credits: inky5ingers
#19
Guy was applying for a mid-level web developer position. he had made it past the resume filters, and a 5-minute initial phone screen with HR and an executive. Now we're inviting him out to lunch to get a sense of his skill level, which will probably be the final round of interviews.
Turns out he has a couple of challenges... he has never owned a computer, and doesn't know how to write programs. But he HAS completed an "Intro to HTML" course at community college, and assures us he's a fast learner.
Also, he's not sure whether we would want him to quit his other job - he's currently a full time ice-cream truck driver. Do we anticipate a conflict? If so, he's willing to give us the majority of his professional attention, and also a limited amount of free ice cream.
Oh, and one other thing, he lives in a different city, 200 miles away, and cannot relocate due to a custody agreement. But he can't be making that drive every day, so would it be alright if he moved in with one of us (me, the senior developer, or the 22-year old junior designer girl)- just during the week, obviously not on weekends.
Image credits: anon
#20
I worked at a smaller law firm and was in charge of interviewing for staff. One gal said she hated lawyers. She was applying to work directly for lawyers.
A poorly timed lawyer joke I could forgive and maybe appreciate, but if you are going to torpedo your chances that hard, I don't even know what to say other than good luck elsewhere.
Image credits: my_name_is_gato
#21
Me and a good friend of mine from college will often interview someone together as at the company we work at, I'm in charge of IT and he's in charge of productivity. The job itself was for an entry level helpdesk position. The guy had a decent enough resume (went to a good school, had a portfolio, good employment history, etc), so we decided to bring him in
But before that, me and my friend are going over some last minute ideas for questions to ask when his my friend's secretary bursts in. She tells us that the guy sitting out in the lobby waiting for the interview was someone who was being kind of creepy and staring and smiling at her. And not the "Hi, you look nice" smile, I'm talking "Hey baby, dtf?" smile. It was the guy we were going to interview
So I told her to let him in and literally his first words out of his mouth are "Pssh if you've got dimes like that all over this office, I don't know how I'm gonna contain myself". We looked at each other with a "You thinking what I'm thinking?" expression and made him leave the building.
#22
Applicant looked presentable. White teefs and French cuffed shirt.
Then he entered the room
He smelled like s**t.
It was if someone had been collecting the s***s people take at Taco Bell and the portable bathrooms used in marathons, for the past 10 years. Then liquified it to form this mans cologne.
The smell that overcame my interviewing partner and I was enough to render my a**s shut in utter fear.
He was asked kindly to leave. Interviews were done for the day.
Image credits: anon
#23
Started asking a guy some questions about software he had listed on his resume. He fumbles two questions and then says “I probably should remove that from my resume”. Yeah. You should.
Image credits: MightyGorilla
#24
Middle aged professional woman who was a secretary at a large law firm. She was looking for part time work in customer service. She was educated, had a great job history and had a fantastic resume. If anything, she was over qualified.
We were required to ask certain questions. In this case, I asked her "Are there any people that you have trouble working with?" The correct answer is "no, I get along with everyone." Her response -- "Indians and Chinese people."
I was baffled. One - really? Two - Our CEO was Indian and our HQ was in China. Three - still really? Needless to say, I didn't hire her.
#25
I was doing technical interviews. Candidate gets dropped off at my office by previous interviewer. I'm newish to the interviewing game, so my first question is kind of medium hard.
He smiles nervously, "I don't know."
Okay, that's cool, I'd rather that than BS. I ask the next question, a bit easier.
Smile, "I don't know."
Uhhhh, okay. I pull up a basic trouble ticket, explain the problem.
"How would you go about fixing that?"
"I don't know."
I then ask him a question which he was nominally certified to know.
"I don't know."
At that point I was out of questions. I had planned for a 45 minute interview, but "I don't know" doesn't take a long time to say, and is hard to follow up on. Meanwhile my boss messages me, asking how the interview is going. I tell him "not well". He shows up at my door about twenty seconds later, pulls me out into hallway, and tells me that I confirmed the last interviewers experience. Then he took the candidate away, and sent him home.
Perfectly nice person, but seemingly devoid of any knowledge of computers, as far as we could tell.
#26
Interviewing for a technical contract role at a bank. The applicant had an IT degree and Masters in Finance, so looked pretty good on paper. Going through the interview he was okay, nothing fantastic, but honestly we weren't fussy, just needed a lot of seats filled quickly and would get rid of the incapables once they were on the job.
At the end of the interview, did the usual, do you have any questions? He did, he wanted to know why banks charge interest on loans, and seemed genuinely shocked that it was a source of revenue, then he also wanted to discuss bank fees and pulled out his personal bank statement. It seemed like he applied, and attended the interview rather then call or go to a branch for his banking questions.
#27
Once got this closing question for an on site engineer role.
"Do you d**g test?"
Yes, it's industry standard.
"I think I'll just leave it then mate".
#28
Was interviewing to hire an accountant. This one guy, I don’t know if it was just nerves or not, but my first question after telling him about the company/role was “so tell me about your experience and which aspects you think would help you in this role.”
He responded “it’s all in my CV.”
I tried to push him a bit by explaining I’ve read the CV but I want to hear his take on it so I can get a feel for his communication skills, how he thinks, etc.
“I can’t give you any more information than what’s already there.”
I tried a few more questions, all of which were responded by picking up his CV and reading from it.
Awkward AF.
Image credits: Gavtek
#29
So we were really short on help, and the office decided to take over the hiring process from the GM (me) and just start hiring anybody who applied online. Basically their first day was their interview. This girl came in, didn't seem too bright but hey, I needed help.
We were short staffed that morning and I really didn't have any time to train her, so I did the best I could and just had her follow me around while I explained what I was doing. About an hour and a half into this, a group of men and women who looked to be in their late teens (same as the new hire) walked in. I went to the front counter and asked how I could help them and they said that they needed to look at the menu, so I went back to making food.
It quickly became apparent that they all knew this girl. They were looking at her, whispering and laughing together. I'm still just explaining to her what I'm doing when she wanders off towards the front. Figure ok whatever some friends came to see her at her new job, I'll just let her get it over with then get back to training.
Next thing I know I hear some scuffling, look up, and one of the girls that came in has this girl in a headlock. She took her to the ground and by the time I got there she'd lost her top somehow, tits swinging as wildly as her fists. I made an attempt to break it up, realized I would literally have to wrestle a topless teenaged girl to do so, and called the cops.
#30
I suppose that would be me at 18 years old. While applying for some low level office job to pay for college, I was asked "describe a weakness that you have?". Being naive as I was then, I answered that I tend to procrastinate and have to force myself to begin important tasks. Once I start, it goes like a breeze. It was a perfectly honest answer, but I could immediately see the horror in the interviewers eyes and I knew that I wouldn't get the job. I also learned something important: never tell the truth in job interviews where any blemish could be placed on your character. I have been lying successfully ever since.
#31
I'm the manager for an escape room. He made it past the sit-down interview stage mostly because we were desperate and we moved him onto the training portion. However, if you can't do training well, we don't keep you on because you usually work unsupervised (so it's essentially an extended technical interview period). Dude's training went horribly, when you told him he made a mistake he either looked confused and said he couldn't possibly have done it, or outright argued that he had done it correctly and that you were wrong. Sent him an email saying thank you, but he wasn't quite suited to the position and we wouldn't continue his training. He emailed back saying "thank you, but I am suited to the position and I know I'm a good employee so I'll see you for training tomorrow at the scheduled time," to which we responded in no uncertain terms that he was not welcome back on the premises ever. We kept the office closed the next day, don't know if he showed up or not, but we thankfully haven't heard from him since.
#32
I was really surprised when interviewing how many people didn’t show up.
The worst though was a guy who did show up. Two hours late. Really expected me to interview him too.
Edit, I tried to ask why he was so late. Maybe he had a good reason. Nope. He worked late the night before.
Image credits: frankers1998
#33
It was my manager doing the interviewing, but a guy comes in who has clearly not showered, wearing a dirty T-shirt, a clashing pair of pajama/lounge pants, ratty sneakers, and no socks. You could *smell* him walking by. This was a store where our dress code was dress pants and shirt, black dress shoes, black socks. He went in the office, and was back out in 2 minutes. Manager told me he only asked him "Is this how you plan to appear if hired?" The guy reacted confused, and he told him "Never mind, thanks for coming in." On his way out, he asked if he had the job, to which the manager says "I'll let you know."
His application and resume were in the shredder before his ride backed out of the parking spot.
#34
I interviewed a guy for a teaching position. Seemed like a good guy on paper. Said all the right things in the interview until he asked me my race. FTR I’m light skinned but middle eastern. His response? [summarizing from what I remember] “Oh I love dating women from that region. They don’t sleep around as much as American girls.” I guess he thought he and I were on the same page. My response was “I was raised very liberal”. The interview went downhill from there.
#35
I actually interviewed a friend once. It was a disaster. I was working in a customer service department and was the hiring manager. A good friend of mine was applying for a job as a telephone service rep. The position involved handling a lot of customer complaints. One of the interview questions was to describe his worst experience with a customer and then tell what action he took. He said he used to work in a department store. One day a customer started giving him a really hard time about a return. The customer started yelling and would not let up. I asked my friend how he handled it and he told me he told the guy to f@#$ off. My friend did not get the job...
#36
- When asked something like “Tell us of an example of great responsibility a manager gave to you, and how you handled it”. The response was “They put me in charge of the cash register and even though I had to fight the temptation every day, I never stole anything from it”.
Image credits: anon
#37
I was a recruiter a few years ago (_never again_). I was doing a pre-interview of sorts with a 45-50y/o woman at my office for a position with a client, and she had a gap in her resume a couple years prior. I asked about it thinking she was either unemployed at the time or that maybe she was omitting something, not at all expecting her to be honest if the latter were true. But no, she exceeded expectations.
Told me she _used to work_ at the company I was interviewing her for, and that she was _escorted out by security_ for _punching one of her coworkers_. So she thought it’d look bad to leave that on there and preferred I’d leave it off upon submittal. I remember not knowing if I should laugh at her joke or end the interview but when she never “lol jkkkkk!”-ed me, I wrapped things up real quick.
She called me a week later asking if there was any feedback and if the client would like to schedule a phone call.
#38
I was a supervisor at a cinema and had a hand in the recruitment process. It was a pretty chilled process really: group assessments with team activities and whatnot, you were only applying to sell popcorn and take s**t from customers who can't read websites so it was mostly your personality that we cared about. The GM basically trusted us to hire good staff because he knew we'd be working with them the most and wouldn't want to hire idiots.
One guy during a written part of the assessment (few customer-based scenario questions) beckoned me over and asked if he could have a new pen because his wasn't working. He was holding the notepad upright so the ink wasn't flowing through the pen, so I had to tell him to put the paper on his lap. A minute or so later he calls me over again, this time the pen is in pieces on the floor because he dropped it and then stood on it while attempting to pick it up.
Look, you don't need to be a genius to work in a cinema, but if you can't use a biro without several issues arising...
#39
Had a guy apply and came to the interview very nervous. We had to take an ex girlfriend of his off the panel to avoid any conflict. Didn't interview well. Told him he never got the job mainly due to having to do a lot of talks, presentations and his nervous demeanour led us to believe he would struggle.
He then goes to a party at the weekend and tells everyone we never gave him the job because we had his ex interview him. Two of my employees believe him who are at said party and come steaming in on Monday demanding I apologise. I am off that day so they go above my head to a Board Member.
A statement is written and it is sent around the rest of the Board and all employees letting them know what happens. His ex and I return to work the next day. 85 unread emails and am rushed into a meeting. Lots of ranting for 10 minutes and they demand an answer.
"I was removed from the panel for that person to avoid a conflict of interest. He wasn't chosen due to his poor interview."
Cue everyone realising he was talking s**t. What a knob.
#40
Around a year ago, interviewing for an inbound contact centre. At the end of a terrible ten minute interview (supposed to be half an hour) I asked why they wanted to work with us.
"Well I only live two streets over so it's easy"
Any questions for us?
"What is your disciplinary procedure? Last few places were so f*****g strict"
Speechless.
#41
I’m a female engineering director and was interviewing a senior in college. He did okay in the interview. i was making small talk while walking him to our elevator, and I asked what classes he had left before he would graduate. He mentioned philosophy.
I told him I had found my philosophy courses very challenging. He immediately retorted, “Well, that’s because you don’t have good logic skills.”
I dinged him in the review meeting, but was overruled by a VP and had to deal with him for two years. Yuck.
#42
I was development lead recruiting for a small IT startup. we were in need for a junior software dev, around 2 years of experience, nothing fancy, we were willing to train, just basic experience required.
So this girl comes in, we didn't really want to call her for the interview as shed had 6 jobs in the last 2 years, but hey, maybe she finds her true path with us!
- "So, how what did you do in the first job?"
- "Ohh, we were doing a project for a bank, then the project closed."
- "Nice, what about the second?"
- "Well, we had a small project for a German company, but then they decided to forfeit it."
- "S**t happens. What about the third?"
- "It was a predetermined length contract and they did not want to renew it"
- "Ooooh, oook, what about the fourth one?"
- "It was a nice IT company, but I didn't get along with the colleagues"
- "Yeah, sometimes you can't; what about the fifth one?"
- "It was a short-term project which didn't take off."
- "Whoops, too bad, so what about the sixth?"
- "It was for a startup, but then the company got bankrupt."
While thinking that bringing her in the company would carry the bad luck to us, she places her purse on the edge of the table, the purse turns around and drops the whole content on the floor. Trying to keep the purse from falling, she manages to spill the coffee over the table.
So yeah, I tried to finish the interview as soon as possible, fearing that maybe she would cause some short-circuit, demolish the production server or somehow cause some flooding in the room.
Anyway, fast-forward 6 months, the company I was working in got bankrupt.
TL;DR: careful who you call for interview!
#43
Not me, but the place my mother worked at had an applicant looking to be a medical assistant. She couldn't read, didn't graduate high school, and when asked how old she was she replied "Well, I was born in 1950, so I'm 50 years old" or something along those lines. She didn't know how to take blood pressure or do literally anything medical but said she'd always dreamed of getting the job and prayed to God for it.
She got the job.
#44
Once interviewed someone over Skype video call.
First they were 20 minutes late and we had to have our office manager call them to remind them they had an interview.
When she finally called, she sounded like she just woke up and she was sitting in a dark room with the blinds closed.
Didn't show us any of her work, could barely answer our questions.
For all I know, we interviewed a vampire.
#45
I (27F) had an older man who was very well qualified for a position we were hiring for question why I, specifically someone as young as me was in charge of a warehouse this big. He laughed in my face when i told him I had experience and the good word from an internship in college.
He was also wearing a stained wife beater and a ripped hoodie. I would have happily given him the job if he could have kept his manners in check. Sexism and age discrimination is very real.
#46
Restaurant GM for years. Everyone got the same questions and it was scored. I gave the last questions and decided final yay or nay. This one young man came in and was a "professional" server. He worked around. The second to last question is a think on your feet question. "Pretend I have Coke in front of me, sell me that coke, go"
Him: Well first I would try to sell you a Margarita instead.
Me: Gret thinking but sell me the Coke
Him: Ok but I don't know why you wouldn't want me to sell you a more expensive Margarita.
Me: Again I get your thinking but sell me the coke.
Him: Aren't you a Margarita place, it makes the most sense?
ME: Ok next question
After the last question, I did not hesitate to say "I will not be offering you a job today". He knew and quickly said "It was the coke question huh? I replied yes, arguing with the interviewer even if it makes sense to you isn't a good idea.
A month later I was in a local chain restaurant that shared a mini-mall lot with other cookie cutter restaurants. It was my day off enjoying a burger and a beer at the Bar of Chili's. I knew the bartender and soon overheard a convo next to me. In the corner of my eye, I see it's a waiter from Olive Garden next door. Ryan, I will take a 20oz beer and a double shot of Jack. BT says, "getting off work?" No he says, I'm on break, working a double.
Yes, I turn to look and see it was Margarita boy and it all made sense.
TLDR: Thankfully I didn't hire a drunk.
#47
I was part of team who does the interviews. Job is in creating marketing campaigns. Girl comes in, chews gum and basically says she is a ballet dancer and she wants to do this job untill she finds a theater to play in. We don't give her the job and she actually calls her dad who comes in later and goes straight to our boss' office. She got the job, but luckily not in my team.
#48
Interviewing for a technical position, the candidate looked great on paper. But in person, he was just strange. For about a third of the questions -- which were technical, not personal -- he'd answer something like, "Hmm, I don't think I'm going to answer that." Not like he didn't know and was panicking; he was sitting back looking relaxed and rather superior, in fact. Almost like it was beneath him to tell us what he knew.
#49
In my old job at a cinema, management would let team members volunteer to help out with interviews. They were always group interviews of about 10 or so and there was this one girl. I've never met anyone so stupid.
She was late to the interview. During the icebreaker she was staring into space and when it was her turn she was still staring and finally says "is it me?" after about 10 seconds. She couldn't even name her favourite movie. She failed all the maths questions. Didn't put any effort into the group exercise. Just all around didn't seem interested
But here's the kicker. Despite insisting she was no good for the job she got hired anyway, and she was just as s**t as I expected. Always late for work, lazy, always daydreaming, slow serving customers, slow cleaning up. And she still has a job about 2 years later.
Once I was on a close with her and even though we weren't especially busy we got out 2 hours late because she kept stopping and I kept having to tell her what to do, and she would take forever to do it, do a bad job and I'd have to do it for her or it wouldn't get done. I went to management the next day and told them never to put me on a close with her again.
#50
I once had a girl interview for a retail apparel job. During the interview, I asked why she left her first job and she confidently told me she was fired for stealing. Job before that? You guessed it, fired for stealing. End of interview.
#51
I was Divisional FD at an energy company, division was about a hundred staff.
There was a round of interviews for engineer/project manager roles, really general roles, no real technical knowledge requirements, but you'd be dealing with engineers and construction people.
I got called into the process by the Director of that division just to make up the numbers, policy was that there needed to be one HR and 2 directors per interview, so far so massive waste of time.
The Construction director was throwing a bunch of nonsense questions at the canditates that they'd never have to actually deal with, job was p**s easy, no surprises in it, and I got all the soft "Give me an example of a time when you demonstrated X" questions.
For context I was approximately 30 at the time, and all the panel were much older than me and I was being VERY low key in the interviews. So as to allow the director they'd be working for to ask what he wanted.
There was a dude in his mid to late forties and I gave him my leadership and problem solving questions, which he answered like a prick, then I led into my standard, "what if someone internally wasnt providing you with information or support you required to do your job" and he gave an incredibly aggro answer about demanding it and standing at someone's desk until they provided it and not letting them leave until they gave it to him.
The answer really annoyed me and visibly shocked the other two interviewers, so I said " and what if it was me who wasn't providing you with this resource that you needed?" which was half giving him a chance to pull back and half a trap.
And he stood up so fast that his chair almost fell over, pointed his finger cms from my face and shouted "I'd explain to you how business works you little s**t!" and then he stormed out, forgetting his jacket in the room.
He never came back that day so we sent the jacket to the recruitment agency he came from by courier, the next morning I came in late and was told that he was escorted off the premises by our security guard because he had come in early and started shouting at the receptionist over his jacket.
If he hadnt have come in the next day and revealed that he was mental I'm sure there would have been blowback from my unprofessional interview style. As it was I got away scott free. HAHA.
TLDR; Candidate was a prick, so I was a prick, so he went mental and then turned up the next day and was escorted off the premises by security.
#52
After being asked a question that he didn’t know the answer to I had a guy yell “These are the dumbest f-ing questions I have ever heard” and storm out. He then went outside and glared at the interview team through the window.
#53
I was doing an initial contact before an interview with a kid who was looking to volunteer at a nonprofit I'm involved with. He mentioned that he was 14, and I informed him that we aren't able to accept volunteer applications from anyone under 16. He said "okay" and left it at that. Until he started sending incredibly inane questions, and seemed to have assumed he was accepted. For the last 3 months, he has been sending an average of three questions a week, despite repeated reminders that he's welcome to reapply when he turns 16. I suspect there's a screw loose somewhere.
#54
I ran a daycare. One woman came in with a shirt that said Psych Ward on it. Another brought her whole f*****g family- boyfriend, mother and two kids. We have a play area outside of the office and the other two adults disappeared while the kids were left playing on their own. She then wanted to leave the kids while she and the other adults went shopping since “they need to get used to it here”.
Another left a resume that only had c**p about her religion. Her “experience” said stuff like “Christian woman” and “helper to Christ”.
#55
Not the interviewer but when I was a corrections officer I saw a guy go in for an interview for CO at the beginning of my shift. At the end of my shift I was walking out and the same guy was in the booking cell now. Turns out he had active felony warrants.
#56
Wore flip flops. Picked at his toes the entire interview. When he left, we found toenail bits, that had been ripped off, on the floor.
#57
It was actually 2 applicants. I was interviewing for a graphic artist. The first applicant turned up, presented his portfolio (which was very good).. Hours go by with 6 or so more applicants and in walks a girl. She presents the very same portfolio, cover, engraving, everything. You would obviously think they would compare notes before doing this s**t.
#58
Witnessed the situation and shaky on details but this girl comes in t-shirt and if i remember correctly yoga pants. And of course she also was wearing crocs. None of this was even a deal breaker until she dropped a name of a former co worker of the same store who wasnt too popular. She publicly cheated on her bf with another employee and he was known for his open relationship with his wife. Apparently even though she knew he was married when she got into it she was hurt by it later. She was essentially a drama magnet and our manager wasnt about to hire another one.
#59
Guy with no manufacturing experience wanted to be a Team Leader. He had only driven a fork lift for a number of years. He was loosely in charge of five guys. He had zero regard for safety, was working on a “management” degree at a local tech school, but the only thing he really learned from it was “aces in their places.” He had no other experience to help him get the position.
He was a nice enough guy, so we said he could work for us in the warehouse, but couldn’t be a Team Leader without a lot more training. He declined, then applied for the Team Leader position two more times through temp agencies. We eventually told the temp agencies that we didn’t even want him in the plant.
#60
I'm not HR, but I do interviews for whoever is going to be in my team.
Guy 1- Told us he doesn't believe in Social Media and doesn't think it is an effective communication tool. Yeah, but he applied for a Social Media role.
Girl 2 - Profile looks great. Ivy league graduate, MBA from Harvard, etc. She would say things like "i graduated from Harvard, I shouldn't be doing this role or that role." very arrogant but whatever. Then she emailed us to ask how she did in the interview and wrote that she didn't do so well in the interview "because she forgot what role she applied for." ... not so bad in the whole scheme of things but - you would imagine a person who graduated from 2 ivy leagues to not be so dumb.
#61
I interviewed a woman for an administration role for the local police department. She was over an hour late and reeked of alcohol. She seemed disinterested and confused throughout the interview but the real kicker was when we got to one of the final questions.
We asked her to tell us about a time she’d made a mistake and what she’d learned from it. Her response was ‘I never make mistakes, I’m just that perfect’. We pressed her to think on it for a moment, hoping maybe being late to her interview was a readily available example but she insisted that she was too good to have ever made a single mistake. She then proceeded to send a follow up email complaining about how we’d told her the wrong interview time and it wasn’t fair that we said she was late. She’d been given written confirmation of the correct time a week prior.
#62
I was reviewing resumes for programmers in order to set up interviews and one guy sent in a "Video Resume."
It was literally just a word doc with the word "Link:" followed by a public Youtube video resume the guy (who was plenty qualified for the job based on job experience and school) made. In the video he walks around his garden and talks about his plants (fine, nothing wrong with hobbies). The next few scenes are from his living room and there is just dirty laundry *everywhere* behind him. Like piles of it along with dishes and food wrappers.
Uniqueness of the video resume aside, it was just very obvious he filmed everything on the first take and made no effort to make the video good.
Going through IT applicants can be a weird experience.
#63
I was interviewing applicants for a summer camp position, working with children and youth. We asked a young man a scenario question along the lines of, "at an event with the youth, a teenager that you've come to know approaches you and says they need to talk to you. They want to know if you will keep a secret for them. What do you do?"
The applicant answers, "I would definitely keep their secret, 100%." He was so proud of that answer, clearly thinking that he'd nailed it..... He did not. If you've ever worked with youth and children you likely know that you should never promise to keep a secret for them because you *have* to report some things, by law - abuse and the like.
Overall, he wasn't a terrible applicant. I just got a kick out of him so confidently giving a completely wrong answer to a question I didn't really think there was a wrong answer to.
#64
I inducted the temporary workers in the pharmaceutical factory I worked in.
Guy walks in, first question "you don't have too many foreigners working here do you?".
#65
I was interviewing for a secretary, with emphasis on reading phone scripts and word processing. The applicant asked me to read her application to her.
#66
Interviewing new graduates for a big oil company. This kid's arrogance was amazing and matched his 93% GPA. Told us if we hired him the company's stock would go way up. Our HR lady didnt like our roars of laughter at him as he left.
#67
We had an opening for a tester (software), and this guy comes experience testing some piece of hardware. Every question was basically answered him referring to this piece of hardware he tested.
How do you debug a software program....well, we had a problem with the chip in the hardware.
Can you describe the longest piece of code that you wrote....Well, I ran some code that tested the hardware and read the results.
Meanwhile, for every software program, he's drawing diagrams of this piece of hardware that means nothing to us and has no bearing on what we're doing. Completely different field, completely different job, but that didn't stop him.
Twenty minutes in, I had to ask him to never refer to that piece of hardware he tested again. He basically went through all stages of grief. First shock, then anger, then resignation, then confusion, and on and on in a manner of seconds. He literally didn't know how to answer any question after that. Not like, he didn't know the answer, but he mentally could not put together the right words to form a complete thought without that piece of hardware he tested as his crutch.
I felt sorry for him. He was an H1-B during the dot-com bust that was highly recommended (internal transfer after he got laid off), but the poor guy couldn't interview himself out of a paper bag. Of course, if you have an H1-B, you don't get a job, your gone - so we were pulling for him, but man, he sucked.
#68
I was a manager at a retail store hiring for seasonal. We would do those behavioral interviews, "Tell me about a time when you used team work to accomplish a goal," etc.
Had a guy sit for an interview and every example he gave me was something he had done within World of Warcraft.
