Interviews can be a tricky and some people are better at it than others. However, these interviews would make anyone cringe at just how awkward they truly were.
(Content has been edited for clarity.)
They Were A Bit TOO Ready To Show Off Their Strength
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“I interviewed for a florist position as a teenager. I’m quite small and so the owner kept telling me I’d struggle to lift the buckets filled with water and flowers.
He then gave me a tour and showed me the storeroom, and he told me to pick up a bucket to get an idea of how heavy it was.
Since he had kept going on about it, I severely overestimated how heavy the bucket would be and basically flung it above my head and drenched us both in icy water and flowers.
I didn’t get the job. I don’t think it was because of the bucket though. He told me he would arrange a trial for me the next week but seemed super spacey. He called me the wrong name about 5 times during the interview so I wouldn’t be surprised if he just…forgot he wanted to hire someone.”
They Had A Unique Audience During Their Interview
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“I interviewed at Domino’s when I was in high school.
I went in, and they said we’d do the interview at the picnic table behind the store…so we go out. Then as we start, everyone else working just came back and stood around watching the interview. There were zero pizzas attended to. It was definitely weird interviewing with an audience.
I didn’t get the job. I ended up working at the Arby’s across the street after a far more normal interview. Just me and the bearded female manager of the store. Got to eat a ton of ‘roast beef’ though so I enjoyed it.”
After This Rejection, He Vowed To Never Eat At This Crazy Restaurant Again
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“I was new to town and desperate for a job. I was born in a small town that didn’t get a Starbucks until about 2004 and we didn’t have a lot of fast food joints. My college was in a somewhat rural area for a college, so similar scenario.
So here I am in a ‘big city’ interviewing at Jimmy John’s. Everyone else applying is in a t-shirt and jeans. Some look pretty scrappy and have tattered clothes. I’m in khakis and a button up. The guy interviewing me isn’t even remotely warm or friendly. He’s about 40 and seems offended that I’m even sitting across from him in the little booth. His assistant beside him looks more bored than aggressive. He asks standard questions for a minute or so then asks me what my favorite Jimmy John’s sub is.
I flat out admit, ‘Sir, I’ve never had Jimmy John’s because there just aren’t anywhere I’ve ever been my whole life and I just moved here.’
‘That’s bullcrap, we have 3,000 locations in the country.’
Well, not in rural South Carolina, you jerk.
I didn’t get the job or even a callback. The interview was basically over at that point.
I’m currently in a city littered with Jimmy John’s. To this day, I won’t buy a dang thing from them because of that jerk. I used to live a five minute’s walk away from the one I interviewed at and would take the extra quarter mile for Subway or Five Guys.”
You Live And You Learn
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“I think my group interview was my worst and weirdest interview.
I was interviewing for a summer camp position. At this point, I was 29, and had 11 years experience working at camp, and two full summers of training as a teen. Add in my education minor and the other dozen jobs I’d had working with kids and I was overqualified for the job. This much was made clear in my first phone interview with the boss. The only question is if I was good enough for him to match the wages of the other camp I’d been offered a job at. I thought this new camp might be fun, because it was a beach camp, and I like doing different things.
The boss had explained to me, in the first interview and at the beginning of the massive group interview, that adults led different group activities, and the kids were allowed to wander between them as they liked. Despite this, the primary trial of our group interview was to lead a group activity, while the return employees played the part of kids (acting up and running away). We were expected to keep the activity going, all while dealing with each kid personally. This confused the heck out of me because it went exactly against everything he’d told us about how the camp actually runs. If I’m leading an activity and a kid acts up or wanders off, I should send a free adult after them and keep leading my activity.
I watched several people try, with varying levels of failure, to perfect this test of his. On my turn, I did no better. I thought, ‘Well, at least I figured out that camp director took too much sun to the head, and dodged a bullet,’ assuming I’d bombed the interview.
To my surprise, I got another call. He asked me how I thought the interview had gone. I was honest. ‘Terribly, actually. I had no idea what you wanted. What you asked for seems to contradict everything you’d just said, and I had no idea what to do. It was very confusing.’ He said that he’d gotten similar feedback from his returning employees, but that, despite my terrible group interview, if my resume was legit, he’d be willing to offer me what I told him the other camp was paying me, which was quite a lot for a summer camp job. What I hadn’t told him is that the salary at the other camp was including my wages for driving the camp bus four hours a day, so I was getting offered the same money to work an 8 hour day, instead of a 12 hour one. I took the job.
A few parts of that job were worth it. I loved leading beach nature walks and we got to play in the water every day. But there were awful parts. The boss liked to put the staff in made up sports competitions for the children’s entertainment, and the other staff was really rough. They actually hurt me a few times. Because I said in my interview that I was good as a ‘floater,’ — finding sad kids and getting them having fun — that became my job every day, which was awful. I think he wanted to see how many times I could get it assigned in a row before I broke. On the hot afternoons when I’d find worn out kids, and get them under a cabana, drinking water and listening to stories while they made lanyards, he’d decide to start some sport a few feet away from our cabana and had to use the microphone to announce the game. When my kids, who had headaches, had me ask him to announce without the PA, he refused.
Four weeks before the summer’s end, my school year job called and needed me to emergency fill-in to one of their two-week summer camp sessions (located just a mile away). I had to take the job if I still wanted to be employed the following fall. I asked my boss for those two weeks off, explaining the situation.
He thought about it for a night or two, and then told me no. He said he needed every employee until the final week, so he couldn’t give me those weeks off. I told him that it’s a shame he felt that way because he left me with no choice but to quit. Which I did, then and there.
The camp my school year job ran was amazing (RockSTAR, a lot like the movie School of Rock). I got to work with kids on music for hours a day for two weeks, and I’m still proud of those kids (I watch their performance video when I need a lift).
Looking back, I should have known from the interview how awful that beach camp job would be. I lived. I learned.”
This Manager Didn’t Like To Play Games
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“I was kept waiting for an hour because the department head was on a lunch break. The company scheduled the appointment, so this was not a good start. I was about to walk out when they called me in (nobody else was there but me).
‘Why do you want to work here?’ the hiring manager asked.
You can’t really say for the money so I said, ‘I like the work etc,’ and to close off I said, ‘I heard it was a fun place to work.’
‘Do you think this is a playground?’ she replied. ‘That you’ll be able to slack off?’ This went on for about a minute and she kept getting louder. I stood up, laughed and left. No wonder they are constantly looking for new people.”
They Treated The Interview Like An Audition
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“I went in and the company had decided to try out a new group interview process where we all had to act out a few scenes that involved customer service. I was there for nearly two hours waiting on everyone to finish…
This was for an $11 an hour cashier job.”
He Wanted To Know Some Seriously Inappropriate Information
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“This happened during a med-school interview…
Interviewer: ‘Tell me about your ideal woman.’
Me: ‘I start with personality, intelligence, and so on.’
Interview: ‘No, I mean physically.’
After that interview, I withdrew my application there.”
They Froze Up Under The Pressure
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“I studied a bunch of mock interview questions in preparation. I didn’t want to get caught off guard. At the interview, which was a small panel of three people, the main interviewer asked me to tell him about myself. I froze up and literally couldn’t say anything for about 20 seconds. My face got super hot and I was pretty close to a panic attack. Eventually I asked them if I could have a moment. I took a deep breath and then was able to talk again. They were really cool about it. I didn’t stand a chance at getting the job, though.”
When She Finally Showed Up, It Was Clear She Wanted To Be Anywhere But There
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“Once, I had an interview with a company the next town over for 2:30 on a Friday. I arrive by train at 1:55, and the building is close to the train station, so I’m there close to 2. I wait around a bit so I’m not too early and then I go in. The receptionist says the interviewer isn’t in the building right now and she asks if I mind waiting. I nod and say sure, seeing as how I’m early.
2:30 comes and goes as I glance at some of the company’s promotional materials in reception. At 2:45, the receptionist says she expects the interviewer back around 3:00. So I wait and read more in depth about this company in their internal magazines (because I don’t want to be browsing the net when the interviewer walks in the door). It’s 3:10 and there’s still no sign of the interviewer, and I’ve now read every promotional magazine in reception. Other people have also come in and interviewed for unrelated positions.
More than an hour after the interview, at 3:35, the receptionist comes by and apologizes for the hold-up. I ask where the interviewer is and the receptionist says she doesn’t know. The receptionist asks if I want to reschedule. I say no because I’ve already paid for the train ticket today and I’m unemployed, desperate, and broke, so buying a second train ticket isn’t really an option. Several of the people who came in for interviews have now left, including people who came after I did.
It’s now 4 and the last of the other candidates goes in. Finally, a man walks out shortly after the last candidate, looks at me, smiles, and then turns to the receptionist, saying he’s done for the day and will see her next weekend. I slouch back into my seat and return to browsing the internet, pretty much assured that I’m wasting my time now, but I’m honestly curious what will happen at 5:00.
I don’t find out. At 4:30, a harassed-looking woman walks into the reception area. She’s clearly very stressed and clearly has a lot on her mind. She doesn’t even notice me and walks into another room. The receptionist looks at me and says, ‘That’s your interviewer. I’ll let her know you’re here.’ I feign a smile, and watch her leave only to come back and tell me, ‘Give her ten minutes, and then she’ll see you.’
So, at 4:45 on a Friday afternoon, I’m ushered into a small side room with this one woman, where she asks basic questions, but it’s obvious she has no interest in interviewing and after more than three hours of waiting, I don’t really want to be there either. The whole interview, originally scheduled for an hour, lasts just fifteen minutes and gets me out just at 5, which was just in time for me to catch the rush hour trains.
Obviously, I did not get the job.”
His Answer To This Simple Question Made Both Of Them Pause
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“When I was 16, I brought my resume into a Boston Pizza. My plan was to politely give it to the hostess and leave, but it just so happened that the hiring manager was there that day. The hostess excitedly went to grab him from the back, and lucky me got to speak to him face to face. He introduced himself and told me what Boston Pizza was all about. Being a sports bar, he half-jokingly told me that all the staff had to be big sports fans to work there. Then the first and unfortunately last question he asked me is what my favorite team is. I panicked, (I thought, ‘What is sport?’) looked at the nearest TV monitor which was playing a basketball game and said, ‘Basketball.’ My dumb behind thought I had absolutely nailed the question, too, until he awkwardly smiled and thanked me for coming in. I didn’t realize what I had said until I was walking out, replaying the conversation in my head…”
This Interview Was A Waste Of Everybody’s Time
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“I was on JSA (unemployment benefit) and to avoid being sanctioned, I had to attend a job interview the job center had arranged for me. This does on the surface seem perfectly reasonable. Below is a rough transcript of that interview:
Interviewer: ‘Thank you for attending an interview here at Local Haulage Company. It is just a formality, but we do need to see your driver’s license.’
Me: ‘I do not have one.’
I: ‘Then why are you here. In my office, wasting my time?’
M: ‘The job center said if I miss the interview I will be sanctioned.’
I: ‘Why did they send you for a job you can’t legally do?’
M. ‘No idea, ask them. Will you sign this to prove I was here?’
Well, he did sign it. It turns out that they had me down as an HGV driver. Idiots.”
As Soon As Things Didn’t Go His Way, He Freaked
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“My worst interview experience was actually giving an interview. We had five phone interviews lined up back to back. For the last guy, we were scheduled to start at 11:00 am. We called him at 11:03 because the previous interview ran a bit late. The first thing we did was apologize for the delay since we knew how nervous some people can be if things can go off track.
He started berating us and our organization for not being on schedule. He then got very nervous and apologized for his behavior. He then started ranting about stuff that had nothing to do with anything we were asking. He then said he was giving a bad interview because we threw him off track by being late. We asked him three questions in total over the half hour. It was just him ranting.
We were hiring new grads. He had a 4.0 in Chemical Engineering.
From our point of view, if you can’t handle things being off schedule by three minutes, how are you going to handle everyday business when things never go perfectly according to plan?”
It Seemed Like Everyone Hated Her From The Moment She Walked In
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“I got an interview for another front office manager position at a hotel. I was pretty excited about it at the time.
The interview time was scheduled for 10 am and I walked in right around 9:35-9:40. I walked up to the receptionist, mentioned that I had an interview with Stacy, and told her my name. Then she asked me to go sit in the lobby and away I went to sit.
After 45 minutes passed, I walked back up to the reception desk and saw there was a new lady there. I figured maybe she didn’t know, so I mentioned who I was and I had an interview with Stacy at 10 am. The woman was completely standoffish and asked me to take a seat on a nearby bench. So I did.
Finally, she called out, ‘Stacy will see you now,’ and I was walked back and to Stacy’s office. ‘Robin is here for her interview.’ I thanked the lady who walked me in and greeted Stacy, shook her hand and took a seat.
‘You were scheduled yesterday at 11 am,’ Stacy told me.
‘My apologies, whoever called me told me to come at 10 am on Saturday morning.’ I replied, ‘But I am here now!’ I smiled nervously. Maybe there was a mix-up, I thought.
She didn’t seem very amused. She went over a resume in front of her and started asking me questions about something that I didn’t understand. I asked her to repeat herself and she did. My mind was still drawing a blank. I asked her to clarify, again. She was getting frustrated, so I apologized to her and said I have no idea what she’s talking about.
‘Amanda?’ Stacy asked, looking at me very annoyed.
I replied, ‘No, I am Robin.’
‘OHHHHHHH.’ Stacy exclaimed. ‘We had Amanda no-call, no-show for her interview at 11 am yesterday.’
That’s when I realized she had me wait over 40 minutes to be seen because she thought I was the no call, no show the day prior.
I mean, I explicitly mentioned who I was a couple of times. How does that even happen? If someone is scheduled for 10 am and shows up at 10 am, how do you confuse them for someone who was supposed to show up the day before?
At least the interview proceeded on a much more positive note after that.”
Her Interview Process Was Surprisingly Easy
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“Once I called to see if a place was hiring. It was a small business (pottery painting studio) and they called me back after a day or two and said they were and I could come in for an interview!
I got there and they started explaining what I’m going to be doing. One of the employees said, ‘Weird first day, huh?’ I was super confused but just went with it. They gave me some paperwork and I filled it out. Then they’re like, ‘Ok, let’s go to the event.’
Now, this was my first job ever and I was like, ‘Well this is weird but maybe it’s normal.’ So I got in the car and we drove to a church where there was a huge group of people painting goblets. I went around helping people and after a few hours, I went back to the shop and they gave me my schedule. I thanked them and left.
After working there for a few years (I ended up working there for seven total), I brought up how weird my hiring was to my boss because I was never actually interviewed. She looked confused and said, ‘What? No, we did…’ And I kept telling her no. She insisted she had and remembered ‘my’ answers.
In the end, we realized that they somehow got confused and thought I was someone they already interviewed when they called me back. So they had called the other girl whoever she was and offered her the job. They told her they’d call back with the time to come in, and called me instead.”
“I Don’t Know, Google It?”
“One time, I was going into an interview for an entry level, ‘no experience required’ network tech/install job and sitting at a table across from a half dozen IT experts asking questions I was completely blindsided by.
It got so bad that I flat out said, ‘Listen, I’ve built PCs for over 15 years. I can terminate and run cat, operate a T&P, and have set up the office networks for two businesses (all true). The questions you are asking make me think I’m either at the wrong interview, or the posted job was not accurate to what you are expecting.’
The questions were basically like ‘someone calls in and their internet isn’t working, what do you do?’ After like the 6th ‘What if that doesn’t work?’ I was like, ‘I don’t know, Google it?'”
Timeliness Wasn’t Important For This Interview
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“I had a job interview at a restaurant where I showed up at like 3:50 when the interview was at 4. The host sat me at a table and walked away. After 20 minutes, I went up to the host stand, and there was a new host so I told her that I was waiting to be interviewed at the table. She called the manager, and I was told to sit back down. 20 more minutes went by, so I walked up there again and told the host I had stuff to do.
After five more minutes, the manager came out and sat down. She never apologized and started reading my resume out loud. I was confused because it wasn’t my resume. When I told her that it wasn’t my resume, she got upset with me. She went back into the office for ten minutes to find my resume, just to tell me that I wasn’t qualified for the job after she looked over my resume. She called me a month later saying I was hired for the job. Soooo stupid.”
He Played Both The Good Cop And The Bad Cop, Which Made Him Look Like A Maniac
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“When I was in college, I applied at Hot Topic because it seemed like one of the best options job-wise for my personality in the small Tennessee town where I went to school. I turned in the application, got an interview slot for the next day, and when I asked the girl who took my application (but wouldn’t do the interview) what kind of attire would be appropriate for the interview, she said just to show up in whatever because they had no dress code. Cool.
Next day I show up in business casual — tailored slacks, nice blouse, kitten heels. After a quick introduction, the manager (who was maybe 25 to my 20) immediately comments on my clothes, saying that I was under-dressed for a professional interview (apparently he’d worn a full suit to his). He says this while wearing ratty jeans, an old band tee, and flip-flops. I didn’t really say anything to that and he started doing the interview, which was basically just a ‘shooting the breeze’ session about what bands I like, would I go to local shows/bars with coworkers (apparently expected), and the occasional normal retail question like: ‘If you saw someone/a coworker steal something under $1, what would you do?’ From the start, he’d told me to treat the interview like a friendly conversation, but it felt very schizophrenic. He’d ask questions in a very casual manner but if I responded casually, he’d change his tone to sound really stringent and professional. If I then responded in kind, he’d tell me to lighten up. I went in expecting a job interview but felt like I was subjected to a good-cop/bad-cop interrogation, with both cops being the same guy.
Nearing the end of the interview, during which he’d been eating his lunch, he asked if I’d like a sip of his lemonade. I politely declined because while I didn’t give an explanation, I certainly was not going to share a straw with a total stranger. He shrugged and said that the girl he’d interviewed right before me had had some and he thought she was pretty cool. Well, I guess I’m just a freaking stick in the mud.”