30 People Share How They Embarrassed Themselves During Their First Job Interview

It seems like even in the best job interview scenario, anything can go wrong at any time. This is because we’re at our most vulnerable, desperate to make a good first impression, and even more desperate to get that job.

No wonder job interviews are also the subject of some of the most entertaining and painfully funny (to look back at after many years) stories. So when someone asked “What's the biggest mistake you made on your first job interview?” people delivered honest responses, and it turned out to be one hell of a read.

Scroll down, upvote your favorite entries, and hopefully after you’re done with this post, you'll feel slightly better if your interview just went sour. After all, it can always be much worse!

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30 People Share How They Embarrassed Themselves During Their First Job Interview Not exactly a mistake, but I went to the counter of the store and asked if they were hiring. They said they were and gave me an on the spot interview right there in the middle of the store with my mom standing right with me (I was 16 and she had given me a ride to the store). My mom proceeded to answer every question for me and kept talking me up. I ended up getting the job and worked there for over 2 years, so thanks mom lol

pinkyoshi1989 , Fikri Rasyid Report

Final score:

145points

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30 People Share How They Embarrassed Themselves During Their First Job Interview "What position are you interested in taking in our school?"

"Defence against Dark Arts"

podian , Bryan McDonald Report

Final score:

140points

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30 People Share How They Embarrassed Themselves During Their First Job Interview Interviewed at a bank. Was going perfectly despite how nervous I was, and I was probably in with a great chance. Then as a final question, the panel asked me "why should we hire you?" And I word-vomit replied "Because I probably won't steal your money!"

I was not hired.

Isthatyourhair , Brock Wegner Report

Final score:

128points

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To find out what common mistakes people make at job interviews and how to avoid them, Bored Panda reached out to Dawn Moss, the founder of “Your Interview Coach” who has been helping both candidates and hiring managers through recruitment and selection process since 2013.

“The two biggest mistakes candidates make are not preparing enough or practicing the answers,” she said and added that “It sounds simple.” As for preparation, “they don’t prepare enough specific examples to demonstrate the key behaviors they need for that job.”

It turns out, that candidates tend to talk generally about their experience, instead of sharing real examples of where they have applied their knowledge and skills to good effect. “They also don’t give enough thought to the common questions that are still asked during interviews,” she added.

30 People Share How They Embarrassed Themselves During Their First Job Interview The interviewer asked if I had any convictions.

I sat there and thought for a moment and said, "Well I guess I'm passionate about saving the environment."

He was very confused and said, "What are your talking about? I'm asking if you have been convicted of any crimes..."

I did not get that job.

Nik_Tesla , Michael Report

Final score:

106points

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30 People Share How They Embarrassed Themselves During Their First Job Interview At the end of my job interview, I asked a few questions about the position, the people involved, and other general questions. For my last question I decided to switch it up and I asked something along the lines of "if you could have any job and make any amount of money you want, what would it be?"

Interviewer A answers. Interviewer B answers. Interviewer C answers. Interviewer D answers and uses something very similar to what I was prepared to say. Interviewer E answers.

I finally answer and since Interviewer D used what I was prepared to say I decided to wing it. I said "Well since I love pizza, I'd travel the world, and eat pizza in different countries." I wanted to smack myself.

sometimesimretarded , Brett Jordan Report

Final score:

105points

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30 People Share How They Embarrassed Themselves During Their First Job Interview Showed up in person to a phone interview.

NotCleverNamesTaken , Polina Zimmerman Report

Final score:

103points

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Dawn gave an example of a very common question asked at a job interview: “For example, tell me about yourself, what do you bring to the job, or why should we hire you?” In practice, this is often a missed opportunity. “The confident candidate doesn’t feel they need to practice. However, they may not share the right information during an interview,” Dawn explained.

Moreover, “if the candidate is confident, they may talk too much and there’s also a risk of going off track or not answering the question at all.”

“Conversely, candidates that lack confidence or get a little nervous will not talk enough and by default the recruiter will not have enough information to assess their capability,” Dawn explained and urged that it’s very important that all candidates practice talking through their answers.

30 People Share How They Embarrassed Themselves During Their First Job Interview I was interviewing to be a dishwasher at a restaurant. The chef, who was the interviewer, asked me why I wanted this job. The real reason was the reason any high-school kid wants a job: money. I panicked though. I thought that was an inappropriate answer. So instead I started spewing all of this nonsense about dishes being my favourite household chore. He laughed in my face. I got the job, though :)!

clvde , cottonbro Report

Final score:

103points

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30 People Share How They Embarrassed Themselves During Their First Job Interview "Why should we hire you instead of anyone else?"

"I don't even know who else you are interviewing with, how could I know that I'm better than them?"

Led to a really awkward silence.

geeses , Sora Shimazaki Report

Final score:

97points

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30 People Share How They Embarrassed Themselves During Their First Job Interview The interviewer asked if I had any "salary requirements."

I said, "I do. But it doesn't matter, because I understand from employees I know who work here that your pay standards are much lower than most workers' expectations."

Back2Bach , Karolina Grabowska Report

Final score:

97points

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According to Dawn, confidence comes from preparation and practice. “Preparation is key to feeling confident you can demonstrate the requirements for the job. Preparing and practicing before the interview will also keep you focused on the information you want to share during an interview and help you avoid saying things you don’t want to share or talk about during an interview.”

When it comes to nerves going through the roof in a job interview, Dawn explained that being nervous is totally natural. “It shows you are genuinely interested in the job and shows the interview is important.” As an ex-recruiter, it was Dawn’s job to build rapport and settle a candidate before steaming in with the questions.

#10

30 People Share How They Embarrassed Themselves During Their First Job Interview Asked about my hobbies talked about sewing and reading. Guy pushed a little more,asked if there was anything else. I was confused why he would push at this question and said no. I was interviewing at a [freaking] video store, the correct answer is watching Movies dumbass. I will never let myself live that one down.

[deleted] , Sean Benesh Report

Final score:

91points

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#11

30 People Share How They Embarrassed Themselves During Their First Job Interview Oh god, I still cringe at this.

Interviewer: "We expect our employees to be punctual."

Me: "Well, I am somewhat of a grammar Nazi."

Interviewer: wtf look

In my defense, I was 17 and stupid.

dakeyjake , Sora Shimazaki Report

Final score:

88points

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#12

30 People Share How They Embarrassed Themselves During Their First Job Interview Said “Well, thanks for coming in.” I was the one who had come in.

morat11 , fauxels Report

Final score:

85points

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Another great tip from the interview coach is to be aware of the dialogue in your head. “What are you saying to yourself? Self-talk is underrated and underestimated. It can make all the difference before an interview. If you are thinking to yourself, this is a waste of time, I’m going to get another rejection, it’s likely to affect your interview performance. It may even show in your body language, posture, eye contact, attitude, tone, etc.”

Dawn also confirmed that a bad interview experience can knock the confidence of even the most confident person. “I worked with one lady who’d been out of the job market for several years bringing up her family. She’d received one rejection and hadn’t applied for any further jobs."

#13

30 People Share How They Embarrassed Themselves During Their First Job Interview My first ever internship interview.

Me: Hi, how are you?

Him: Good, and you?

Me: I'm doing well, how are you?

It still keeps me up at night.

[deleted] , cottonbro Report

Final score:

85points

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#14

30 People Share How They Embarrassed Themselves During Their First Job Interview Asked about a time I had to make a compromise and, not drawing on any past experiences beyond an hour ago, I cited the time I had to give the last blue Jolly Rancher to my girlfriend even though it's my favorite flavor. Still got the job but wow

Kaiy0te , Thatsmuggamer Report

Final score:

83points

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#15

30 People Share How They Embarrassed Themselves During Their First Job Interview Okay, this is embarrassing but when I was a teenager I was able to get an interview to work at a major coffee chain that offered good benefits and I really wanted the job. I had one job until this point and didn't have a lot of experience with job interviews so I googled up some tips to help me with that. One of the things that I read was the importance of maintaining very good eye contact lest the interviewer thought that you were disinterested or bored. I maintained very good eye contact. It was too good. That guy must have thought that I was some sort of psychopath because I would not break eye contact at all. It was as if we were having a staring contest that he lost several times but that I would not let up on. I had to wait a few more years before I was able to get a job with that company.

hombre8 , Viktoria Alipatova Report

Final score:

77points

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For anyone who feels knocked down after an unsuccessful job interview, Dawn advises looking at it from a constructive, positive perspective. “Try to think of every interview as gaining more and more experience and an opportunity to improve on your interview skills. Reflect on your performance objectively. Don’t change who you are, be yourself.”

After all, “remember if you get poor feedback, it’s one person’s opinion, for that specific job and that company. It’s not necessarily personal,” Dawn said and reminded everyone that “It’s important to keep applying, and be persistent and consistent. Keep on keeping on.”

#16

30 People Share How They Embarrassed Themselves During Their First Job Interview Interviewing for a part time job at Kmart as a summer gig in college.

HR Director: "So everything looks good. If you ever need a job reference or a letter of recommendation, come see me at the end of your employment here and we'all see what we can do!"

Me: "Oh that won't be necessary, I have references from real jobs already."

I still got the job but holy s**t.

[deleted] , Mike Kalasnik Report

Final score:

75points

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#17

30 People Share How They Embarrassed Themselves During Their First Job Interview I freaked out and forgot how old I was. Turns out I was fourteen. Fourteen and absolutely terrified. And no, I didn't get the job.

TheRabidFangirl , Sora Shimazaki Report

Final score:

73points

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#18

30 People Share How They Embarrassed Themselves During Their First Job Interview The interviewer asked if I smoked and I replied "Smoke what?" Immediately lost my chances at getting the job.

Doomfacetrapstar420 , Andrea Piacquadio Report

Final score:

72points

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#19

30 People Share How They Embarrassed Themselves During Their First Job Interview I wore a rival companies shirt to the interview without realizing...oops.

freeloader11 , Charles Deluvio Report

Final score:

71points

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#20

30 People Share How They Embarrassed Themselves During Their First Job Interview My first big-boy interview at a financial advisory firm couldn't have been worse. To start, I had hair down to the middle of my back which I had just put up in a bun, and a patchy beard. I walk into the office to meet with the well-groomed, cologne-wearing, every-fashion-accessory-available-wearing salesman who would interview me. He asked me, "How would you describe a sunset to someone who was born blind?" My response was, "Yellow... Wait a minute.....orange. [Damn]. They're blind."

After the interview was over, he said that I looked like a drug dealer.

CrakAndJaxter , tima-miroshnichenko Report

Final score:

60points

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#21

30 People Share How They Embarrassed Themselves During Their First Job Interview when asked why I wanted to work for McDonald's, I said that I wanted money mainly

I didn't get the job

roostar9000 , Mike Mozart Report

Final score:

59points

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#22

30 People Share How They Embarrassed Themselves During Their First Job Interview This wasn't at the interview, but in my email applying for the job. It was right after college and I really didn't know what I was doing, so I just had my resume saved on my desktop under "resume."

I finished writing my cover letter, I attached my resume...or so I thought. I had accidentally misclicked when attaching and I attached this gif instead.

I had already clicked send before I realized my mistake, but luckily I was using gmail and was quick enough to be able to unsend it and attach the right file.

-eDgAR- Report

Final score:

59points

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#23

30 People Share How They Embarrassed Themselves During Their First Job Interview First time I was honest about why I was leaving my old job and the reason was negative. Next time I had a story about how -while I loved my current job- the new job gave an additional positive push to my career path. You have to bend the truth for sure.

_freethinker_ , Scott Graham Report

Final score:

55points

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#24

30 People Share How They Embarrassed Themselves During Their First Job Interview Dominos Manager: "why do you want a job here"

Me: "It's close to my house, and I like pizza"

...I got the job.

ieatpandas42 , TAKA@P.P.R.S Report

Final score:

55points

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#25

30 People Share How They Embarrassed Themselves During Their First Job Interview I was offered the possibility to get an apprenticeship as a software engineer when I was 16. That was a pretty great chance and I wanted everything to be perfect. It was about 32°C (90°F) that day and their office was in middle of nowhere.

I planned to go there by bus but I missed it, so I had to take a really slow, weird train which stopped near there and had to walk to the office building.

Since I was really late already (I would've been 20 minutes early with the bus), I ran there. So I arrived there 10 minutes late and was sweaty. I was also dripping with sweat through the whole interview.

Still got the job, somehow.

Sig_Luna , cottonbro Report

Final score:

54points

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#26

30 People Share How They Embarrassed Themselves During Their First Job Interview Was sexist. I was interviewed by two female engineers, who didn't really introduce themselves beyond their name, so partway through the interview I asked them if they're the HR reps.

They forgave me and I passed but it was dumb of me, I wouldn't have asked a pair of men that.

Antrax- , Tim Gouw Report

Final score:

50points

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#27

30 People Share How They Embarrassed Themselves During Their First Job Interview This one still haunts me.

It was for a job a trampoline jump house where you pay to jump. My gf and I both applied and both got interviews. I was about 17 or 18 at the time and I believe this was my first one on one interview, only one I've ever done was a group interview.

I felt, and still do, that I was doing so well throughout it all. But towards the end of it, the interviewer asked how would I describe myself in (or "with" can't remember the word) 5 words. It took me a few seconds to think of something, and then I said it. "I am a good worker". There was a weird look on her face and she said," that's it?" In a concerned and I'm waiting for more type of look. I said yes and we finished up the interview.

It wasn't until on the ride home I started to realize my mistake and asked my gf what she said, and behold, she said 5 different adjectives instead of a 5 word sentence. I still felt confident about the interview, but later that week I was with her when she got the call about getting the job and I was excited to get mine soon after. No call :(

Fetusparties , Brian Wangenheim Report

Final score:

46points

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#28

30 People Share How They Embarrassed Themselves During Their First Job Interview My first interview was a disaster!

Interviewer says: "I see you've put down that you can speak German on your CV, can you say something to me?"

I reply: "Oh, I can't actually speak German, I just put that on there."

Interviewer asks: "Tell me about a time you had to work under pressure."

I say: "This one time I had an assignment for uni that was 50% of my grade, and I should have spent the last three months on it. I couldn't be bothered and spent most of that time out drinking and did the whole thing in 3 hours the morning it was due."

Interviewer asks: "Why do you want this job?"

I say: "If Im honest, its just because I'm broke and I need money."

By some miracle I got the job though, so I guess I was the only guy to show up or something.

Wellness_Elephant , cottonbro Report

Final score:

43points

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#29

30 People Share How They Embarrassed Themselves During Their First Job Interview Was honest and said I was using it as a temporary stepstone to a better job.

looks_at_lines , tima-miroshnichenko Report

Final score:

43points

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#30

30 People Share How They Embarrassed Themselves During Their First Job Interview I had had several jobs before my first actual interview but my first interview was for a job selling hot dogs. I was asked what my biggest weaknesses were and stupid teenage me listed actual weaknesses like being lazy and not really caring about anything. I wasn't very smart back then.

I didn't get the job but found an article in some magazine(this was before the internet was used by regular people) shortly after that that gave me the right answers to that question.

bajsnoah , Thomas Bormans Report

Final score:

38points

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Note: this post originally had 64 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.

What do you think ?

Mimi M 3 years ago

I had 'pubic' on my CV for the longest time. Yeah, it was supposed to be 'public'. Oh well - if I didn't catch it, maybe they didn't either.

7points

littlesaresare 3 years ago

When I was handing out resumes for my first job as a teenager, it was many dozens of resumes later that someone pointed out I'd written my date of birth as that year. I was pretty big for a three-month-old. 😅

0points

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Bobby 3 years ago

Worked at a place that went out of business. The owner tried to hook people up with interviews and referrals with businesses he was friends with. I went to one and the guy asked me why I left my previous job... uh you already know it went out of business. Then his partner asks how they know I can be reliable. I say I have a family to support that means the world to me. He says I have one too but I need to know this job is more important than your family. I walked out without another word

6points

Carol Emory 3 years ago

I would have too.

2points

Jo Choto 3 years ago

I will never understand why some of the shittiest jobs out there have these complex and convoluted interviewing processes. If you can show that you are reliable and you don't have a criminal record, that's about it. What the hell else do they think you owe them?

Death Metal Kitty 3 years ago

Because 90% of them will have decided within the first 2-3 minutes if they're going to hire you. The questions are there to look like the interview means anything. Other times, they might be on a fence, so the question helps... but these are the in the minority.

3points

Yes because people with criminal records don't deserve jobs

They want to see if you are willing to jump through hoops to get said crappy job. If you are willing to put up with that, you are more likely going to be the kind of person that will put up with loads of BS before you realize what our skills are really worth.

1point

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30 People Share How They Embarrassed Themselves During Their First Job Interview

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