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For most people, a job interview is pretty stressful. Sweaty palms, elevated heart rate, racing thoughts, and confusion about where to place your eyes are just a few possible outcomes. As one discussion on Reddit shows, things can get much spicier.
Recently, a person who goes on the platform by the nickname Arpitaintech posted a question on r/RecruitingHell, asking its members to share the funniest or craziest experiences they've had during these private meetings, and received hundreds of stories.
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#1
I had an interview for an engineering position. The lady grilled me about completely unrelated stuff and I finally had it when she said “sell me this pen”. I was like “I’m not a sales person I’m an engineer” and she flipped out and said I’m unqualified and bad at dealing with stressful situations and I calmly said “well I’m dealing with you right now”. She was not amused but her co interviewer was trying not to laugh. The workers in the back looked miserable and I had already decided I didn’t want to work for her at that point.
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#2
Not me but a friend was applying for a Christmas temp job and the last question was "Is Die Hard a Christmas movie?" Her reply was "No. It's a Christmas classic".
She got the job obviously.
We got in touch with Arpitaintech, and the Redditor was kind enough to chat with us about their viral post.
"I am myself a career counselor, and many times while I am talking to a job seeker, I come across situations where they have had a crazy experience during the interview," they told Bored Panda about its origins.
"That made me think of asking this question on Reddit, where everyone would come with an even crazier story."
#3
He asked me all the “wrong” questions.
are you in a serious relationship? do you want kids? are you religious? how do you lean politically?
then told me all about the problems with his marriage and why they’re in couples counseling. says jesus was their saving grace. he kept pushing that i would change my mind on kids once my “biological clock” kicked in. he admitted he was reluctant to hire women because they usually put work second to their families. then also stated he wanted to hire a women to help keep the office neat and tidy.
and last, but not least..
he gave me an offer for an “administrative assistant” role. i applied for a civil engineering position.
#4
I was interviewing at a company and they asked where I saw myself in 5 years. I have an answer about moving up in position to maybe manage a small team. They said that's not at all what they're looking for, they want someone in that position for 10 years, so I knew I wasn't a good fit, so I had fun in the rest of my interview with them. The hr person asked how I was comparing companies, I told her at Capital one they had a small tree house, at epic systems they had a huge treehouse. I looked at her very seriously and asked how big their tree house was, you've never seen an adult so sad to say they don't have a tree house.
As the discussion gained more traction, Arpitaintech noticed a few common patterns emerge.
"One of the peculiar themes found across several answers was that many had a gut feeling in the first few minutes of the interview that they weren't going to get the job, yet interviewers kept the interview going for the sake of it, wasting both their and the interviewee's time," they said.
"Also, there were many cases where a person was interviewed for 2-3 rounds, only to find out in the end that it was a fake job. Bizarre, right?"
#5
Was interviewing to the local wine shop-bar as a Marketing Manager. After 2 rounds of interview, they told me that I will receive a questionnaire about my personality for them to learn more about me.
I thought ok.
They sent a 300 questions clinical psychology test. It had questions about relationship with my parents, my fears or trauma. I was really weirded out and refused to proceed as I don’t want a potential employer to have a record of my psychological issues.
Glenn Cuneo 2 months ago
I'd waste their time and pick the most psycho answers possible..... yes I do in fact juggle kittens.... NO, the voices in my head never tell me to order French fries type stuff.
#6
I’d put a company CEO down as a personal reference. I’d worked for him a few years earlier before he took the role, and he’d said if I ever needed him as a reference to put his name down.
One of the department heads came in halfway through the interview, he seemed okay and then he read through my resume…
After that he was really stand-off ish and I didn’t know why. He cut the interview short, goes “[CEO] is a close personal friend and I know for a fact he doesn’t give personal references. We will have to verify this information and we don’t accept candidates who lie on their applications.”
And I was promptly seen to the door, told “don’t call us, we’ll call you” and escorted out of the building.
I got outside, gave [CEO] a call on his mobile, and asked him what gives. I told him what happened, he calls the guy a f*****t, we chat for a bit, and I go about my life.
A few days later I get a call from the weirdo’s recruiting person telling me my references had checked out, they were really keen on hiring me, and asking when I could start.
In the meantime, I’d already interviewed somewhere else and been offered a job on the spot.
I was like… nah, thanks but no thanks.
#7
I had an interviewer who told me they almost didn't invite me in because I had a typo on my resume. When I asked him to point it out he said it was my name... (Slightly odd spelling of a common name).
Modern recruitment and its dead ends can certainly be bizarre. According to a 2024 survey of 1,641 hiring managers:
- 40% of companies posted a fake job listing this year;
- 3 in 10 companies currently have active fake listings;
- Alleviating employee workload concerns and suggesting company growth are the top reasons behind the fake job posting strategy;
- Hiring managers say fake job postings led to boosted revenue, morale, and productivity;
- 7 in 10 hiring managers believe posting fake jobs is morally acceptable.
#8
I was asked to come up with changes for the production process while the interviewer vehemently refused to provide any details about the clients, machines, current processes and products. We spent half an hour of me providing vague explanations to cover as many bases as possible, the interviewer asking to be more specific, me asking for details to be more specific rather than generalizing, the interviewer arguing that providing any informations would make it too easy and me getting back to the first step until the cycle repeated.
It was truly the most bizarre interview that I have ever had. When he asked to be more specific for the fourth time and still refused to provide any details, I had enough and ended it.
#9
“If you were a tree, what kind of tree would you be?”
I was interviewing for an analyst position so I went for a “decision tree” Got the job
#10
I once had an interview for a company which it turns out, was behind charging prisoners families the collect call money when the prisoner called them.
They had a laptop where I was supposed to take a proficiency with Linux test. This was an interview at 7 am btw. My first red flag. I was greeted by a password protected root prompt and not given the password. Iknew the commands by heart to drop to single user via editing the grub prompt and bypass the password protection since I worked in a data center and spent a lot of time doing it. Their faces fell. They were actually disappointed they didn't get to treat me like I was stupid for not being able to pass their little test. I completed the rest of the technical questions from a command prompt with no net access and all manpages removed (but not the info pages, real geniuses these guys) and then I surprised them by asking about the work environment. Which consisted of the CEO sitting where he could see everyone's screens and micro managing every thing that was done. A relatively huge for the time database where they made changes on the live DB because the CEO was too cheap to have a testing environment. Ragged out chairs that were stained, and single underpowered dell system attached to the cheapest monitor they could get. The vibe from everyone except the eric trump clone interviewing me was one of misery.
I needed work badly and I was crushed in a way when I was rejected, but in the end I know I really dodged a bullet. The cherry on top was the way they mentioned being a christian company every 30 seconds. What's more christlike than bullying applicants, robbing the families of criminals coincidentally among the most impoverished, and worshiping wealth for yourself?
But he the owner/ceo was rich so I guess a prosperity gospel church would give him a big ol thumbs up? It's been 25 years and I still think of that place occasionally and shudder.
As for the ones that do happen, "skills are the foundation of any interview and a must-have," Arpitaintech said.
However, the Redditor believes the real focus should be on cultural fit. "A bad attitude is almost impossible to fix, and if someone ends up in a place where they don’t connect with the team or environment, it can cause long-term issues for everyone involved."
#11
Interviewed for a job at Sears. The guy kept me waiting for 45 minutes while he went to get McDonalds. I saw him leave and come back with his food. During the interview he insulted me talking about my “poor employment history” because I only worked over the summers during college and called me fat. As he was finishing up being a d******d to me he paused to lick a spot of ketchup off his shirt. It’s not surprising that Sears went bankrupt if this was kind of guy they had in charge of job interviews.
Comment Deleted 2 months ago
I interviewed for a concierge position. Arrived on time. They put me in a windowless conference room to wait. I waited over 1.5 hours like an idiot. They finally came in and apologized and said they had to grab lunch. So why did head office book my interview for that time. I called head office as soon as I left and told them to remove me as a potential candidate and why. Who does that ?
#12
I slept through an interview, completely forgetting about it. In my defense it was sort of sick. Only realized when I was looking at my calendar that evening. I sent an apology email the next business day.
I ended up getting the job.
#13
Not a question but when I tried to get a job that would involve a fair amount of driving, I half jokingly wrote down 'drivers license' under work experience. My interviewer took one look at the application and said "valid drivers license, good. You're already ahead of the other guy".
#14
A potential employer scheduled an interview with my brother... without telling him.
They were upset when he didn't show up, even after he explained the situation. "The best they could do" was to reschedule it for later that day. They did not understand why he was unwilling to immediately drop everything and get on a last-second flight across the country to attend.
He politely asked that they not contact him again.
#15
While at college I interviewed for a job in a sportswear shop.
They asked me 'what is your biggest weakness?'
For some reason I replied, 'sausage rolls!'.
I didn't get the job!
#16
I was desperately looking for a job, anything. So I applied at the dollar store. This is the conversation I had when they called me back:
Them: Hello is this [my name]?
Me: yes
Them: good you’re hired
Me: ok who is this
Them: the dollar store. Bring your direct deposit form. Okay bye
Me: wait!!! What location is it? When do I come in? Who am I speaking to?
Them: [location]. Come on Friday.
*they hang up*
I ended up getting a better job the next day so I never did show up in Friday lol
*Edit: formatting.
#17
A lawyer telling me they forged their clients signature to make sure the documents were filed on time. The client didn’t care.
Or the other lawyer who told me they paid a bribe to get documents filed on time.
Who says that in an interview?
#18
"If you were a brick in a wall which one would you be?"
I'm sorry, I didn't know I was interviewing with Pink Floyd.
Tucker Cahooter 2 months ago
I've had so many horrible and unsuccessful interviews in the 40+ years of my soon to end working life but thankfully I will never have to endure an interview with one of these sorts of idiotic questions
#19
The interviewer complimented me on something on my resume and I got excited and flustered, went to push my glasses up and stuck my finger right up my nose instead.
#20
My dad was at an interview at a mall when a brawl broke out. People were throwing chairs and pulling guns. There was blood everywhere. My dad thought it would look impressive to the interviewer if he tried to intervene. Spoiler alert, he stood no chance and it did not impress anyone. But he was on tv for it!
#21
The job entailed a lot of filing of papers, so I got asked "How do you best file things in folders alphabetically?"
I was like "Uh... with a folder for each letter, and then put the folders in alphabetical order..."
She said "Good... good..." and jotted down some notes.
#22
I was at an interview for a job at an archival library in London. Three interviewers and I were crammed into a tiny room, and it wasn't going well. I had to take the train in starting at 5 am and I had a bad headache. The interview seemed to drone on.
Then the fire alarm went off. The interviewers tried to ignore it but someone opened the door and told us it was a real incident and we had to evacuate. We went outside and, it being London, the rain was chucking down. I was the only one who'd brought an umbrella so all four of us had to huddle under it. To say it was awkward was an understatement. None of the three said a word during the 15 minutes we were out there, which felt like 15 hours. At one point someone banged on the doors to the library and demanded to be let in, and the arriving fire department had to tell him to calm down.
Finally a couple firefighters emerged from the building to tell us the coast was clear, and we all trooper back in. Amazingly, the three interviewers wanted to go on for another 15 minutes, even though we'd all been in there for 45 minutes already and it was pretty obvious I wasn't getting the job.
And no, I didn't get the job, which at that point was something of a relief.
#23
My interviewer noticed that I majored in International Business and she said that she didn’t finish her degree in International Business because she got cheated on by her ex husband. She said hasn’t gone back to school because she has 3 kids now. Essentially it turned into a venting session.
Bruh f**k that interviewer, it turned out to be a ghost job because the posting has been up for 6 months now.
#24
I once interviewed for Costa Crociere (cruises) for an analyst position.
I arrived at the entrance desk of their HQ 15 minutes before the interview and checked in. Waited for around 20 minutes then a very gentle guy came, led me to a meeting room and started asking me about my hobbies to brake the ice. Around 10 minutes in he asked me: “how would you describe your style?”.
“My….style?”
“Yes…your cooking style”
“Normal…I guess. I can cook some decent stuff but I don’t really love cooking so much”
He was expecting another candidate for a sous-chef position that did not show up and confused him for me. While the guy I actually had to meet came to the reception later and was thinking I left after checking in.
StumblingThroughLife 2 months ago (edited)
Hopefully the op realised in the interview and stated she'd come for the Analyst position? She/He didn't mention that, so... It reminds me of many fiction novels where there is a blatant withholding of info that would clear all the angst/misconceptions by Chapter 3, - although I get why they (the authors) do that, lol.
#25
“You want a beer?” No lie, just like that. I hesitated because I was not expecting that, but he opened the fridge and it was filled with beer- half Budweiser, half coors light.
I passed on the beer, still have the job.
#26
Midway through the interview I decided I didn't want to work with these people.
So I pivoted to talking about my favorite movie, The Exorcist, complete with sound effects.
#27
This was actually a few weeks ago! It was for a corporate receptionist position and I was interviewed by the loss prevention guy or whatever. First red flag was him telling me that the position falls more under loss prevention and they only post it as “receptionist” because they “get the wrong types of people” if they post it otherwise. Ok……..
Then he goes on to tell me he isn’t like other hiring managers and that his style is unique. He tells me he only asks one question to his interviewees. He then proceeds to ask me “do you love to win or do you hate to lose?” It was bizarre.
Then he talked about himself for the entire rest of the hour. Literally all about himself, his job duties, stories from past work experiences, literally anything and everything about himself.
Then he asks if I have any questions for him. I had prepared a long list of potential questions they would ask and thoughtful responses I could give. I also prepared a few questions for the interviewer. When I asked him those questions he sat and waited for more. I told him how I had been prepared for him to ask me questions and had only prepared a few for him. He told me if he was doing his job right that he wouldn’t need to ask a lot of questions.
He also was drinking a can of soda the entire interview. It was so freaking weird. I got the sense that he already knew who he was going to hire and was just going through with my interview as a formality. So he wasted my time and energy preparing for an interview that basically never happened.
#28
I was meeting a friend's brother for a freelance opportunity. I didn't want a job at the time cuz I'd recently quit one and needed my schedule on my own terms.
This guy suddenly starts trying to stress-test me. Obviously I'm doing incredibly well, but I'm like, "Sir, isn't this a freelance opportunity?"
He kept saying that "the job is not hard" and then made me tour the whole office, and then low-balled me. Finally he gets me to meet the CEO person, and I mention that this is a very surprising interview. They're like, we have a contract already and to save face I gotta tell them I'll think about it, but I had to reprimand the guy later cuz not only was it a very low offer it came with an unpaid probation - on a 6-day working week.
Another time these people made me come in for 4 interviews, the 4th was meant to be just 20 minutes according to them, and it ended up being a 1.5hr surprise online test. Then they low-balled me, too. Literally had the VP beg me to join and had to sternly decline for wasting my time.
A third time they made us sit out for 90 minutes as a "stress test". I left as soon as they told me I'd "passed.".
#29
I applied as a mechanic, the service manager got a call from one of the technicians saying his computer wasn’t working. The manager said “you’re a f*****g mechanic, you fix things, figure out how to fix it” and then tried to laugh with me about how ridiculous it was.
I did end up working there for 2 years and that tech had issues with his computer until he left.
Same manager, different position, told me “when I see a customer walk through those doors I don’t see a face. I see a dollar sign. I see a paycheck.” I did not last much longer there.
#30
One time I wrote my resume in Latex, but I forgot one line break, so some of the text overflowed and was unreadable. The senior engineer interviewing me teasted me about it, deservedly so, since I listed Latex as one of my skills.
What do you think ?
Lyoness 2 months ago
I once went to an interview where I spent the first 15 minutes calming the interviewer down because she said she was "too nervous" to start. Once she'd relaxed the interview seemed to go well and she said so too, then dropped the bomb: They already had an internal candidate they were going to hire, they'd only had me come in to give the interviewer some experience. I was livid.
Brian Hawley 2 months ago
I once interviewed for a job where after beating around the bush for a while the interviewer basically hinted that he and his friends were robbing the company and would I go along with them. I thought it was a test and said no. Didn’t get the job. And it wasn’t a test. Read in the paper a few months later that they had all been jailed.
Lowrider 56 2 months ago
I just recently found out that my employers daughter stole 9 million dollars from the company. Unsurprisingly, she's not in jail has never been charged. She has singlehandedly brought the company to the brink of collapsing.
Load More Replies... Justin Tyme 2 months ago
An interviewer asked me "If you could be any kind of cow, would you be a chocolate cow, a vanilla cow, or a strawberry cow?" I answered "I'm not going to play this" and walked out.
Hakitosama 2 months ago
"I'm a country girl and if you breed those kind of sh*ts here I'm out !"
Load More Replies... Lyoness 2 months ago
I once went to an interview where I spent the first 15 minutes calming the interviewer down because she said she was "too nervous" to start. Once she'd relaxed the interview seemed to go well and she said so too, then dropped the bomb: They already had an internal candidate they were going to hire, they'd only had me come in to give the interviewer some experience. I was livid.
Brian Hawley 2 months ago
I once interviewed for a job where after beating around the bush for a while the interviewer basically hinted that he and his friends were robbing the company and would I go along with them. I thought it was a test and said no. Didn’t get the job. And it wasn’t a test. Read in the paper a few months later that they had all been jailed.
Lowrider 56 2 months ago
I just recently found out that my employers daughter stole 9 million dollars from the company. Unsurprisingly, she's not in jail has never been charged. She has singlehandedly brought the company to the brink of collapsing.
Load More Replies... Justin Tyme 2 months ago
An interviewer asked me "If you could be any kind of cow, would you be a chocolate cow, a vanilla cow, or a strawberry cow?" I answered "I'm not going to play this" and walked out.
Hakitosama 2 months ago
"I'm a country girl and if you breed those kind of sh*ts here I'm out !"
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