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Job Interviewers Reveal The Worst “This Person Isn’t Getting The Job” Moments, Show What Not To Do (30 Posts)
Interview With Author
Going to a job interview is one of the most stressful things you get to do in your professional life. The pressure to perform well and highlight your inner awesomeness is immense. And at the end of the day, a lot is riding on that brief conversation—your future career path, your self-confidence, your ability to pay the rent.
However, we tend to worry about how things will go on our end of the table. Very few of us have actually made accurate guesses about how the job interviewers are going to respond to what we say and do. And being able to know ahead of time what pitfalls to avoid can boost your career to whole new levels.
That’s why we’ve collected a whole host of red flags to avoid the next time you’re at an interview, as shared by HR staff and recruiters. They spilled the beans on r/AskReddit about all the times they realized that someone definitely wasn’t getting the job.
It’s informative. It’s fun. It’s all down below, so scroll down and upvote the stories you found the most useful. Got any job interview nightmares to share with all the other Pandas? Drop on by the comment section. And if you want to see some more applicant red flags, then check out this Bored Panda article right here later on.
The author of the thread, a veteran recruiter, was kind enough to answer Bored Panda's questions about the viral post. Scroll down for our interview with the OP.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
His personal signature included a crucifix. When asked, he said it was his responsibility before God to share the good news of Christ with every person he met. I did not want to find out how far he was willing to take that responsibility while working with the mentally ill.
The redditor revealed that they've been recruiting people for years and years. "I've been in HR, and recruiting for most of my life," they shared with Bored Panda.
"I asked [the question] because in a recent position I had as an interviewer, it seemed like the art of interview etiquette has been completely lost," they explained what inspired them to come up with the question in the first place.
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#2
This guy was an absolute rock star applicant, applying to be a teacher. He was super nice, young, dynamic, and had won awards. He also had great references. Then, when asked 'Any questions?' he replied 'Could you tell me if you'd have a problem with a teacher dating a student?'
#3
A woman casually mentioning that she wanted to set her ex on fire. Totally unprompted and unrelated to anything that had been asked. Later, when asked how to handle difficult customers she said she would set them on fire as well.
Bored Panda was interested to get the OP's take on what job applicants should or shouldn't do. For instance, they told us that as far as personal and professional achievements go, they like them highlighted on the resume. "If I get asked, I'll explain how I achieved it. It's not boastful in my opinion if you're asked," they said.
"I think one of the best things a person can do is simply be attentive. Do some research on the company, especially if it's for a job you really want," they gave some great advice for anyone who's planning on going to a job interview soon. Meanwhile, the worse thing someone can do is "check your phone or watch." Also, try not to seem bored or uninterested. "If that's the case, why did you even take the interview?"
#4
When I worked in a bank as a manager, one internal candidate I interviewed put her finger in front of my face while I was talking and said” I’m gonna stop you right there” . I went with the other person who didn’t put their finger to my face
#5
An individual I was about to interview had strapped a bag of urine to themselves in preps for a drug test and accidentally sat down on it. The bag popped and pee went all over the person and the floor. My office smelled like urine for a month...
#6
My most recent standout was when I found my own resume with someone else's name on it. Someone had come across my resume at some point and copied-pasted it into their own, with no changes except for the name/contact information.
WilvanderHeijden 2 years ago
I would have invited that person and ridicule them about my resume.
Earlier, career coach Jermaine Murray explained to Bored Panda that one of the biggest mistakes that applicants can make is being too humble. If they don’t highlight their achievements and accomplishments, nobody else will do it for them.
"They humble themselves when they need to be boasting. If you understand why the work that you were doing was important and how it impacts your org (project) then you should be explaining that to the interviewer without holding back. How did you go above and beyond to make sure things worked? What creative ways did you come up with? Show off."
#7
During my first management gig I was sifting through resumes for an internship program we had and one of the candidates printed her resume on glittery paper and sprayed it with perfume. I didn’t even look at her resume. To this day they probably still find glitter on that desk.
Steffen Rehm 2 years ago
"Try to impress them, stick out with your resume to get noticed, be creative to get a job". I can hear the suggestions. :D
#8
Interviewed someone for a teaching position in China.
Me: Do you have any preference in regards to which city in China you would like to live in?
Candidate: Hmmm, I'm very interested in either Shanghai or Korea.
Nope.
#9
Had a guy who was a little rough but was looking quite promising for a design role. He blew it with me by saying “I’ll turn this company around in 6 weeks” and a few more comments along those lines with a theme of “you are currently messing it up”.
This is a small successful company. I wanted him to fit in, not “turn us round”.
According to Jermaine, our tone of voice and body language are vital to success during job interviews. We should always do our best to be perceived as confident and capable. Failing to do so can cost you the job because your talents and skills won’t seem as impressive if you’re a nervous wreck or just downright scared.
"If your body language or tone says otherwise [i.e. that you’re not confident], you destroy the perception of your skills. Once that's gone so are your chances of landing the job," he said.
#10
Currently doing all video interviews (cause well Covid) and I recruit for a healthcare company. many, many, many times people answer the video call either naked, partially naked, on the toilet, etc. yeah you’re not getting the job bud.
Jo Johannsen 2 years ago
I don't understand people who take phone calls while on the toilet. Very few calls are that important.
#11
My wife got someone who applied as an emergency room physician who didn’t have a medical degree or go to medical school but they were a “hard worker” and a “quick learner.” Yeah, you can’t legally practice medicine without a license. That’s gonna be a no.
#12
I recently interviewed a Chef. I hadn't even gotten to the point of telling him what our menu theme was and he took off his mask and said he won't wear one if I told him to. Then he starts telling me how my restaurant was going to run, and a bunch of menu items that aren't even close to our theme.
I told him he should go start his own restaurant, call it the Covid Cafe.
Raven DeathShade 2 years ago
Nice ring to it, but I already got Covid once. I have no desire to do so again.
"You can teach someone to be a better coder but it's near impossible to teach them how to be a better person. Recruiters will always value personality first, but technical skills are a very close second," Jermaine said.
"Hiring managers keep that in mind and try to make sure candidates they like can perform competently. Different things contribute to this bar that aren't based on the candidate but the organization's internal ability to support and develop someone. Once those two elements are present a hire will happen.”
#13
Interviewee dropped multiple F-bombs. Job interviews are one of the most formal things a person will go through. Now, I’m not shy for swearing language, but they didn’t know that. It just showed I couldn’t trust her in any formal situation or important business meeting. It wasn’t the swearing, it was the lack of judgement.
WilvanderHeijden 2 years ago
So, what they actually say is: I don't mind if they swear when they are at work, but they need to know when they shouldn't do it.
#14
Not a HR but I'm currently conducting interviews to recruit a new team member. We saw a guy who was great on the paper but when asked about hobbies he said "seduce and bang women". He was done at this very moment as I yeeted myself out of the place.
#15
Bring your parent or spouse with you... if you need moral support leave them in the car, do not bring them with you to our office and definitely do NOT let them speak for you. Instant “no” from me.
WilvanderHeijden 2 years ago
Unless the parent or spouse proves to be a better candidate than the applicant.
Jermaine told Bored Panda that first impressions are vital. That extends to our online presence, e.g. on LinkedIn, as well.
“You can always improve your profile and show up in a Recruiter’s future search based on the SEO algorithms on LinkedIn. Also, if someone is a good Recruiter, they wouldn’t discount someone’s profile in the future because good people make bad resumes on LinkedIn all the time,” he gave us a peek at the side of things from a recruiter’s perspective.
#16
I worked for a big, well known company and we were recruiting interns straight out of college. The questions are more of a get to know you questions, rather than actual knowledge of the work or experience. The company actually gave us a paper with some example questions, like the one below, that we could ask if we ran out of ideas.
So it's going pretty well, very bubbly, chatty girl and I have impression she would fit the team. Until:
Me: how do you handle multiple deadlines in a short time period? E.g. if you have 2-3 exams close to each other or an exam and a big class project?
Interviewee: well, you try to do your best, but if I realise I cannot meet both deadlines, I just call in sick
#17
My manager once told me a guy came in to interview and didn't know about Ohm's law. The position was for electrical engineering.
#18
Very clearly googling the answers during a remote interview.
Monkey Spunk 2 years ago
Or muting the call while the person sat with them feeds them the answer, as an interviewer you can hear it.
#19
"Is that a photo of your wife? Wow, she's hot! Is she at home? What's your home phone number?"
Demonstrating self-confidence: 100%.
Demonstrating stupidity, and many other bad qualities: 100%
WilvanderHeijden 2 years ago
Note his name and address and immediately demand a restraining order.
#20
Joint interviewed a candidate with a female colleague, and the guy addressed all his answers to me, even when my colleague was the one who asked
#21
When I was younger I worked in a bar and people would come in and give us (the bar staff) their resumes to give to management. One guy had "picking up chix" (His spelling not mine) listed under interests. After a good chuckle with my colleagues that resume got binned.
Luther von Wolfen 2 years ago
I co-owned a restaurant with several people. We got some wild applications which we had a lot of laughs over.
#22
My dad is a QC/QA manager with an asphalt company (they build roads and stuff like that) and he said that once a guy with really good qualifications came in for an interview as a lab tech and said "you can go ahead and fire all your other techs because I'm the only one you're gonna need." The interview lasted 5 seconds before my dad told him to f**k off.
Jo Choto 2 years ago
Reminds me of one of my daughter's exes who I hated with a burning passion. He used to talk about how he would be the best sports writer ever. Except he had no writing experience. Couldn't speak well, let alone write. Knew nothing about journalism and didn't even attend sports events. I still hate him. Hate him. (He abused my child physically and emotionally. Hate him.)
#23
I was interviewing someone who had previously worked at the American embassy in his home country. The language barrier was very difficult and he was having a tough time with the interview. Part way through, he showed me some certificates he received from the embassy job, as awards for good work. The conversation then went like this:
Me: Can you tell me the story about some of these awards?
Him: Huh?
Me: I'd like to know why you received these awards. Maybe you can pick one of them and tell me the story about how you got it.
Him: ...awards?
Me: Yes, these things you're showing me right now. Tell me about them.
Him: They are awards.
Me: Right. Tell me how you received them.
Him: How?
Me: Yes. What did you do to get them?
Him: ...I dunno. It's your embassy, you tell me.
That last bit was the longest sentence he spoke to me during the entire interview.
Kathryn Baylis 2 years ago
How do you work for a foreign Embassy in your home country, and not at least have enough understanding of your bosses’ language to get by (while brushing up and trying to become more proficient in it)?
#24
When I worked in HR, one applicant, who was in her 40s submitted a 40-page list of achievements/certificates and “sorority girl achievements” from 20 years prior.
Needless to say she failed at even getting an interview.
Jo Choto 2 years ago
Part of the problem is the refusal of people to accept that a lot of women spend a considerable portion of their lives raising children and taking care of home and family. No credit or respect is given for that, which leaves women with the only option of talking about what they did 20 years ago. But a 40 page list of achievements was overkill!
#25
She was throwing out questions out of the blue, then answering them herself without even waiting for a reaction from me, the interviewer.
"Sir, do you know why I welcome challenges other people would immediately avoid? Well, sir, let me tell you..."
WilvanderHeijden 2 years ago
She got the part where it says : "Be prepared for your interview." a bit wrong.
#26
So many:
1. making comments about getting into an employees skirt as they walked past (also how to get reported to HR before even getting the job).
2. explaining how they took copies of all the companies code home.
3. explaining how they used to work two jobs at once, pretending to work for one from home
4. explaining how they program games for their playstation with notepad... While being interviewed by programmers for a sales role
5. telling the interviewer that the problem they are trying to solve is impossible (even though it was literally 3 lines of code... It was a warm up question)
WilvanderHeijden 2 years ago
6. Telling the interviewer that he excels in formatting hard drives to solve computer problems.
#27
I was once around when my old boss interviewd a potential bouncer candidate. This guy lived about 45min drive away from the location, had no licence to drive nor a car. And no, there were no busses or other method of transportation available around the time the club closed.
When asked if he had a friend or some other accommodation figured out, he simply told that he's going to pick up some girl every work night and spend the night at her place. Because hey, isn't there always a line of chicks just waiting to bang the bouncer, right?
Never saw him again.
#28
I was interviewing an apparently well qualified Senior Project Manager for a major, full time project.
She hadn’t worked for six months and while that certainly wasn’t a deal breaker, I asked “How come you left your last job without another to go to?”
She said “Oh I had problems with my Manager...”
Tiny red flags waving - I asked her to explain...
She said, rolling her eyes, “Well he like wanted me to come to work like EVERY day...”
I must’ve looked shocked because she added “Would you want me to work like every day?”
I thought that maybe I was on camera and was being pranked - but retained my composure...
“Well this IS a full time job, running a major project...”
She cut me off and said “I don’t think I’ll like that...”
Let me clarify “everyday” - the job was a simple full time role - Monday to Friday 9 - 5.
WilvanderHeijden 2 years ago (edited)
Well, it is quite bold to ask employees to work 40 hours when you're paying them to work 40 hours. /S
#29
Telling me you obviously know more than me and that's why I need to hire you for a position I am the direct supervisor for in the most condescending tone I've ever heard in my almost 15 years of my career.
Knowing more than me was required - I'm only in charge of this position because I know more than my bosses about it, but we were looking for someone who specialized in that role. The attitude of "I'm obviously better than you" was not required, and lost him the second interview. Until that point, I was loving his confidence and obvious knowledge, but he just took it too damn far.
WilvanderHeijden 2 years ago
Guess the interviewer had no desire to make his job a constant d!ck measuring contest.
#30
Preface: I work in a medical cannabis dispensary.
Had a candidate drop off his resume. Seemed like a promising candidate, until I flipped over his resume and saw that he had a "wish list" of dispensaries he wanted to work at, and a reminder that he had an interview that same day, later that afternoon. My company wasn't on his wish list. He later called to ask if his resume had any writing on the back, and asked me what time his interview was. I wished him luck. I didn't hire him.
Have had countless candidates who only wanted to work at a medical (meaning you have to have a qualifying condition like cancer) dispensary because they "thought it would be chill af", "could be high all day", or "get free samples". None of them were called back.
What do you think ?
Dawn Bodtke 2 years ago
Back in the 80's, I was interviewing for a technician job in a male dominated field. Male supervisor and manager are interviewing Boss: So you need to understand, you will be working with all men Me: Yes, I do that now Boss: We didn't mean they would be hitting on you all the time Me: Well darn. Sometimes you have to address the elephant in the room. We all cracked up, I got the job and it was one of my favorites.
Celtic Pirate Queen 2 years ago
I have always worked in male dominated fields, mainly because I started out at my Dad's construction company and realized I got along a lot better with men (Most of the women I've ever worked under were neurotic & super insecure, I'm pretty sure it was because they realized I was much smarter than they. Honestly not bragging, I have worked with some really dim bulbs). One Boss asked if I would be offended by "colorful" language. I told him that if heard anything I hadn't before, I make sure to write it down. Yeah, I got the job.
Load More Replies...
Nadia Monteira 2 years ago (edited)
One day, I interviewed a guy who's name and face I knew but I could not remember from where. The guy was also interviewed by one of my deputies and we both found the guy's skills and training OK but we decided that we will not offer him the job because there was something off with his personality. The following weekend, I finally remembered where I "met" the guy. At the time I was single and on Meetic (a French dating website) but without pictures on my profile (this was still ok in 2003). I had a short conversation with the guy on the website and he asked me if we could exchange photos by email. I said yes of course and soon after received an email from him (from his personal mailbox, with his name). There was only one photo of him attached with the email. He was fully naked, reclined on a sofa holding his penis like a freakin' daisy flower. Of ourse I blocked the profile on the dating website and forgot about it. There was definitely something off with the candidate personality. LOL
Troux 2 years ago (edited)
I once interviewed an internal candidate applying for a lateral move, who came highly recommended by his manager (NB: this is a huge red flag for a manager offloading a problem).. He worked on an adjacent team so I was already familiar with his current role. I sit down with HR at the interview and they give me his resume for the first time. It's about 4 pages long and he's mid-20s; several paragraphs per job. While HR is talking, I'm reading the details of his current role: "overseeing all..." "managing all..." "in charge of every..." It reads as if he's my boss plus 5 employees all in one! I start pressing him on each duty, and after four "Well actually I just..." responses, he reveals that he didn't actually list his current job duties, he just copied the vague and varied job description from our company's recruitment page. My conclusion: If he's too lazy to even describe his job, he's probably too lazy to do it.
Dawn Bodtke 2 years ago
Back in the 80's, I was interviewing for a technician job in a male dominated field. Male supervisor and manager are interviewing Boss: So you need to understand, you will be working with all men Me: Yes, I do that now Boss: We didn't mean they would be hitting on you all the time Me: Well darn. Sometimes you have to address the elephant in the room. We all cracked up, I got the job and it was one of my favorites.
Celtic Pirate Queen 2 years ago
I have always worked in male dominated fields, mainly because I started out at my Dad's construction company and realized I got along a lot better with men (Most of the women I've ever worked under were neurotic & super insecure, I'm pretty sure it was because they realized I was much smarter than they. Honestly not bragging, I have worked with some really dim bulbs). One Boss asked if I would be offended by "colorful" language. I told him that if heard anything I hadn't before, I make sure to write it down. Yeah, I got the job.
Load More Replies... Nadia Monteira 2 years ago (edited)
One day, I interviewed a guy who's name and face I knew but I could not remember from where. The guy was also interviewed by one of my deputies and we both found the guy's skills and training OK but we decided that we will not offer him the job because there was something off with his personality. The following weekend, I finally remembered where I "met" the guy. At the time I was single and on Meetic (a French dating website) but without pictures on my profile (this was still ok in 2003). I had a short conversation with the guy on the website and he asked me if we could exchange photos by email. I said yes of course and soon after received an email from him (from his personal mailbox, with his name). There was only one photo of him attached with the email. He was fully naked, reclined on a sofa holding his penis like a freakin' daisy flower. Of ourse I blocked the profile on the dating website and forgot about it. There was definitely something off with the candidate personality. LOL
Troux 2 years ago (edited)
I once interviewed an internal candidate applying for a lateral move, who came highly recommended by his manager (NB: this is a huge red flag for a manager offloading a problem).. He worked on an adjacent team so I was already familiar with his current role. I sit down with HR at the interview and they give me his resume for the first time. It's about 4 pages long and he's mid-20s; several paragraphs per job. While HR is talking, I'm reading the details of his current role: "overseeing all..." "managing all..." "in charge of every..." It reads as if he's my boss plus 5 employees all in one! I start pressing him on each duty, and after four "Well actually I just..." responses, he reveals that he didn't actually list his current job duties, he just copied the vague and varied job description from our company's recruitment page. My conclusion: If he's too lazy to even describe his job, he's probably too lazy to do it.
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