Worked as a manager for a small company. I did preliminary interviews. Guy shows up in jeans and a plain white t shirt, an hour early to the interview. There's no chairs in the tiny front office so he has to stand there awkwardly while other applicants come and go. Finally, as I call him to the back office, I notice that he's got a pair of boobs tattooed on the side of his neck.

I know this interview is going to go nowhere; my district manager isn't going to hire a guy with bare breasts on his neck, but I have to do the interview anyway. He proceeds to interrupt me every other sentence as I'm explaining the job duties and expectations, because he has a friend in the same industry and knew all about it. His answers to my interview questions ramble on without pause for me to cut in. The interview lasts twice as long as any of the others that day, and I even skipped some of the questions.

I couldn't stop staring at his tits.

apathyczar , bublikhaus Report

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HR director here. Here is a few over the years:

Was told to give an interview for a manager position for some girl right out of college. Could tell it was someone pulling strings, because she had no experience in the field, and her degree was in criminal justice. This was an IT position.


Had a a guy with a killer resume, all the credentials, come in for an interview. Though it was going to go well, he instead was drunk and high. He couldn't even string a full sentence together.


Had a woman go ballistic on me when i asked her about her career goals. I thought i was on an episode of punkd.


Best one was calling a reference a guy had left for me: "Yeah Stans a nice guy, shows up on time, keeps to himself. If you need someone to warm a chair for 8 hours a day, he is your guy. If you want someone to do a little more work, i got a cinderblock here thats a little more motivated."

AM_Industiries , micens Report

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Not pro HR Recruiter, but I was doing numerous help in interviews for my previous company, as a tech specialist to evaluate technical IT knowledge of candidates. And now I am hiring manager (three interviews this weeks so wish me luck, as it will be the first time I am gonna do it alone)

From top of my head: the worst was one guy, around 36 - 37 yr old, who was school teacher, and applied to work for IT Service Desk, guy had no idea about IT, all the questions like: can you tell me what is IP address, and how you can find it, responses were: no idea, and sad face. Also, the target for our company was students and graduates, so the overall interview was going really really bad, that guy was afraid of responsibilities, failures, he was stressed out, and when we finally asked: why did you applied for that position - he said, that he is receiving around 1200 pln (less than 300$) per month, and he is struggling to survive. We asked him: how much you would like to earn, he said 1600 pln and that would be AMAZING with almost tears in his eyes, because he had a hunch that we will not hire him. I gave him IT test (not usual procedure, only used to have a quick chat with hiring manager) for 10 minutes, and we went out with HM to discuss him. We were so sad, and sorry for him, that I said we should hire him on the spot, and I can teach him thing or two, as long as he can absorb new knowledge he will be fine. Guy almost break in tears when we said to him that he is hired, and base salary is 2000 pln. Worst job interview ever.


Another one was with the young, 20-something student who would like to be a film maker. No IT knowledge whatsoever, he lied in CV typing stuff like MS Access, but he had no idea what is a database etc. And he was not even trying to get the job, he had attitude like: yes, you can hire me, BUT I want to make films, my short movies were recognized on some independent local screenings or whatever, BUT I will accept this offer ONLY if I can choose on what days I will work, and WHEN, because I am doing important university stuff etc. (we were working 24/7 so it was very flexible thing for all the people, but ARE YOU SERIOUS?)
He even came dressed like he didn't care. I know that this is stupid that you should wear suit, and yes - it is acceptable to come in with iron shirt, and even black jeans pants (throw in a jacket and it is perfect), but if you are coming with yellow t-shirt and sandals...
- surely he didn't get a job.


EDIT ABOUT ex-teacher:
Good news about our ex-teacher. He is moving to other company for higher tech position + better salary, so everything is fine. Good for him. They are saying that he will be missed, because he was doing outstanding job for all that time, and he was eager to learn.

veder284 , LightFieldStudios Report

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I work in a financial institution: I had a person say that they cannot work more that 4 hours a day and only Monday, Wednesday and Friday. She did not want to interfere with her Welfare Benefits. She also asked what we do if there is cash missing at the end of a shift.

mjmurphy984 , Pressmaster Report

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I had a recent college grad interview for a job. Asked if we had a nap room. Said his doctor required him to take an hour nap a day. If he got hired he will provide the appropriate medical records but requires a nap room. He also asked if when he got hired if he would be one of the bosses of the developers who interviewed him. I asked why and he said he felt off about the developer and said he would let him go. He then asked where his office would be located and whether they would compensate him with stock options or ownership. Finally he ended the interview saying he had an 3pm appointment and it was nice talking to me. I asked him to leave. He was applying for an entry level support analyst position.

mgoode87 , AnnaStills Report

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I had a dude tell me my sister was going to hell to my face. That was exciting.

It was for a software internship, and we asked a question like "Given a list of people, group them by gender". It was very open-ended, to see what questions they asked, how they would return the data, how they handled error cases, etc. Only one guy thought that you might need more categories than male and female... which had us excited until he followed it up with an unbidden rant about how immoral that was and how insane society is for allowing that and they should all be killed anyway.

When I mentioned that my sister is trans (which she isn't, but I kinda wanted to see what his reaction would be), he looked me in the eye and said she was going straight to hell.

Well, if you're going to bring up stuff like that unbidden in an interview, I have rather strong concerns about what you'll rant about when million dollar clients are touring the office. Made my decision easy.

yellowjacketcoder , seventyfourimages Report

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Not a recruiter but I am a restaurant manager. We were opening a new location and doing interviews. Woman comes in for a management position. During the interview, she reaches into her purse and pulls out a bag from Wendy's and starts eating. The other manager tells her to put it away and she tells him it is okay, she can multi-task.

Mynameisinuse , seventyfourimages Report

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I once sat in on an interviewer's debrief for a large organisation where you need professional skills. They were open to recruiting internally for a new position at a higher level, so a few people already in the organisation at a slightly lower level applied and were interviewed that day.

One candidate performed so poorly in the interview and demonstrated such a severe lack of skill, not only did she not get the new position, they decided to have a private meeting about whether or not to fire her from the job she already had.

That was in my view, a really terrible interview.

Waitingforadragon , drazenphoto Report

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I was hiring for a sales position at my company. The guy I was interviewing was going great and he was really good and knew his stuff. I mentally had a plan to call him the next day to offer him a job. As standard procedure, the last question I ask is "Did you have any questions?" to gain insight and also to obviously answer questions. The guy says "If I offer you a block of hash, will that give me an foot in the door?" The company has a strict no tolerance drug policy, so I said "no thanks" and tossed his resume and interview.

mrsheikh , peus80 Report

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I had to sit in on a group interview for our emergency dispatch center. We're interviewing this white lady from Montana (or Idaho? Or Utah? One of those states.) who had experience with the job and everything was going well, until one of the questions from the book that we have from HR is, "are you experienced with communicating with people from diverse and low-income backgrounds?"

Her reply: "Oh, yeah, I deal with coons all the time."

My supervisor ended the interview right there.

milkcustard Report

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Was interviewing an internal candidate for a position in a parallel department. I was embarrassed for him - he seemed to think he had the job in the bag, and so came totally unprepared and behaved so arrogantly that it was frankly shocking.

He failed to silence his phone (it rang four times before he excused himself to silence it.) and proceeded to grill us on other candidates during his 'do you have any questions for us?' portion. He had dropped by the desk of a coworker the day before the interview and THREATENED HER, 'you know, I hope this interview goes well, I've got dirt on you all LOL!'

He played it off as a joke, but his wife was our boss. He'd been hired as a favor to her for a job he wasn't suited for, was trying to parlay the limited experience he'd gotten into this higher level position, and was so confident in her ability to push this for him that I took particular relish when alternate hiring decisions were made. She'd also clearly fed him info about the role and written his resume/cover letter for him, and was in a snit herself with the hiring manager for passing him over.

Aleutienne , DragonImages Report

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Not an HR Recruiter but done some interviewing. Best one was, when we got to the "have you got any questions for us" portion, candidate said "oh yeah!" then pulled out a book called "answering interview questions for dummies", leafed through and went "ooo, here's a good one!" and asked that. Can't even remember what question candidate asked!

EDIT: This person was clearly unprepared, they had a notepad that they had brought, where they could very easily have noted down questions they thought would be prudent to ask, rather than pulling out a book that says "for dummies" on it. This strangely wasn't the reason this person wasn't offered the job; they failed other parts of the interview, this was just a bit of an interesting cherry on the cake!

VanillaVelvet , Wavebreakmedia Report

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I'm not HR, but...

Arranged to meet for a group interview for a low level IT position, attire was "smart-casual". Pretty standard affair. 2 other people were going to be interviewing as well and I was initially nervous as any 21 year old would be.

I show up a few minutes early, there's one guy there, no sign of the other, and the one who is there is dressed in sweatpants and a hoodie. About 20 minutes into the briefing of the roles and responsibilities of the job, guy #2 shows up. Dressed in full pinstripe business suit + tie and It was obvious it didn't fit. He then proceeds to loudly verbally comment on literally everything the interviewer was saying. Nothing bad under any other circumstances, but for an interview? If i could summarize the way this guy handled things in 2 words it would be "Wildly inappropriate".

Individual interviews come up and the one guy that was there before me goes first and after 10 minutes leaves pretty nonchalantly. Next is me, standard affair; I give him an overview of my technical background and work history.

And he just sorta sits there quietly for a bit after I finish, leaving a bit of an awkward silence, then chimes in "I think we'll just go ahead and give you the offer". Sweet! We leave the office and as I beeline for the door I hear guy #3 get told to just leave.

That people can screw up an interview so bad is baffling. Properly dressing, showing up on time, and basic politeness should not even be a limiting factor in an interview about your skills.

mc_kitfox , Austin Distel Report

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1. Woman shows up to a 1pm interview at 4:30pm with no apologies or excuses, we shredded her resume at that point and had to print a new copy. She seemed like she didn't know which job she was applying for. Quickest and easiest "Thank you but no" interview I've had.

2. Dude shows up looking like he's high and seems like the most shallow human being on earth, not in a vain meaning but in a way that there was ZERO depth to the guy. What you saw is what you got. Answered the question of "What were your responsibilities at your previous job?" With "I did stuff". I gave every chance to the guy and tried to lead him into answering questions the best I could, but he was either stoned or plain old stupid.

BF1shY , mstandret Report

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I've had a lot of bad interviews *because* of HR Recruiters. The problem for me has been that most HR Recruiters are certified HR specialists and aren't technical specialists. They often can't tell the difference between certain very technical skills and don't know if they're job specific or not.

The worst I ever had was a girl who must have been right out of college (maybe 22 or 23). I was being interviewed for a more senior position, but she kept asking me irrelevant questions, especially to the role. Had I ever used Stata? How many classes in econometrics had I completed? The thing is, the job is in no way related to economics or econometrics, but she asked about my knowledge of economics (I had done 2 gradaute-level econ courses), MPL, ATC, etc etc. Eventually, I had to ask her why this was necessary as I had been led to believe that this position was not an economics role. She begins to get flustered and annoyed and thanks me for coming in. I leave with the impression that the company didn't know what the hell was going.

I get a call 2 or 3 weeks later from that recruiter, without so much as an explanation, where she begins to rattle off questions at rapid fire. She says they'd like to interview me, but I politely declined. She called me two or three times after that and then I found she left the company.

Sometimes, it's not always the fault of the interviewee.

anon Report

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Ahhh! My time to shine! These come from my time as an agency recruiter.

I can split my worst ones into two categories: skin-crawlingly awkward and apocalyptically bad.

First (awkward): a woman came in for an interview, and her husband demanded that he be included in the interview. i refused twice but after he started to raise his voice and complain, i said f**k it and took them both into an interview room. she would start to ask a question, he would silence her and ask the same question. when I would ask her a question, he would answer before she had a chance. after i told him that this isn't his interview, it's hers, he started sulking and (i assume) talking s**t about me in what I think was Arabic. meanwhile the wife is just shaking her head and i have a grimace on my face. Soooo awkward. i felt terrible for her and was a hair away from punching her husband for his disrespect.

The apocalyptically (sp? actual word?) bad one was when a woman came in reeking of menthol cigarettes and vodka. she also had the worst teeth i've ever seen on a human. they were like a meth head ate nothing but candy for a decade and then rinsed with dip spit. this in itself wouldn't have made the interview *that* bad, what was worse was that she hadn't read the job description, had lied on her resume, and was combative when i asked about the most basic of skills. screamed and carried on about her problems and discrimination (she was 40ish years old and white) until asked to leave, she didn't get the job.

AlmaMaterFcker , Pressmaster Report

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Not an HR guy, but was in management. Our HR manager told me about a prospect he was interviewing for my location, and how everything was great until the end where they were just chatting and asking general "get to know you" questions. The guy started going in on his casual crack use, and how we shouldn't worry because its just on weekends with his mates out on the lake and that we were invited...

Another tried to parley his years of running drugs up from Mexico and distributing them as management experience...

PayData , Sebastian Herrmann Report

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The worst candidates I had never made it to the interview stage. I had numerous persons sending me cover letters of three sentences ('I apply to this-and-this position', 'I'm available for interview', 'call me for more info') on note paper, written with pencil, with just their phone number on the bottom, no resume. They clearly just applied because they had to for benefits.

The worst interview must have been the guy who was so extremely nervous he was sweating like a pig, threw coffee over his own shirt, forgot most of his English (he was from Belarus) and completely blanked out with every question.
I felt bad for the guy, but this was for a lead engineer position where he would have to have lots of customer meetings so we really couldn't hire him.

Abusu99 , 89STOCKER Report

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Few Favs..

* When asked about his work ethic.. he scoffed and said "I work like a F'n beaver." F Bomb drop in an interview not recommended.

* Had a guy say "is a felony disqualifying?" I stated we had background check criteria and a 3rd party performs our checks. He says "ok but I'd like to tell you about mine, it was for sex with a minor but what happened was I slept with my wife's younger sister and she was underage. So It was a mistake but not as bad as the charge sounds." Holding my poker face during that was a stretch.


One guy asked "Are you guys all uptight with policies, like if I look at a girl's a*s am I going to get fired?"

Resumes and Interviews are comedy gold.

Remembered one more classic: I flew to Seattle to be on an interview panel. While grabbing a cup of coffee for the road, I heard a guy making noises in the breakfast area. I turned around with the rest of the folks in the lobby and proceeding to watch this guy in a suit puke all over his breakfast plate. Like it literally re-filled his plate. I scooted out of there to avoid any mercy puke on my part. Guess who rolls in as the first interview of the day... Could not get that image out of my head...

Edit: Added the last one

ThatCrazyL , Pressmaster Report

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I am a recruiter who works in a recruitment firm. I have been doing this for about 6 years and have seen some and been around some amazing stories. Here are some of the highlights.

IT project manager: Please keep in mind that this candidate had already passed a skills test with flying colors and his resume has amazing experience exactly what we were looking for. The interview was a rubber stamp. At the interview he man was dressed like a homeless person and smelled like he was rotting from the inside out. Interview rooms at an agency like mine are small and we have many of them. This smell emptied out the entire area and had people reschedule their interviews to Starbucks or for other days. It was like a mixture of feet, hot week old diapers and vomit.

Sales manager: This guy is currently employed but wants to make a move. I had head hunted him out of his current job and was looking to move him to a competitor with a larger sales staff for more money. He wanted to interview early in the morning prior to his work day and that was no problem so I met him at my office at 8:00. The issue was he had driven in but was fall down drunk. Like just finished a 26 of rye for breakfast in the elevator up. He was actually getting drunker as I talked to him.

These are just some of the standouts. I've been insulted and belittled, prepositioned and attempted to be bribed by candidates. There is a saying in recruitment. You have to kiss a lot of frogs.

ElderlyPowerUser , Pressmaster Report

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have to say this...
Not HR but...

Watched a guy walk into where I work for an interview...He was wearing a t-shirt that said "Things that get my d**k hard"... He didn't even get the job.

Macollegeguy2000 , mstandret Report

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So I recently got to recruit for a position a lot higher than mine. I do project management, but without the title. Anyway I interviewed this lady with my boss, and this older just bombed the interview process. She came in dressed in a very casual wear(Like a muscle shirt with a logo, and yoga pants), and her hair kind of a mess. Okay no big deal, it's kind of windy. As we walk to the room she starts asking me question like," Do you like your job? What do you dislike? What's base salary?" No biggie, she just wants to get some insight. Well once we sit down with my boss, the older lady starts to treat me like baby. (Now I'm fairly young compared to the others you see doing my job.) Her body language completely changed, and even her speech when talking to me. She turned her body to where I saw her shoulder/back. Even when I asked her questions she wouldn't turn around, and would even interrupt me while I was asking questions. My boss took notice as well as to what was going on and would say "If you have any questions, lets try to hold it till the end." After 30min of that we decided to end the interview and thank her for her time. As you can guess, she didn't get a call back.

That479Guy , Rido81 Report

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A long time ago, I was a manager for GameStop. GameStop was very particular about the interview process. "Here's a sheet, ask these questions"

I don't work that way. I'll get to this later though.

So I have a whole line of seasonal hires lined up. And I have one guy call me and say he's going to be a little late. That's fine, c**p happens, minnesota's weather sucks, I get it.

An hour passes, I have another potential hire come in for their scheduled interview. I take them in the back and the interview goes great. I walk out and there he is.

The only way I can describe this guy is hungover without taking a shower. I could smell the bar on him from across the store. I ask him "Can I help you?"

"Yeah I had an interview today, I've been waiting for 10 minutes."
"You had an interview at noon. I've been waiting for 60 minutes."

I can already tell this is going to be a good time.

We head to the back and I sit down with him, getting slightly intoxicated on the smell of what I suspect is well tequila.

Me - "So why gamestop?"

Him - "I dunno, I like video games and stuff."

Me - "Well not a requirement but it definitely helps."

I'm still trying to keep a sunny attitude, because you never know, maybe this guy is a hidden gem of a person, just had a rough night. I never try to pretend I know what's going on with someone. But I've already got quite a few red flags.

Him -"Yeah, I guess. When are you gonna ask the questions on the sheet?"

Me - "I'm sorry?"

Him - "The questions you're supposed to ask me."

Me - "I don't interview that way. I want to get a feel for the type of person you are and questions like, 'Tell me about a time you worked as part of a team.' don't really get me the information I need to know about you."

Him - "Well that's stupid. That's not how you should interview people."

So now I'm over the guy, but hell I deserve some fun.

Me - "How should I interview people then?"

Him - "The way GameStop says to do it."

Me - "Well GameStop as a corporate entity doesn't have to work with the people I hire on a daily basis. I like to have people that fit with my team. People who don't call in that they'll be a little late and then show up an hour later. People who don't show up to a business where they work or intend to work smelling like the inside of some cheap tequila bottle."

Him - "It wasn't cheap tequila."

Me - "Well, I've heard all I need to hear. I'll call if we make the decision to hire you."

He then proceeded to mumble some stuff under his breath before leaving the office. I have never had my employees run in to make sure I wasn't dead so fast.

"Jesus, we thought he might have killed you."

"He did. On the inside."

This was 6 or so years ago. I'm now a network engineer and don't worry about that s**t.

darkstrx Report

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I was a director at a company and was asked to interview an applicant who I had worked with at a previous company. The last time I saw him, security was escorting him from the building because he had listed one of the co-founders as a reference on an application to moonlight for our direct competition. Co-founder got a call asking "Does this guy work for you?" to which the answer, naturally, was "Not anymore."

We found out he had been freelancing as a consultant for quite some time around our industry, which is just leaps and bounds outside the terms of his employee agreement. All his access was immediately revoked, his phone and laptop were confiscated, and his personal belongings from his desk were mailed to him after we finished the security review. Not sure if the company pursued litigation, but they would have had a case.

So naturally, I tell my boss at the new company that he's untrustworthy, and point out that he lists the consulting on his resume as a current position along with another full-time gig that he's leaving, so he's not even being discreet about it. Boss asks me to interview him anyway because "his skill set looks good."

In the interview, I brought up that had two current jobs, and asked him how much time he was spending on the consulting, and whether that would impact his full-time work. He dodged by saying to me "It hasn't ever been a problem in the past." I was just blown away. Like, I was there, dude. I was the one who revoked your access.

He didn't get the job.

Edit: the problem was that he was sharing the company's trade secrets. I worked with him at an industry leader, he took the training he got there and brought it to our competition. Not only was this in violation of his non-compete and non-disclosure agreements, it was very against the ethos of the company. Everyone else who worked there focused on getting an edge, being better in a competitive industry, while this dude actively worked against that. It's one thing to work for a year and then go freelance if you want to hustle that way, and I respect that, but to lie to your employer in order to sell their secret sauce across the street after hours is deeply uncool.

Edit 2: It's probably important to note that this was a technology company in a competitive landscape. Both old co and new co were highly dependent on proprietary tech, methods, and processes. All this was made really, really explicit and the penalties for violating it were also laid out clearly.

data_wrangler , Pressmaster Report

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My manager did a telephone interview the other day.

He asks her what her qualifications are.

She says they are on her CV

He says they are not (they weren't), that's why he's asking.

She says "A-Levels"

He asks what grades.

She says "Cannot remember"

He stresses a few things about skills required for the job.

She hangs up on him.

Apparently that is the only time in his life he's had someone hang up (or the in-person equivalent which would be to walk out) on him.

Mithious Report

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"What would your friends say are your best qualities?"

"I don't have any friends."

papafree , LightFieldStudios Report

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Looked down the hall to see applicant in blue jeans playing on his phone. His application nunber came up and it was filled out in pencil. Went to save both of us time and tell him no thanks but he had decided to lay out for a nap across half the available chairs.

HE STILL GOT HIRED (MANAGER HIRE).

Everyday, on the phone or asleep in the breakroom. He was still there when I left the company.

anon , RLTheis Report

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Not a recruiter. Insteaad this is about an interview I did with Wendys. This happened last year during the end of my hs senior year. My family doesnt make that much so I wanted to have a job to help pay for my college. The only problem is that my mom is extremely protective and doesnt trust "non-arabs". After months of asking her to let me apply she finally said yes but only nearby since she didnt want to drive me there (my parents didn't want me to get a license fearing I might run away. Im 19 and I still dont have one). After a few applications I managed to land an interview with Wendys and on the day of the interview my mom said she got me a "congratulations gift", a bluetooth ear piece. Turns out she wanted me to go to the interview wearing while she was on call with me. Once I arrive there the hiring manager does give me weird look but doesnt mention the earpiece. Anyways the interview was going well and in the end she starts mention some of the requirements needed for the job such as being able to talk to people handle food and pick up 50 pounds in weight. That's when I hear in my ear the sound of the phone being picked up and about 2 min of screaming how she doesn't want me to hurt my back, this job is dangerous, ect. I try to maintain composure but then my mom tells me to get up and leave right away. I ask the manager to give me a moment and she say ok. I go to the bathroom area pleading with my mom to let me stay however to no avail she tells me to leave without saying a word and that she is waiting for me outside in the car. As I walk out I look at the manager with a sad look ajd just wave good bye to her and without saying a word I leave.

TLDR; mom busts in and doesnt let son get the job

Edit: Thank you all for your kind words and advice. I'm going to attempt getting a job once more and see how it works out

TheHeita , Sanket Mishra Report

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Did a phone interview with a guy whose resume said he lived a couple of hours from the job. It became obvious pretty quickly that he had just filled out the application without looking to see where we were. After asking him more than once if he knew where we were, and him not really giving a solid answer, I asked him directly about how he was going to manage the commute. He said that we weren't that far. When I told him where we were, and how far away he was, there was a brief silence, and he blurted out, "S**t! I'll move!" I told him to wait on a follow up email to find out the next step. He did not move on to the next step. I liked the guy, though.

Deweyrob2 , AnnaStills Report

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