For most people, ajob interviewis 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.
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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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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 toldBored Pandaabout its origins.“That made me think of asking this question on Reddit, where everyone would come with an even crazier story.”
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 toldBored Pandaabout its origins.
“That made me think of asking this question on Reddit, where everyone would come with an even crazier story.”
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.
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?”
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?”
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.
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.
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 2024surveyof 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.
Modern recruitment and its dead ends can certainly be bizarre. According to a 2024surveyof 1,641 hiring managers:
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.
“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
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.”
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.”
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.
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.
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”.
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.
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!
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?
“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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
“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.
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.
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.”.
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.
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.
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I got told I was going to do an interview over chat, which turned out to be with an “AI chat bot”, not an actual person. The chatbot asked me 30+ questions, and I answered them all with a fair amount of detail. Afterwards, I received an email that had analysis of all my answers and what it told them about my personality etc. Their analysis was complete garbage, and clearly seemed to work off trigger words rather than actual analysis of the entire response. They noted at the end of the document that it was the analysis and not my responses that would be sent to the company that was looking to fill the role….
During the summer break for college, I applied for a general position at a Taco Bell in my small town of about 6000. (Yeah, this story will be great…)Manager calls and sets up a time for an interview for about 12:30 on a Wednesday. I get there at 12:20 and they say to get a drink and we’ll be with you shortly. 15 minutes later, they say that they’re too busy, come back tomorrow about 1.I go back the next day at about 12:50 and the manager says get something to drink and I’ll be out there momentarily, we’re just finishing up from our lunch rush. That was the last time I saw her. I sat, waiting in an empty dining room with a scarce few cars in the drive-thru, for two hours before I got a refill and left.
I went into an interview with a known gaming company, and the JavaScript I wrote as the interview process as a test was used on their production web site. I didn’t get the job, but a friend said they used his CSS to style text boxes during his tech interview. None of the agencies here in LA blacklisted them after many candidates told them interviews were free work.
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Not me, but my husband was asked who he voted for and his personal feelings on his daughter’s ability to, one day (she was only like… 7 months old at the time), get birth control without his permission. He told the guy that his personal opinions on such things didn’t seem relevant to an accounting position. He didn’t get offered the job.
I interviewed for a position at an agency that did comms and tech work. The office allowed pets and half way through the interview the owners dog came into the interview and bit me. The owner barely even acknowledged that it happened. For some reason I still finished the interview, but when they called me back for a final interview I declined. The guy acted like I was being completely unreasonable for not wanting to go back in.
¿How old do you think I am?Hmm.. I don’t know… 40?You have the job. I’m 60.Wow…
Weird series of questions:Interviewer (picks up phone): what’s your wife’s number.Me: um, she’s in the US and it’s 2 am there. Why would you want to call my wife?Interviewer: is your mother also in the US?Me: yes. Why?Interviewer: well, say I would call your wife or mother. What would would they say is your most annoying habit?
Completely technical interview. Then at the end of the interview, they asked me if I was a fruit or a vegetable, what would I be and why. I laughed, and asked them to repeat the question. They did, quite earnestly. I said I would be a granny smith apple, since I was a little tart, but once baked into a pie with other apples, I was delicious. It was a group interview over the phone. They murmured that it was a good answer and thanked me for my time. I did not get the job.
Had an interview with the CEO. We do a little intro but then he says that hes “not like other bosses”, he doesn’t ask questions during the interview, he expects the candidate to. So I play along and he’s impressed, brings in a VP so they can skip the 2nd interview. I leave, knowing I made a good impression but that I would never work there. I had an offer in my email before EOD but they lowballed me so I didn’t even counter.He just wanted to feel special with someone letting him talk, which is the key to most hiring managers. But getting to know a candidate this way is ineffective af.
I had one call me to come in after a phone interview. So, I go in person. It was for an insurance sales position. I get to the office, walk in, and a lady greats me at the door. The office was just a hallway of other offices with doors, no open layout. I tell her I am there for an interview. Immediately, the sales manager (not the owner I am supposed to interviewer with slams his office door). I am thinking damn, it was 2 seconds convo, and we weren’t even loud.Then, the owner comes out of his office and takes me back to his office. We sit down, and the first thing he does is pull out a self-help book. Slams it on the desk and rambles for like 15 minutes about how the book turned his life around and all this stuff, not even asking me anything about me. Then he finished up and was like we are a team here (red flag word). Asks me how I handle negativity, and I’m like I generally ignore it and keep doing my work and try to stay positive. Then he is like how do you sell. I tell him, I like to get the information I need and make the phone call as smooth as possible and as short as possible. He then tells me that is wrong, I should keep the customer on the phone as long as I can. Like wtf?
Had a panel interview one time where each of the 5 people interviewing me had a very different idea of what I was interviewing for. The manager asked me, “after hearing more about the position, do you think this position should be full-time or part-time?” They even asked me what I thought the position title should be and what the pay should be. I said I thought I was interviewing for a full-time communications job. Needless to say I tried to wrap it up as quickly as possible. Never heard back from them.
“Do you have a girlfriend? Why did you broke up with your old girlfriend? “In a technical interview with a few senior employees of the company, when I replied " I don’t see how this is related to the job I’m applying for” they all got defensive and were like " For example, we are all married, we’re asking if you have any social problems"I was seriously confused and still unemployed afterwards.
Not me, but wife was asked if she knew how to bake… This was for an accounting job.Apparently the office is pretty big on ‘treat days’, so they wanted to know if she’d bring stuff
Was asked what I was doing the year between graduating HS and starting college, which told me they hadn’t bothered to read that I was a foreign exchange student in Ceuta, Spain from 1990 to 1991 so I just told them I was in a war zone, which was kinda the truth.
Most of my adult, “professional” interviews have been pretty normal, downright cliche even.I’ll never forget one of my first interviews as a teenager, though. It was at a Blockbuster video (yes I’m that old). The manager took my handwritten job application and sat me down in his little grungy office in the back of the building. He didn’t bother asking about my previous experience or anything. The vast majority of the interview was him presenting some sort of candy or snack and saying “sell this to me.” I got the impression they had a massive overstock of candy and other movie snacks, and that was his only concern at the time.I didn’t get the job.
They asked what’s important in customer service when dealing with stakeholders and high end clients.I said “setting expectations and overperforming based on that"Somehow, one of the interviewers brought up his ex and how he did that but she still broke up with him.The other 2 interviewers were shocked and I said that sucks.Got the job cuz I think the other 2 felt awful for me.
I wasn’t expecting a multiple position, and multiple people interview…. I was told I wasn’t picked because I didn’t make enough eye contact… which making eye contact with multiple people overlapping questions was difficult so…
Interviewer: “I see you graduated from [school] in 2013. Did you know a Ms. Jane Doe?”Me: “Oh yeah, I know her! She was in my first year classes.”Interviewer: “Ms. Doe interviewed yesterday. Why should we hire you over her?”I basically responded with “You should hire us both, ideally.” Then I said why I’d be good for the job overall.Neither of us got the job.
I was interviewing a potential employee with my supervisor and the last question he asked her was “How are you with dealing with….stupid people?” It was completely out of left field and informal based on the questions we were previously asking. You could tell the question threw her but she answered. And she ended up getting the job.
My friend had an interview at Panera which ended up being three separate interviews and she said they made them sit in a circle and talk about the texture of bread and how it made them feel….
You obviously have a great resume. Why haven’t you gotten another offer yet? Is something wrong with you?
Did you have a close relationship with your father? I’m a woman (engineer) and this was a totally out of left field question.
Very low stakes job while in school…I was asked a question and my reply was “great question, I asked that one last year when I was on the interview panel”.Crazy was they were filming a police/SWAT tv show outside our building during one set of interviews so some poor guy had to concentrate while there was a fake riot going on outside the window.
“What is your opinion on wealthy people?“I was 22, fresh out of college, and my first interview was working at a private, small bank. I wasn’t expecting that question.
I woke up early to get my exes car out of the snow so i could get to the interview but it was practically frozen solid. I literally call the place (Ann Taylor Loft) and they’re like ok. It ended up being so bad I needed 4-5 to dig/push while I hit the gas. When I got there the interview started normally, until one interviewer decides to start berating me about leaving early/nonstop harassing me about getting there late. It was so incredibly rude and invasive I thought about walking out (I was younger, if it happened now they would’ve had a problem lol) but I stuck it out anyway. It was probably the only place I ended up emailing HR to remove/pull my application for.
I was being interviewed for a IT Helpdesk job at a bank a number of years ago and was asked “Why are manhole covers round?”. I was later told after answering wrong that it was to see if the person would say “I don’t know” (Correct answer) or just try and BS their way out of it.
Why did you say good morning when you know perfectly well it’s afternoon
I had a interview for a logistics company here in Pittsburgh. After 3 interviews memorizing all 50 states for a states test,math test,and company knowledge test. I passed all of them with a score above 90% and they still said no to me.I got let go from my last job because of things out of my control. Forgot to mention the also wanted references…..I guess none of my references vouched for me.. it’s been really hard to get interviews after being laid off. I do have a 6 months emergency fund while working and deciding to restart my marketing agency again.
My funniest experience in an interview, was forgetting which interview this was. I can’t remember what gave it away, but they caught on to this and asked.
I had just gotten out of the military and I was interviewing for a job at Purina with this middle aged guy. I didn’t have much in my military background that was applicable on the technical side, so I was trying to talk to my other skills and experiences. One of the things I did as an AWACS crewman was fly escorts for the president. I thought that sounded pretty impressive so I brought it up and kinda bragged a bitHoo boy.This guy starts going off about how I “don’t want to hear his opinion on the president” (guess who it was at the time…) and all that b******t.Glad I didn’t end up working there. Would’ve hated smelling like dog food every day anyway.
“If you could be any of the original 150 Pokemon, which one would you choose?“I said Ditto, because I could be any of them, but that was a lie. If I could be any Pokemon, I would be Pidgeot.
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