Job Interview Horror Stories

[Maliciouslarynx]

I had 3 phone interviews with corporate Burger king for an HR internship in Miami.

First two interviews, I killed them.

Then got on the line with the CFO for a case study interview.

She start asking me Accounting/Business questions in case scenarios (I hadn't even took accounting courses yet!)

her: what's the main profit lines for BK and how they can be increased

me:

her: not really...

]

her: if you had to start a BK with 500,000 where would you allocate costs and drive customers in?

me:

her: I was thinking more of this....

her: what would be the pricing strategies to roll out a new menu

me:

her: not exactly..
..
.

She closed the convo talking about how important accounting knowledge is in HR

 

[MillionMills]

One time I had a job interview about an hour away, Got up and got ready like usual, everything good. I was gonna kill this shyt. Soon as I left the house, my belt buckle broke. I had no alternative and it was like 7am so none of the stores were open. Now I'm panicking I was calling my homies and none of them picked up. F it, I gotta go.

So I went to the interview with my hands in my pockets to keep my pants from falling off my ass. I'm sagging in a got damn suit

Get inside and they seat me immediately

After the interview they say "come with me so I can show you around the office" I'm on some

I had to keep my hands in my pocket the entire time. Awkward as fukk

I didnt get a call back but after the interview I wasnt feelin the job anyway because the pay didnt match the job description online

Have 1 belt brehs

 

[Saiyajin]

I had 3 phone interviews with corporate Burger king for an HR internship in Miami.

First two interviews, I killed them.

Then got on the line with the CFO for a case study interview.

She start asking me Accounting/Business questions in case scenarios (I hadn't even took accounting courses yet!)

her: what's the main profit lines for BK and how they can be increased

me:

her: not really...

]

her: if you had to start a BK with 500,000 where would you allocate costs and drive customers in?

me:

her: I was thinking more of this....

her: what would be the pricing strategies to roll out a new menu

me:

her: not exactly..
..
.

She closed the convo talking about how important accounting knowledge is in HR

these phrases are ETHER in corporate speak

 

[Saiyajin]

One time I had a job interview about an hour away, Got up and got ready like usual, everything good. I was gonna kill this shyt. Soon as I left the house, my belt buckle broke. I had no alternative and it was like 7am so none of the stores were open. Now I'm panicking I was calling my homies and none of them picked up. F it, I gotta go.

So I went to the interview with my hands in my pockets to keep my pants from falling off my ass. I'm sagging in a got damn suit

Get inside and they seat me immediately

After the interview they say "come with me so I can show you around the office" I'm on some

I had to keep my hands in my pocket the entire team. Awkward as fukk

I didnt get a call back but after the interview I wasnt feelin the job anyway because the pay didnt match the job description online

Have 1 belt brehs

this happened to me not at a job interview but my belt broke i was fukked but i went and bought some plastic bags and tied them together into a rope like thing and then looped it through and tied it put my shirt over shyt was genius

 

[The5thLetter]

Check this website for great work and job search advice
They also have a section of shytty interviews bad interviewer behavior — Ask a Manager
Here's a weird one:

I was held hostage and insulted at a group interview of 45 people

I saw a job posting for an HR assistant and sent in my resume. I got a call from the HR director, telling me they wanted me to come in for an interview. I didn’t think there was anything suspicious about it because the company was real and everything and gave me a physical address. The salary was average for the industry, and there were none of the usual red flags.

So I take the day off work to go to this interview. I show up early, and the receptionist gives me a paper to fill out. Then, despite being led to believe that I was interviewing with my future boss, I’m informed that they’ve gotten so many applications that they’re going to do a “group” interview and then whittle it down from there. I’m thinking that there will be 10 people in there, max, and am not really worried.

Well, when I got to the other room, there are 45 people in there and there was a “team” of employees with a detailed speech and PowerPoint ready to go. I realized then that they’d had this all prepared before, and never had any intention of having a normal interview. I’m thinking I want to leave, but since they took my ID to make a copy of it (this was before I saw the group of people), they said I would have to wait until after the presentation because the receptionist had gone to lunch and left the IDs locked in her office. Yeah.

So I listen to this presentation, and it’s basically a sales job for life insurance for union members. The “Regional Agent Manager” got up and started talking about how college degrees “give you arrogance” and how people with them think they’re too good for honest work. He continued, telling us that unlike the rest of the chumps with degrees, he didn’t end up “digging wells in Africa” (don’t people usually do that for free in the Peace Corps or for charities?) or “living in a box” and he had made good by taking advantage of this “exciting business opportunity!” As you can probably imagine, it only got worse from here.

He proceeded to say that if anybody “did him wrong,” they “would never do business in this town again” (I’m serious) because he was very well connected and drove an Audi. Then another guy came and talked about how he went from making $30,000 a year at the “first step” of the program to making $150,000 after 18 months (!), and how anyone can do that if they have the right work ethic. He described the product we’d be selling, and to be honest, I didn’t believe a word of it – the cost of this was allegedly $500 a year for the customer, but it claimed to be constantly giving them money for various things. Where was all that money coming from? Not the premiums.

And they were heavily targeting this toward working class people who didn’t know much about insurance – they actually *said* this. The whole thing had an air of snake oil – they were all “we’re here for the working man!” but it was so sleazy. He also made a big deal about how they never, ever advertise and are barely known because of how “great” they are. Personally, I think it’s because if they were more widely known, they’d be visible and someone might get onto whatever it is they’re doing.

Mr. Audi comes back, telling us about how he “doesn’t even really need to hire anyone” but that “if anyone here is good enough and has the right stuff,” he might be able to work with them. He said that if you gave 100%, he could work with you, but if you gave 99%, he would have to “show you the door” because you were just wasting Warren Buffett’s time (Warren Buffett is – allegedly – the principal investor in this company). He then says that we’ll have to buy some dubious-sounding license for $500 (shocking, I know) and went on and on about how honest and straightforward the company is.

They finally let us go at like 1:30 (I had arrived at 10:00), and it turned out they didn’t even have any HR jobs open, nor any of the other jobs they had posted for.

 

[MillionMills]

Check this website for great work and job search advice
They also have a section of shytty interviews bad interviewer behavior — Ask a Manager
Here's a weird one:

I was held hostage and insulted at a group interview of 45 people

I saw a job posting for an HR assistant and sent in my resume. I got a call from the HR director, telling me they wanted me to come in for an interview. I didn’t think there was anything suspicious about it because the company was real and everything and gave me a physical address. The salary was average for the industry, and there were none of the usual red flags.

So I take the day off work to go to this interview. I show up early, and the receptionist gives me a paper to fill out. Then, despite being led to believe that I was interviewing with my future boss, I’m informed that they’ve gotten so many applications that they’re going to do a “group” interview and then whittle it down from there. I’m thinking that there will be 10 people in there, max, and am not really worried.

Well, when I got to the other room, there are 45 people in there and there was a “team” of employees with a detailed speech and PowerPoint ready to go. I realized then that they’d had this all prepared before, and never had any intention of having a normal interview. I’m thinking I want to leave, but since they took my ID to make a copy of it (this was before I saw the group of people), they said I would have to wait until after the presentation because the receptionist had gone to lunch and left the IDs locked in her office. Yeah.

So I listen to this presentation, and it’s basically a sales job for life insurance for union members. The “Regional Agent Manager” got up and started talking about how college degrees “give you arrogance” and how people with them think they’re too good for honest work. He continued, telling us that unlike the rest of the chumps with degrees, he didn’t end up “digging wells in Africa” (don’t people usually do that for free in the Peace Corps or for charities?) or “living in a box” and he had made good by taking advantage of this “exciting business opportunity!” As you can probably imagine, it only got worse from here.

He proceeded to say that if anybody “did him wrong,” they “would never do business in this town again” (I’m serious) because he was very well connected and drove an Audi. Then another guy came and talked about how he went from making $30,000 a year at the “first step” of the program to making $150,000 after 18 months (!), and how anyone can do that if they have the right work ethic. He described the product we’d be selling, and to be honest, I didn’t believe a word of it – the cost of this was allegedly $500 a year for the customer, but it claimed to be constantly giving them money for various things. Where was all that money coming from? Not the premiums.

And they were heavily targeting this toward working class people who didn’t know much about insurance – they actually *said* this. The whole thing had an air of snake oil – they were all “we’re here for the working man!” but it was so sleazy. He also made a big deal about how they never, ever advertise and are barely known because of how “great” they are. Personally, I think it’s because if they were more widely known, they’d be visible and someone might get onto whatever it is they’re doing.

Mr. Audi comes back, telling us about how he “doesn’t even really need to hire anyone” but that “if anyone here is good enough and has the right stuff,” he might be able to work with them. He said that if you gave 100%, he could work with you, but if you gave 99%, he would have to “show you the door” because you were just wasting Warren Buffett’s time (Warren Buffett is – allegedly – the principal investor in this company). He then says that we’ll have to buy some dubious-sounding license for $500 (shocking, I know) and went on and on about how honest and straightforward the company is.

They finally let us go at like 1:30 (I had arrived at 10:00), and it turned out they didn’t even have any HR jobs open, nor any of the other jobs they had posted for.

I would have thrown hands to get my ID back and get the fukk up outta there

 

[patscorpio]

it was a job that mentioned having unix skills as an optional but not required..i thought to myself ok no problem i knew a little bit about unix....when i got there the dude who interviewed started throwing unix questions at me which had me like then sat me at the terminal to test which had me like ..needless to say i left that place knowing tight as mufukka knowing for sure i was not getting a call back. learned a valuable lesson that day...whatever skills are required make sure im solid in them..first and last interview that ill fail a skills assessment test

 

[FLATOP]

Havent had a bad interview yet

But havent had a jobyet either

Just cuz I dont get the job doesnt mean it was bad

 

[Skip b]

this was a phone interview though and i got caught extremely off guard cause my job history wasn't as deep at the time

i got terminated and i was there for like a year and a half

I got caught off gaurd once before too by phone a nuclear power plant callled me like at 6 in the morning asking me simple math and questions about cities states and random true and false and I was like they were paying like 30 hourly

 

[Scholar]

I had 3 phone interviews with corporate Burger king for an HR internship in Miami.

First two interviews, I killed them.

Then got on the line with the CFO for a case study interview.

She start asking me Accounting/Business questions in case scenarios (I hadn't even took accounting courses yet!)

her: what's the main profit lines for BK and how they can be increased

me:

her: not really...

]

her: if you had to start a BK with 500,000 where would you allocate costs and drive customers in?

me:

her: I was thinking more of this....

her: what would be the pricing strategies to roll out a new menu

me:

her: not exactly..
..
.

She closed the convo talking about how important accounting knowledge is in HR

The cross . That's the legit feeling when you get bodied by an interview question

 

[714562]

Got interviewed by two people, a woman and a man. I think dude was in the military himself, so you know he wasn't playing about being tardy. He basically had this face the entire interview ----->

So they asking me questions, and of course they ask what's your weakness. In my mind I'm like I can flip this whole being late right now if I can get them to laugh about it.

So I say 'punctuality'

The woman is like

The man is

There is no worse feeling during a job interview than telling a joke and having it bomb.

During some interviews where I felt loose, I would tell the interviewer that did stand-up as a hobby. They would immediately ask me to tell a joke and sometimes I obliged. Sometimes the joke landed, but more often than not they'd just stare at me like, "I don't get it."

I don't do that shyt anymore. In fact, I don't really tell jokes at all. I just act sociable.

 

[allshaftnohead]

I had an interview for a forestry job once. It was consulting, and I had my degree in biology, so I figured I could sort of finesse it, and I was just trying to get something for the time being. I knew I was gonna have to know about trees in the area, so I glanced at them the night before. Dude was cool, I was doing really well with all the "What would you do in this scenario", "why would you be good", all the regular questions, and I could tell I was doing real well in the interview.

Then he pops up and says he has to go get some shyt, and comes back with a stack of papers with trees on them. He asks me to ID them, and I just got the damn buckeye. Out of 15

Some of the others I guess close, but not the exact type of maple or whatever.

Dude went from at the beginning of the interview to

We talked for a few more minutes and then he said they don't have any current openings. AT AN INTERVIEW FOR AN OPEN JOB


Oh well, that would have sucked anyway.


Also had one that I got offered but turned down, around the same time when I was just desperate. Overqualified for it but I said fukk it, they call me and ask about when I'm thinking moneywise. I said 30-35 an hour so like 60+k, and lady said oh well we start at 15. Super awkward pause and then I just go "I can come in to meet whenever".

Told them I couldn't go that low, they said they would work with me on money, then sent me an offer for 15.

 

[badtguy]

Be 23 with a resume that says 10 yrs experience brehs​

 

[Wink Beaufield]

Be 23 with a resume that says 10 yrs experience brehs​

"Every summer since I was 13, I would work at the corner store."

That's how you finesse that one. Now if you was claiming that while applying for something outside of retail and customer service, then yeah

 

[SadimirPutin]

I had 3 phone interviews with corporate Burger king for an HR internship in Miami.

First two interviews, I killed them.

Then got on the line with the CFO for a case study interview.

She start asking me Accounting/Business questions in case scenarios (I hadn't even took accounting courses yet!)

her: what's the main profit lines for BK and how they can be increased

me:

her: not really...

]

her: if you had to start a BK with 500,000 where would you allocate costs and drive customers in?

me:

her: I was thinking more of this....

her: what would be the pricing strategies to roll out a new menu

me:

her: not exactly..
..
.

She closed the convo talking about how important accounting knowledge is in HR

she grilled you like that for a fukking internship?