Red Flag Job Interview Moments When People Knew They Weren't Gonna Take The Gig

Author image for Eric Lund
Eric Lund
Feb 28, 2022 2:00 PM EST

We've all had moments in our lives when we've been happy to take whatever job we can get. Luckily, once you get a few years of experience under your belt, you get to the point where, not only do you have the ability to turn down horrible job offers, but you've also been to enough weird job interviews that you have the wisdom to look for job interview red flags.

Luckily for prospective job seekers, bad bosses are pretty stupid, argumentative, terrible liars who will usually show their true colors during the interview. And sometimes they'll just say some totally bonkers garbage like "I need you to sign this piece of paper saying that you are fine with my not paying you for 5 months."

Working for a crap employer is one of the most sure-fire ways to make yourself miserable, and it looks like these people were able to dodge some pretty serious bullets with their gut feelings and a dash of "oh hell na."

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  • 01
    Font - breid7718 · 22 hr. ago I had a 3 hour interview where everyone on the interviewing team was friendly, enthusiastic and making constant comments about "you'd fit in well here", "you're a gamer? we are too - we could organize some LAN games", "you know XX? We really need someone with that experience". Then the C-Levels came in. They feigned disinterest, had side conversations and comments to me were all in the line of "maybe we'll go with you, maybe we'll just outsource - why don't you conv
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  • 02
    Font - IAmDotorg · 19 hr. ago Three of four people who interviewed me spent the entire time talking about how bad the company was and why I really don't want the job. The fourth was the CEO. His story was different. I didn't take the job.
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  • 03
    Font - fargmania · 21 hr. ago Stupid interview games. The dickheads put me at a low table with a low chair, placed water in a carafe with an empty glass - all just out of reach so that I'd have to stand and reach for it, and then interviewed me as a panel of six employees sitting at a tall table with tall chairs. The questions were all more about my character then my skills. The whole thing was so obviously staged to make me feel uncomfortable. An interview is a conversation, not an interrogatio
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  • 04
    Font - asstyrant · 22 hr. ago When she started explaining that my 'role' in handling payments would involve depositing 'client payments' into my own personal account before transferring it to 'the company'. I may be a dumbass, but I didn't fall off the turnip- truck yesterday.
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  • 05
    Human body - kyle71473 · 19 hr. ago They called me back for a... 5th interview... after that I had enough and told them it was getting a bit much and I'll take a pass.
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  • 06
    Font - SSOJ16 - 19 hr. ago I was told the person I would be supporting as an Executive Assistant was on his third wife, he has 6 kids and that I should include the wife in certain decisions so that she doesn't feel insecure (being the 3rd wife and all). Ain't nobody got time for 3rd wife insecurity drama
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  • 07
    Human body - meepbeep12 · 22 hr. ago Asked if I had a family first interview. They don't want someone who has to leave on time to take care of kids or is interested in their own life
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  • 08
    Font - risenphoenixkai · 21 hr. ago I interviewed for a job that was ostensibly a tech role: updating and maintaining the company's website. Midway through this hourlong interview, they asked me if I'm comfortable with sales, because they said half the role would be cold- calling customers and there'd be minimum monthly sales targets to meet. I am one of the most introverted people to ever introvert, so no, I would not be comfortable with that. I wouldn't have even applied for the job if they'd
    via AskReddit
  • 09
    Font - poe_todd · 22 hr. ago Wasn't the interview per se, but I caught a glimpse of a whiteboard in HR that had a bullet point list that seemed to be things to talk about to convince people to join the company, and one of the items was, "Not a cult."
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  • 10
    Font - karaokechameleon - 18 hr. ago Back in 2008, I saw a posting on Craigslist for a writing job. During the interview, it became clear to me that the actual job was to create and maintain hundreds of fake email accounts and post fake reviews for products I never used. I hadn't heard of this concept before (hey it was 2008), so I just chuckled at one point and blurted out, "Isn't that illegal though?" Thankfully I never heard back from them.
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  • 11
    Font - FreeSpeechMatter1776 · 20 hr. ago Asked me if I would be willing to take a three month deferment while under a "Probationary" period. If after 3 months, they didn't like me, they'd let me go and give me a check for $0.10 on the dollar for every dollar/hr worked. If they kept me, I'd get a check for all my hours, plust a bonus of $500 for office supplies, but I could only buy out of their selected catalogue. I almost laughed in her face.
    via AskReddit
  • 12
    Font - CapnFang · 20 hr. ago I tried getting a job as a telemarketer once. The interviewer had me go into another room and call her, and she would pretend to be a person I'm trying to get money from. I started into the scrip, and she said, "Oh, but I'm just a poor college student with no money!" Even though I knew she was just pretending, I still felt terrible. I knew that I could never do that work in real life. I told her that my coming there was a bad idea and I had to leave.
    via AskReddit
  • 13
    Font - redpandafury · 22 hr. ago The interview was uneventful, except for at the very end, when he asked: "Is there anything I need to know about you now, before you start, that would be a problem if it came out later?" Me, entirely confused: "...Like what?" "Oh, I don't know, if you have a criminal record for example, or if you're gay"
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  • 14
    Font - JimboSliceCAVA · 19 hr. ago This was a grad school interview, so slightly different, but still fully convinced me to divert my focus to other programs and interviews completely. I was asked to prepare a five minute presentation that I would give via zoom at the start of the interview. About a minute into the presentation, the interviewer got up and walked away from her laptop before returning about a minute later. She missed 20% of my presentation. I kept giving my presentation because th
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  • 15
    Font - godzillastailor · 19 hr. ago Back when I was unemployed long term, I was applying for roles anywhere I could find really. Got an interview for a retail position, not great but better than nothing. First interview is a group one, I get through that fine. Second interview is with the manager of the store. He spends like 10 minutes telling me how shit my resume is.
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  • 16
    Font - thecylonstrikesback · 21 hr. ago I went to interview for an entry level marketing position in the film industry. Two hours in the bos slipped in that I wouldn't be paid for the first few months while they trained me. It was a full time job. He also wanted me to start immediately that day using my personal laptop. I made up an excuse and left shortly after.
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  • 17
    Font - fxcassell · 21 hr. ago I interviewed at a "no excuses" charter school. They gave a scenario where a student comes in to class and doesn't have his homework done. He says it's because he spent the previous night in the ER because his brother was shot. School policy is that unfinished homework is a mandatory detention. I could not, in good conscience, answer that question the way they wanted.
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  • 18
    Font - Punkstarbabe - 18 hr. ago "and what is the starting wage for this job?" "Does it matter?" BYE
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  • 19
    Font - SpeakerCareless · 23 hr. ago One of the interview questions was would I be willing to immediately fire a single mother who depended on the company Heath insurance for her register being off 50 cents.
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  • 20
    Font - Arcinbiblo12 - 19 hr. ago My brother once had an interview for a cooking position at a local restaurant. He walked in and immediately ran into a female employee who was crying and yelling "F..k you John!" John was the guy who interviewed him.
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  • 21
    Font - alpha_keny_body · 23 hr. ago · edited 19 hr. ago had me wait for 2 and a half hours while the guy that was supposed to interview me was in his office with a buddy and they were laughing (and probably drinking)
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  • 22
    Font - placeholderNull - 22 hr. ago - edited 12 hr. ago Not me, but this kid in my scout troop applied for a custodian job or smth once. He said that the guy interviewing him was trying to subtly turn "custodian" into "personal assistant." Some of the added tasks were to pick up Starbucks for his boss, drop off his dry cleaning, and work unpaid overtime to polish his desk. The kid wasn't even 18 yet.
    via AskReddit
  • 23
    Font - feistynurse50 - 20 hr. ago The doctor interviewing me asked what I feel I can improve upon. I said that I hoped to have better boundaries with my patients and my job. She immediately said, "Oh, I have NO boundaries. You can't have that when you own your own practice." That was my red flag moment I won't ever work for someone that cannot recognize the worth of having appropriate boundaries. It is a recipe for burnout.
    via AskReddit
  • 24
    Font - Oudeis16 - 18 hr. ago The CEO of the company asked us (yes, it was a group interview) to make a vow. He said that every time we made a mistake, his accountants would calculate how much money our mistake cost the company. He asked for us to promise that any time this happened, we would voluntarily choose to pay the company for what they determined their lost revenue was.
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  • 25
    Font - begoniann · 19 hr. ago He asked me if I was a crier because I "“looked like a crier." I was fresh out of law school and just told him I didn't think it would be a good fit when he offered me the job. If someone asked me that now, I would walk out of the interview.
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  • 26
    Font - Surprise_Asian - 20 hr. ago I made a joke about being multilingual but that Japanese wouldn't be useful for this job. (There we're near no Japanese speakers where the job was) the interviewer insisted I speak Japanese to this Chinese woman who was in the building to prove I could speak it. Then when I refused because the lady was CHINESE he laughed and said he knew I was lying. I walked out.
    via AskReddit

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