'I read him the riot act in front of staff and customers': 20+ Disastrous job interviews that candidates walked out on

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    [Serious] Job applicants who walked out of an interview before it was over, why did you do it? serious replies only Tell us a story about the time you decided it was better to bail on a job interview than stay with it until the end.
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    g253 Them: "We have a very dedicated team, we often stay after normal office hours, is that ok with you?" Me: "Sure, I mean I'm single without kids, so if it's adequately compensated I'm happy to do as much overtime as necessary, no problem." Them: "Oh no no, we're passionate about the work we do here, so overtime is not paid." Me: "Okay then, thank you for your time and goodbye."
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    + [deleted] The job was advertised as morning shift. The interviewer starts to explain how I would be used as a wild card to fill any shift that was needed including short notice.
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    Edit: Got another one. Went to a job interview for a listing listed as job at a huge high tech firm on the west coast. All it was was a recruiter scouting for people. There was no interviews with the any company, he just wanted to build my profile. He explained that if he found me a job I would be an employee of his for 2 years before I would be a employee for the actually company. I wanted to bail then, but as soon as he said I
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    wouldn't have any benefits and minimum wage - I noped the out. Got up, grabbed my coat. I was shaking my head while putting on my coat and as I was walking out he said, "I'll just put you down as a lost cause." I am familiar with head hunters and was working with two other head hunters at that time. His terms were just straight robbery.
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    Oppodeldoc I accidentally walked out on an interview. I had driven four hours to apply for a bar/gaming room job in preparation for moving cities for study (I had purchased an apartment, so I kinda had to take job searching seriously). I had spent about 20 minutes talking to the gaming manager (during which time the venue manager joined us), when some guy came up to them and started chatting to them. I sat there for maybe 5-
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    10 minutes, wondering if the interview was over, when I decided that most questions had been asked and my existence had barely been acknowledged since the guy had rocked up. I half interrupted, shook one of the interviewers hands and said thanks, and exited the premises with no idea how the interview went. Was crossing
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    the road to my car, when one of the interviewers chased me across the road and offered me the position (turns out the guy interrupting the interview was one of the owners of the venue). I sometimes wonder how I get through life considering how socially inept I can be.
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    [deleted] I was told about 40 minutes into an interview that the job I was interviewing for was going to be a 11pm-6am position. This had never been mentioned in the original job posting, or in the preliminary call prior to the interview. This wasn't for a gas station job or anything either. High-profile law firm who basically needed a graphic designer to put together presentation materials overnight for use the following day. They also
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    set it so that I'd be working hours just barely under the limit to qualify as a full-time employee with benefits. Again, none of this was ever mentioned in the job description up to this point. The last straw was that they gave me a 30 minute test to prove I could work on a deadline, based on the actual materials I'd be working with- chickenscratch post-it notes, unintelligible audio- recordings, and other horrible sources I had to base my designs on. I walked out of the test about five minutes
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    _Cassidy Just after I had been given three months notice of layoff due to office closure from a job that I really liked, I took off early one day for an interview across town. When I arrived, I entered a waiting room full of people at least twice my age, in suits, resumes in hand. Upon seeing this sight, I realized I had very little chance at the position being offered, but since I was there I may as well try.
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    What I didn't expect is that we were all scheduled to interview together. We were all herded into a conference room, where the group interview commenced. After a few rounds of questions, learning each others qualifications, how we would handle various situations, and so on, we collectively learned that this position was part time, not what had been advertised, and paid a mere $9 an hour. I walked out along with three other people.
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    Data Demon I walked out of an interview before it began once. The interview was scheduled for 10am, which I doublechecked from the voicemail that they left. I showed up about ten minutes early, signed in, all that jazz... and waited. and waited. and waited.
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    45 minutes later I got up, asked the receptionist (who looked seriously embarrassed) to let my interviewer know I was no longer interested, and left. Two hours later I got a call asking if I had forgotten the appointment. I laughed and hung up.
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    [deleted] I went into the interview with my prospective supervisor. I looked around the office and noticed that the garbage cans were full, the walls and carpet dirty and the supervisor's desk was old and had chips out of it. So I mentioned that the company didn't seem to be doing any basic upkeep and then asked point blank "Is this a good company to work for?". She replied no and hung her head. I said "thanks" and walked out.
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    [deleted] Back in high school, I had an interview at Cold Stone Creamery. They made us break into groups where we had to create and sing a catchy tip song. I'm really shy so I wanted to walk out before the singing commenced, but I really needed a job so I decided to try and stick it out. I sang the stupid song. After the songs, they interviewed us one on one. For one question, they basically asked us what
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    we thought the weaknesses of our group members were. I told them I didn't know the people well enough to say and that I really didn't want to get a job by bad mouthing someone else. As I got up to leave, they asked me if I wanted to hear what some of my group members had said about me... I just kept walking. Should have gone with my gut and left before the singing.
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    Armand_Hammer I walked out on an interview only once, and it was because the people organising it were insane. They had arranged a large scale interviewing process for the entire city. After getting there early I realised there were quite a few applicants so I didn't mind the fact that I had to wait for about 3 hours. Eventually they asked a group of three of us into an office where we waited again for about 45 minutes.
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    Again I was happy just to have an interview so I waited. Eventually I met with a manager for the store who asked the standard range of questions and I thought I did pretty well. At the end of the interview though I was asked to sign a waiver and when I asked why I found out that they had recorded the entire interview for the purpose of an episode of a current affairs and didn't tell me beforehand. After waiting for so long just to be disrespected like that I just walked out. I happened to catch
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    room. Thank God i didn't sign that waiver because the angle of the investigation was that unemployed people didn't put any effort into getting jobs (completely ignoring the fact that everyone had to wait for hours just to get a chance). Tldr: got hidden cammed at a job interview for a TV show (Edit: I am an Australian.)
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    Orange Pod Too many leading questions- not stuff that would be illegal, but would get the same responses. "So how do you spend your weekends, what's your sunday morning look like?"
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    I recently went to an interview for a bank in my area. First, the woman I spoke to on the phone misrepresented herself. She'd told me she was the assistant branch manager. Upon arrival, she told me she was Head Teller. The Branch manager would be arriving shortly. I waited for an hour. After an hour of me double checking the time and wondering if I'd gotten there instead of early, I got up to leave.
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    The Head Teller said she'd be there in 5 minutes, but at that point I just figured I obviously wasn't important enough. I left. I got a call back 3 days. later apologizing and asking if they could set up another meeting, at a bank I was nowhere near. I politely declined.
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    Mdsao0 It was a security guard job. I was way overqualified but need to pay bills. Sat down across from a dead eyed young women who worked in HR. She read interview questions from a computer screen in monotone. Typing my answers up as we went. Was kind of and snappy. I answered all the questions really well but sometimes she didn't feel it filled the exact questions (I'm guessing that, she was really unhelpful). Like she would ask, "Please describe a situation or day where you and your
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    coworkers were given an unexpected assignment, difficulty, or mistake and had to multitask to balance the new workload with current duties." I went into detail about how that was a daily experience at one of my positions. Nope, didn't cut it with her. She stared blankly and said that didn't answer the question. Then she repeats the long ass question word for word. Keep in mind she was reading the question right from the screen so I get she was probably following specific instructions. As much a
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    about the entire thing. You could tell she really didn't want to be there. After trying to answer one question three times, each time her repeating the question like I was retarded. She wouldn't even explain what I was saying wrong. I just apologized saying I changed my mind about the job and walked about without explanation. Got a much better paralegal job 2 weeks later.
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    It doesn't sound that bad but you didn't hear the totally unjustified contempt in her voice. So uncalled for. I tried to kill it with kindness, just didn't work.
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    RicottaPuffs I never got as far as the interview. So much was wrong. I received a call asking me about my availability to attend an interview, based on my posting on a profesional website. i indicated that I was currently in the middle of a project, but, would be available to interview in two weeks. The woman on the phone yelled, "Then call me back when you are available".! Click. She called me. She yelled at me. I wrote that company off.
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    Two days later she called me again and asked to set up the interview. She said she would call me as soon as she had finished a meeting. (YOU called me. Then you tell me you don't have time to finish the conversation that YOU initiated)? Wrote her and her entire corporation off. Get a phone call three hours later. So and so, wants you to call her to schedule an interview on Monday. I definitely, no longer want this job, but, I do want to see if my predictions come true. I call on Monday. The pers
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    that it was the woman caller's day off. I am a genius. They call me and give me the run around. ? Two weeks later...yesterday, they call me again. Again a person asks me to call at a later date, to schedule an interview with a woman who couldn't bother to call me herself. I told them that based on their behavior in the past month on the phone, that I did not have any desire to work for their company. I broke my own code and fired off an email to their director of Human Resources.
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    This company is a luxury retirement community. There are golf courses, hospitals, clinics, four to six bedroom homes.clubhouses, town homes, etc. It seemed like t might be a lovely place to work in my field. If they would treat me in such an unprofessional manner, how must they treat the residents of the community? There were three total callers involved. I can only imagine the motives for calling someone, asking for an interview and then behaving in such a strange fashion.
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    Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope.
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    Ucantalas There was one job I had applied for, I was getting desperate for work as I hadn't had a job in months. It was a fast food position, at the other end of the city, a 45- minute bus ride away if traffic was nice. I got there for the interview, everything was going well.
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    Then the manager mentioned that the position would only have a few hours per week, less than 20, at minimum wage. I did some metal math and realized that it wouldn't be enough to cover my monthly bills. At that point I thanked him for his time, and told him that I just couldn't take the position as I wouldn't be making enough to pay my bills. It ended amicably, he said he understood and was sorry that he just couldn't offer more hours.
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    KingGreqo It was for a political job. The guy gave me a salary range the evening before. When I came in for the offer, he said that they could only pay 40% of what he told me 16 hours prior.
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    rdt156 It was a bait and switch. Looked like a film/tv production job, but turned out to be this weird sales/marketing position. Outbound calls and traveling to stores to sell displays, something like that. I wasn't but I called the guy out. Said the job he was talking about didn't really match the description on craigslist (that
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    should've been my first indicator....). He said something like "It's a job, right?" and shrugged. I thanked him for his time and walked out. I couldn't have been there more than 5 minutes.
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    [deleted] They flat out lied to me about what I was interviewing for. I was told it was for a technician trainee position but it was really for an unpaid internship that had 12 hour days and a mandatory 6 month period before I could move on to a paid job (which would have started out at $11/hr.)
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    When I was told, I just told him it wasn't worth my time and got up to walk out. He got all mad and said "Son, you have to show your worth first" and I just said "Sir, I have bills to pay and as much as I'd like to conform to your wishes so that I could have a career, I dont live in a fantasy world where I can just focus on work."
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    Skangryph reposting from the last time this question came up: Background: Australian chef, Usually breakfast chef. I was looking for a job as a chef, I have the right skills, experience and background, SO I get in interview at what seems to be a Chinese food takeaway store that has recently been closed down and sold to the person who is interviewing me.
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    The store is at the opening to a food court, he explains he wants to open up a breakfast/coffee store and goes on and on about the coffee machine he's going to buy and I start wondering where this is going, I'm a chef not barista. He proceeds to show me the kitchen, where there is only two stove tops, the rest of the fit-out is these MASSIVE woks that were obviously used by the previous business and it was not suitable if I was going to have to make to-order cafe style breakfasts.
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    I could not cook on the woks and two single stove tops are simply not enough if I have more than two orders at all, I think maybe he is planning to re-fit the place and continue the interview, Then he takes me on a tour of the nearby foodcourt, there a Mcdonalds and lots of cafes and he says to me "I want to make what they don't, I want to have customers coming for what we will be selling, big AUSSIE breakfast!". Then we return to the empty store and he wants me to list 'Aussie" breakfast food I
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    lists for each, Then suddenly he adds I will have to work from 7am till 3pm, Not only cooking 'big Aussie breakfast' to order but I will also have to make coffee's to order from the new machine he is supposedly buying, By myself. Be a chef and a barista, open the store by myself everything, red flags are going up EVERYWHERE. second bombshell: I will not be paid hourly, I will be paid a flat rate of 400 a week, I almost nope out of there but wait long enough for him to hit me with his finisher: "
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    this will change over to an Indian restaurant" I briefly wonder how he is going to do this with giant woks and two stove-tops and just shake my head, thank him for the interview and leave. Also two weeks later I had gotten a new job in a nice sane little cafe and the guy calls me and begs for me to come work at his stupid breakfast/baristaand indian takeaway job with it's big dumb woks because other people he have interviewed have not wanted the job, please?, he even upped it to 450 flat a week,
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    I wonder if he ever got that place off the ground?.
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    I got a call about a marketing position I applied to in NYC. The posting seemed legit, but after I applied the red flags started flying. Their website said nothing about what they do or what services they offered. Just about how much their employees looooved working at this place. Then they made the mistake of calling me within 30 minutes of applying. I know I had a good resume, but a response within a half hour was absurd.
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    Then they just raved about me, told me they wanted to move me up to the group interview in three days (on Monday) in NYC. At this point I said yes, but I was highly suspicious of their super fast pace. Then came the research. I looked into the phone number they called from and that lead me to a company with a similar name, which showed me that they were being deceptive of who they really are. The company was in the business of selling energy.
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    Basically in the area, there are companies that resell energy from the electricity provider. No call, i just didn't go.
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    wilechile I had read great reviews online about a local Montessori daycare right down the street from my house. Since I am Montessori trained, I made it my goal to work there as a teaching assistant. Even though they weren't actively hiring, I submitted my resume once a year for 3 years. The third year, I got a call. I arrived at the interview elated. I couldn't wait to work for them!
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    I walked in and sat down with the owner. She started off by explaining how the new position had just opened up. Apparently, Susan, the lead preschool teacher for the last 10 years was recently let go because the owner's youngest daughter just finished her Montessori training and the owner wanted to promote her into the lead teacher position. The owner told Susan that she could either work part-time as the daughter's assistant (with a huge pay cut) or she could leave. So, as you might imagine, Su
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    absolutely no twinge of ethical awareness and a chilling lack of emotional investment. I was horrified. Then, I was told that I had the option to either be the aforementioned daughter's assistant teacher or her other daughter's assistant teacher. Yes, joy of joys: the owner and her two daughters ran all of the classrooms. No nepotism there... As I sat reeling from this information, with a growing sense of nausea and anxiety, the boss then began to prattle off a laundry list of daily tasks
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    and responsibilities as well as personal pet peeves. "We teach children manners here! They need to learn to push in their chairs! They have to walk AROUND the rugs, not ON them!" etc.. etc... I look at the clock and realize that the boss has been talking for 20 minutes straight and she hasn't asked me any questions. In fact, she hasn't even let me speak yet. I politely pardon myself for interrupting her and say, "I'm sorry, can I just ask, what are the hours for this position...?" To which she r
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    JUST FINISH?! LET ME JUST FINISH WHAT I WAS SAYING!" and then she delves into another 30 minutes (I'm not kidding you - I'm watching the clock) of rules, commands, and other babble. During her half-hour speech, I find myself getting increasingly anxious. The walls are closing in. I'm fading in and out, wondering if maybe I can fake needing to vomit and run out of the room and then just... keep running, get in my car, and drive away. No, I say to myself: I am 30 years old. That is just pathetic.
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    going to be scared off by this mean old ! Finally, it's been almost an hour. I grab my keys and set my portfolio decidedly on my lap. "I'm sorry." I say. "I have been here for 55 minutes and you haven't asked me a single question, you haven't allowed me to ask you a single question, and from what I can tell, this job is not going to be a good fit for me. I don't want to waste any more of your time."
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    I get up to leave and the woman freaks out and starts arguing with me about how I was the one who sent her the resume in the first place and what makes me think that I wouldn't be a good fit, and how she'd probably just have to fire me anyway. I excuse myself and scoot out of the room as fast as possible. I think that by the time I get home, I'm safe and it's all over. I open up my email to see that the woman has written a furious tirade about how... and horrible I am. She goes on to tell me how
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    disrespected in all of her life and how she is "shredding" my resume. (hahaa!) TL/DR: Psycho women who love power will sometimes use nepotism and abusive behavior to control daycare centers & other social service facilities. Be very cautious where you send your kids.
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    boardmonkey I applied for a position as a manager of a restaurant. At the time I was already a General Manager at another restaurant, and I had years of management experience. They called me and asked to set up an interview, which I accepted. When I arrived 15 minutes early I checked in, and was told to take a seat, where I waited for 45 minutes past my scheduled interview time. When I was finally interviewed the interviewer was mumbling something about, " servers" then ranted to me
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    about how upset he was that a server was refusing to pick-up a night shift. Then he used a bunch of derogatory terms for women about that server. As the interview progressed he would start side tangents about his staff, and past managers. He then told me that while I applied to a managers position they actually didn't have one available, and that I could serve tables until a position became available. I asked when that might be, and he said maybe 6-8 months.
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    I read him the riot act in front of staff and customers about how much of my time he wasted, and how he should never talked about his staff like that, and about his professionalism. 8 months later the restaurant closed.

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