'The recruiter started to fold my CV into a paper plane': 20+ Job candidates share their worst interview stories

Author image for Remy Millisky
Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Sep 25, 2024 5:00 PM EDT

What's that one job interview question you hope the interviewer won't ask? For many people, being asked about their biggest weaknesses or five-year goals is intimidating. Others struggle to give examples of how they work well on a team or with customers. Not to mention that no matter how much you practice your questions in front of the mirror at home, when you get to the interview, you may just blank out and forget everything you prepared for. 

These people had some pretty rough interviews, as they shared to r/AskReddit. But it's not for the reasons you may think. While some folks did perform badly in the interview, a lot of candidates simply met the wackiest interviewers ever. Some asked inappropriate questions, while others basically told the candidate why they shouldn't work there. One candidate asked the interviewers why they enjoyed working at that job, which is an excellent question to gauge workplace morale. The interviewers paused for twenty full seconds before coming up with a weak answer. Thank you, next! 

Up next, this food processing CEO caused a giant tomato sauce spill that took two days to clean up, all because he wanted to show off to his bosses. 

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    Cheezburger Image 10408800256
    via Andrej Lišakov on Unsplash+

    This image is for illustration only, and the subjects are models; the image does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • 02
    What was the worst job interview you've had?
    via u/AntonK777
  • 03
    rileysweeney At an interview for a tech startup, they asked me "If you could be any animal, what would you be?" I answered "Otter" because you know, fun, active, work well with their hands and cute as They really debated whether or not to hire me because of that answer because, and I
    via u/rileysweeney
  • 04
    quote, "We only hire predators, never prey." and they weren't sure how to quantify an Otter, because none of them had ever paid the least bit of attention to any sort of animal documentary or read biology or you know, visited a zoo recently. God that job sucked hard.
    via u/rileysweeney
  • 05
    baking_ I drove an hour away to an interview at 8:00 am. I waited outside the interviewer's office until 8:30 am with no one to tell me where to go or where she was. Finally, another employee walks by and I ask if they know where this woman is to interview me. They had no idea where she was, why
    via u/Baking_B****
  • 06
    she was late, and told me if she wasn't there yet, I should leave because she probably forgot (...ok?). I decide 45 minutes is the cut off (especially standing in a government building looking like a creep waiting. 8:45 on the dot she rushes in, flustered, wet hair, and in casual yoga pants. With all the resurgence of patience I could muster, I
    via u/Baking_B****
  • 07
    greeted her and was met with a passive aggressive scolding of how the interview was at 9, not 8. (Uh... I tripled checked the email asking me to interview and it was 8. We had conducted a phone interview and she followed up with an email request to an in person interview at 8. I was 100% positive on this, I hate being late.)
    via u/Baking_B****
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    Even with this, and i did say, "I'm certain you said 8 am, maam" she wasn't having it. Conversely, she also went on about why she was late, surmounting in, she went to the gym and forgot her underwear to change into and had to stop at a store and buy new ones after working out, before coming. to work. She told me this. In the first 5 minutes. Why? I didn't ask
    via u/Baking_B****
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    her! Regardless, she looks at my resume, apparently for the first time, because she proceeds to tell me how it is unimpressive and my graduate studies should have yielded numerous publications after 1.5 years. (In my field, most don't publish until after 3-4 years.)
    via u/Baking_B****
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    Even still, she kept saying how I had "moved up the interview time", showed me the work spaces and told me I "probably wouldn't be interested in what they do there". I politely told her I had driven, at her request, to be there and interview for employment, I was VERY interested. She waved me off.
    via u/Baking_B****
  • 11
    As we left, I just tried to hold it together (I was very poor and very desperate for a job), thanked her, and she told me how great it is to work for the government, how good the benefits, the pension, the time off are. On and on. She said, "If you can find an opening working for the government, you should try to check it out and get hired on!" HOL UP
    via u/Baking_B****
  • 12
    I just looked her in the face and said, "Yes, ma'am, that was my hope with today's interview. Thank you." And left. And sat in my car and bawled the whole drive home like the desperate loser I was. That was a low one, to be sure.
    via u/Baking_B****
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    IgnasP Was invited for an IT "helper" position when I was 17. Would help fix computers for people at a shody PC fix shop. They asked me "Whats the first thing you check if a customer calls and says their screen doesnt turn on?"
    via u/IgnasP
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    I said "Well, you gotta check if they have it plugged into a socket" They laughed and said thank you that will be it. Then led me to the door and gently pushed me out.
    via u/IgnasP
  • 15
    Testosteroxin In a group interview, the interviewer crossed a line through my name on the list he had after I told him what I graduated in. This was within the first 5 minutes of a 40 minute meeting...
    via u/Testosteroxin
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    [deleted] My first Interview ever was at DQ and I accidently knocked a 90 year old woman over.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 17
    DigitXero I drove an hour to be interviewed for a computer repair tech job at a rental company, and 3/4 of the way through the interview they told me I was perfect for the position, however they recently removed the position altogether. They then asked if I'd be willing to repair furniture instead until the position opened again.
    via u/DigitXero
  • 18
    Bender3455 Job was for a vibration analysis engineer. I knew how to do the job well. I knew the pay should be around 95k, and they stated 55k (in the interview). When I tried to discuss my point, they said, "don't worry, there's plenty of overtime".
    via u/Bender3455
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    They also mentioned since they weren't involved with many balancings at the moment, I would assist the cleaning crew with a lot of the cleanings. I've never been so uninterested in a job in my life.
    via u/Bender3455
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    HereComesThe... Not that bad, but I remember Taco Bell asked me what type animal I would be if I could be anything. Like do you want me to say?" I would be a fire ant so I could work efficiently with my closest friends!" Sixteen year old me said an eagle, because they're strong and they can fly. Meh...
    via u/HereComesTheSarcasm
  • 21
    Rainbow-Civilian An agency sent me for an interview and said "the starting salary is £33000". The interview went fairly well until the interviewer said "so what sort of salary are you looking for?" So using the info I had from the agency I said. "Well, I think £33000 is a fair starting point"....the interviewer
    via u/Rainbow-Civilian
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    practically threw me out! He started to shout about wasting his time because I expected to be paid a huge salary and who did I think I was... he was paying £20,000
    via u/Rainbow-Civilian
  • 23
    fibericon Yeah I have one that sticks out. I applied to a government branch as a network admin. The newspaper ad asked for a bachelors degree. They called me into the interview. When I got there, the first thing the interviewer said was, "We wanted someone with a masters degree. Why did you apply?"
    via u/fibericon
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    Now, I wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt. Maybe they had other interviews that day and got them mixed up. happens. I just informed the interviewer that the ad I applied for requested a bachelors degree, and confirmed the position I was interviewing for. "No, we definitely wanted someone with a master's degree. So, again, why did
    via u/fibericon
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    you apply?" "If you wanted someone with a master's degree, why did you bother calling me in for an interview?" "You're very and unprofessional." Yeah, you up at every junction thus far, but I'm the one who's unprofessional. and
    via u/fibericon
  • 26
    neednintendo This was quite a while ago, maybe about 2010, and the recession was still hitting the job market pretty badly. Here I am, graduated from college a few years before, and looking for anything. I interviewed for a job calling people trying to recruit them for two year college, I think it was National American University. I had experience with customer service and
    via u/neednintendo
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    some phone work doing tech support at my college, and this would be within my abilities. About half way through the interview, I could tell it was going poorly. The guy interviewing me was asking me to give a sales pitch on recruiting and I was failing. We got to the end, and he was up front about saying I wouldn't be a good fit for what they needed. However, he did give me a bunch of great
    via u/neednintendo
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    advice on how to properly interview and to be able to sell myself to a prospective. employer. He even did a little coaching session with me. I knew he could see | was desperate (And I was: I was unemployed) and he took time to help me out for my future attempts. I did take his advice and was able to get a decent job eventually. I have always used the tips he gave me
    via u/neednintendo
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    and they have helped me greatly. So to that guy, thanks!
    via u/neednintendo
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    Cleverpseudon... Two: 1- the recruiter started to fold my cv into a paper plane during the interview. (Didnt get the job) 2- was pawned off unsuspectingly to the CFO of a company five mins into my interview with the CEO. The CFO had no idea what to ask so he went the "tell me your biggest flaws" way. I was so
    via u/Cleverpseudonym4
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    dejected that I said "you'll have to hire me to find out". Interview ended five mins later. I spent 30 mins crying at my hubris and stupidity in the parking lot. Got the job.
    via u/Cleverpseudonym4
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    freshlydelivere... Five interview rounds with the last interview round being with the CEO all for an entry level customer service job. During the last interview, the CEO said you weren't allowed to get sick, and you weren't allowed to leave at the end of the day until all of the work had been done. So even though the job was 8-4 the CEO said customer service reps
    via u/freshlydeliveredegg-
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    often stayed until 6 PM or later. She also asked if I would be comfortable secretly reporting to her about what the customer service team is up to. I declined the job offer and the company harassed me with emails asking why and what they did wrong. Really glad I didn't take the job.
    via u/freshlydeliveredegg-
  • 34
    V... I interviewed for a project management position, the interviewer describes the job: basically it was pure research and data entry of potential clients, then cold- calling them and documenting the results. The job ad mentioned exactly none of this but was an average project management job ad, else I
    via u/Vaiara
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    wouldn't have applied in the first place. I asked what exactly was the project management part, and got told that could (could, not would) be down the road, maybe 2-5 years in, but really only maybe. I thanked them for the interview opportunity, we wrapped things up and I politely left.
    via u/Vaiara
  • 36
    [... Showed up looking good in my suit with a ton of knowledge on Capital Partners. It turned out I had researched the wrong company named Capital Partners.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 37
    O.. A "marketing internship" the summer before my senior year of college. I remember showing the job description to my dad and he told me it was going to be door to door sales. I didn't really believe him and I showed up at 9 am for the interview. Right away I knew dad was right about it not being a true marketing internship.
    via u/OrangeTree81
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    There were five other applicants also waiting in the lobby with me, all for the same position. Behind a closed door we could hear people shouting and laughing and the receptionist explained that they liked to have fun and this was their Tuesday morning trivia game. While the employees were playing their game the receptionist made small talk for over half an hour. I'm wondering why
    via u/OrangeTree81
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    they dragged us in at 9 if they knew no one would be able to interview us then. Finally trivia ends and it's time for us to get paired up with a current employee to shadow for the day. This was not explained beforehand and not what I would consider an interview. After all the other applicants are paired up and leave (to do door to door sales or whatever) I'm told my
    via u/OrangeTree81
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    person wasn't there that day. Now I'm really annoyed about 1. Being lied to about the interview process and 2. The fact that they attempt to reschedule me when they knew my person wasn't going to be there. The receptionist takes me into another room to show me a diagram of the company structure that is a pyramid and tell me that pay
    via u/OrangeTree81
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    is commissioned based. I leave and am relieved a week later when I'm told I didn't get the job.
    via u/OrangeTree81
  • 42
    ZestyFix Had a phone interview and the woman kept asking more and more intrusive questions, kept hinting I'm a total who's totally unfit for the job (it was the easiest job description ever) and jumping to conclusions about my life that were completely untrue. For example I found out that being a freelancer who gets
    via u/ZestyFix
  • 43
    a lot of decently paid work each month is apparently living off my parents. She kept going on and on like that for quite a while before I told her to off and hung up. Didn't really need that job too badly but it was in a different country so the trravel aspect was the main reason. Years later I found out it was a "stress interview" which apparently is a thing. people. those
    via u/ZestyFix
  • 44
    sbb214 As the interviewer: candidate responded to a question I asked with, "is that really how you want to spend our time together, by asking me that question?" when I wrote up my notes I included that bit, it obviously came up in the debrief and a huge red flag. Other interviewers also had similar, though not as
    via u/sbb214
  • 45
    serious, feedback on the candidate. He was not hired. As the interviewee: interviewer immediately launched into, with a rough accusatory tone: "you're a job hopper, why are you a job hopper?" when I was being recruited for a role a few years ago. I'd been working, successfully, as an independent consultant for7 or 8 years which she equated with 'job hopping'.
    via u/sbb214
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    I ended that interview pretty quickly with a, "I don't think this is going to be a good fit" and gave the recruiter some pointed feedback - he seemed to acknowledge that she was difficult.
    via u/sbb214
  • 47
    iforgotmyfirstn... At an interview to be a county street sweeper, guy asks me if I have a girlfriend, proceeds to rant for 5 minutes how young people dont get married anymore. Then he asks me what I want to avoid at the job. At
    via u/iforgotmyfirstnameFU
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    the time I had no idea how to answer as I'd never been asked that in an interview before. So I ask him to clarify, to which he just repeats the question, over and over until he gets super angry that I dont know how to answer that, then asks me to leave. To this day, biggest interview I've had.
    via u/iforgotmyfirstnameFU
  • 49
    PomegranatePl... Interviewer, putting candy bars on the table to open the interview: Have a candy bar. Do you want Hershey's or Snickers? Me: Neither, thanks. I: Go ahead, pick one. M: I don't want any candy now, thanks.
    via u/PomegranatePlanet
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    I: Take one, Hershey's or Snickers. M: Okay, I'll take the Snickers. I: No, I want the Snickers. You take the Hershey's. M: No, thank you.
    via u/PomegranatePlanet
  • 51
    hardware5434 Had an interview, went well. I was offering the job on the spot and accepted. The HR manager went to get the needed paperwork, came back 10 mins later and said "I must have forgot that we already filled this position. I'm sorry, but we don't have an opening. I could call you if something opens back up". I said no thank you.
    via u/hardware5434
  • 52
    paesanossbits Video chat interview: red flag #1 the interview was with 10 interviewers (I was told it would be 1-on-1). Red flag #2: towards the end they asked if I had any questions. When I asked: "Do you all enjoy working here?" they all looked at each other nervously for
    via u/paesanossbits
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    about 20 seconds until someone said: "Sure. I mean, as much as you can enjoy work, I guess." Nope.
    via u/paesanossbits

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