Job Interviewer Demands Interviewee Quit His Side Hustle in an Unrelated Field if He Wants to Work For Them

Author image for Emmy Pratt
Emmy Pratt • Senior Editor
Jun 17, 2026 8:30 PM EDT

Why would he quit something that's making him money?

Job interviews are a tough nut to crack. As the interviewee, it feels like the interviewer has all the power, and you have to read their cues and predict what they want to have a shot at the job. You feel like you have to answer every single question, no matter how silly or pointless. "Are you a morning or a night person?" obviously has a right and a wrong answer when you're interviewing for a job that starts at 8 AM. "What is your biggest weakness?" has so many wrong answers, including but not limited to, "I work too hard." When you're in an interviewing stage of life, you have your four STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, Result) stories rolling around in your head, and you have to be incredibly strategic about which answers you give to which behavioral questions.

Some questions in job interviews are actually a trap. They don't want to hire someone who has goals and ambitions beyond working for their company. They don't want to hire people who have hobbies that enrich their lives. They want someone whose only life goal is to work as hard as possible and make their company a lot of money, without caring whether they're making any money themselves. There's a reason companies ask prospective employees about their salary expectations rather than stating the salary range outright. They're trying to manipulate them into thinking they can't ask for more. 

The job interviewee in this story told the interviewer that he wasn't willing to give up his side hustle in order to work there. It cost him the job, but it also saved him from abandoning a source of income. 

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  • A job interviewer telling a job interviewee that he doesn't want to hire somebody who has a side business for extra income.
    via Getty Images (Unsplash+)

    A representation of a job interviewer telling a job interviewee that he doesn't want to hire somebody who has a side business for extra income. 

  • A job interviewer asked me if I was willing to quit my side business if they followed through with an offer.

    I went to an interview today and the recruiter saw that I had a side business in an unrelated field which brings me some side income.
    via u/Engineer9918
  • Even after I explicitly said I would do it in my free time and not during their business hours, she got the nerve to tell me that if I was not willing to abandon the business as
    via u/Engineer9918
  • they had a policy that no employee could own a side business, it would affect the opportunity. I politely said that I would not quit my business and
    via u/Engineer9918
  • said if it would affect the opportunity then so be it. I also said that anyways their salary wasn't high enough for me to leave any side income out the door. They finished the
    via u/Engineer9918
  • process and I walked out. It got me thinking. What kind of ridiculous requirement is that? Quit making money so you can depend on our miserable salary? F that.
    via u/Engineer9918
  • Goldman250 "You have a policy that no employee could own a side business? Can I see that in writing please? Is that in the employee handbook, or in the employment contract?"
    via u/Goldman250
  • Tulsa OUfan Is the company going to pay me for the hours off the clock to NOT do that work?
    via u/TulsaOUfan
  • a small business owner, whose main job is not paying her off the clock to not have extra sources of income.
    via Getty Images (Unsplash+)

    A woman pretending to be a small business owner, whose main job is not paying her off the clock to not have extra sources of income. 

  • GoodMix392 I've asked to be shown things in writing and watched the persons face go through various stages of though as they try to figure out what "in writing" means and then ultimately get angry with me for outsmarting them.
    via u/GoodMix392
  • Tom-o-matic I guess some companies confuse themselves with being the unhealthy insecure girl/boyfriend in a destructive relationship
    via u/Tom-o-matic
  • No_Tap_8983 Imao exactly. had a job once that made you sign a "loyalty clause" basically saying your off hours belonged to them too. felt less like an employer and more like someone who needed to know your location at all times
    via u/No_Tap_8983
  • Tall_Ad_972 I am a teacher in Germany and when I entered teacher training, the employer (the state) forced me to give up my side "job" (more of a hobby really) of teaching one 90 min bouldering class per week (in the evening). I didnt know beforehand that they were allowed to require me to give up all side jobs.
    via u/Tall_Ad_972
  • A German boulderer, who was forced to give up his side-hustle of teaching bouldering after he got hired to be a teacher by the state.
    via Nathan Cima

    A man who could or could not be a German boulderer, who was forced to give up his side-hustle of teaching bouldering after he got hired to be a teacher by the state. 

  • I quit at the bouldering gym and continued to give the class for free. At the end of my teacher training they re- employed me and paid me my "salary" for the 18 months I had been missing out on. I no longer work as a teacher in state employment.
    via u/Tall_Ad_972
  • Tarahumara3x They want you dependent on their pathetic paychecks because if you have options, you may not be as subservient as they need you to be. Employers are your enemy.
    via u/Tarahumara3x
  • Test_After Also why some companies seek out final year students and demand they drop out if they want the job. All the expertise of a graduate, at half the price, and the knowledge the competition will not give this candidate a look-in.
    via u/Test_After
  • kyle1234513 normally its to prevent competition, standard monopoly tactics and prevent rival businesses. but nowadays its about full on control, you need to be able to work for them 24/7, theyre not interested in workers, they want slaves.
    via u/kyle1234513

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employee side hustle work job interview
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