50 Times Job Seekers Ruined Their Own Interviews

I once interviewed a flat earther who admitted in the interview within the fist 10min that the main reason he wanted to work in aviation was to be closer to airplanes so he could prove they were holograms since *clearly* they shouldn’t be able to fly since the earth is flat.

To this day I’m not sure if he was just trying to show someone “hey look I’m applying for jobs idk why they all say no” or he genuinely believed it, but either way I let the interview go on for like an hour and him just rant his little heart out.

Ended up going in a different direction haha.

There were several 

- The company was a defense contractor, selling widgets to the US military. The candidate gave me a lecture about the evil American Empire and how it was everyone’s moral duty to stop it. 

- He bragged about his time at another company and the project he had completed single handed. The problem was that I had worked at that company at that time and was in charge of that project. I had never heard of him. (Turns out he was hired a year after I left). He was literally taking credit for something I did. 

- The candidate claimed to have a degree from the University of New Jersey. He even showed me a Xerox copy of his diploma. (There is no UNJ. Our state university is Rutgers)

- He asked if the HR manager's breasts were real or if she had had some work done.

I wasn’t the one conducting, but I had a job interview for a driving position. Well, in the parking lot before the job interview, I accidentally rear ended the managers car . Safe to say I didn’t get the job.

She sat down, plunked her purse on the desk and started with, "I need to let you know, I have issues.".

At the end I asked if he had any questions for me. He said, "yeah, that sign on the front door.... Is that a rule or more of a guideline?" I was confused. I said, "push to enter? probably a rule. that's how doors work." He said, "no, no. The one that says no guns allowed on premises. I don't know if you've noticed but I'm kinda dressed like a cowboy." I hadn't noticed, but then I did. Cowboy boots, a westernish vest. He went on, "I have holsters all over. For me putting on my guns in the morning is like putting on my underwear." Important lesson here is never mention your guns or underwear in a first interview. I thanked him for his time and escorted him out.

I don’t like people. Just put me in an office and leave me alone. For a job helping people at the library.

I once had someone tell me, "Well, my goal is to be in charge and run the place, so if I see a leadership opportunity, I take it. If I think management is weak, I'll step in and step up to the plate, it's my turn, ya know? I don't like a weak manager and I'm more than willing to take over if necessary."

I didn't need someone who would be gunning for my job, undermining me, and attempting a management coup - I needed someone who was going to focus on the work at hand and do their job as directed.


I also had someone once apply for a weekend position, then tell me they couldn't work weekends due to religious reasons, so their solution was to hire them for a weekday position, then transfer a weekday employee to the weekends - and if I didn't do that, it was religious discrimination, and she'd sue us. Because threatening to sue the hiring manager during the job interview is totally going to get you the position.

Been on the other side:

I had the lead interviewer raise his voice to me when he didn't understand what I was conveying. I don't mean he just got louder, he was basically shouting at me. I looked at the other interviewer and he looked all sheepish, which told me that this is the lead interviewer's personality and it would be exponentially worse if I actually worked for him. I finished the interview and made a point of letting the company know I was withdrawing my application (I had other options at the time).

Years later I got confirmation from someone who worked there that the guy was toxic and scared away staff all the time.

Like the saying goes, when they show you who they are, believe them.

I worked in a restaurant and I had to walk out a problematic dishwasher who gave attitude to servers and would disappear for hours, so we fired him.

Fast forward three years and I'm at a different restaurant working with another colleague from the previous one. The kitchen manager come back and says "do you know this guy? He's applying here and his resume has the same restaurant you were at."

I said "yep. Don't hire him, he'll give you headaches." The manager says, "did you want to come out and tell him no?" I said, "sure"

I walked out into the dining room, saw the guy, he sees me and turns white as a ghost. I laugh and said "Hell no." And walked to the back.

Kick rocks, Jeremy.

Thank you for asking this is one of my favorite stories.

Me: “Do you work well with others?”
Him: “Well I don’t know. I don’t really like it. Like, right now I work with a team and like two of them are crippled so I don’t really enjoy it. Well, I guess one guy is crippled the other is just a little handicapped.”
At one point he said something insane and I put my head in my hands so he couldn’t see me laugh (unprofessional on my part).
Him: “Oh are you tired?”
Me: “No, I’m alright.”
Him: “Well, you look REALLY tired.”
(I wasn’t btw. I just don’t wear makeup to work)

He also showed up to the interview with a 44 oz orange slurpee and sucked loudly from the straw throughout the interview. It was 9 o’clock in the morning.

In a behavioral interview assessing leadership skills, etc.

Q: Did you enjoy having an intern?
A: Oh, yes, I was able to offload lots of work to him.

Not a word about mentoring, collaborating, etc.

In our interviews for entry level construction jobs, we ask a stereotypical ethics question, basically “if you saw someone on site steal an expensive tool and put it in their car what would you do.”

Everyone knows to say something like “I would let a supervisor know” or “I would try and stop them”.

One guy I interviewed said verbatim “I ain’t no snitch.”

I respected the honesty but also stopped the interview right there.

The interview was fine but something was off. Answers were overly rehearsed and there was just an off vibe I was getting. After he left I was contemplating a second interview versus cutting bait. While I was putting away the paperwork one of the other staff members came back in from a break. The interviewee bragged to the staff member they were gonna get hired and get promoted right away so the staff member better start kissing up now (red flag 1) and that they hadn't slept for over 36 hours as they were still high on crack(red flags 2 through 10)

He did not get a call back.

"I can't really do the test unless I have chatGPT open".

It's scary that it happened several times, too.

Back when I was in corporate, a candidate for a middle management role walked into our conference room and before a handshake or an intro, asked if I was there to take notes for the 'boys' meeting.' Suffice it to say, the interview didn't get much better from there.

Brought their parents to sit in on the interview to "make sure I am fair" in my decision making process.

The person was literally running every question through an AI and reading the output to me (via zoom).

Showed up at 11:40 when the scheduled time was 10:30, confirmed via phone call and text, was wearing jeans and an untucked button down tee. when i told him he was late he said "i thought it was at 11:30" to which i replied "so you'd still be late?" and asked him to leave, then he threw a fit for me not giving him a chance.

the guy who showed up on time and was well dressed became a personal friend of mine, and replaced me when i left my position there. and is still running that place 8 years later to great success.

Hiring for a clerk position in a pharmacy. Lady couldn't place a series of 10 names in alphabetical order. We had to start testing new hires because we find out one of our current employees couldn't do it and would just hang patients scripts wherever  :(.

I had someone tell me that he looked up my Facebook, tell me he knows my father, and then ask me about mutual friends. The Facebook look up isn't abnormal, but making it a series of questions in the interview absolutely is. It felt so invasive and icky. I locked my Facebook down after that and did not hire the guy. I couldn't even tell you if he was qualified for the job. Every time I asked him about his experience, he tried to steer the conversation back to people we knew in common.