Many of us probably have a story or two about messing up a job interview and missing out on a dream job. It’s such a delicate dance, and so many things can turn a prospective employer off without you ever knowing ahead of time what might do it.
Reasons for these foul-ups vary, but one Redditor may have the most unique reason for losing a lucrative job: sharing a George Costanza gif that didn’t really work.
They’d left their earlier kitchen job.
As OP writes , they’d been out of work for about a month after quitting a kitchen job.
While hunting for a new job, they were pleasantly surprised to see that job offers were in the 40-50k range — quite a bit better than the $17 an hour they’d been making before.
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“I receive a text one day from the owner of a nice place in town, asking if I can interview that day.”
Unfortunately, OP had already accepted a job that day. They told the owner of the restaurant in question that they couldn’t accept.
“That’s a shame. Needed someone to manage our kitchen, starts [at] $60k with benefits,” the owner replied.
Times like this call for a gif.
OP was over the moon at the prospect of making a $60k salary.
“I figured a little humor couldn’t hurt,” they wrote. “I found a gif of George Costanza from Seinfeld turning his head around and raising his eyebrows in a ‘you said HOW much?’ kind of way.”
The gif didn’t do its thing.
The whole point of gifs, as we all know, is that they move. Well, OP’s gif didn’t move.
“[The owner] received a picture of George Costanza just standing there facing away from the camera,” wrote OP. “No context, no explanation, just the image of George standing there with his back turned. Ten minutes go by.”
OP decided to break the silence.
OP texted “I can be there by?” to the restaurant owner.
“I’m pretty busy today,” read the reply.
“I tell my friends about it later and they are choking laughing at the screenshot I saved of this absolute roller coaster of stupidity,” wrote OP. “I did not get the job.”
OP managed to get a different job.
All’s well that ends well, and OP’s kitchen qualifications were enough to secure a job at a good restaurant nearby. But their gif mess-up will live on forever in the annals of Reddit cringe.
“Sounds like the jerk store called and they ran out of him!”
Reddit commenters were quick to share a chuckle over the story and express their appreciation for cringe done well. It was also a good opportunity to share some Seinfeld one-liners.
“[OP] sounds insanely dumb.”
Some commenters weren’t really on OP’s side.
“Who schedules an interview the same day, must be just hours after talking to the guy saying noon works,” wrote one. “Then [OP] says 30 minutes before the interview, hey scratch that, I just took this other job!”
How would you handle this situation?
Honestly, if you’re trying to secure a good job, using gifs to communicate with someone you’ve just made the acquaintance of probably isn’t the best idea.
If this was you, how would you handle it? Let us know in the comments.