Job interviews are inherently stressful situations. Just one mistake and the prospective employer might wind up showing you the door.
But sometimes, things are reversed, and there are so many red flags that it becomes necessary to just nope on out of there.
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Let’s dig into the r/AskReddit thread, ” What happened during an interview that immediately made you realize you wouldn’t take the job no matter how much they offered you? “.
Do you have a heart?
“One of the interview questions was would I be willing to immediately fire a single mother who depended on the company Health insurance for her register being off 50 cents.”
Zero boundaries.
“The doctor interviewing me asked what I feel I can improve upon. I said that I hoped to have better boundaries with my patients and my job. She immediately said, ‘Oh, I have NO boundaries. You can’t have that when you own your own practice.'”
That last part though.
“The interview was uneventful, except for at the very end, when he asked: ‘Is there anything I need to know about you now, before you start, that would be a problem if it came out later?’
Me, entirely confused: ‘…Like what?’
“‘Oh, I don’t know, if you have a criminal record for example, or if you’re gay.'”
C’mon, John.
“My brother once had an interview for a cooking position at a local restaurant. He walked in and immediately ran into a female employee who was crying and yelling “[Expletive] you John!”
“John was the guy who interviewed him.”
A lawsuit waiting to happen.
“He was looking for a ‘personal assistant’ and I don’t even think he asked me my name, much less anything about qualifications. But he did sit next to me on the couch in his office (the only seating other than his desk chair) and told me I looked perfect and to come back tomorrow morning to start right away. I felt lucky to get out of there without be assaulted, obviously never went back.”
Well, if they say it’s not a cult…
“Wasn’t the interview per se, but I caught a glimpse of a whiteboard in HR that had a bullet point list that seemed to be things to talk about to convince people to join the company, and one of the items was, ‘Not a cult.'”
Oh, by the way, you won’t be paid.
“I went to interview for an entry level marketing position in the film industry. Two hours in the boss slipped in that I wouldn’t be paid for the first few months while they trained me. It was a full time job. He also wanted me to start immediately that day using my personal laptop. I made up an excuse and left shortly after.”
Playing hard to get.
“After the job interview they said they will call me in one week. A month has passed and I still didn’t get a call so I decided to call them myself. They said ‘oh yea.. we remember you.. yea.. Um sorry about that we completely forgot to call you back. We already found someone (better).’ Turns out that someone then turned the job down and so they contacted me again to see if I was still interested after two months. I said ‘No thanks. I already got a job.'”
Now fight!
“It was a low paying retail job, but I’ve been interviewed at the same time as someone else. The issue I had with this is that it pits two people against each other and it becomes incredibly awkward. I was interviewing against a woman who had lost her job and was talking about supporting her kids. I felt like I had to make a stronger case saying that I didn’t know how I’d afford college without the job.”
Know when to fold ’em.
“It wasn’t an interview but a ‘taster session’ where I had to work there for 3 hours then make my decision.
“A lot of the hardware didn’t work, the guy training me was away and had to train me over a video call so whenever anything went wrong I was [expletive] and he would loudly sigh every time I needed something explaining. Because how dare someone need something explained to them on their first job.”
Excuses, excuses.
“I interviewed at a ‘no excuses’ charter school. They gave a scenario where a student comes in to class and doesn’t have his homework done. He says it’s because he spent the previous night in the ER because his brother was shot. School policy is that unfinished homework is a mandatory detention.
“I could not, in good conscience, answer that question the way they wanted.”
Third wife insecurity is the worst insecurity.
“I was told the person I would be supporting as an Executive Assistant was on his third wife, he has 6 kids and that I should include the wife in certain decisions so that she doesn’t feel insecure (being the 3rd wife and all). Ain’t nobody got time for 3rd wife insecurity drama.”
– u/SSOJ16
They sound like fun.
“Stupid interview games. The [expletive] put me at a low table with a low chair, placed water in a carafe with an empty glass – all just out of reach so that I’d have to stand and reach for it, and then interviewed me as a panel of six employees sitting at a tall table with tall chairs. The questions were all more about my character then my skills. The whole thing was so obviously staged to make me feel uncomfortable.”
10 cents an hour? Sign me up!
“Asked me if I would be willing to take a three month deferment while under a ‘Probationary’ period. If after 3 months, they didn’t like me, they’d let me go and give me a check for $0.10 on the dollar for every dollar/hr worked. If they kept me, I’d get a check for all my hours, plus a bonus of $500 for office supplies, but I could only buy out of their selected catalogue. I almost laughed in her face.”
Seems legit.
“When she started explaining that my ‘role’ in handling payments would involve depositing ‘client payments’ into my own personal account before transferring it to ‘the company’.
I may be a dumbass, but I didn’t fall off the turnip-truck yesterday.”
I hear things get really good after the 7th interview.
“They called me back for a… 5th interview… after that I had enough and told them it was getting a bit much and I’ll take a pass.”
Lying liars.
“The amount of lies discovered during the interview itself. They tell you one thing online and in emails, only to see something different when you show up and go through the interview.
“If there was already that much lying and falsehoods seen during the interview, no telling how much worse it actually can be. Could understand why the person left.”
Didn’t have to be like that.
“Back when I was unemployed long term, I was applying for roles anywhere I could find really.
“Got an interview for a retail position, not great but better than nothing.
“First interview is a group one, I get through that fine.
“Second interview is with the manager of the store. He spends like 10 minutes telling me how [expletive] my resume is.”
Sometimes you just feel bad.
“I tried getting a job as a telemarketer once. The interviewer had me go into another room and call her, and she would pretend to be a person I’m trying to get money from. I started into the scrip, and she said, ‘Oh, but I’m just a poor college student with no money!’
“Even though I knew she was just pretending, I still felt terrible. I knew that I could never do that work in real life. I told her that my coming there was a bad idea and I had to leave.”
Straight from the horse’s mouth.
“Three of four people who interviewed me spent the entire time talking about how bad the company was and why I really don’t want the job. The fourth was the CEO. His story was different.
“I didn’t take the job.”
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