Kate Hackett
I once left a job after just one week. It was an awful fit for me; I was working the front desk of an educational company, which really just equated to, basically, sales. Sales plus office management. People were in and out of my office all the time, it was weird. So I quit! And lived to tell the tale.
But even more wild were all these people who realized during the interview that the job was all wrong.
Over on Reddit, people were asked, “What happened during an interview that immediately made you realize you wouldn’t take the job no matter how much they offered you?”
1. Interview Games
Stupid interview games. The d**kheads 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.
An interview is a conversation, not an interrogation. Treat it like an interrogation, and I’m f*****g out. It’s a clear sign of a toxic workplace – I’ve yet to see an exception to this rule.
2. Uhhhhh. No
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 dumb, but I didn’t fall off the turnip-truck yesterday.
3. Starting wage
“and what is the starting wage for this job?”
“Does it matter?”
BYE
4. No 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.
5. Convince us
I had a 3 hour interview where everyone on the interviewing team was friendly, enthusiastic and making constant comments about “you’d fit in well here”, “you’re a gamer? we are too – we could organize some LAN games”, “you know XX? We really need someone with that experience”.
Then the C-Levels came in. They feigned disinterest, had side conversations and comments to me were all in the line of “maybe we’ll go with you, maybe we’ll just outsource – why don’t you convince us”, “maybe we should just take you on a contract basis to start until you prove yourself”, “maybe we’ll just hire two juniors for that salary you’re asking for” – while the team cringed.
I cut them off saying “it seems like you’ve got a great team here, but I’m not interested in working for hostile management”. Then they completely changed their tune and were trying to backtrack. It was obviously their idea of “salary negotiation”. They called several times afterward asking me to come back in, but I wasn’t having it.
Surprise, the company was sold not long afterward and I hear they cleaned house.
6. Or you’re gay…
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”
7. Probationary
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, plust a bonus of $500 for office supplies, but I could only buy out of their selected catalogue. I almost laughed in her face.
8. They get it
The first 30 minutes of the interview was the woman who would have been my boss listing off her accomplishments. She was the director of a tiny museum in a small town where we had just moved to for my wife’s job. It was uncomfortable, and the two board members present looked even more uncomfortable than I was.
I don’t know if she was intimidated by me (I was more qualified to work there than she was), or if she just liked singing her own praise, but I immediately thought, “you couldn’t pay me enough to work for you.”
After her 30 minutes of self-congratulations, there was approximately half a minute of silence. Then I looked at the two board members and said, “Right. Were there any questions for me.”
I was called that night and offered the position. I turned it down. One of the board members who was present called and asked if there was anything they could do to get me to come on, pay was negotiable within reason for a tiny museum in a tiny town. I was candid and said I would never be able to work for that director. Board member said, “believe me, I completely understand.”
9. Your program is not worth my money
This was a grad school interview, so slightly different, but still fully convinced me to divert my focus to other programs and interviews completely. I was asked to prepare a five minute presentation that I would give via zoom at the start of the interview. About a minute into the presentation, the interviewer got up and walked away from her laptop before returning about a minute later. She missed 20% of my presentation.
I kept giving my presentation because there was also a student representative on the call, but the faculty interviewer neither apologized nor acknowledged leaving during my presentation. If I am not worth five minutes of your attention as a prospective student, then your program is not worth my tens of thousands of dollars. Lucky for me, I was accepted into my first choice program that same day.
10. Go with your gut here
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.
11. So many interviews
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.
12. This won’t work
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.
13. NOOOOPE
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
14. Fast paced
This was during a phone screen rather than an interview. Time frame was 1997, during the height of the .com boom. I’m a programmer. The screener told me that they were a ‘fast-paced company’ and I asked for some clarification on what exactly that meant. After some evasive answers, I asked more directly what kind of hours people worked and found out that many people were working 60+ hours a week. I politely declined. The company did have an IPO in early 1999 that could have been lucrative for me, but I had an 18 month old daughter and another on the way – I was changing jobs to be able to spend more time with them, not less. I feel very good about that decision.
15. No thanks, 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 “F**k you John!” John was the guy who interviewed him.
16. Not a slave
They took issue with me saying I wanted to watch my daughter grow up when they asked how much overtime I was willing to work. Yes, it was sarcastic and I said it in a way I knew would torpedo the interview. I was insulted by the question. I’m not a slave.
17. Relief
I interviewed for a job that was ostensibly a tech role: updating and maintaining the company’s website. Midway through this hourlong interview, they asked me if I’m comfortable with sales, because they said half the role would be cold-calling customers and there’d be minimum monthly sales targets to meet.
I am one of the most introverted people to ever introvert, so no, I would not be comfortable with that. I wouldn’t have even applied for the job if they’d been at all explicit in the listing about it having a significant sales/customer contact component.
They didn’t call me back, and I was relieved.
18. Yikes
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 was my red flag moment 🚩
I won’t ever work for someone that cannot recognize the worth of having appropriate boundaries. It is a recipe for burnout.
19. Uh, holy crap
One of the interview questions was would I be willing to immediately fire a single mother who depended on the company Heath insurance for her register being off 50 cents.
20. Peace.
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.
