Kate Hackett
Interviewing is a little bit of a performative art piece. Your job probably won’t require you to impress someone who has no idea what you actually do all day, but still: you need to dress well, smile much, and present yourself in a way that makes the company want to buy you.
The simplest part of that is probably the “dress well”, but even that can be beyond some folks. Which is precisely what u/JustARayOfPitchBlack wanted to hear about when they asked, “Employers of Reddit, what is the most inappropriate piece of clothing someone has worn to a job interview?”
Here are some of the best answers.
1. Not a lifeguarding job
A few years back, I had someone show up fresh out of the swimming pool. Hair wet. Bathing suit and cover up on. Still wet. Hadn’t taken the time to dry off. I went through the interview and a test simulation of the job with her. She actually did very well at the simulation. When I took her to see my boss that made the ultimate decision, he took one look and said no. Didn’t ask about the simulation or anything, just no.
2. At least he knew
I saw one guy come from the country club pool in an american flag tank top and swim trunks to the clubs golf cart boy interview. He didn’t get the job and then came back a week later in a full suit apologizing for his previous attire.
3. Aww, poor dummy
Homecoming dress. She knew she was supposed to dress up for the interview, and that was the nicest thing she had. I felt so bad; she was incredibly embarrassed. It was her first real interview, and in the end I gave her credit for at least putting in the effort.
4. Yikes
He came in to the IT interview in polo, khakis and aqua colored Crocs with an anime maid blushing painted on one and lining up a sniper shot on the other. He was late because security was concerned about his mlp chain wallet.
5. What even…
A pair of flesh colored leggings that made her look as if she wasn’t
pairingwearing pants at all, a sweatshirt that opened in the front, that had been pulled to the side a bit to reveal a lacy camisole top. We work as therapists. No fucking way she got that job.For more info, both her wig and glasses were askew. There was an odor somewhere between human and cat urine. And about halfway through she asked if she could take a break because she left her car running to charge her phone.
6. The US Senate
I worked in the US Senate a couple years back.
We were interviewing about half a dozen candidates for a pretty junior position. One of the interviewees was wearing a Harvard tee shirt, a Harvard jacket, and Harvard sweatpants. We were astounded.
The first question my coworker asked was “Did you go to Harvard?”. The guy did, and he handled the rest of the interview surprisingly well. He didn’t get the job but he did become a running joke in the office for a while.
7. Defended barefoot
My master’s student came to defend his thesis bare footed because “his slippers got wet”
8. Climbed stairs in roller blades
I was the person! This was 20 years ago, and I had just moved to the city. I was 17 and spent 3 weeks working as a hostess at Denny’s. A friend asked if I wanted to go rollerblading, so I was strapped into my roller blades and was wearing athletic wear. She then pulled up to her gym, had me walk in my roller blades up to the second story where the daycare was, and told me that I was interviewing for the Nanny job that she heard was available. I actually got the job because the woman who owned the gym was impressed that I could climb stairs in my roller blades!
9. Short skirt
I interviewed a young woman who wore a skirt so short I did actually see her underwear when she sat down. The underwear was pink. I gave her feedback later that she should have worn a suit. This was for a business analyst role. Everyone else was wearing a suit.
10. Oh, dude.
saggy pants with whitie tightie underwear. when he bent over to sign in at the desk you could see his whole butt (but not his butt hole)
11. She didn’t know!
PJs she was pulled out of bed and brought to me and my boss for a interview she didn’t know she was having.
After 5 minutes we offered her a job and she actually turned out really well.
12. This is gross
Back when I was an hourly manager at Walmart, guy came in with greasy hair, white t-shirt full of holes, and sweat pants. AND to top it all off, he looked like he had a semi…
Surprisingly he didnt smell, and the clothes actually looked clean- so that was good? But still, I gave him a hard no, but the overnight assistant gave him the go. Because he wasnt going to be on her shift, and she thought it was hilarious.
This guy was a fucking nightmare. Wore that same “outfit”, now never washed, almost daily. Smelled like death, ass, and cumin. And he was crazy. We were finally able to fire him after he pulled out his pocket knife and cut his coworker. Thankfully the cut didn’t cause any real damage to the kid. But seriously, wtf
13. What an ass
I worked with a guy who applied to the local big city Fire Department. Apparently all candidates had to submit a passport type photo of themselves, although I fail to see how that’s relevant. Diversity quota perhaps?
Anyways, this guy was a gym nut and also sent a full head and torso photo of himself, with no shirt on. When I asked him why, he replied “So they know I’m not a twink.”
Well, it must have worked, as Twinky is now a firefighter.
14. Don’t wear that
One time I was having dinner in a restaurant and saw a young woman come up to the counter and ask for a job application. The employees gave her one and she sat down near me to fill it out. This is when I noticed she was wearing a cap with a huge pot leaf on it.
She finished it, returned it to the counter, and asked what the follow up would be. The employee said “we’ll contact you in a few days for an interview… and when you come back, don’t wear that hat!”
15. No Pants
Woo boy. The guy without pants. At my last job, I spent ~10 months in 2017 on a research team doing statistical learning research for health informatics. It’s a very large healthcare company, and they basically took almost a dozen of their PhD researchers from BI, R&D, and Market Dev, temporarily reassigned them to the new Center For Data Excellence. Two of the PhD’s were director/AVP-level, so they each got to bring a team member with them. My director brought me from Market Dev because my background’s in mathematical modeling, but the other guy didn’t have anyone in his department who was free enough to bring along, so they posted the job and started interviewing. I’d do the pre-interview stuff with one of the junior PhDs, and then the senior team members who come in.
Anyway, four days into interviewing, we get one dude up on Skype for his interview, and he’s way too close to the screen, like his laptop’s up on his knees. We asked him to move the laptop back a bit, and he gives it up that he can’t, because the lower part of his shirt has a huge, fresh coffee stain, and his pants are hanging on the adjacent wall. He’d lost track of time and rushed home, and he’d spilled his coffee in his hurry. We told him, “no problem, we’ll find a new time for you. The shirt might be a goner, but be sure to wash the pants in hot water right away.”
We actually hired that dude, and I think he’s still there. Great guy.
16. Somehow, he was a great candidate?
This guy was coming in to interview for a Financial Advisor program. Everyone in our office dresses very professional, and most people I interview are dressed in their best suits.
This gentlemen came in wearing a stained white dress shirt, with a yellow tinted white undershirt. I forget what kind of pants, but he had a cloth “joker” belt (why so serious written all over it with the jokers face) neon green and black that he didnt loop through the rest of his pants and was swaying around when walking. He also had very long creepy finger nails that were very dirty and he kept rolling and rubbing his fingers together to get the dirt off subconsciously.
The icing on the cake was he coughed and snorted something up very loudly, then swallowed it, then loudly commented “Nice!”.
Somehow this guy aced our assessments and put together a great resume, but was just the exact opposite of professional.
We are still not sure if he was trying to fuck with us, or was that terribly oblivious. I just assumed he was interviewing for someone else, like Ben Affleck in Good Will Hunting.
17. Well, that’s probably it
Fellow I knew was the counsellor at the unemployment center. He said he had to explain to one guy he was coaching for job interviews, “Don’t wear that hat that says ‘Beer makes me smart’ “.
18. Oh no…
It wasn’t so much of inappropriate clothing. It was more the action of uncrossing her legs very wide while wearing a short skirt. Meanwhile never taking her eyes off mine.
19. Cool, you work out
A tight muscle shirt. It’s great that you work out, big guy, but it’s not a gym. Plus he only worked his glamour muscles. He was thick around the middle. Dude, at least give the office a show.
20. Yoga pants
Had a candidate come in for a recruiting role. She was young and beautiful. But she was wearing some of the tightest yoga pants ever. Nothing was left to the imagination. Her top looked great though.
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