If you've ever been a job seeker (and I suspect you have), you know full well that interviews are one of the most challenging parts of the entire hiring process. And really, anything can happen here - you could get unexpectedly lowballed, the interviewers could come up with various weird questions or even not show up at all.
And the manager who is going to conduct the interview may mistakenly think that you have maliciously violated parking rules - and thereby actually ruin the whole interview and the entire company’s image for you as well. At least, something similar happened to the user u/invisibuni, whose story we’re about to tell you today.
The author of the post had a job interview a few years ago
Image credits: Jeff Egnaczyk (not the actual photo)
They successfully passed the first interview and attended the second one several days later
Image credits: u/invisibuni
The manager spoke to them in an icy tone and then falsely accused them of parking in the handicap spot
Image credits: Tima Miroshnichenko (not the actual photo)
Image credits: u/invisibuni
Of course, the candidate didn't violate any rule but they saw a similar car parked in the handicap spot, so the interviewer probably mistook the cars
Image credits: Shawn Campbell (not the actual photo)
Image credits: u/invisibuni
They both went to the parking lot, where the author was easily able to prove they were right - and then they simply drove off into the sunset
So, the Original Poster (OP) was still in school and job hunting a few years ago. One day, the author found a vacancy in a company for office work. Nothing complicated - filing, answering phones, setting appointments and whatnot. Far from being a dream job, but compared to retail or fast food, in the OP’s opinion, it was a step forward.
The author successfully passed the first interview, and a few days later, arrived for the second. They parked their car in the lot and went into the office. The interviewer this time was one of the managers, who immediately alarmed the OP with his skeptical appearance and cold voice.
Here it is necessary to make a remark that the interview took place in the manager’s office, where there was a large window overlooking the parking lot, so that both persons could see other cars. And so, at some point, the manager directly asked the author: “Do you always park in handicapped spaces?”
Of course, the original poster was completely dismayed - especially since they had parked in a regular spot. However, the applicant immediately understood what was going on - a similar car was already parked in one of the handicap spots, and the manager, apparently, simply got confused.
The OP explained this, but the interviewer could not be convinced. In a completely icy tone, he accused the author of lying, stating that he personally saw them park and get out of the car. The OP, of course, denied all accusations, and it ended with the manager simply demanding that the applicant prove their case.
Okay, no problem. The original poster already understood that they didn’t want to work for this company, so they had nothing to lose. They calmly left the office and headed to the parking lot. The manager jogged behind them with quite a sardonic look. When they passed a car parked on a handicap spot, the interviewer stopped, but the author confidently walked further - to their own vehicle.
Next came the moment of triumph! The original poster opened their car door, got behind the wheel, and started it. The manager's face changed dramatically - he rushed to the car with apologies, claiming that he had simply made a terrible mistake - but now it was too late. The author sharply backed up, turned around and drove away, leaving the hapless interviewer to swallow dust and gasoline fumes, realizing what he had just done...
Image credits: Ketut Subiyanto (not the actual photo)
No, without any doubt, parking in handicap spots if you’re not entitled to these spots is highly inappropriate, and if the original poster had actually done that, then the interviewer’s behavior would have been absolutely justified. At the end of the day, this is also a kind of red flag for a job candidate.
But during the dispute, the manager, apparently, was ready to do anything just to prove that he was right - even a deliberate deception that he allegedly saw the OP getting out of a parked car. And now this is a red flag in the other direction, which can clearly indicate toxicity within the team.
Or it could be another technique of interviewers - the so-called “stress interview.” “The classic move is for the interviewer to start yelling at the applicant, just to see what he’ll do,” Nick Corcodilas, a headhunter and management consultant, says on his blog Ask The HeadHunter.
"But it doesn’t matter to me whether we’re talking about rude interviewers, or about interviewers who intentionally abuse applicants to test them. My advice is the same: Stop the interview," Corcodilas claims. As a matter of fact, that’s exactly what the OP did - they only did it way more spectacularly.
Well, people in the comments are almost unanimously giving the OP a shout-out for their composure, while at the same time subjecting the manager to merciless criticism. “An interview isn’t just to see if you’re hirable, it’s to see if the company is worth working for,” one of the commenters reasonably wrote, and we couldn’t agree more. Unfortunately, such cases are not so rare during jobseeking - perhaps you have also encountered something similar, and if so, we’d like to see your own story in the comments as well.
Commenters praised the author for their composure and, alas, gave lots of their own stories of job interviewers being abusive
