50 Times Job Seekers Ruined Their Own Interviews

I interviewed a middle aged woman who was an abject jerk to my junior project manager who I typically forced to do first level interviews, while I watched in silence, to see how they conducted interviews and how they handled themselves. It was a way for me to teach them without cramping their style, and also for me to see what their style even was in the first place.

The woman was a solid 10+ years older than my junior PM. As soon as the call started, she started negging on my JPM immediately. "*Oh wow... you're still a baby! I wasn't expecting to be interviewed by my own child!"*. That was strike 1, and personally, I would have ended the interview right there. However, this was a training exercise for my junior, and they opted to push through it. A few sentences later, the woman made a remark along the lines of "I've forgotten more about project management than you've probably experienced in your career thus far..." Again, I was eager to cancel the interview, but my JPM seemed to breeze right through it.

Where I intervened, immediately, was when the woman requested to speak to someone with more seniority about the company so that they could ask me questions personally. My JPM tried to gently say "Ma'am, that's what the next phase of the interview process will be. This is the preliminary call to get a feel for your background, your personality, and your familiarity with our toolsets." The woman responded with "Honey, listen, I know how to use the tools, and I don't think I need to justify my experience to you."

At this point, I entered the call. She immediately tried to greet me with a faux sense of warmness, and I just cut right through the bull. "Hello. I'd just like to let you know that we'll be stopping the interview at this point. I've been listening in to the call, and not only is your conduct incredibly disrespectful, but your conduct isn't welcome on my team, or anywhere within this company. Best of luck in your search."

The most satisfying moment was when she started to try and say something, and I just ended the call mid-sentence. I don't have time for that, and I'm not going to expose people under my care to that sort of toxic nonsense.

Someone was watching their nephew due to a family thing, and her house wasn't equipped for kids, so 'please be patient'. Toddler was all over the place and she was doing her best to manage the situation, she knocked it out of the park, keeping on task and speaking nicely to him. She wasn't the most qualified, but the most human, and I hired her, and don't regret it. She has paid back that choice many times, proving her demeanor was exactly as she demonstrated.

Sorry, not a negative story, but a positive story. We talk about her interview from hell all the time and laugh.

His phone rang in the middle of the interview which - not cool, mute that - but then he ANSWERED it and gave me the “hang on a sec finger” then said “…nothing, how about you?”. I just left the room and asked the admin to show him out.

I wasn't conducting the interview, but I was sitting in the waiting area when this happened, so I got to watch the whole thing unfold.

This guy walks in for his interview, and he's on his phone. Not like, wrapping up a call in the parking lot... actively having a full conversation as he walks through the door. The receptionist greets him, he holds up one finger in that "give me a minute" gesture, and just keeps talking. She's standing there with the clipboard, trying to be professional, and he's discussing what sounds like weekend plans with someone.

Finally—and I mean a solid three minutes later—he ends the call. Doesn't apologize, just says "I'm here for the 2 o'clock."

She takes his name, asks him to have a seat, and goes to let the hiring manager know he's arrived. The guy sits down across from me, pulls out his phone again, and I kid you not, he's playing a mobile game with the sound on. Not loud, but audible. In a quiet waiting room.

About five minutes later, the hiring manager comes out. Professional guy, extends his hand for a handshake. The candidate looks up from his phone, sees the outstretched hand, and says—I will never forget this—"Oh, can you give me like two minutes? I'm almost done with this level."

The hiring manager just... stood there. You could see him processing whether this was actually happening. Then he slowly lowered his hand, said "Actually, I think we're all set here," turned around, and walked back to his office.

The candidate finally looked up from his phone, confused, and asked the receptionist "Wait, was that the interview?"

She just smiled and said, "Yes. Yes it was."

He sat there for another minute looking genuinely baffled before he packed up and left. The receptionist and I made eye contact after he was gone and we both just started laughing. Some people really do interview themselves right out of a job.

Hiring a nurse for a senior living facility. She came in for an interview and I saw her park in the first handicap spot next to the building I could see from my office. She had no disability placard or license plate. When she entered my office I pointed out that she must have forgot to put her placard up and she should go do it so she doesn’t get a ticket. She responded that she forgot that she doesn’t have it today because her mom took it back to run her errands…..I asked why her mom was using her handicap placard and she said “no, I don’t have my own, I just usually use my moms because I hate looking for parking”.

It was an immediate no from me dog.

Had a guy show up to a design interview with my work in his portfolio.

Candidate looks at watch, asks: “How long is this going to take?” I say, “I have GREAT news! You can leave NOW!” Fastest interview ever!! It really did happen.

He was really really rude to my assistant, i stopped the interview and asked him to leave.

Edited to add context.

I’m getting lots of DMs about this, so I’ll explain what went down. He came into the interview room, my assistant was sat next to me, i introduced myself, my assistant did the same, then asked him if he’d like a drink, he put his finger to his lips and said ssshhh. Then grinned at me, i immediately stood up and told him he needed to leave, the interview was terminated and that he would never work for me.

He looked completely shocked, slammed his fists down on the table and tried storming out, but he kept pushing a door that you needed to pull, so my assistant laughed and went over to show him how to use a door.

I work in finance, the job he was interviewing for was entry level. The arrogance still shocks me. And yes, I’m a woman.

He seemed generally irritated at being interviewed by me. He wanted the man in charge, and I am a woman.

In the end, I asked if there was anything else he wanted to tell me or that would be relevant regarding his qualifications. He said, "Yeah, I'm a man, so people listen to what I have to say. That's how things get done."

He did not get hired.

"Do we have to go on the southside to do orders? If so, can I opt out of those. I am not comfortable about black people."

Little did he know, the employee that has been with us for 32 of our 36 years is black and from the southside (Chicago) was on the other side of the wall. The second he left, I let her know and she was dying laughing. She ran outside to wave goodbye to him as he left the parking lot.

Work in healthcare analytics. Mid interview (it was virtual as they were from another region) they shared screen to demonstrate the type of work they were currently doing (which we DID not ask for, and she did not ask us if she could share screen) and the screen she showed us had clear patient identifiers, health card numbers, etc.

We immediately shut that down. Patient privacy and data security are absolutely paramount, and that level of cavalier treatment of sensitive patient information immediately disqualified her from being considered, AND we had to submit a report to their institution afterwards.

I had a candidate reveal classified information about their work at their previous employer during an interview. No way were we going to trust them with our stuff.

Candidate kept boasting about how many languages he speaks even though it was not a requirement for the position. Finally asked him in which foreign language he was most fluent, and he replied Spanish. Followed up with a simple question asked in Spanish. He did not speak Spanish.

Guy had to do a presentation but his laptop battery was dead so he asked if he could plug it in.

One of the panel members had to go under the board room table to do that and the candidate says, "Well look at that, I've only been here five minutes and already got a woman on her knees."

Edit for more context ...

It couldn't actually get worse of course but it was extraordinary how bad this experience was.

It was for a public sector position (UK), in health and a considerable part of the role was procurement and contract management. Candidates were told how to prepare and what the assessment criteria would be.

Part of this was confidentiality/data and records security.

When the guy started his laptop we had to wait while he shut down Discord, Steam and a host of gaming related apps that just kept booting. As he started his presentation, in the background this startup music for COD or something blasts out of his speaker so he cancels that and carries on like it's perfectly normal.

His desktop was also littered with invoices and quotes that clearly showed company and individual identities.

He finished his presentation, no one on the panel asked a single question and we said thanks. On his way out he turned and said, "I think I messed that up didn't I?"

No champ, you were golden.

I worked at a big-box retailer and got called up to the service counter to deal with a customer who was upset. This was only a couple minutes before I was scheduled to conduct an interview with a potential new hire.

I get up there, and this woman is berating the employee behind the counter, referring to her as “this b word”, etc.

I ask her to lower her voice and please stop being disrespectful to my employee. She isn’t happy but she does eventually calm down enough to be reasonable and we resolve the situation at the service desk. I turn to walk away, thinking we’re done here, and she goes

“Anyway, I’m here for my interview.”

I can’t believe that this is actually happening, it seems like awful rom-com movie type stuff, but this rude woman actually expected me to proceed with interviewing her.

“I’m sorry ma’am, that position is no longer available.”

“I’m not good enough, I’d like to end the interview”

I told them that it was just nerves and everything would be okay and we can continue and see where the discussion goes, but they were adamant that they were overwhelmed and wanted to end the interview so we did.

Poor lass.

Me being at just the right age to not know teenage speak had to interview an 18 year old kid. Interview was a trainwreck from the start but he said "yeet" at one point. Curiosity got the best of me and I was like "yeet?" This dude picked up my pen and threw it across the room then looked me dead in the eyes and said "yeet". I kinda respected him for that but also...hell no.

She brought her boyfriend and the boyfriend was answering all the questions.

Interviewing for an IT position, asked a basic question about virus removal. "Oh I dunno my husband does that"

Well then tell him to apply.

We were hiring for an illustrator at a crafting company. He had a nice portfolio and he could clearly draw, but it was all in his own style. When he was asked if he would be able to shift gears and match other styles he said, "I won't need to because I am so good at my style." We explained that he would have to draw additional assets to match existing illustration styles pretty regularly and he just snorted and said, "No, they will have to match my style."
He, uh...he was not hired.