17 Job Interviews That Are Filled With Unexpected Twists and Triumphs

Some of us manage to find a job without any particular problems, while others tend to get into so much trouble. The heroes of this article had enough and could no longer keep the stories of what happened to them at job interviews to themselves. And we even want to hug some of them, for example, the girl who was shy to confess that her coffee cup was leaking.

• I was headed to a job interview today. By the law of bad luck, there were very few free spaces in the car park. I drove up to the one that was closest, but some bloke overtook me and parked right in front of me. So, I had to park far away from the entrance.
  I entered the building and was waiting for the elevator, when I saw that man walking toward it and gesturing to me to wait. I decided to punish him for the incident at the parking lot and yelled, “This is what you get for what you’ve done!” and pressed the button. Now guess who my boss turned out to be. I’ve never been so embarrassed. © Overheard / Ideer
• I was having a job interview at the shop across the road. I had a small child, and it suited me at the time. At the interview, a young woman asked me various questions.
  I still remember one of them, “Why do sewer manholes have round lids?” Maybe someone knows the answer? © Valentina Volkova / Dzen

• I was having a job interview with a human resources specialist and the director. We are having a nice chat with the director because we’ve found some mutual friends in the industry. The HR keeps trying to break into the conversation with her “jokes.”
  Finally, she said, “Why are you being impertinent?” The director and I were both puzzled. © Fedor Sumkin / ADME
• About 15 years ago, during a phone interview I did during a lunch break at my then-current job, the interviewer asked, “Where are you located?” My response was, “In my car in a parking garage.” 3 months ago, while interviewing someone, it struck me they wanted to know the area of our city where I lived.
  And about 20 years ago, an interviewer asked what kind of animal I would be and why. I had already decided I didn’t want the job, so I said, “A pangolin because I’ve planned that as my answer forever if someone actually asked me this in an interview, and it’s fun to say.” © justjentennyson2 / Reddit
• At an interview, the manager asked me stupid questions. He asked what I would be in 2 years, I said the shop manager. His eyes grew bigger, and he asked, “And where am I going to be?” To which I replied, “I don’t know, so many things can happen to you in 2 years.”
  Then he asked me how much money I wanted to make. I said a million dollars. His eyes got even bigger, “Do you realize that we can’t pay you that much?” I said, “Then why are you asking me a stupid question about how much I want to earn?” That was the end of our interview.
  In the end, the manager said, “We’ll call you back.” I turned around and replied, “No need, your company is not right for me, you ask a lot of stupid questions from foreign movies. And I’m used to talking to intelligent people.” And I walked away. © Irina Novikova / Dzen
• I once went to a job interview, and the management spent a long time probing my knowledge, and I was fed up with it. So when they asked how I see my job, I honestly answered, “Lying on the beach and getting a big salary.” The executives were shocked, “Really?”
  And I said, “Do you think I’m not serious and honest now, while all those who say that they dream of working 120 hours a day, are telling you the truth?!” They hired me. © Overheard / Ideer

• I decided to leave my current job, where no one suspected it yet. I found a vacancy at a private clinic. On the phone, they asked me why I wanted to leave my current job. I blurted out, “The salary is low, the environment is toxic, I can’t take it anymore!”
  I came to the interview and my jaw dropped. My director was sitting there. It turns out that our clinic opened another branch and there was no sign yet, and I hadn’t recognized the director’s voice when I talked to him, as I see and hear him very rarely. © Overheard / Ideer
• I was at an in-person team interview and brought my laptop to show work samples. Projected my screen for the group and realized my desktop background was a boudoir photo of me. Larger than life, on the wall for everyone to see. Talk about mortified. © I_bleed_blue19 / Reddit
• My cousin, when at college, decided to get a part-time job and go to the sea on the money earned in the middle of August. She was only looking for a job for 2 months, so she decided to try her luck at a restaurant near the place where she lived. She knew about the shortage of waiters there, so she was sure that she would be hired.
  But weird things began immediately when she entered the place. The hostess simply didn’t seem to hear her and persistently offered her a table. My cousin managed to stop her eloquence and get an interview.
  The manager asked her questions about her work experience and where she lived. When my cousin said that she lived nearby, he immediately asked if he could be her roommate, because he had to spend 2 hours one way to get to work. The cousin, of course, refused.
  The man’s last words surprised her even more, “You are not right for us. You can’t even help us with such a simple matter as renting out a room to your future coworker and manager.” © Mishka Fancy / Dzen
• I was about 22 and very unsure of myself. The accountant who was looking for an assistant took me to the company cafeteria for coffee. We filled our Styrofoam cups, sat down, and he asked questions, very kindly, while I did my best to answer with confidence.
  Then my cup began to leak. Coffee just started quietly seeping out the sides. I had no idea what to do (now, I would laugh, but that was a long, long time ago). I tried to hide it. Tried to pretend it wasn’t happening.
  There were no nearby napkins. The leak leaked faster. I froze. Bless his heart, he finally noticed, got up, found some napkins, and I figured out what to do with them.
  The interview went on, although I remember none of it. I got the job anyhow. And I haven’t trusted Styrofoam since that day. © Kathryn Berck / Quora

• I applied for a secretary job at an agency. The vacancy had a schedule and salary that suited me. But when I came to the interview, they told me the real situation: working 12 hours a day 6 days a week for very little money. I was stunned.
  And the end of the interview was just epic. I said that the conversation was over, that I had learned all the information I was interested in and was very surprised by it. And they told me that I wasn’t right for them because I had to pick up my child from daycare in the evenings, so I wouldn’t be able to work at this time. Who wasn’t right for whom, after all? © Masha Petrova / Dzen
• I’m a music teacher. Went to interview at a small music school once. The interviewer (who was the owner) asked me maybe 2 or 3 questions about my experience, which took no longer than 5 minutes.
  Then she started to ramble on about the rules of the place and how important it was for everybody to follow them. Started with stuff such as “teachers must greet students at reception and walk them to the classroom, lessons must start and end precisely at the right time,” etc. Justifiable points, even if hearing her make them at a job interview made me feel like I was 5.
  But then it started to scale up, and she went on this long rant on morality and how terrible current fashion was. That must have gone on for 45 minutes, and I’m pretty sure that by the end, even she didn’t know why she was talking about any of that in the first place. The only thing keeping me from falling asleep to her voice was my irritation with the stuff she was saying.
  As she walked me out, she said something like, “Let me know your availability and when you can start.” I never called back. © luctesthesoren / Reddit
• Went to an interview: me and 2 other candidates were given a test on 3 pages. The questions were banal, something like, “What will you be in 5 years? What are your strong sides?”
  I approached the manager and asked, “How about I don’t answer your test, but just promise to do a good job?” He chuckled and nodded.
  The other 2 candidates sat there with “What the heck?” faces. I was stunned myself, to be honest. I start working there tomorrow. © Overheard / Ideer
• I was at an interview during a lunch break from another job. I got a call from the job about a server issue. I apologized that I needed to take this and talked the person through how to fix the problem and bring the server back to operation.
  Apparently, the interviewer was impressed and offered me the job on the spot! While I advocate turning off / silencing your device during an interview, I forgot and my mistake demonstrated a skill that the company was seriously looking for. © William Collins / Quora

• I went to a job interview. A skirt suit, high heels, stuff like that. But the shoes were very uncomfortable. When the future boss saw me, he laughed and said, “I’ll support your candidacy! Thank you for lifting my spirits.”
  And what I did, I just slipped when I entered his office. The director helped me get up, although he was giggling. © Overheard / Ideer
• I was the applicant for a job that, among other duties, involved putting titles and names to art illustrations in publications. I made it to the in-person interview after passing the phone interview. Things were clipping along, and the interviewer asked me how I would assure that hard-to-spell foreign names would be transferred over correctly (this was 1989-no spell check!)
  I said I could check other good publications, look up references materials, etc. After I answered this very easy question, he retorted, “You spelled my name wrong on the cover letter.” I still managed to get the job. © Relevant_Ad7077 / Reddit
• When I had my first jobs in Manhattan, people dressed for work. Men wore suits or jackets, and women wore dresses or skirts and blouses. This was the early 60s.
  Sometime, maybe in the 70s or 80s, I was passing through and decided to try out the current job market, so I sent out a few resumes. My first interview was with a small company. The interview took place in a small room.
  The girl I was interviewing with was in her twenties. She was wearing jeans and a top with no bra. After that, I went to talk to the owner. I was wearing a suit and tie.
  He looked like he just came from a pick-up basketball game in a schoolyard. He took a call and from the conversation I could tell he was lying through his teeth to the client. When I finally got out of there, I remembered that line about how times have changed. © Robert Martin Pollack / Quora

Bonus: HR people have a story to tell, too.

• It was a long time ago. My task was to determine how adequate a person was in the first place, although professional qualities were also important. I remember the door to my office opens and a guy and a girl walk in, holding hands. I ask which one of them is applying for a job, and the guy replies that the girl is, and he is supporting her.
  Normally, I wouldn’t allow anyone else but the candidate to be present at a job interview. But they were both so young and cute that I let the guy stay. I start talking to the girl, and he sits a little aside. But the thing is that the guy was answering all the questions, and she didn’t open her mouth, just looked at me and smiled.
  Of course, I don’t like it. I ask the guy to let the girl answer. He gets up, takes her hand and says, “Let’s go, you won’t work here”. She gets up and silently walks out with him.
  The door closes behind them, then opens again, the guy pokes his head in, says something nasty to me and leaves. That’s it. I then asked the secretary if the girl was maybe mute. And she said, “No, while the couple was waiting in the waiting room, she was talking to the guy normally.” © Tatiana. / Dzen

And here’s another bunch of stories about unforgettable job interviews. Check them out.