18 People Who Got a Job Thanks to a Lucky Coincidence

Employers can be quite unpredictable. An applicant may answer all the interview questions perfectly, and get something like, “We’ll call you back.” Or, on the contrary, a candidate says or does something completely unacceptable and is about to say goodbye to their career, but they are welcomed with open arms. Online users shared the stories where they were offered a position that they hadn’t really expected to get.

• I once went for a job interview at a large company. The future manager asked me why I studied at night school instead of full-time. I said that I needed to earn money. He asked me why I wasn’t a correspondence student. And then I blurted out that I don’t consider correspondence education as proper education for a lawyer.
  And it turned out that he used to study by correspondence! I left the office and realized that I had just stupidly blown my dream job. Imagine my surprise when I got a call 15 minutes later from the personnel department and was asked to come tomorrow to sign papers for the job.
  And my boss told everyone a few years later that I had made a lasting impression on him with my answer. He then thought, “Wow, what a witch! I should hire her!” © Evgenia Zakharova

• A friend had an appointment for a job interview and on the way there she was stung by a wasp. Her face got very swollen, but she went to the interview anyway. She told the employer that she looked better before she met the wasp, but if they didn’t want to interview her like that, she could reschedule.
  And she was hired right away. And all because this meant that she was a responsible person, and they needed people just like this. © Caramel / VK
• I applied for a position of a personal assistant to the manager. I came, they opened the door and left me sitting in an empty reception area. A guy with a briefcase comes in, sits down, we start chatting. I think he’s come for an interview too...
  Then he suddenly asks me what vacancy I’m applying for, and says, “Let’s go.” I’m like, “Where to?” And he’s like, “To the interview.” I say, “I’m waiting for the manager.” He’s like, “I am the manager.”
  I immediately started to think about whether I’d said anything unnecessary. The competition was terrible, but they chose me. © Olga Rakuts
• “If you were a breed of dog, which would you be?” It was a dog hotel during a group interview, so not too off-topic, but still odd in terms of interview questions in general. For anyone curious, I answered corgi, was offered the job after a paid trial period and turned it down. Very loud setting, and the dog hair clogged my lungs in 3 days. © Sakeandme / Reddit

• I came to a job interview much earlier (I don’t like to be late), and I had 30 minutes to spare. I went round the corner of the building and saw another suitable signboard.
  I went in, found on the wall the internal telephone number of the necessary department, and called, “Do you need a specialist with good qualifications and experience? I can start working tomorrow.” “Well, come up, we’ll discuss it.” That’s how I found a job I wasn’t looking for. © Marina Falina / Facebook
• I was supposed to arrive at 8 a.m., but I was 40 minutes late. I didn’t hope for anything. They asked me all sorts of tricky questions, and I don’t even remember what I was saying. I was sure that with my attitude, I wouldn’t be hired anyway.
  And in the end they said, “You’re perfect for us! It seems like nothing can throw you off balance! You’re so stress-resistant! You’re so calm. You can start tomorrow.” © Iskenderova Leyla
• A guy I know applied for one of the positions in the bank. He was a young specialist. It was a group interview. First, they were divided into groups of 5 people and given a task. Then it was time for an individual interview.
  A nice girl met him, offered him a cup of coffee, escorted him to the office of the head of the department. He takes the coffee, goes in, answers the standard questions, nothing unusual. Then they tell him that they’ll think and call him back.
  A couple of days later, they call, “We’re waiting for you at work.” And he already thought he had missed the vacancy. And when he started working, one day he asked the boss why he had been hired.
  The boss’s answer was, “Your group had approximately similar CVs. But you were the only one who, after the interview, took the coffee cup back to the kitchen, washed it and put it in the cupboard. That told me a lot.” © Ira Biller

• When I finished school and I didn’t get into college, my parents made me look for a job. But I didn’t want to do anything so much that I just sabotaged the search. I’d find a vacancy ad, call them, talk to them rudely, get rejected, and would sit for another week.
  Once I was in a particularly gloomy mood, I made a short CV and responded to about 50 vacancies at once. In short, I wrote something like, “I hate to work, I want to earn a lot of money, don’t call or email me.” 3 days later, I got a call from a company, they invited me for an interview, and I ended up working for them for 4 years. © Caramel / VK
• I was asked, “If you were in my position would you hire you?” I replied no, the interviewer said, “Well, that’s all I need to know. Can you start tomorrow?”
  I said, “No, but I can next week.” So I started on Monday. © willboby / Reddit
• My husband was offered a test at a job interview at a great company: “You have 6 cutlets, each to be fried on one side for 5 minutes. Only 4 can fit in the pan. How many minutes will it take you to cook all the cutlets by frying each one on both sides?”
  The husband answered, “15 minutes.” “How did you do the math?” And he’s like, “My wife likes the cutlets undercooked.” Only 2 people answered correctly. Today, my husband is the director of this firm. © Elena Kovina

• It was my third interview that day. I was a little tired, and I didn’t like the place straight away. In the end, they asked me a question about my shortcomings. I decided to make fun of them and said that my main shortcoming was laziness. You should have seen their faces!
  And there was a pause... And then I continued that I am lazy to redo something for 100 times, so I spend more time on preparation to do everything in one go. As a result, these guys called me back, but I didn’t go to work for them, although they assured me that they liked me very much. © Oksana Trifonenko
• I came to a job interview after spontaneously quitting my previous job. The interview with the boss was direct and honest, without “service standards.” I honestly told her why I didn’t want to stay at the previous place. She waved her hand and said she had quit that way once too.
  After conversations and a trial couple of hours, I was told that they would have another “girl” come in and then they would decide. But then my circumstances suddenly changed, and I was able to start only in a couple of weeks, not sooner. So I blurted out, “Take another girl, my situation has changed, unfortunately.”
  The next morning, I was extremely surprised to receive a call that they would take me if I agreed... I reminded them of my circumstances, in case they’d made a mistake. They said they were taking the vacancy off and would wait for me. They said they needed me more than I needed them, which surprised me.
  I started a fortnight later. They were really waiting for me. The company is good, I have been working there for 3 years, everything suits me. © Margarita S-Behemoth / Dzen
• I was hired because of my beautiful boots. The boss said that a girl with such chic boots would definitely work well. © Svetlana Anisimova

• After several months of unsuccessful job search, I finally received an invitation to an interview at a prestigious company. The interview went well, and on my way out of the office I happened to bump into a woman who dropped all her papers. I helped her pick them up, and we got to talking.
  It turned out that she was the CEO of the company. A few days later, I got a phone call informing me that I got the job. At the first meeting, I found out that it was the woman who insisted on hiring me, because she saw me as a potential leader. © Caramel / VK
• “Describe yourself in one word.”
  “No.”
  By this point in the interview the guy had already rubbed me the wrong way so I knew I didn’t want to work for him, and he was asking me every cliché question in the book, and I was bored. He actually did offer me the job. © sugabeetus / Reddit
• I’ve lived in a big city all my life, but now I’ve moved to live in the countryside. I’m a vet. I went to a job interview.
  The boss asked me if I knew which side to approach a cow from. A good question, considering that I had only seen cows in pictures. I replied from neither side. We laughed.
  I was hired. As time passed, I found out that I was right, because a cow can kick you no matter from which side you approach her. © Katerina Lyashenko

• “If you were a flavor of ice cream, what flavor would you be?” This was for a position as an executive assistant to the CEO. I can’t remember my answer, but I got the job after their first pick didn’t last a week. © RevolutionaryIdeal11 / Reddit
• For an internship decades ago, I was asked to solve the “You have a 3 gallon and 5 gallon bottle; get exactly 4 gallons of water” riddle. I answered it super quickly and the interviewer was shocked and asked how. I answered honestly that Die Hard with a Vengeance is one of my favorite movies. She laughed and I got the internship. © sigdiff / Reddit

And these people shared what jokes at job interviews helped them get the position of their dreams.