20 Jobseekers Who Thought Their Arrogance Would Get Them the Desired Position

Job interviews can be really stressful. You should choose the right clothes, be prepared for any and all questions, and painfully guess afterward whether you’ll actually get hired or not. But have you ever thought about how the process of an interview looks from an HR manager’s point of view?

At Bright Side, we read stories from HR managers and recruiters about the most awful interviews they’ve experienced in their lives. Yes, such jobseekers usually fail their interviews, but there are remarkable situations when a person with a bad CV gets the desired position while an excellent candidate gets looked over.

• When I worked in a bank as a manager, one internal candidate I interviewed put her finger in front of my face while I was talking and said, “I’m gonna stop you right there.” I went with the other person who didn’t put their finger in my face. © Iamstillalice / Reddit

• How to fail the interview for a programmer: tell the interviewer that the problem they are trying to solve is impossible (even though it was literally 3 lines of code). It was a warm-up question. © nashidau / Reddit

• When I managed a restaurant, the worst thing someone could do was show up to apply during the dinner rush. If you can’t figure out not to do that, then your resume is going straight in the garbage.© CalLil6 / Reddit

• A guy didn’t have an answer for my first 2 questions, then just laughed at my third and shook his head. I shut down the interview and made it clear it was due to an inability to complete it. I politely asked if he had any questions, and he said, “Is the job paid by direct deposit or a check? Do you need a void check from me?” No sir, you’re never getting a paycheck from us... ever! © thriftingretail / Reddit

• Outgoing voicemails. While “leave a message at the beep or get lost” is kind of funny, it also may change the message I was going to leave from “Can you call me back to discuss salary expectations” to “I regret to inform you that we have decided to move forward with another applicant.” © dijon_snow / Reddit

• A guy told me that he obviously knew more than me and that’s why I needed to hire him for a position I was the direct supervisor for in the most condescending tone I had ever heard in almost 15 years of my career. The attitude of “I’m obviously better than you” was not required, and lost him the second interview. Until that point, I was loving his confidence and obvious knowledge, but he just took it too far. © Emmyisme / Reddit

• When I worked in HR, one applicant, who was in her forties, submitted a 40-page list of achievements/certificates and “sorority girl achievements” from 20 years prior. Needless to say, she failed at even getting an interview. © Downvote_me_d****** / Reddit

• I was interviewing for a call center role in the health care industry and this lady wouldn’t stop talking about how her mom had a terminal illness. I sympathized initially, but every answer would lead to her mom’s illness. Even technical questions about familiarity with systems would somehow lead back to her mom. © givemepasta1 / Reddit

• A guy literally told me that he was only at this interview because he heard the chicks working for us were hot. © castironskilletmilk / Reddit

• I had a guy who was a little rough but was looking quite promising for a design role. He blew it with me by saying, “I’ll turn this company around in 6 weeks” and a few more comments along those lines with a theme of “you are currently messing it up.” This is a small successful company. I wanted him to fit in, not “turn us around.” © wivsi / Reddit

• We were recruiting interns straight out of college. So it’s going pretty well, and this very bubbly, chatty girl gives me the impression that she’d fit in with the team. Until I asked her, “How do you handle multiple deadlines in a short time period?” And she said, “Well, you try to do your best, but if I realize I cannot meet both deadlines, I just call in sick.” © Zem_42 / Reddit

• A candidate was wearing sunglasses and flip-flops. The job was in media/IT, so we’re pretty casual, but it’s an interview, I want to see your eyes, not your toes. © ToManyTabsOpen / Reddit

• If you don’t want to be hired, talk over me or interrupt me. I’m a female manager and this happens more often than you might think, almost always with men. I have ended interviews very quickly because I just couldn’t finish a sentence. Also, be rude to our front desk team. Conversely, if my front desk team likes you or you stood out to them, that’s a big bonus in your favor. © ciararose / Reddit

• I had one person submit a resume with 21 different fonts. © SylkoZakurra/ Reddit

• A guy turned up where I worked for an interview and started giving the receptionist grief because the interviewer was running late. It clearly wasn’t her fault and it was entirely unacceptable. The interviewers didn’t even bother, just invited him to leave. © Ashilta / Reddit

• A guy kept going on about how he was great for the role and excited to work with us, and at the end of the session, he even left, saying, “I look forward to getting my acceptance call.” Little did he realize, a manager in the assessment center recognized him and told us his real story. He had been hired with us as a temp agent before but after a week of training (a 2-week course), he called in sick for a week before quitting via text. I don’t know how he thought he could say he had never worked for us and get away with it. © givemepasta1 / Reddit

• A girl had put “open schedule” on her resume and application but proceeded to tell me that she had school, school sports, and volunteering obligations. It dropped her availability for at least the next 5 months to 2 weekday afternoons after 5 (we close at 7) and Sundays after 1 (we close at 6). She did not receive my recommendation to be hired. © lorgskyegon / Reddit

• My dad is a QC/QA manager with an asphalt company (they build roads and stuff like that) and he said that once, a guy with really good qualifications came in for an interview as a lab tech and said, “You can go ahead and fire all your other techs because I’m the only one you’re gonna need.” The interview lasted 5 seconds before my dad told him to get lost. © Chewhuahuas / Reddit

• One of the candidates printed her resume on pink glittery paper and sprayed it with perfume. I didn’t even look at her resume. To this day, they probably still find glitter on that desk. © rusalkarusalka / Reddit

• Being late, having your mother call to ask about your application status, telling me you have to apply for jobs so you can continue to get unemployment benefits... © Montanapat89 / Reddit

Bonus: There is always an exception to the rule. The CV is awful, the candidate seems like a laughing stock, but employers are ready to hire them after a personal interview. This is how it happened.

• Before college, my dad had worked as a pig farmer, and for some reason, he thought that was a relevant experience to put in his resume. Apparently, the people hiring decided to call him in for an interview for jokes and giggles, just to see who this former pig farmer-turned-economist was. He impressed them so much that they gave him the job over their initially preferred candidate. © Pulpics / Reddit

Do you have any interesting stories about things that happened while interviewing job applicants? Tell us in the comments below.