To ask for your interview fuck ups

One of my very firsts adult post university interviews, really wanted the job.

Arrive and wait in reception- so far all good. Member of the team who I am interviewing for, comes to reception to collect me and take me over to another building where the interview is being held. As we are walking across the car park. My kitten heel gets stuck in a drain. I make a split second decision that I’m gonna just abandon the shoe and keep walking as though I’m wearing a heel so there I am hobbling along and after maybe 15 seconds. The guy turns to me and says you do know that your shoes back there stuck in that drain, do you want to go back and get it? So I continue hobbling along as though I’m still wearing the shoe (why?) to wrestle it out the drain - utterly mortifying.

Whats worse is I bloody got the job and everyone knew on my first day. Thankfully they weren’t dicks about it.

Good luck!

When I was 18 applied for a job at Oddbins. Interview went really well until they asked what was my favourite wine and I panicked because I never drank wine.

Applied for a job. They called me and offered appointment at 12.00. They then emailed and said 11.00

I missed that the email said a different time and turned up at 11.45.

Didn’t get the job.

I woke up with a horrible eye infection on the day of an interview for a job I really wanted so I still went for it, by the time I’d got the the interview my eye had completely closed and was constantly weeping, during the interview I could barely see but I got the job - I can’t believe wasn’t embarrassed but I was in my 20s and was full of confidence back then. Fast forward 15 years later and a career break I had a panel interview and when asked why I had taken a break from my career, I honestly replied, "To raise my family." The male interviewer seemed to glaze over and instantly lose interest , which made me realise that I would never be hired - I didn’t get the job and I lost all confidence in applying for jobs in case I was asked the same question and got the same result.

Went for an interview at a major London airport on the car hire desk and whwn they askes if l had any questions, l said do you get many foreigners?? What l meant was do you get your regulars but made myself sound xenophobic and stupid!

Just got over a heavy cold and went for the interview.

It was in a very tiny office so I was almost touching knees with the interviewer.

Part way through, my sinuses kindly decided to deposit a large dollop of snot in my throat and I had one of those coughing fits that leave you gasping for breath between coughs.

Interviewer didn't take kindly to being coughed all over so I didn't get the job.

Not an interview, but I once received a CV from a (male) candidate who described one of his previous roles as "consisting of manly administrative tasks".

I think he meant "mainly" 😂

I’ve got a positive interview fuck up if that would help. I wanted to get into project management about 6 years ago so went for a project support officer role. Two of my answers to the questions were ‘er, I don’t know’ and I still got the job! 6 years later, I’ve just been offered a promotion to senior project manager so must be doing something right 😜

I had an interview once and had prepared well but for some reason, and this is the only time it ever happened to me, I just completely froze in the interview. I only managed a few words for each answer.

🤣🤣🤣🤣

I went for a civil service interview for my very first job as a school leaver. My mum accompanied me to London by train and planned to go shopping and meet me after the interview to travel home together. Being a civil service interview it took hours of various tests, assessments and different interviews panels.

During one particularly intense interview my mum suddenly burst into the room pursued by a security guard, demanding to know why they were keeping me so long! I was absolutely mortified! They invited my mum to sit in the interview with me and she proceeded to talk over me and answer every question they asked me. If I managed to get a word in then she'd disagree with what I'd said. She managed to drop in various embarrassing childhood stories. Many years later and I'm still cringing at the memory of it!

I got the job though. They must have felt sorry for me!

Not a work interview one but an interview for a student visa.

My cousin applied to study in Canada. He managed to get an interview.
Interviewer asks him if he was planning to return home once his student visa expired (meaning basically not staying illegally).
My cousin said no. 🤦‍♀️

I had an interview in 2020 via Zoom. All was going well until, out of the blue, I sneezed with such force that my head shot forward, knocked the camera off the monitor. If that wasn't bad enough the camera had landed at an angle that gave the interviewers a lovely shot of the inside of my left nostril. Still got the job though.

One of the funniest things I've read 🤣

I don't think anything is going to beat 'well endowed' but ...

In my interview for the job I have now, I was asked what my biggest weakness it. I started to talk about how I'm a bit of a worrier and can tie myself in knots a bit about doing my job well. About half way through this wittering I suddenly - out loud - went 'OH GOD I'm doing the 'I'm a perfectionist' thing! That's not what I mean!' and then went further round in circles trying to explain myself.

The man who is now my manager just grinned at me and said not to worry, he knew what I meant. Having worked for him for a couple of years I know he really does.

Me aged 18

Interviewer - so tell me about your hobbies - you've written here that you enjoy badminton.

Me - oh I just put that cos I thought it looked good, I don't really play it, I just go to the pub with my mates.

I'm not sure whether that contributed to me not getting the job, or the fact that I told them I didn't like audio typing .... interview for a post as audio typist!

At a hideous group interview for a sales assistant role at WH Smith when I was a student:

Them: and if the product wasn't available what would you try and sell the customer instead.

Me: nothing because my pet hate as a customer is sales assistants trying to force stuff on me that I don't want.

I already knew I didn't want the job after some wanky group exercise where we had to build a contraption to get an egg from one side of the room to the other so I wasn't going to go to the effort of making up what they wanted to hear.

The well endowed story is winning so far!

Not a massive fuck up but probably a common one... In one of my early interviews I was really nervous. Each and every answer was very short, dwindled off into mumbling, and then finished with "so... yeah" and my best attempt at a confident smile (reader it was not confident at all)

Didn't get the job 🤣

I had been temping at a job i loved for 8 months and then the role became permanent. They had to interview to follow procedure but the job was already mine. I had worked here 9 hours a day, 5 days a week for close to a year, ate lunch with the managers daily, ran errands together. When they interviewed me, i burst out crying as i dont like pressure 😂 i was so embarassed and they were are laughing their heads off cos they couldnt understand why i was crying 😂 but i still got the job!

I answered all questions and at the end rolled my chair out from the table but didn’t realise how close I was the wall so crashed into it and tipped onto the floor. The worse bit was it was a big company and a big lump immediately came up on my leg and they wouldn’t let me leave until they had held a cold compress on it for about 20 minutes 🙈 I was mortified and they offered me the job but I couldn’t face going back 😂

I once answered a question in an interview for something really specific to the job role with "actually I don't know much about this but I did watch a Louis Theroux documentary". Got that job.

Another job I showed up for the interview and the first question they asked me was "we noticed you put a preference for full time, you do know this role is part time?" I did not know but was too embarrassed to admit I'd failed to read the advert properly so (badly) pretended I'd love part time. Didn't get that.

Oh my god, I'm dying 😂

For one of my first interviews after being a SAHM for a couple years, I was so focused on being on time and dropping my son off at a relative's house that I didn't realise I'd left the house in my scabby trainers. Thankfully there was a giant desk in the interview room that I could hide my feet under!

Dying at well endowed 😆

I knocked a glass of water all over the table and papers. Got the job.

I was interviewing once and the candidate just stood up mid way through and walked out. No explanation. Weird.

I once went to an interview for a role I was (in hindsight) absolutely unqualified for.
I was given an excel spreadsheet with information on it and three questions to go and answer after 10 mins or so prep.
I didn't have a scooby doo. The interview was on Teams and I was tempted to just leave the meeting 😂