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Original poster

Most embarassing job application mistakes

70 replies

personaenongratae · 23/02/2019 22:17

I am MORTIFIED at myself. There was a job I really wanted and I was really busy, and mixed up the deadline so had 3 hours to finish it off. I submitted it 2 minutes before the deadline.

Then I realised in one of my answers, I’d goven the job the wrong title!
ARGH!
Eg “I am applying for the role of stock manager...” but the role I was applying for was staff supervisor let’s say
There is no way I’ll
get it now.

What are your embarassing application mistakes? Please help me feel better from my own self inflicted situation of pity.

OP posts:
DoJo · 25/02/2019 10:58

I applied for a job with a cover letter that stated how good I was a 'poofreading'. Shock

Parsleyisntfood · 25/02/2019 11:11

I was so excited by a job advert that was right in my wheelhouse I did the long application straight away. Money was good, job was ideal, if a bit of a long shot of me.

Got an interview, could hardly listen to what they were saying because I was so excited. Turns out they were saying they were holding interviews on the mainland so candidates didn’t have to spend 2 days on the island. Pardon me? There’s only 1 ferry a day so you’d have to stay overnight. Pardon me?
Yes I had applied for a job on a tiny island on the outer Hebrides by mistake. DH had a job that was definitely not transferable. I went for the interview convinced I could make it work. I didn’t get it (to everyone’s relief) but I do still follow them on Facebook and imagine my island life.

Everythingmagnolia · 25/02/2019 11:15

My cousin turned up for an interview for a nursery manager and when she arrived it was a garden centreGrin

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Jobs
amusedbush · 25/02/2019 11:20

I applied for a job shortly after I got married and used Miss ABC and Mrs XYZ interchangeably throughout the application. I had waxed lyrical about my attention to detail as well Blush

They made a joke about it during the interview but I got the job!

MeInGeneva · 25/02/2019 11:26

I did the part time thing too.

I got offered the role and got right up to salary negotiations before I copped on. It was when they offered me a crazily small salary I questioned it saying that I was currently on X amount and they replied that they wouldn't pay that for a part time role.

Oooooooohhhhhhhhh Grin

FemalePersonator · 25/02/2019 11:56

All of these are a hoot. Really appreciated on a Monday morning.

NoShitHemlock · 25/02/2019 13:08

I don't think I have ever had a problem with an application but.......many, many years ago I applied to work in a bank and got all the way through to interview.

Happy days - the interview was in my local town (think suburban area with lots of shops, hairdressers, banks (this is relevant) etc.)

Rocked up for the interview 15 minutes early (I am early to everything), spoke to one of the tellers (no one else to ask) and she said she would speak to the manager. The manager came out about 10 minutes later and told me that they werent holding interviews that day and asked if I had my interview letter with me (of course I didn't - I was 19 and stupid!!).

Left the bank slightly perplexed and found a payphone to phone home (I know - imagine a world where NOT EVERYONE HAS A MOBILE. Obvs there were dinosaurs roaming the earth too.....). Mum confirmed which bank my interview was at. The bank right across the road from the bank I had just been in Blush

So I brazened it out and sidled in to the actual bank 15 minutes late (oh the shame of being late!) and spun a line about lack of buses or something equally crap.

Needless to say I didn't get the job Grin

sweetheart · 25/02/2019 14:12

I once applied for a job which was not in a direct field I had experience in - but I had lots of overlapping skills and fancied giving it a try.

I had a very polite email from them saying thank you for your application but we have had lots of applicants with direct experience so we will not be progressing your application with us at this time.

I was so disappointed I forwarded the email to my sisters saying "fucking bastards with their direct experience".........

except I hadn't forwarded the email had I..........I had REPLIED to the email! My goodness I wanted the ground to open up and swallow me whole.

As soon as I realised my mistake I sent a 2nd email saying "terribly sorry, that email was obviously not meant to be sent to you"

Thankfully they saw the funny side and emailed me to say thanks for giving everyone in their office a good laugh Blush

OlennasWimple · 25/02/2019 15:01

"Rupert - at leisure" is hysterical! Grin

Serin · 25/02/2019 16:03

BuddyWoo
That's made my day GrinGrinGrin

ConfCall · 25/02/2019 16:03

Loving Rupert at leisure and the Metallica/Warehouse one!

Watto1 · 25/02/2019 16:10

I mistyped the year I graduated from university. It looked like I had gained my degree before I had even done my GCSEs.

Bracknellite · 25/02/2019 17:45

My boss misspelled ‘attention to detail’ under ‘essential skills’ on a job advert.

It got caught before publication.

MidnightBlue28 · 25/02/2019 18:22

This will be outing but who cares! At one place I worked we received a very well thought out CV... printed out on paper that had links to a MILF porn sites on the reverse!

Presthoney · 25/02/2019 18:30

One applicant for a post I was trying to fill referred to ‘being available to cover a variety of shit patterns’. Obviously meant ‘shift’!

shalom1 · 25/02/2019 18:31

Years ago I applied for a job which was at Victoria. It was only when I got the interview that I realised it was at Victoria in Manchester and not Victoria in London where I lived

chocywockywoo · 25/02/2019 18:57

I once applied for a job, and as I was filling in the application, wrote a list of questions that I wanted to ask about it should I be offered an interview.

On the day of the interview, I couldn't find my list of questions, so hastily scribbled something down some notes on the bus.

The interviewer told me that they were very impressed, that it was considerate of me to send my questions to them in advance. Of course, I shot myself in the foot by going "oh! I wondered what I'd done with them" Confused

I didn't get the job....

Witchend · 25/02/2019 18:57

Story I was told by someone at university was their brother applied for a holiday job working for TNT as a lorry driver. Their dad thought he was going to be working with TNT dynamite and paid him not to take the job. Grin

One dh had where the applicant listed a degree that according to the university he claimed to have got it from did not exist. They phoned the department up to especially ask about it and were told no way did it exist.
They telephone interviewed him to see if he had made a mistake, but he swore blind he had that degree from that university, even when they told him they'd spoken to them and they had no record of him.

When he didn't get the job he accused them of racial discrimination. Which was interesting because he had a fairly generic name and accent. They never did know what race he was, so would have struggled to discriminate on those grounds.

Sunshine1235 · 25/02/2019 19:03

I once applied for a job at one company with a glowing ending to my statement about how much I loved said company. I didn’t get the job. Later I got another job there and my boss mentioned to me that the reason they didn’t interview me for the first role is because I’d refered to the wrong company at the end (blatantly copy and pasted from another application and not fully checked 😂)

ArsenicNLace · 25/02/2019 19:08

Not me but an applicant for a job we were hiring for.

The job didn't require a degree but did require some quite specific experience. The application form asked for specific examples of this experience. However the applicant was a mature student doing degree of which she was obviously very (justifiably) proud. Unfortunately I think she naively thought that just because she had a degree that was all she needed.

Under every heading asking for an example of experience she would write something on the lines of 'studied in 2nd year module 6 speak to Mr Lecturer'sname'. She obviously seemed to think I was going to ring up all these different tutors asking what she'd studied. In actual fact she really needed practical experience rather than theoretical anyway but I was quite perturbed that she would think this was appropriate (we'd had over 100 applications for the job in question)! Confused

I do hope she asked for feedback!

CricketSnicket · 25/02/2019 19:15

I ended an email with 'Regards'.

...or, I thought I had.

The g and the t are very close together, in my defence. Blush

PaintBySticker · 25/02/2019 19:16

“As a former HR worker - who worked in recruitment for a bit - I can tell you that is more common that you think to receive applications that mention a completely different employer/company, job”

I received an application once with cover letter and CV mentioning a different job / employer. In an mood of extreme kindness I replied to the applicant and asked them to send the correct application. AND THEY SENT ME THE WRONG ONE AGAIN

Thisnamechanger · 25/02/2019 19:17

My friend sent about 60 cvs out in writing to french companies in perfect french trying to get work experience. She didn't put her address, phone number or email in it Grin amazingly, she still got a job!

iklboo · 25/02/2019 19:54

We got an application in where the candidate said they 'enjoyed working alone or in grope sessions'.

Janedoe5000 · 25/02/2019 19:59

I recently applied for a job with a CV and cover letter from 2009.