Worst/bizarre interviews you have ever had...

[Franklymydearidontgiveadam]

I've got a few interviews lined up

Had 3 already this week, one interview I sent my cv, invited for interview during my interview I had to write an application form Inc work history which was painstaking and one I've just had now invloved a game show like quiz.....

I have another this afternoon, i'm drained already!

I had one an interview while pregnant, where as soon as I mentioned the pregnancy, (It was pretty obvious I thought they could tell) they immediately made the whole interview about my partner. Ie: Where does he work? How would your partner describe you? If your partner could visit any country where would he go?
Very strange, I'm not sure if it was to somehow weed out single mums. It's the only explanation I could think of.

I was once asked to build a structure out of spaghetti and marshmallows. Not as a team building activity, by myself in a room with 3 people watching me.

I had this done to me before. I often wonder (can any interviewers on here confirm?) whether it’s a trick question. They asked me to do something similar and I declined and told them that I am more than capable of being a team and solo player without constructing a makeshift object out of random office supplies. I got the job (didn’t stay long, the people were very strange).

I vaguely recall someone going through an interview where they were asked to “take a seat” but there not being any chairs. When they asked if they could go and get a chair from outside and bring it in they were told again to “take a seat”. She ended up sitting on the floor and conducting the whole interview like that. It was an 18 year old girl interviewing for her first proper job. When she left the room she could hear them laughing, presumably about her.

I think it was a game playing exercise or a power trip. The person who got the job was a more confident male friend of hers who replied “Well I’d sit down if I could but there is no chair!” Someone on the panel said “What are you going to do about that?” and he replied something along the lines of “ask which one of you fancies giving me their chair.”

ProYaffle - I had a similar interview where I wasn't asked a single question... or at least I was asked one. The thing was I had sent a letter of application and the person's office had phoned back immediately and said I sounded perfect and could I come in straightaway for an interview.

Well, the interview consisted of giving me the spiel about the job. This went on some time, with me doing the "pleasant, alert" face, before I was suddenly asked, "Can you use a computer?" I was a bit taken aback, but said yes, whilst thinking Gosh, they must think I look ancient.... Then the interviewer stood up, wrung my hand, thanked me for coming in and said, "Give my regards to Peregrine" whilst steering me out of the door.

I don't know and have never met any Peregrines. . I am still awaiting to hear the outcome of the interview... two years later.

One where I completely clammed up and failed dismally. Turned out OK though as I would have been only there a short while as the company was sold and many people made redundant.

I was approached for a nice job by an agency, went along to them for an interview and gave them my CV. They asked 'is there any firm in your industry you don't want to work for?' to which I replied Company A as I worked for them 5 years ago and though their training and reputation was good the management were poor and I felt I couldn't progress (actually couldn't organise a p*ss up in a brewery, awful people).

The agency agreed I was a good fit for the post so said I needed to go to an interview with the company who were based 200 miles away, and the interview would take place in their branch on that city. Straight away I said 'It's not company A is it? (whose head office was in that location) and was assured no it wasn't. Arrangements were made and I again said 'are you quite sure it's no Company A because I really do not want to work for them again?' I was assured it wasn't.

So I drove for nearly 3 hours, found somewhere to park, paid for 4 hours just in case 2 wasn't enough (very expensive!) and found their office, was shown a seat and on the desk by the sofas were a pile of Company A brochures. So I said to the receptionist 'Is my interview with Company A?' Yes he said it's with (name of previous boss ) who was Ok but very weak and previous boss's boss who was obnoxious and really the main reason I did not want to work for Company A.

So I said to the receptionist that Agency in Other City hadn't told me who the interview was for and arranged this interview even though I'd told them I didn't want to work for Company A. So I walked out.

Wasted me a whole day's leave and a lot of money in fuel and parking.

It did occur to me that previous manager was keen for me to re-join the company, and that they'd been trying to head hunt?

Worst interview I had was for a head office role at B&Q. The interviewer was one of those unsmiling, slightly aggressive individuals, and, to my horror, I felt myself just clamming up. My mind went completely blank, and I couldn't recall the answers to the simplest of questions. The more I mumbled and stuttered, the more annoyed he got, and the more annoyed he got, the less I was able to come up with any coherent responses. It was a car crash; in the end I was barely holding back the tears.

I didn't get the job (unsurprisingly!), and I could see him thinking "who is this mumbling idiot the agency have sent me?". I'm still cringing, 20 years on.

At an interview for a fairly junior assistant of some sort in a solicitors office, I was asked if I was married/had children/had plans to have any, and also if I was religious? My eyebrows went higher with each question. This was in the late 80s, and the interviewer (one of the partners) was looking as though he was suffering the effects of a large boozy lunch. I was then asked to do a typing test in another room, but I used the opportunity to nip down the stairs and out of the building.
I have been weighed for a job! To be fair it was as a stable girl in a flat race yard, but I was tiny...They had to check I was under 9 stone suited and booted, so before I was allowed to ride, the scales came out in the tack room for a public weighing. The boss also mounted up and road alongside me on the gallops to check my riding ability. It was a good job I was used to riding tb's; if you'd exaggerated your skills you'd have soon been found out.
Wish I still weighed under 9 stone.

Was invited back for third Interview and asked to prepare a presentation, no problem.

Two days before, was asked to increase presentation to make it more into a marketing plan for the role. (It was a marketing Director job). No problem, I guess.

Presented it, glowing response.

Called two days later. Terribly sorry, you're too expensive. But we're going to pass your plan on to the lucky (cheaper, less experienced) candidate. Can they call you if they have any trouble implementing it?

Fuck. Right. Off.

I had to be interviewed for my own job, that I had already been doing for over a year on a temporary contract, I didn't get it, still bitter.

I’ve had weird interviews. However I’ve also interviewed people for graduate positions and those have been quite weird (at times) too. One day we got a lot of people from the same (prestigious) university - who all gave the same answers to the questions. I think they must have had a strong policy of working together on their course so they all prepared for the interview together.

Civil service assessment centre is basically the Hunger Games

Years ago I had a panel interview at the BBC. This was the third stage so things were looking a teensiest bit hopeful. The panel sat there and the candidates had to have a balloon debate (ie who should be saved from among us). It was excrutiating as two people entirely dominated and it was impossible to get one single word in.

Anyway, afterwards I found out who they hired. They had a very unusual surname which quite coincidentally belonged to a very well-known presenter there...

For me, it was the one with the 6-hour drive and the overnight stay at a remote location to do something nuclear-related - hence no tour of the facilities. It was the second interview as well.

I was in and out in less than 40 minutes and there was nothing that couldn't be asked over a Skype call. Not worth the two days off work and the fact I had to remind them of the expenses claim.

All my interviews as a candidate have been fairly non eventful, but as my last job was in the HR team of a large engineering firm, I have a few stories.
My first ever interview was the worst. It was a conference call with an overseas candidate and I was called in to help the manager in case he struggled with English. Under the premise that if he needed too many questions to be interpreted he would be unsuccessful as the position required an advanced level. He was on speaker and I sat there for an excruciating 45 minutes, trying to gently nudge answers out of him in increasingly basic English as the managers shook their heads in silence. I could hear his wife or partner whispering in the background, trying to help him. He tried so hard. At the end we asked if he had any questions, and the poor guy then cracked up and totally lost it, broke down in tears begging for a chance as he had 4 children he couldn't feed. This was an engineer with very high qualifications, pleading. I had to leave the room and go into the Ladies and actually threw up, it shook me up so much. Writing his rejection email I was blinded by tears the following day.
Another time we had a male candidate come in for a cleaner position. He was ex military and his eyes were wild. When asked about why he wanted this job, he went quiet and his eyes literally went dark. All he said is "I just want a safe place to be. I have seen so much war". I found it very hard to keep my composture for the rest of the interview, imagining what sort of horrors those eyes had seen.
And to end on a lighter note, there was the time my manager and I were interviewing together and she stepped forward first to greet the candidate, a lady. She shook her hand and introduced us etc. I noticed she was very tetchy and finished the interview really fast, which was unusual. When she left, my manager ran to the bathroom to wash her hands furiously. Our candidate had left her a bit of SNOT on her hand when she shook it!!! People, wash your hands before interviews...

I once interviewed a candidate, who asked at the end of the interview about submitting travel expenses. There was a bit of humming and hawwing and saying we don't reimburse travel to interview, but perhaps we could accommodate a train fare... and then a few days later in the mail turned up a plane ticket from Greece! They said they had had to interrupt their holiday for the interview. No one asked them to fly back from Athens! There was some talk of suing the company but HR managed to fend off the madwoman.

I was asked how many tennis balls I thought you could fit into the office I was sitting in. It was one of a few strange questions they asked, but the only one I can remember fully. It was for an admin job, barely above minimum wage. They didn't even provide any idea of measurements 🤦🏼‍♀️

When I was about 17 I went for an interview for an office junior role. The guy who interviewed me was a right misogynistic, slimy prick and I though I remained polite I quickly made up my mind I wouldn’t be working there (it was a real “blokey/jobs for the boys” environment).

I held myself well and didn’t let him faze me (which I suspect annoyed him)
His last question to me was “who opposed John Major yesterday in the House of Commons?” Said with a silly smug grin on his face (he obviously thought he’d caught me out) except I was already an avid follower of the news (thanks to DF!) and replied straight away “I believe that was John Redwood” I then provided a few little comments about the situation as it had happened. The look on his face was priceless!!
I later heard the job had been given to a young man (of course!) but it still makes me laugh to remember the look on his face!

Interviewed for a large legal firm many years ago:

And what does your father do?
Sorry, why is that relevant?
Oh, we like to know we’re employing county people, you wouldn’t believe the chaff that blows through here.
My father is a tram driver
... Erm

45 minute long interview in an office which had reflective film on the outside - I'd been sent by an agency and seriously thought they'd booked an interview in a sex shop. Nice office inside, no sex toys, but no indication what they did. Every time I tried to find out, the interviewer changed the subject. I decided that if they wouldn't even tell me what they did, I wasn't interested, even though it was 20 minutes from home for more money than my 2 hour commute to and from my existing job.

For the Any Questions part, I had to say it - 'What type of business are you?'

They sold spray paint for balding men's scalps.

Not only had I gone there with long, luminous pillar box red hair, in 1994 (and the agency had seen me every time I dropped off my timesheets before getting the job I was in at the time), I couldn't help myself. I laughed and said 'What on earth is wrong with being bald?'.

My brothers were balding from 22/4, I'd dated people with long hair, short hair, original skinheads (ie, non racist ones), punks, dreads and no hair and, years later, I met DP when he was bald. It genuinely doesn't matter to me and, at that point in my life, I had never met anybody for whom it had been an issue, - literally nobody I knew was bothered by baldness.

I didn't get it, but I wouldn't have wanted it, to be honest, as they were flogging a product that looks fucking ridiculous as I found out when the arsehole ex started using it to appeal to his intended bit of fluff. I'd have been tempted to tell all those self conscious men that they looked great as they were and no amount of spray paint was going to make them look as though they had a full head of hair, whatever the marketing blurb said.

The other one was an interview at a bank. Lots of people, lots of teamworking exercises. We did the exercises and on feedback, I encouraged the quiet ones to make statements mainly because I instantly disliked one woman applicant who grimaced when I walked in with a broken ankle in a cast and muttered that this must be the fucking cripple candidate before bitching about what cunts her existing employers were. They didn't employ me because, apparently, I encouraged other people too much and should have done all the talking myself.

Oh well, the people they did hire never got to start their work, as they got into huge difficulties two weeks later and cancelled the recruitment. I felt sorry for anybody who resigned from their old jobs to find out they didn't have anything to go to at the end of the month. Except the one dickhead. I hope she had well and truly burned her bridges by that point.

I went to visit a school prior to applying for a vacancy. This was a quite a stressful time as I wasn’t being kept on at current school despite being led to believe I would be and we were heading towards May. A little unhappy that was soon to be unemployed. So, I hadn’t noticed the grade on the advert although it said was open to NQTs which made no sense. This becomes very relevant...

Arrived, was met by head whose opening question was what was I doing at moment. Explained I was just finishing my NQT year. “Good for you” was the only response. I was then taken on a high-speed tour of the school, all my positive remarks ignored. I noticed that all the adults were wearing school branded t-shirts which seemed very corporate (support staff sometimes wear but rarely teachers). We met a small boy out of class, interrogated by head but left where he was. We reached his classroom and Head pointedly asks about boy, teacher looks around for him, blanched before head told her where he was. All very unpleasant and belittling in front of a visitor (I could have been a parent). No kids running up to hug her, the usual thing you expect in primary. Not a happy place.

By this time, I had decided this wasn’t the place for me and was planning polite exit remarks when tour finished.....It wasn’t to be so easy. I was ushered into her office, made to engage in very daft small talk while she sorted school pet. Then, she announced was I aware I was the wrong pay scale for this role. Death stare. I apologised for my mistake, hoping this would be it. No, she called the secretary in to quiz her and accuse her of a mistake. Again, I apologised for taking up her time. Again, the secretary was made to find the advert. I was made to feel about two inches tall and at this point was nearly in tears (stress of no job as well as unneeded abuse.) I was allowed to leave in end. Sobbed in the car.

Why did she do this to a complete stranger? I was upfront about my career stage in first few minutes, she could have shown me the door then and got back to more important stuff. Although she did a fab job at showcasing why there are so many teachers signed off with stress.

Lesson learned....always check you are correct grade before visiting or applying despite what ads say.

Many years ago I went for an interview for job X at a big company. Had the interview, all seemed to go well, so I was a bit disappointed when they rang me up to say I hadn't got it. Thought that probably someone with more experience had got the job instead, but decided to ask for some feedback anyway.

Them: "You gave really good replies to the questions about job X, but you didn't say anything about job Y."
Me: "But I wasn't being interviewed for job Y, no-one asked me any questions about it."
Them: "We know, but you should have included it in your responses anyway."
Me:

Found out later that no-one had been hired and the whole department was made redundant a few months later. I think they were just going through the motions of recruitment to keep existing staff in the dark about their plans!

Weirdest one I had was an interview for a teaching position when I lived abroad. Three very sensible looking interviewers, the questions were easy enough and then they asked me to teach them a language point. So I go up to the whiteboard, give some examples, set up a practice dialogue getting them involved. All was going well until they started giggling at each other and acting like naughty teenagers, then shouting out more aggressive comments. I told them to be quiet and listen. And then one of the fuckers threw a pencil into the floor next to me. My curt response of “Seriously? This is how you behave with people?” was not role play, I was genuinely pissed off that they would test me by acting like little shits and throwing stuff at me. They were grown men! They asked me how I thought my demonstration went, and I told them I thought the situation was really intimidating and disrespectful, but that I thought I did fine. They obviously liked my stroppiness and called later to offer me the job. I very much enjoyed telling them that, based on their interview, I wasn’t interested.
I still can’t figure out how they thought 3 middle aged men play-acting aggression to a lone young women trapped in a room with them was ever go to work out.

Oh god loads.

I once had an aptitude test, a situational one where they tell you that you're stranded in the middle of the Pacific, you have no clue where you are - what do you throw overboard? A map, 20 litres of drinking water, a box of emergency rations? I ended up arguing the toss with the INTERVIEWER as to how the map was useless as you didn't know where you are!

So I said sod this and left. Then realised I'd forgotten my jacket and had to slink back in to get it

P. S. It was for a minimum wage telesales job not CEO of the friggin land military.