We've had dating red flags, how about JOB red flags?

[uniglowooljumper]

The two worst jobs I ever had, I should never have taken up after the interview.

In both interviews, it was very clear that the supervisors/bosses did not want the person whose job I was interviewing for to go. In both second interviews, the person who held the position was there and in both cases the person was promoted.

There was lots of talk about how the boss/team hated to see 'Susan' or 'Wendy' go, how super Susan and Wendy were, staff would say things like 'You have big shoes to fill' and there was constant comparisons to Susan and Wendy.

I ended up quitting both after a month or two.

Now, any interview like this is the dating equivalent of talking about exes or saying your ex was psycho. I don't go any further.

Do you have any job red flags that make you nope out immediately?

Interviewer very obviously reading your CV for the first time in front of you. My current boss did this.

Four stage interview process for a job paying 20k. Interview, written test, data analysis task, interview. 2 working day window to complete tasks. Also my current job.

Anyone who interviews you wearing a Bart Simpson tie.
Anyone who interviews you who has to put other people who work below them down in front of you.
Anyone who promises that once you have passed your 3 month probation your pay will go up to the advertised amount.

@ravenia - yes to these tests for such low wage jobs! When the people you end up working for clearly didn't pass the emotional intelligence ones?

I don't know why Google has the reputation it does. I've worked with 2 guys who subsequently went on to work at Google. Both were standard beardy dudes who were nowhere near as competent as they thought they were and neither could organise their way out of a paper bag.

I recently had a phone interview with a lady who spent about half of the 30 min asking me about my childcare arrangements. She made a big thing about how I would cope if I had to do overtime (um wfh and husband maybe?) and went on to reveal that 2 out of her team of 7 were not coming back from Mat leave.

What was even funnier was that I got a rejection from the company, saying they had decided on someone else. That’s fine, except the job kept on coming up every week on my LinkedIn. About 3 months later, I get a call at 5 in the evening, asking if I am still available to work (I stopped looking for work in between due to lockdown madness), offering me a video interview the following morning at 8 am. Turns out the lady is still working there, but the hiring manager has changed. I wonder why...

In HGV driving, there isn't really an interview. The true test is the assessment. When an assessor says, "we'll soon beat those bad habits out of you", and in returning to base swears at another driver...run like fuck.

@caulioccolii

That's really familiar to me - I wonder which company you interviewed with? I work with a lot of businesses in that community (by the sounds of things) and the blocks on technology drives me up the wall. Their online filtering would put China to shame.

@Buttybach

I had a job where your entire days Toilet breaks had to amount to less than 2.5 minutes. If you went over an email was sent to the entire team to tell them exactly how long you had spent on the loo, Unbeknownst to me I had Endometriosis and it was everywhere.

I thought it was IBS. To have an email sent out on a daily basis to everyone to tell them how long I had been...really put me a in a dark
place mentally.

Bloody hell @Buttybach that's dreadful, I also have endo and no how debilitating it can be. Hope you're doing better.

I always check out the ladies toilets when I go for interview! You can see the pride the team have in their workplace by the state of the loos!

Honestly think about it. Think of all the lovely places you've worked and what this loos were like! I'm telling you ladies loos give away loads of secrets! :)

I once attended a teaching interview where all the other candidates left of their own accord throughout the day I was the only one left. Was desperate so took the job. It nearly killed me. School went into special measures.
Also an obvious teaching one-if there are lots of different teaching jobs advertised at the same school at the same time. It will be toxic.
Interviewers who are too keen and try to woo you.
On the flip side, I was happy to accept my current job that I’m overqualified and underpaid for because they were organised, respectful, friendly yet professional, and seemed genuinely excited that they were getting someone with my experience, oh and there was a free lunch . My boss is the best I’ve ever had.

I saw a job ad recently that said 'no toxic people' and then described themselves as fun and a team. Do they think 'toxic' people will read the job ad and go "oh well, not for me, I'm pretty toxic"?

I had an interview once where they were also hiring someone I used to work with as a manager. They asked for my opinion of her. I was obviously polite, seemed like I would be working with her. They offered me and a few others there that day jobs, then a few weeks later said they were closing down that department. Wished I'd been honest and told them she was a fucking nightmare.

Had one where they told me I needed to smile more.

I went for a job where they described the customers / clients in such a negative way - suggesting they were all cheats, complaining they were often 'foreign' and that I wouldn't want to be alone with any of them. I refused the job because I didn't want to work with anyone with such negative and mean views. She gave away who she really was and I just knew she'd talk badly of me too.

I asked the panel of four (which was excessive for the job level) what they liked about working there. Awkward silence, staring at the floor, a few stuttered, mediocre answers. No thanks! They also never bothered to contact me afterwards and several of them left shortly after.

Contrast that with my next job where I asked the same question at the end, and both my interviewers really enjoyed answering. I knew then that they'd be good to work for, and I was right - still in touch with them now.

Oh and one interview where there were two interviewers. One spent most of the interview scowling at me, which really put me off. I did take that job and thankfully he wasn't my manager - he was a nasty, arrogant man who thought himself superior to everyone else.

Oh yes, excessive interview process for a menial job.

I once went for an interview as a customer adviser for a large energy provider. The process went something like this.

Telephone interview followed by a role playing exercise followed by a telephone interview and then a face to face. For a job paying £14k a year....

I went for an interview elsewhere that day, and a lot of the people starting with me had come from afore-mentioned energy provider and said it was an awful place to work for.

For schools, be suspicious when you're clearly being interviewed as far away from the actual teaching areas as possible, especially if the area you're in looks expensively refurbished and they're talking about a wonderful new building programme starting soon. Odds are that on your first full day, you're going to be put in a knackered portacabin on the far end of the site with no toilet access and the only running water will be the rain coming in through the roof. If part of your job relies upon there being a technician/admin person and they don't want you to meet them or claim that they're on a day off, be very, very suspicious; they either don't exist, the school don't want to risk somebody telling you what it's really like there or they're in the process of clearing up another roof leak or frantically bodging together another approximation of equipment for a lesson. Be suspicious of any place where there's a new head and nobody you meet seems to have been there for more than a year/they talk about the wonderful changes that are coming. And if it's an academy chain (Harris, for example), run. Run far, far away.

For other employers, if, they verbally offer you the position and then start pressurising you to start earlier, particularly if they complain about how you told them you were flexible and can't you sort something out with your current employer, withdraw your acceptance immediately.

Look at the less senior people around - do they look relaxed and happy? When you walk somewhere with the interviewer, do people almost immediately peel off at a tangent to avoid them when they spot your interviewer?

Are there older members of staff? I've interviewed at places where there was nobody over 25 but it would have been normal to see at least somebody who had been there for longer than five years. If there isn't, they're likely to have made experienced (and less amenable to coercion) staff redundant/pushed out and it's a definite possibility that they're absolutely toxic for parents of babies and small children.

Might sound silly, but are all the female staff you see wearing heels? If there isn't one woman there wearing sensible shoes, they're quite possibly utter shitbags about appearances.

And last of all, does your interviewer person stride along, letting their voice boom out down the corridor with you having to trot along to keep up as they bellow at randoms and not holding doors open for you? If they do, they're a dick and you'll know all about it if you work there.

If the person you'd be mostly working for is away and the staff you meet roll their eyes talking about them. Or if the manager interviewing you is rude about the person currently doing the job and doesn't let you meet them. Luckily the first one was just telling and the second one the guy mentioned a colleague who'd held the post previously.
Who I rang and was told "Don't walk, run!"

I've been told that one interview I had was full of red flags - I was the only qualified applicant, mild-mannered accountant out if his depth told me he'd never had a woman apply in five years, the place was 'very blokey' and they talked about football a lot, but the job was mine if I wanted it.

He seemed honest, though, and it was one of the best jobs I've ever had, great bunch of guys (when I got them off the topic of football).

Gut feelings count for a lot, but if it looks like they're hiding something, it's probably bad. Over-honest is usually good.

Has anyone ever done that thing where the employers ask you to complete a project based on a brief? You submit the work and then they’ll shortlist you if you’re good enough...

I have. Didn’t get the job but they used my design and marketing ideas that I put together. I was really pissed off when my blog appeared on their website! Also, an idea I had has now been implemented and turned into a product that they sell.

They didn’t employ anyone. So they must have received quite a lot of free design and marketing ideas from all the applicants.

Swines.

They could not tell me what I would be working on or what my first day would look like.

They kept mixing up the names of programming languages. I really didn't want to take the job after that. It's the reddest of flags.

Once I started, it turns out they had no experienced programmers, and had hired new staff experienced in the wrong language for the project.

Money was hurled at a couple of other projects which a non-technical marketing person over-sold, promising them the sort of 3D graphics a AAA game studio would be proud of, when we were a team of web and app developers.

The next project was delayed as we didn't have any of the infrastructure in place to host it, and no clear plan to getting it set up as upper management just said 'no' to everything and couldn't understand why things were needed.

I realised none of the management had the faintest clue about any sort of tech at all.

Leaving was a great relief.

I once had a friend who took an admin job with a medium sized business. When she started, the owner asked her to design a website for the company. She said she didn't know how and was that not a specialist job? And he told her he didn't want to pay for a specialist and that he was sure she could work it out. The job nearly drove her to a breakdown, so unreasonable were the demands.

@hellofromcornwall

Has anyone ever done that thing where the employers ask you to complete a project based on a brief? You submit the work and then they’ll shortlist you if you’re good enough...

I have. Didn’t get the job but they used my design and marketing ideas that I put together. I was really pissed off when my blog appeared on their website! Also, an idea I had has now been implemented and turned into a product that they sell.

They didn’t employ anyone. So they must have received quite a lot of free design and marketing ideas from all the applicants.

Swines.

Yes, this is VERY common. There are lots of forums on how to make sure they can't use your work without paying for it. It's such a twat thing to do. Unpaid internships are legend for this.

I was offered one of the best jobs I ever had at interview. I think they couldn't believe their luck after my presentation and didn't want to risk me going on to another interview grin

So you reckon it was your natural modesty that slayed them, or your low self esteem?

Yes! Was about to post about it actually.

I had an initial interview which was successfull. For the second interview, I was asked to put together a marketing strategy ready for the second interview and to talk the panel through it 🤨. That was the nail in the coffin for me. They'd (3 interviewers) conducted the first interview in their coats, which was really weird as it was June. I told them I wasn't going to do such substantial work for free. They didn't respond.

I have had a couple.

Had relocated and desperately needed a job. Went for my only offered interview, place seemed nice enough, boss seemed ok. Then I met the lady I was working with. I should have had alarm bells ringing when she told me the boss swore a lot. Didnt bother me, so I took the job. Found out that when he swore it was normally at his admin staff, and was a bullying boss at best. I was employed to help the lady I met on interview day, found out whilst working there, boss hadnt wanted to employ anyone extra and thought she should do it all. I cried every night. Then a day before my probation was up, I found a letter on the printer, dated the next day basically saying they were letting me go. I still went in the next day to get my letter and they still made me work until 5pm to get every penny's work out of me. Just checked them on Glassdoor, and other people have commented not positively about them still, 15 years later.

I had an interview where the job description said half days. It was only when I was offered the job that it became clear that the job was 1-5pm every day, not very good for a working mum of a 4 year old. Declined that job.

Took a job with a local opticians. lovely firm, and lovely people, I still go there now. My only problem was that I was paid hourly from 9am - 5.30pm with an hour for lunch. Once I started I was told I must be there at 8.45am, and we were all expected to clean the shop afterwards at 5.30pm but couldnt start until the last customer left. I was frequently getting home after 6.30pm but they refused to pay extra for those hours worked. I only stayed in that job 6 months.

Have to say at my current workplace, lovely with a good boss, but when we interviewing for a new co-worker as the previous very nasty person was leaving. We had to interview in the second of our two work places, to avoid the nasty person meeting the candidates and sticking the knife in before they left. Luckily they didnt, and new person is lovely by comparison! So sometimes there is a reason why not all the places are shown on interview day. It does also annoy me when a coworker slags the boss off, as havent been in the job market for many years and wouldnt know what a mean and nasty boss is really like to work for.

Good idea for a thread! Big red flag for me: they ask you to do lots of work before the job has even started.

Ended up being the only place I have ever hated working at - and a sign of a culture where people were treated as utterly expendable.

When they dont really interview you but talk about themselves. Or when it feels like they're persuading you to take the job before you've really even spoken