To ask for interview disasters?

[Shapelyglass]

I had an interview today that went shockingly badly. 🤦‍♀️ basically I want to change jobs from A&E paeds to theatres- I'm dual qualified so I fit the criteria I just wanted a change.

I recently had an ectopic pregnancy and had to have an op to remove my tube but I didn't cancel the interview because I'd really like the job.. it was my first trip out of the house

It was going alright until I had a hot flush and passed out cold on the floor 🤦‍♀️. They rang earlier to see if I was okay and to invite me back 'for a second go' on monday. It can't be any worse can it?

Aibu to ask you to share your disaster stories so I feel a bit better?

When I graduated I managed to get an interview with the BBC. I was so excited as these are hard to get. It was only a Researcher position. On the day I was very ill with a cold. They asked me to name anyone from the Labour Party. My mind went blank. I couldn't. I felt sick with shame and cold! Didn't get it did I. Your post reminded me of that interview. Had blanked it out!

As I was indicating to turn into the business where I was having a second interview, someone went straight into the back of my car. I was in a complete state after. The HR Manager who had interviewed me initially had to come and sit with me until I calmed down. Police and ambulance attended. My car was written off.

We rearranged for the following week. I got the job but they offered me less money than I'm currently on so I declined.

I'd applied for several NHS jobs and got an interview. However because it was the NHS there was a massive wait for the interview. Just before the interview I go to read over the job description and prepare and it's bloody been taken down.

I ended up at this interview with no idea which job I'm even interviewing for. To make matters worse I'm doing this admin test in a side office and some daft woman wanders in and starts asking me where stationery is which completely threw me.

At the interview they even said something like "so you've read the job description and know what the role involves" and I'm sat there thinking "no, I applied well over a month ago and the job description was taken down, I don't have a fucking clue"

Needless to say I didn't get the job and I learned my lesson and created a spreadsheet of jobs a had applied for with dates and downloaded PDFs of the job description.

I wear contact lenses and when I was much younger they sometimes used to cause issues with my hay fever. Meaning my eyes would start going really red, itching and streaming.

At a job interview I’d decided to wear my contact lenses too and you guessed it, eye problems galore.

I basically did the interview without blinking and with massive bloodshot eyes.

Probably looked like a serial killer.

Didn’t get the job 😂

I was made redundant on mat leave - about 4 months after DS was born. When he was about 6 months a job came up at the Alzheimer's society that I could do easily. The interview went well. Only it was the first time I'd left breastfed DS for any length of time and as they asked me to do a mini presentation about the different types of dementia, my boobs started to leak and my mind went totally blank. I ummed and ahhhed my way through to the end, but unsurprisingly didn't get it.

I interview quite a lot and amongst my team I have
Someone who arrived with a large coffee, over confident and blustery with sweeping arm gestures such that they knocked the coffee all over the panel. He was really nervous and trying to hide it. He still gets teased about it.
Someone whose high heel had broken on the way to the interview. They delivered their presentation bare foot and are a very resourceful staff member still.
These things happen.
The ones I didn’t employ were the one who argued the toss with the panel and tried to tell us our jobs. Another who was very angry all the way through and went on at length about the types of people they couldn’t work with - fat people, Scottish people, cat lovers etc.
Hope you’re feeling better and are successful.

There was another whole thread of these just yesterday, FYI, if you want to go looking.

I was interviewing a young woman, approx. 25, who was so nervous she pee'd the chair but tried to carry on with fluid dripping onto the floor the whole time. I felt bad but as it was a fairly high pressure job she was interviewing for, she didn't get the job.

I interviewed someone once who started out by saying that I needed to employ her via an off shore company.

She didn’t get the job.

These have made my morning.

I used to have a job where interviewing was a big part of my role. I've seen some corkers from people that have worked themselves up into a real tizz. People aren't themselves when under stress.

I once asked a woman to talk me through how she'd behave with a difficult customer. She jumped out of her chair and played out both parts, including the angry, swearing customer. It was so strange and it was truly hilarious.

I had the pleasure of interviewing the girl who had bullied me all the way through high school. It was to look after vunerable people. The thing is she was not only nasty to me but also a lad with learning disabilities.
Her face when she saw me on the panel was a picture and she did really badly stuttering (obviously knowing that I would be judging her based on what she did to me and the other lad)
She didn’t get it and had the cheek to say I was bias against her.

The thing is when I clocked her I told my boss I know her (but not how) and she and the trustee asked all the questions and scored her interview.

I once went to an interview for a job that I had transferable skills for but wasn’t strictly in my area of training or industry. The job advert looked good. I thought I’d go to the interview for experience of answering questions specifically for that particular type of role, to test my own bullshit ability as I’m not bad in an interview situation... usually.

However, when I turned up, the two people interviewing me were absolutely clueless about what the job actually was and what purpose it would serve. The only interview questions involved asking ME what the job would be about

Suffice it to say it was a puzzling half an hour with nobody knowing what they were talking about and I didn’t get the job

I was driving to an interview and someone pulled out in front of me at a roundabout, we both had to slam the brakes on. I called him an asshole, my nerves were already shot. Got to the interview and yup, it was the man in question who was part of the interview panel . I did get offered the job but decided it wasn't for me. Nothing to do with the crazy driver

Ohhh I have more! As a grad I attended an assessment day for a major bank. Truly horrible experience, the highlight of which was a group exercise where we were told one of us was a plant and would try to ruin the result of the task for everyone else.

Within 10 minutes the group had turned on me, repeatedly accusing me of being a plant (when I was disagreeing with them as their idea wasn’t great). After about 20 minutes of constant accusation and interrogation, I flipped and swore, loudly: “I AM NOT THE FUCKING PLANT”.

You could have heard a pin drop... utter silence aside from furious scribbling by the observers.

I didn’t get the job.

The kicker? They told us at the end there was no plant...

I once had a ons the night before an afternoon interview. He was one of the panel members. I didn't get the job!

Not an interview but on my CV a poor spelling error meant I was describing myself as contentious instead of conscientious.

Obviously not conscientious at all

Went for an interview and the question turned to why I wanted to leave my current role. I said something along the lines of wanting to get more profile with senior management and my current manager was preventing that. Turns out my manager was also interviewing with them for a more senior role. He got the job and not me.

One ex colleague of mine was on an interview panel where a pizza delivery turned up mid way through the interview, for the applicant. He proceeded to eat it whilst answering the questions

@JovialNickname that's amazing!! How long was he there for? That must have pre planned In advance!!

I went for an interview, all went well, then as I was leaving the interviewer said, 'it's the door on the left'. I blythely walked through the door on the right into a walk-in cupboard. I was so surprised I just stood there for a bit, then walked out, and thought I should 'explain' why I hadn't come out immediately, so I said, 'yes, very well-stocked cupboard, thank you' and left.

I once went for an interview not long after I'd lost my first husband - I couldn't sleep the night before worrying I'd miss the alarm clock going off - dozed off about 5 am and SLEPT through the alarm - woke up late and headed off for the interview an hours drive away. After apologising for my lateness - I didn't want to tell them I was going through a bereavement - they interviewed me. I didn't get the job!! A month later I went for another interview in the same education authority and one of my fellow candidates started telling me about this woman who slept in and turned up an hour late for the interview. I didn't own up.

I went to an interview and handed a copy of my c.v over to the interviewer thinking I was being really professional and helpful. However it was in a plastic clear binder and when he placed it on the table inbetween us, we both saw the big black pubic hair stuck under the plastic.
Throughout the interview we both kept glancing down but obviously neither mentioning or touching the c.v.
Didn't get the job!

Another one I went for an interview at a college and we're halfway through the interview and one of the interview panel was rocking backwards and forwards on his chair - went too far and went flying over the back of his chair. I burst out laughing and couldn't stop despite him being very upset at my laughing at him making a fool of himself. I didn't get into that college and got into a better, nicer one - so he did me a favour.

I was sitting on the bus my way to an interview when I saw a friend getting on. I waved, and she came to sit next to me. She asked where I was going all dressed up, so I told her I was going to an interview to do X at Y. She asked why I had applied for the job because although it was close to my field, it wasn't IN my field, so I explained that I just wanted to get a foot in the door of that institution, and hoped I wouldn't have to do it for too long. I agreed with my friend that I'd always sworn blind I would never do X job, and couldn't believe I was being interviewed for it.

At the interview, the first question I was asked was why I was applying for the job when it was close to my field, but it wasn't IN my field, and before I could answer, the interviewer repeated what I had said to my friend about getting a foot in the door and never thinking I would ever work as an X word for word, her eyes boring into mine. I literally felt my blood go cold! The other people on the panel said nothing. They all knew. The next five minutes were a haze. I never, ever talk about my personal life on the bus any more. NEVER!

I interviewed a woman who was the absolutely perfect candidate. She was head and shoulders above the other applicants. She just needed to show up and not fuck up and the job was hers.

She turned up late citing traffic problems. She smelt of really overwhelming perfume which was really off-putting. She looked like she hadn't slept in about a week.

It was clear she was hungover.

Mid-way through her presentation she paused and said "excuse me a moment". We all expected her to grab a drink of water but instead she walked over the corner of the room and vomited in the bin.

We stopped the interview and told her to get some air and some water and come back in the afternoon to try again (we couldn't accuse her of being hungover so had to feign concern about her illness).

At lunchtime, me and the chair of the panel were queuing behind her (unbeknownst to her) in a local coffee shop. She was on the phone to her friend telling her friend how "fucking hilarious" it was that she'd puked during her presentation and that she thought "the HR woman" (me) was "sucking off the chair, who's an absolute silver fox" (chair).

Needless to say she didn't get the job.