To ask for your interview cringe moments to make me feel better

[HelpPlsArhhgg]

Interview this morning for dream job presentation ready and on point, prepped to within an inch my life was calm cool and collected until my laptop wouldn’t let me enable camera or microphone settings for teams. Fine the panel were lovely arranged a zoom instead Still the camera wouldn’t work cue me faffing around eventually dialling in by different device by which point I’ve lost all composure.
It was hours ago I’m still mortified. They were all very nice but definitely not my best moments.
Worse interview ever 😫

@sheepysheep

When I had my first proper “grown up job” interview I had to prepare a power point presentation for the interview panel. This was years ago when USB memory sticks were a new thing and replacing floppy discs. I was really nervous and the main interviewer was helping me get ready and load the presentation onto their machine. He asked what format it was in to which I replied “USB flash drive, I don’t like floppy DICKS”. We looked at each other and he just ignored it. I was puce and wanted the floor to swallow me.

I got the job....

Nothing wrong with getting it out in the open from the start. If you don't like floppy dicks, then you don't.like them. Many would agree

In my early twenties I was doing some mental health training and volunteering in that field, so my decision to apply for a job working behind the counter for a bank was obviously just a stop gap job while
I was training to earn some money. Unfortunately the interviewer saw right through that and asked me outright why I was applying for a job in banking when my cv clearly showed my interests lay elsewhere. I mumbled some bullshit about working with the public and loads of insincere waffle about banks which must have sounded ridiculous. Then she asked
Me to work out a maths sum, and gave me some plain paper and a calculator to work it out. I am horrendous at maths, truly awful, and while trying to work it out I completely forgot that I was allowed to use a calculator, so was doing a pretty terrible job at solving the sum. At the end of the time given for that task she looked at me like I was the village idiot. I'd shown her that not only was I useless at maths, I also couldn't follow basic instructions. It was a surprise to no one that I didn't get that job! Thankfully I've gotten a lot better at interviews since that one ( and realised I should be no where near anyone else's money!)

Oh wow I can't top the nosebleed story but I did get stuck in a lift once. Decades ago, no mobiles, no emergency buttons. I was just hammering and yelling in the dark. Eventually a maintenance guy forced the doors open and I was almost at the floor so he hauled me out. So I got to the room late, looking like I'd just been pulled out of a lift, covered in grease and dust etc.

I got the job though!

Oh god I have so many it's not even funny.

One of my recent faves was getting to a second interview, after a load of competency tests, etc. It's in the bag, or so I thought, just needed to meet the manager. She comes on the screen. First question : 'Oh, I see you've worked at XYZ company, you'll know Mrs. Bitchface, won't you??'', AKA my old boss who is actually a complete sociopath and had some of the most deranged working practices I've ever seen.

'She's a good friend of mine' said the interviewer.

Omfg. Fail. Oh yes, I know her, I said.

The interview finished after 2 minutes. I basically bluffed the questions. If she knew and liked my old boss, no fucking way would we get on. Shudder.

Another recent one was me insinuating I was in a gay relationship with my SIL, but somehow got offered and accepted the job! I started on Monday

Re. The presentations that you've prepared, do you think you could adapt them for future interviews? Then it might not all be lost

I went into working at a nursery as a sort of stopgap and then a year later did an interview for a job that was related to my degree because I felt I should. I didn't really prepare, I'm not sure I knew how to prepare to be honest and I'm fairly sure I made it quite clear that the thought of working in an office would not be enjoyable for me and I would miss my class. I also told the interviewer that his complaint of going on holiday to a typical 'no culture' holiday destination and then complaining about there not being any culture was a bit silly since he said he never left the hotel anyway.

He phoned me back to say he enjoyed talking with me but didn't think the job would be the right fit and I told him I agreed. I ended up retraining as a teacher and have done much better in interviews since.

I forgot how to do basic maths (it was a bar job)

Couldn't take 16 away from 30 etc

I turned up at my first ever job interview still drunk/ extremely hungover from the night before.

I only went out for one drink with a friend I hadn’t seen for ages. Then the red wine happened. Then staying out until 11.

Interview was at 9.15.

I had to walk there because I didn’t trust myself on the bus not to throw up (one of those still drunk hungover states...) I looked a bit dishevelled.

Somehow I got the job.

I was walking to an interview for a summer job when a pigeon shat on me! I explained the unsightly stain and the interviewer brought me some water to clean myself up. We laughed about it (I wanted to throw up). I got the job.

I once did an impression of a dressage horse mid interview.

There was a thread on here yrs ago and one woman went to the toilet, got lost, ended up in a walk in cupboard, i think stayed in there a while thinking wtf, then just opened the cupboard door, walked out, found some stairs and left. No interview and goodness knows what the interviewer thought, waiting for her, having pointed her to the bathroom. I've probably got it wrong, but I've always remembered it.

I used to work in HR so have interviewed a lot of people. The one that stands out however, started out perfectly normally. About 30mins in, I was aware the interviewee wasn't really focused on me. I then noticed that he had started to "pleasure" himself under the table. I was just contemplating what to do when he fell of the chair and landed on the floor in a dead faint.

Ambulance called, the crew suspected some form of seizure, and off he went to hospital. I did call a few days later, but never received a reply so I can only hope the poor man was ok.

Turned up on the wrong day, was pregnant so blame that!

Saw a job on twitter with a company I've, deadline had passed, I sent them a message and they said still send us your application. Was so excited and wanted to get it in. Wrote the covering statement using the owners name, mentioned the name of the company a few times in my cover letter and campaigns they've worked...get invited to interview, so sit down to do my prep...and I soon realised that it isn't the company that I thought it was!! I was too polite to decline it and went through with the interview anyway.

OP, my current role was over Teams and it kept playing up and it was so embarrassing trying to sort it out whilst they'd started asking questions. And at one point I was "I need the camera to work, I need you all to see my new lipstick"!!!!

@sheepysheep

When I had my first proper “grown up job” interview I had to prepare a power point presentation for the interview panel. This was years ago when USB memory sticks were a new thing and replacing floppy discs. I was really nervous and the main interviewer was helping me get ready and load the presentation onto their machine. He asked what format it was in to which I replied “USB flash drive, I don’t like floppy DICKS”. We looked at each other and he just ignored it. I was puce and wanted the floor to swallow me.

I got the job....

😂😂

Interviewing for my current job, it was going really well and then my mind went completely blank. One of the interviewers asked a very basic question, the type of thing you’d learn on your very first day in the industry (this is a very high level role in this industry) and I just couldn’t think of the answer. She practically had to mouth the words to me

I had a mortifying interview for a university course where the group of people interviewing couldn’t have been less interested. Barely asked me anything and sighed when I gave an answer. Unsurprisingly I didn’t get a place on the course but did secure an unconditional offer for the same course at a higher level at the same university.

Worst interview I ever did I had to pretend to be a chicken laying an egg, I mean wtf! It was for car sales. Interviewer was a total twat.

Recently I've been promoted and been interviewing for someone to take my job. Guy I've offered to had a nightmare with technology when we first started the interview. Honestly don't stress.

Ah try not to worry, these things happen. I had an interview last month and because of the nature of my job, I had to take it in the car via zoom. It was a hot day and my phone overheated disconnecting 3 times. The last time it went off for about 10 mins and the interviewer was still waiting for me. I got the job

I don't understand when interviewer call someone to an interview having seen their CV and covering letter and then make a point of telling that they don't have the right background like the banking example above.

I worked as a writer/editor/comms for public sector. Applied for job doing similar at an engineering firm. I've written comms for tax firms & HMRC without being an accountant, I've written comms for legal firms without being a lawyer, I've written comms for DEFRA without being an environmentalist. The interviewer didn't even let me sit down before she started berating me, asking me who did I think I was coming for an interview with no engineering experience, she started shoving technical drawings in my face saying look at these, look at these, bet you don't know what they are. There was another woman there and she looked so embarrassed. I'd never claimed to know about engineering. I was young then, nowadays I would have got up and left.

IEat tell me about your current job role (internal vacancy) i erm... the silence, I couldn’t remember!!! Got the piss taken out of me for ages. I was mortified and I’d spent 20 mins prior to the interview writing down this very answer! I didnt get it

Another internal I was agency it was a permanent post , yes ieat you can take notes in...Worse mistake ever .. didn’t get it

Sat an end of year 2 exam at Uni, wrote one essay (2 parter) started the 2nd essay.. wrote half of the first sentence.... went home and cried that I’d forgotten everything

At the end of the interview I stood up, and drove my head straight into the low sloping ceiling I had forgotten was behind me. I almost knocked myself out. Pretty embarrassing! However, they rang the following week and offered me the job!

Broke down and cried because I was so anxious.

I once got stuck in a revolving door on my way out of an interview. The door was incredibly well oiled and bastard thing just kept going round and round.

Perhaps more embarrassingly, when I was working as a CV writer I totally fucked up an interview for a role with the careers service of a local uni. It consisted of a role play exercise with a “student”, looking at their CV and offering some suggestions. I was given this slightly odd piece of paper with the person’s personal details, one bit of work experience and not much else, so I spent five minutes talking about the various sections of a CV, what each should contain etc. When I was told that time was up the person flipped over the paper to show that in fact the CV had a second page containing all of those things.

Threw up on the floor in the interview room. Morning sickness. Happened mid sentence, no time to run, brief thought “table, floor or handbag"....

Unexpected update...I got it!!!

Hurrah! Congratulations!