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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To ask for your funniest/weirdest/most awkward job interview experiences have been?

126 replies

NightandViolets · 05/02/2023 17:09

Asking as I’m dipping my toes into the jobs hunt after a long time in my current role and it got me thinking about some very random interviews I’ve had from both sides!

my weirdest moment as an interviewee was when I was blathering on and suddenly the main interviewer got up and left without a word. I carried on and she came back with a tissue then proceeded to take a caterpillar off my shoulder and throw it out the window! She said it had been distracting her! It broke the ice in quite a po faced interview but I didn’t get the job 😉

then from the other side I have had some humdingers but one that really stands out is the woman that brought a book of poetry she’d written to recite to us (the job had nothing to do with creative writing!). She didn’t get the job either!

please share yours and say if you got the job or not as I could do with a giggle 🤭

OP posts:
Original poster
NightandViolets · 05/02/2023 17:18

Wow, sorry for the clunky question - should be what have they been? Long day with the kids!

OP posts:
TildaRae · 05/02/2023 17:22

Not necessarily strange, but I went to a group interview once for a retailer and we had to work out in small groups how to fly 2 digestive biscuits on a paper airplane. This was for a cashier position. Unsure how it was relevant, really. It didn’t showcase our individual skills or strengths, it was just dominated by one bloke in our group who liked the sound of his own voice. I didn’t get the job.

DRS1970 · 05/02/2023 17:23

I was asked at interview "if you were a wood, what wood would you be". I said walnut, which may have been wrong as I never got the job.

PuttingDownRoots · 05/02/2023 17:24

This still makes me angry.
Graduate job, just after university. Theres a small blip in my university results, leading to a lower classification than I like but I still have my Masters.
Interviewer asked what had happened, I told him I had been ill. He persisted, asking what was wrong... PTSD. Still wouldn't let up... so I told the basic truth of... Sexual Assault, hoping he would just move on. He then started to ask more questions before one of the other board members stopped him.

Couldn't wait to get out of there. Didn't get the job, didn't want it.

custardbear · 05/02/2023 17:26

I interviewed people with my hand in water as I'd just burnt my hand on boiling tea 🤪
I've still got the scars now!

Original poster
NightandViolets · 05/02/2023 17:27

That’s awful, so sorry you went through that. Hope you found something much better.

OP posts:
Original poster
NightandViolets · 05/02/2023 17:30

DRS1970 · 05/02/2023 17:23

I was asked at interview "if you were a wood, what wood would you be". I said walnut, which may have been wrong as I never got the job.

Haha I have no idea how I’d answer that! I guess you want to say something solid,
or flexible??!! Even if I actually feel like a gnarly old twig 😂

OP posts:
YetMoreNewBeginnings · 05/02/2023 17:31

I walked into a job interview once and found my ex’s newish wife on the panel.

She wasn’t meant to be on the panel, she was drafted in last minute. She didn’t realise my surname and I didn’t know that she worked for that local authority.

Her boss tried to push us both into just going on with the interview and only agreed to changing the panel when she said “she’s having to change jobs because my soon to be ex husband is being a dick and messing around with their kids.”

I was offered the job, but ultimately turned it down because of the link.

At another one in a school the HT had their dog under their desk. Apparently it was very common for the dog to be around the school, but the guy from personnel kept sneezing. It was very off putting.

Original poster
NightandViolets · 05/02/2023 17:32

TildaRae · 05/02/2023 17:22

Not necessarily strange, but I went to a group interview once for a retailer and we had to work out in small groups how to fly 2 digestive biscuits on a paper airplane. This was for a cashier position. Unsure how it was relevant, really. It didn’t showcase our individual skills or strengths, it was just dominated by one bloke in our group who liked the sound of his own voice. I didn’t get the job.

I would wrap the biscuits in the paper and lob it across the room! Or bash the biscuits into crumbs and roll them up in the middle.
or just cut my losses and eat the biscuits 😆

OP posts:
MajesticElephant · 05/02/2023 17:35

I was interviewing someone whose English was so bad they clearly didn’t write their CV or covering letter (to the point I had to get another colleague to join the interview as my text to speech translator (I’m deaf) couldn’t pick up what they were saying . They then asked me at the end in their native language if they could listen to funny recordings of people doing the job they were interviewing for (call centre). I mean WTF.

TheRookieMum · 05/02/2023 17:35

Countryside ranger type job, for a live-in post. Whole day interview with an old lord in his 80s, his entitled son around about 50 and an unrelated woman who would be my direct boss if appointed.

Got to the end of the day, sat down for the formal interview thinking it was going well for both sides only for the old lord to ask me if my periods were a problem "because we run a tight ship and can't afford someone off ill every month". I was so shocked I only stuttered an answer of "I'm fine", and knew then and there that as good as the actual job sounded, I couldn't have taken it if offered. I wasn't in the end. Can't believe any woman would work for them to be honest.

Nimbostratus100 · 05/02/2023 17:36

more than 20 years ago but still embarassed...

Fell over and broke my arm as I entered the room

Didnt get the job

(Didnt actually get interviewed....)

bluecar1414 · 05/02/2023 17:38

@Nimbostratus100 Shock

Msgrieves · 05/02/2023 17:38

I once had a job interview which featured a technical test, think stood in front of a flip board and a panel of interviewers asking questions about chemistry. I obviously hadn't read the letter properly, because this came as a complete surprise to me haha. The first question was draw methane or something, I was so flustered i put 5 hydrogens Grin. I got the job!

IbizaToTheNorfolkBroads · 05/02/2023 17:40

I went for a interview for a senior position internally last summer. I was interviewed by a panel, led by my (then) grandfather manager. The room was tiny and baking hot, and they were all wearing shorts and T shirts!! I was all suited and booted and sweltering, but it did break the ice.

EuripidesEumenides · 05/02/2023 17:44

A colleague once went to reception to meet a candidate for interview. He called out the person's name and two women got up and said "yes". HR had somehow invited two candidates with the same name to the same interview slot.

OneTC · 05/02/2023 17:44

I started to feel sick on the way to the interview but thought it might pass or I might be able to style it out but I just progressively worse, sat there feeling dreadful, sweating, could tell I'd gone as white as a sheet. Interview ended with me being sick in a bin. Didn't get the job

DilemmaDelilah · 05/02/2023 17:51

I once went for a very basic admin job and was interviewed by 7 people all sitting in front of my chair in a semi circle. Total overkill, and I didn't even get the job! The first job I got for my current employer they were interviewing 2 people and I was the only one that turned up. Several promotions and 24 years later I am still there.

finished31 · 05/02/2023 17:52

Back when I was 19 I went for a junior role in an accounts department. The interview was very laid back back - walked me around the building and into the main office to meet the team . Main interview with boss and assistant they offered hot drinks etc, felt confident until......the boss said something and I literally spat the coffee all over him.
His shirt was splattered with coffee stains.

I go the job and invited on the Christmas night out the following weekend.

mondaytosunday · 05/02/2023 17:53

@TildaRae I would have walked out of that one.
@PuttingDownRoots one thing I have learned in my life is that you don't have to answer every question asked! Hindsight is a wonderful thing, and there are so many times I wish I had the gumption to just say 'I do not want to answer that and it is not relevant'.
And yes I've suffered an interview process that made me realise halfway through that I wouldn't accept the job if offered, and again wished I had the nerve to just get up and excuse myself!

whyhere · 05/02/2023 17:57

I interviewed for head of European sales for a major soft drinks company (let's call them FizzDrink). I'd just started talking to the MD when an assistant came in and asked what we would like to drink, offering a choice of FizzDrink, coffee, tea or hot chocolate. I asked for coffee 😶. The MD fixed me with a look, asked for FizzDrink, and the die was cast 🙄😂

whatadoodledo · 05/02/2023 18:04

DRS1970 · 05/02/2023 17:23

I was asked at interview "if you were a wood, what wood would you be". I said walnut, which may have been wrong as I never got the job.

Lol! Smile

VioletCharlotte · 05/02/2023 18:04

The funniest one I've had an interviewer was when the candidate (male, 20's) decided it was appropriate to wink at me and my colleague (both 40's, female, quite senior) at the end of the interview! Needless to say, we didn't offer him the job.

cstaff · 05/02/2023 18:10

When I was being interviewed by my current boss it was the weirdest interview ever. My longest standing friend was married to one of his best friends.

When I was a kid my family had lived in a house short term when buying a new one. It turns out that about 25 years later his family had lived in the same house also temporarily whilst getting work done on their own house.

We knew a lot of the same people from back in college but never remembered meeting each other. Strangest interview ever. I don't remember too many job related questions and came out thinking wtf but got the job.

Spanielsarepainless · 05/02/2023 18:21

I was being interviewed for a job in a major government department. The interviewer described what I would be doing and asked if that sounded the sort of job I would enjoy. I said no it didn't. Interviewer said I was exactly the person for the job. Ended up with top security clearance within a week and loving it.