To ask about your weirdest job interviews

[TheObstinateHeadstrongGirl]

Last year I interviewed for a job in which I had to give a 15 minute presentation about a successful social media campaign I’ve run. It wasn’t for a social media job (and there was nothing about social media in the job description) or anything like it! But I do have social media experience so I accepted the interview with a view to asking in the interview about it.

The end of the (weird) interview - not long after I presented the 15 minute task all about my successful campaigns - went as follows:

Interviewer: Any questions?
Me: Yes, how does the role involve social media?
Interviewer: It doesn’t [looks at me like I’m an idiot]. We actually have a social media officer who manages our channels.
Me: Ah I see, I suppose I just presumed with having to do a social media presentation?
Interviewer: What do you mean?
Me:….Well the presentation task was ‘Describe a successful social media campaign you’ve managed’
Interviewer: Yes. And? Sorry I don’t know what you’re getting at.
Me: [Confused stare]

It went on like this for a bit longer. Still have no idea why I had to do that presentation.

I was offered the job. I said I will have a think and sleep on it. The (same) interviewer got really shirty saying I shouldn’t be going for interviews for jobs unless I was going to accept them.

I declined the job.

I was asked to draw a picture of myself and surround it with pictures of my hobbies and then talk about them. I was asked nothing about my experience or why I wanted the job and I wasn't given a chance to ask questions

The feedback to why I didn't get the job was that I hadnt shown any interest in the role

I mean I taken 2 buses and walked 2 miles to get there, I was interested! But I wasn't given chance to show that

In hindsight the male director was surrounded by 20 something skinny pretty women in very trendy clothing and I don't think I was the right look for him (not that I doubt the women's abilities to do a good job, just that he seemed to have an aesthetic mind for his employees)

I did a zoom interview at 5pm. Clearly the last of the day.
There was the hiring manager plus a consultant with him. The female consultant looked totally disinterested, loudly ate crisps, sprawled out across some chairs, then started on a Twix. I was genuinely shocked by how unprofessional it was. They fed back that I didn't seem interested enough!!

Two decades ago as a teen I had an interview for a Saturday job as a chambermaid in a local boutique hotel, which consisted of the manager, who looked like Mr Bean, asking me questions about how I’d rate the top hotels in the UK (I was 16, I don’t think I’d even ever stayed in a hotel, let alone be able to rate the Ritz over the Savoy) and then a two-hour trial of my cleaning skills - except the manager wouldn’t divulge the routine expected of chambermaids and made me guess where all the cloths and cleaning materials were kept, so I spent most of it opening cupboards looking for things and then got told off for cleaning the bathroom before stripping the bed!

I didn’t get offered the job and I still don’t know my Shangri-la from my Claridges.

I interviewed a guy who kept talking about how he was good dealing with penile sheaths for incontinence. This was in no way relevant to the job. He also slid up and down the wall of the corridor when I walked him out.

This was many moons ago, not in the UK but another European country so equally weird/no cultural explanations. I'd applied for a job online (don't remember the actual role but I think something admin or PA). Got a call from them asking me when I was born - not just the date but the exact hour! I laughed and said "is this a joke", they said Nope, the director requests this information from every candidate. When I asked why, they said it was so they can prepare a detailed horoscope and check how compatible the person is with the director and the job ..yes, based purely on that! I was so stunned, I ended up saying "I don't actually know but I think it might have been X hour and could possibly check with my parents", all the while thinking WTF these people are insane. They said "no worries" and that was the end of the entire conversation. I never got another call, assumed either because I didn't know my time of birth, because they didn't like my date of birth, or it was some batshit test I didn't pass. To this day it boggles me, though I doubt I'd have taken up the offer if there was one😂

I had a somewhat quirky job interview, before too,

I went to a job interview for a primary school Dinner times Assistant role,

Caught a couple of buses to get there,
Turned up as expected
Just usaul waited for a few mins , then went into room in front of me,
Job interview went I thought ok, i felt quite surprisingly relaxed considering,

That was obviously cause of the lovely staff member I came across putting me at ease,

Anyway towards the end of job interview,
There was two of them,
One of them turned to me, and asked what was it like flying all over the world 🌎 as your job as a Airplane hostess then?
😊
I looked at her, and laughed I don't know either,
(She obviously thought I was someone else

I once got told I'd be expected to use the onsite company gym regularly and they didn't think the position was for me.

Had a job interview for finance assistant in the very late 90’s with the manager of the office… proper sleaze vibes totally backed by the best of page three year calendar on the office wall. Dick

I went for a senior leadership Role in a school and had to complete tasks,,, one was to prioritise different scenarios: this was one of them...

"You get to school to find that the school pig has escaped and is running around the yard. It is 10 minutes until the caretaker opens the gates".

I was once interviewing a guy who said a couple of odd things about the gaps in his cv so I googled as we were chatting (zoom interview during Covid). First result was a newspaper article; he'd recently been released from prison where he'd been for committing financial fraud and theft.
The (fairly senior) role involved moving hundreds of thousands of pounds through the company I worked for, no idea how he'd got through the hr departments initial screening checks.

Nothing too weird for myself, but from the panel side:

• High security setting and when they photocopied the candidates passport- a bag of drugs fell out
• Candidate had common answers written out on paper in front of him. I asked a fairly common question about communication- but he said he hadn't written anything down for that so couldn't answer, despite me re wording it several times
• Internal candidate was asked how she prioritised multiple tasks. She said she put headphones on, blasted the music and tried to forget she was at work!
• As we sat down to interview, before any questions were asked, the candidate went on an aggressive, non-stop rant saying that we needed to treat her fairly or else! In detail, she explained how she felt un fairly treated in a previous interview, at a different company and took them to court! She went through the various steps she took to try to sue them and for us to watch out! Again- this was ALL before we'd even got to ask the 1st interview question! 😬

WHAT

I’ve worked in HR and recruitment for longer than I care to remember! I’ve had someone puke all over the table! And another person wet themselves!

Many years ago I applied for a holiday job for the summer holidays while I was studying. It was for a local hotel, not super posh but fairly expensive.

The first 20 minutes of the job interview was fairly standard, the usual questions etc, I thought it was going well.

They then told me the next stage would be a sort of practical assessment, and took me to the hotel dining room & asked me to pretend to be in charge of the breakfast shift. There was noone in the dining room except the 2 people interviewing me, but they expected me to walk round the room taking orders from imaginary customers, telling me to ask customers to keep unruly children quiet and seated, and to clear up imaginary dirty plates and glasses.

They then got me to stand by the hot food area and police imaginary customers to only select 1 piece of bacon, 1 egg, 1 sausage etc for their breakfast. They asked me to raise my voice and shout "1 sausage at a time" to the imaginary guests, or "Too many beans!". At this point I was feeling rather embarrassed and uneasy as my acting skills were awful and the whole thing just felt really silly so I was relieved when they said I'd done really well and could relax in the lobby for 10 minutes while they discussed among themselves.

At this point I felt that surely I had the job in the bag and that they were going to appear and tell me I'd got the job, but instead they called me into a conference room where they said I needed to be assessed on emergency response management. Feeling a bit deflated I followed them in hoping it couldn't be worse than the dining room role play experience...

... It was. The first challenge was to be timed on how long it could take me to run to the top of the hotel via the emergency stairwell on the outside of the building and back. It was raining heavily outside and the stairs were slippy but I gave it my best shot & sprinted up 8 flights of stairs and back in record time to be met with cries of 'Fire! Fire!' I looked around and saw they'd set light to a small bin in the courtyard and had a fire extinguisher next to it ready for me to use. I was so disorientated from all the running I just froze & couldnt seem to work out if it was a real emergency or not. The manager kept looking from his stopwatch to me and shaking his head, before I finally launched into action, set off the extinguisher and put the flames out. I was well and truly exhaused by this point and when they told me I'd got through to the next round of interviews I was incredulous, but being 19 didn't have the guts to say anything about their weird job interview and meekly went home looking like a hot sweaty mess to the absolute bemusement of my family. They never called me back but I often wonder what the second round would have entailed 🥴

That's crazy!

Missing the point. But what sort of "expensive" hotel has someone standing at the breakfast buffet shouting "only 1 sausage" and "too many beans" at the guests!!

With another two candidates, I sat in a school staffroom waiting for the interview process to begin. A couple of hours later, at the beginning of morning break, we were still sitting there and nobody had been near us. One of the staff coming in for their coffee took pity and asked us who we were. When we explained, she phoned the school office, which told her to tell us that the interviews would not be going ahead after all!

I was 20 at the time, the interview/job was in a small office in South London, with approx six desks/staff. All of the desks and shelves were heaped with junk/papers/ash trays etc. Except the manager's (who was interviewing me). His desk was empty… apart from a chocolate cock, boxed.
After the interview he told me he was probably going to give the job to an older woman with kids. 😥

He asked me about how much square footage my house has.... how much is my mortgage payments.

It was 2020 and I was at home chugging wine in between meetings

Why do interviewers do that weird thing when they went to know about you as a person/your personal life.

That's disgraceful!!!!

Applied for an Office Assistant role in estate agent's in London.

The "interview" was in the Estate Agent's basement office room which added to the creepy levels. The Director introduced a younger man who will be "taking notes". The director then held my handshake, kissed my hand and asked if he's seen me somewhere before... ? His answer was : Yes! Must be in the movies!
He then proceeded to ask me normal interview questions but interrupted me mid-sentence every time to talk about my "green eyes" or "French hair-cut".
He asked me what food I liked...

Then announced that the only skill he cares about is speed-typing and just randomly sat me in front of his laptop and asked to type everything he's saying (I can't speed-type and it wasn't in the job description) which was yet more stuff about my appearance. I wanted ground to swollow me. And I wanted out of the basement as I was getting scared!

I later got a text from the Director that unfortunately they can't hire me but he's booked us a nice Sea-food restaurant instead.
Pervs!! 🤢🤮

Oh god these are a combination of hilarious and wtaf stories! And just appalling and unprofessional.

I had to read that bit about the chocolate cock boxed about 8 times to check id read right!!!

Although not sure about the 😢 emoji - surely a lucky escape?

I was 18 at a job in a pound shop during university holidays. I had to promise I wouldn't get pregnant!

I was only 18 and it was a really crappy cold calling sales job.

The guy who interviewed me spent the whole time asking me questions I clearly wouldn't know the answer to, being 18 and having had my CV.

He then proceeded, to tell me he thought I was useless and could in no way do the job, so I might as well leave. I burst into tears and got up to leave.

He went bright red and offered me the job,.I worked there for about 3 months. Turns out he was correct, the job was certainly not for me 😂