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 sixteen being interviewed for a telephonist job. This took place in a room with just a table and two chairs. The interviewer asked me to role play answering the phone. I thought it was a bit mad but thought okay. I pretended to pick up a phone and started speaking. He stopped me and said I needed to start again. I should wait until he asked me. I sat there and he began to imitate a phone ringing going brr brr. Im sorry to say I burst out laughing and couldn’t speak! I never got the job

Candidate for post with our company presented a fraudulent national insurance card, ended up being arrested by borders and immigration😱

As a teen in the 80s I interviewed for a secretarial position in a small factory. It was with the boss who offered me a cigarette during the interview and kept mentioning how my age was a concern (I was 17) so I really didn't think I'd got the job. He then showed me around and stopped to talk to one of the workers. He didn't excuse himself or introduce me, just chatted away to this bloke while completely ignoring me. After around ten minutes, I walked out! I later heard he was going to offer me the job, but I think I dodged a bullet.

This made me laugh out loud ! 😂😂

I was once asked during an interview what colour my lounge walls were. Not just a random question … did proper analysis of it. I did explain that I lived in a shared house and hadn’t decorated it personally … he didn’t seem to care. 🤔

I interviewed my maternity leave replacement with my manager. I was a coordinator in clinical services for a fertility clinic. One lady had an amazing CV. Looked like the perfect candidate on paper, so we got her in as the last interviewee... literally, saving the best to last.

She did not present anything like we'd expected from her super professional CV! Nothing.

Turned up late in a scruffy fleece jacket covered in cat hair, jogging bottoms that had dirty knees, a scruffy pair of trainers and bags of Tesco shopping. Hair scruffy and unbrushed, and smelt of BO. Grumped about having to carry her shopping up our stairs and barked incredulously "where am I supposed to put my bags?!" because we were interviewing in a small office.

So, after a good few minutes of helping her find a spot for her weekly shop while she huffed and gave us dirty looks, we began with the first question -
So what drew you to this role, why would you like this job?

"Well, I don't know really because the ad didnt say much and when I rang for more details SHE glared my way didn't say much!"

The job ad was VERY clear. I was VERY clear on supplying more details. None of the other applicants were confused about what they were applying for.

Rest of questions continued with this hostile frosty demeanour.

Then manager explained, as a fertility clinic, we were non-discriminatory and had same sex couples having treatment, and would that be an issue for her? (It wasn't a question on the list, but manager slipped it in, wisely gauging the type of person she was)

"Well, I don't agree with it at all to be honest. I mean, it's unnatural isnt it. But if I have to put up with it, I suppose I'll just have to won't I"

Then complained the interview had gone on too long and she was going to miss the bus at 2.30 now, so will have to wait around till the next one "...with all this shopping!"

When manager rang to tell her she hadn't been successful, she was genuinely miffed as to why. She thought she'd done well and demanded manager explain what her problem was! Manager began giving her a full and frank explanation but Interviewee wasn't willing to listen and slammed the phone down.

Weird how anyone thinks that's an appropriate way to behave in a job interview.

If someone is really nervous I will often stop the interview and ask them unrelated questions to try and help them calm down (if you were a superhero what would your super power be is a favourite if it’s right at the beginning - I did have a man get a bit weird and start talking about being invisible and being able to do anything he wanted which was a bit weird)

Hair scruffy and unbrushed, and smelt of BO.

Had a few of these in the past. I think the worst one we were in a small room, 3 people (2 interviewers and him), non-aircon office on a hot summers day. Had to finish the interview pretty quickly - it wasn't just that we were being gassed out of the room, but I was being distracted by the chunks of ear wax sticking out of his ears! Had a very embarrassing phone call with the agent who had arranged the interview, telling them why we had turned down a candidate who had looked good on paper and had performed well in their telephone sift.

Regarding clothing if I'm going through an agency I always ask about this before the interview, with the general rule of if in doubt, dress smarter. I really didn't appreciate people turning up in scruffy grubby jeans & very un-PC (even for the 90's) logo-ed T shirts for office based jobs, not even our software developers dressed as badly as some candidates who came for project management office roles.

Bringing their own coffee in to an interview is also IMO bad manners. I can understand a water bottle IF the candidate hadn't been offered a drink and IF they asked first - we would always offer tea, coffee or water anyway before we started.

I once worked in a school that was also a rare breed centre and it wasn't unusual for the school to get calls to come and collect some rare animal that was loose on the estate.

In another school one Maths lesson I taught was in the biology lab, one day the Lab Tech came in and said, Sorry to disturb you, just looking for the python, little buggers got out again! At the time I would freak out if a snake was on TV, even if I changed channels I knew they were still there!

I attended an interview years ago, was asked if I wanted to join to find myself a husband. I replied, I've just got rid of one thanks, not looking for another.

@WestOfWestminster I'm sorry but that is absolutely hilarious 😂

I had “I’m not going to offer you the job but I’m going to you out for dinner”
And then when I told him to do one he got really shirty and wrote me loads of emails saying things like ‘shame you had to be that way’ etc
Still annoys the hell out of me

I used to interview graduate trainees when working in HR for a major bank. We did 2 day assessment centres which included one to one interviews with the candidates.

One time in the mid noughties I interviewed a young lad which - afterwards - I felt was almost like candid camera, I couldn't believe how bad the interview was!

Firstly he didn't answer when I called his name from a group waiting. I had to walk round them all asking individually. He was then rubbish at answering any questions, with really waffly low level answers to

Aargh!! Just typed a really long message and for some reason it only posted the very first bit. Can't face doing it again - so please ignore!

Noooo! Don't leave us hanging

oh this made me laugh so much thank you 😂

I had an interview for a job at a banking head office. It was pretty clear when the guy walked in that he had just left the office Christmas party for the interview, and even clearer that he wasn't very sober.

Party way through the interview he lifted up his tie to show me where he had spilled jam from his doughnut down his shirt, then had a drink of water and missed his mouth and tipped it down his shirt.

A few days later I got a call to say that the interviewer really liked me (shocked he could remember me!) and if they had any jobs going they would hire me, but unfortunately they didn't.

I interviewed someone where the poor guy sweated profusely the entire time, bless him. I really felt for him,but he didn't even try to wipe it he just sat and let it run round his face and drip into his lap. When I later pulled the chair out for a another interview I found a huge wet patch 😭 😬😬 poor guy!

I went to a recent group interview which was the second stage of their recruitment process. The first had been to send a short video by email.

I had never done a group interview before so wasn’t sure what to expect.. but I certainly didn’t expect what I got!

It was a private health related organisation and the director doing the interview had us all complete a questionnaire with some rather abstract questions. Nothing too weird about that but once handed in, he asked us all, one by one in the group setting, what we needed to earn and what we wanted to earn. Then he asked everyone but me their age (!). We were all female and the others were all under 30. I am 51. He looked at me and said.. “it’s ok, I won’t ask YOUR age… . I said “oh and why is that?” (I should have actually said, I don’t think it’s ok to ask about age at a job interview) and he said “ok, how old are you?“ so I told him.

He then said everyone had to take holiday at the same time as was company policy and if anyone have any leave booked booked already.

He then asked a couple of the women about their relationship status (?!). One girl said she’d just broken up with her partner. He said “oh that’s a shame what with it being Valentines Day!”

He asked multiple choice type questions such as “what is more important to you.. how a place looks… how well organised it is … how well people communicate..” He asked everyone the same question but the first lady to be asked requested clarification and he sighed dramatically said “I do believe I clearly stated I wasn’t going to repeat myself!” 👀

He then questioned the same woman, who’d mentioned recently finishing maternity leave, about what she planned to do if her child was sick. She said she could leave the baby with their dad as he worked from home. He asked her if she was sure about that as he didn’t feel that being a parent was a good enough excuse to take time off sick.

He then said that successful applicants would be required to pay £350 for uninformed (polo shirts and fleeces with the company logo) and £450 for training. This would be refunded after a year and was this likely to be a problem for anyone. Again he asked everyone one by one. By now I’d had enough and was growing some balls and when he came to be (4th out of 8 when the first 3 had said it wouldn’t be a problem) I said that yes, this may well be a problem, to find £800 upfront before I’d earnt anything … the other girls who hadn’t yet answered then said the same as me when asked that question. He asked them, individually, if they had anyone who could lend them the money, eg parents.. then looked at me and said “are YOURc parents even still alive?” 😳😦

He also boasted that they didn’t have an HR department as they didn’t need it. I begged to differ!

I have since read some online reviews about the interview process at this place and seen others complain. I actually have no clue how he can be conducting group interviews, routinely, in such a manner and am still shocked at the sexist, ageist comments that he clearly thought were fine.

As soon as it was over, I emailed from outside the building to request to be taken out of the running for any further consideration as it was not for me. No kidding!!

I am laying in bed quietly shaking with laughter (trying not to wake DH) and with actual tears 😂😂😂😂

It quoted wrong bit… but I meant it to relate to the penile sheath wall slider 😂😂😂😊

Oh God.. I’m off again… I can’t stop… 😂😂😂😂.. brrrr brrrr… omg 😂😂😂

It was for a very prestigious city internship. They took us all out to a super expensive restaurant & piled us with drinks the day before the actual 'assessment day'. That night turned out to be the actual assessment. There were like 15 guys & 2 girls. Never saw the other poor girl again (very few candidates showed up the next day). Didn't know they were even allowing to do that (00s). First day of my internship, lunch was pint of Guinness down the pub just to make sure you fit in. No other female banker on my floor in that particular bank in my years working there, always wondered why I was hired.

Many, many years ago, I went to interview for a fast food job, an interim, since the job I wanted did not have a training class available for a couple of months. I had already been hired for that position, but could not start until after the class. SO...I show up, dressed nicely, but casually. The manager talked with me, everything seemed fine. At the end of the interview, he said, "I hope you are open-minded. We're a very friendly group, and have the most interesting parties," while gazing at my bosom. I could not get out of there fast enough. I reported him to the home office, who informed me that I was not the first person to complain, and that an investigation was ongoing. About 3 months after that, they temporarily closed the business, fired all but two employees (yes, the manager went), and reopened with an entirely new crew. I was actually called to see if I was interested, but by then I had completed my training course for my "real" job, and was happily riding herd on an amazing and interesting group of mental patients.

The trade publication offering an editorial staff position for which I was qualified and experienced, but basing their hiring practice on a long, very personal 'personality test'. The test seemed to be crap at distinguishing between a candidate's 'personality' (evaluated with questions like 'Are you more interested in looking at paintings, going mountain biking, or dancing at a club?') and the kind of employee they are. I was particularly offended that it gave me a low score on ‘Clear written communication’: 'She is likely to adopt a more artistic style of communication, expressing emotions and subjective feelings in written work', and 'Her appreciation of an expressive style of writing may mean this person tends to over-complicate written communication.' As I make a living writing clear, concise news stories and press releases which don't generally involve my subjective emotions, and as the interview didn't involve writing exercises, these predictions seemed strange - but also possibly legally actionable??, as such statements based on questionable 'science' could stick in a potential employer’s memory and subconsciously prejudice them against the candidate. For another example, '"Drive for excellent results". Score: 2 (Low). She sometimes becomes distracted by new or alternative ideas or tasks. Making efforts to complete the task currently being worked on before moving to a new task could improve this individual's results.' Biased language based on nothing the test could reliably evaluate, and not even bothering anymore with the 'may' or 'might' (and it's also not true, ahem). The employer decided I wouldn't be a good fit, and they basically told me it was because of the test results. I suppose in the end they were right, so perhaps the test actually worked as intended :) I believe these personality tests were all the rage some years ago and wonder if anyone else had a similar experience...?