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.

Very odd interview at a car dealership. The guy in charge was clearly a poor manager, kept going on that I'd have to work until 6pm every day as Jean goes home at 4pm and Beryl will not use the larger switchboard, only the smaller one so I had to cover.

He also kept going on and on about the importance of whoever he hired not getting into any relationships with the all male sales staff.

A week later I received a call from a woman t the dealership asking me where I'd been as they'd been trying to get hold of me. Said they'd left messages. This pissed me off and I said that no messages had been left for me hence me not getting in touch. She was quite indignant. She then offered me the job. I turned it down saying the salary was not high enough considering the hours I was expected to work. She was surprised.

I went for a teaching job interview at a private Presbyterian Christian school. At the end of the formal interview I was offered the job. He then said that he would say a prayer that it would work our well. I thought he meant quietly, later, to himself, until he took my hand and started saying loudly “Our father in Heaven….”

I was sure he kept giving it shifty sideways glances, too. Perhaps he'd just been to a hen party!

Grim

When I was only a couple of years out of uni, I was rejected for a a job with a direct competitor of a the company I then worked for, then called back a couple of days later and invited to a second interview with a director who would be travelling from London to Yorkshire to meet me. I was travelling from the South West and so had to take time off work, train journey etc. It quickly became apparent that I'd been called back not for an interview, but because the director wanted to see what confidential information he could get out of me about my employer - detailed sales figures, future plans etc. He was very aggressive in his questioning and I was so uncomfortable. And obviously didn't get the job. With hindsight I should have complained about his behaviour.

Had an interview for a Dutch tech firm. Was told "It's very much a man's world here." I thought maybe something hadn't quite come over right in translation and said I wasn't phased in male environments, I was one of only two women in my current firm. He then just sneered at me and continued to be obnoxious.
No idea why I was shortlisted for interview if they didn't hire women.

As a teenager I had an interview at a bar where I was asked what animal I would be and why. I was then given a 30 second music clip and asked to go with others (think it was about 3 or 4 people) to create a dance and come back and perform it for the interviewers. A girl in our group actually just went straight for the door at this point. Was then shown a table with various items, told to pick one, and then the interviewer said a sentence and I had to continue her story but incorporating the object. It was so bizarre but I actually got offered the job and it wad a standard place to work, just the interview process was weird.

Not weird in the sense of some of these but I once had an interview where they didn’t ask me any questions. The interviewer told me to walk her through my CV and then didn’t ask any follow up questions, no questions about my skills etc. Just stayed silent until it was time to leave. I later saw on LinkedIn they appointed someone internal.

That’s easy. They’ll go anywhere for a biscuit.

Got asked what my mum and dad did and how much alcohol I drank. Lied about both!

I had an interview when I was 16 in the mid 90's for a waitress position. Half way through the interview, the interviewer started stroking my face and telling me that I was beautiful. I just froze. Hideous!

This is possibly something to do with Human Design.

Apparently the US military also uses this to help people be assigned to jobs that they will find fulfilling.

I had an interview 2 weeks ago and the man asked me "who'll be home cooking tea for your husband if you're working full time"

You can shove your £21k job up your hairy arse. They wanted a degree and 5 years experience. (Standard salary and expectations for Cornwall though!)

No joke.

"And here at Sit Up Britain, nobody gets fired for shagging the boss."

I want to balance this out with a good interview (not in Cornwall!) when mid way there was an emergency. One of the team came running in "I'm so sorry to interrupt but this has happened. What do we do? WHAT DO WE DO?" (Phoebe style!)

And I said "hey its OK, you can do XX using XX software. I'll help if needed! I also know the client"

I obviously got that job. Such a shame I was made redundant 😭

I once interviewed with the guy who was running Music Magpie at the time. He made me sign an NDA and asked me on the way in to the interview room whether or not I was a vegetarian, which I thought odd but answered no. He had a McDonald's handed to him partway through the interview, from his attitude I think he would have enjoyed it more had I been vegetarian, and was one of the most arrogant and obnoxious people I have ever met. He effed and blinded throughout the whole interview and bragged about how much money he had. The recruitment agent, who had warned me that he was a "character", said his feedback for me was that he thought I would need too much hand holding in the job. I would 100% not have accepted the role if it had been offered.

My DH dropped me off and we were standing around making small talk with random people. Then it dawned on us that THIS WAS the interview and the panel must have somehow thought DH was a panel member. He stayed throughout 😅

These are really funny!

I was once given a task ( teach a group of teens about slavery) that didn't match the job description (admin role for a charity). The task was sort of line with the purpose of the charity but not the role.
I did double check with them if it wasn't a mistake but they were adamant it wasn't. I clearly am no good at thinking of an activity on slavery at the top of my head.
Mind you,the second task was a standard admin task, which I am aware I didn't do particularly well do fair enough!

In my mid 20s, I had an interview as a private PA. The dress code was cocktail wear, I kid you not, and the location was in his apartment at Chelsea Cloisters (which I now know, many years later is also known as ten floors of whores). The whole thing was pretty off, the guy was also a well-known Tory donor (at that time) and involved in a pretty acrimonious divorce. Still to this day, I have no idea what the whole thing was about.

I was asked to pick an item from my handbag and describe how it represented me.....

When I was 16 I was interviewed at a pharmacy for a sales job. I was sat on a high stool in the back of the shop. I don’t know what happened but I woke up on the floor, I had fainted and then spent 40 minutes throwing up while I waited for my dad to come and get me. I got the job- his knows how.

I interviewed for my own job in a school after they changed the pay grade and had to put some scenarios in order of priority of how I would deal with them. The scenarios were either completely unlikely or jointly severe and would never have been left to an entry level administrator to deal with. It was a totally farcical interview anyway, I was the only candidate and it was already my job. They offered it to me and i declined and handed in my notice.

my 18yr old dd went for an interview at a cocktail bar in Birmingham city centre. On her induction day the manager told her that the only rule for waitresses is that they can’t take their tops off- very proud to say she left there and then.

There was some general chat about my interests at the end. I'd rattled off a list of my hobbies, including reading.

'Oh, what are you reading at the moment?'
'The newest Kate Atkinson'
'My wife hates Kate Atkinson'

End of interview.
As it happens I was in for two jobs at the time and I happily accepted the other one.....

Went for an interview with a christian private school as a CDT teacher.
When asked if I would teach computing, I replied that if it was in the syllabus then I would as I wanted the students to pass the exam.
This was the wrong answer as they though that computers were the devil's machines.
The man interviewing me has a watch on his wrist with more computing power than Neil Armstrong took to the moon
Didn't get the job. Dodged a bullet there.

I had an interview for an EA with finance role (about 15 years ago) at a swanky Mayfair office.

The head EA listed a load of responsibilities/qualities/requirements /oddities in a really unpleasant sounding way:

Mr Wanksock doesn’t understand lateness.
Mr Wanksock will expect his dry cleaning collected before the weekend.
Mr Wanksock requires complete loyalty.
Mr Wanksock expects everyone to look business like at all times.

And on and on.

It sounded awful and I called the recruiter and said I wasn’t interested even if they wanted me.

I had a very staid and boring interview and was then asked to wait in the corridor while they interviewed the other candidate.

After that the pair of us were ushered together into another room with a big table in the middle and asked to sit opposite each other. I wondered what was next - role play maybe? Although the main interview had been SO basic and unimaginative that i doubted it ...

Three people with clipboards stood ready while a big box was bought out and placed in the middle of the table.

We were told we had exactly 10 mins to compete to build the best Lego house and that there were very limited doors and windows ect so we should be pro active in ''claiming those pieces before our fellow candidate''

The job was nothing to do with toys.