Once upon an interview...

Stories about funny, unusual, or just plain bad job interviews.

[onceuponaninterview-blog]

In The Stars

“Following an hour of good conversation, as I was leaving and shaking hands with the executive who interviewed me, he thanked me for my time. He then asked me to “please send me your astrological sign along with your salary requests and three references.” At first, I thought I misheard the request but he then explained that in the past the company would request a graphology report. After graphology test results have proven to be inconclusive, he requests the astrological signs of each candidate to determine if the perspective candidate will be a good match with the other staff members.”

[onceuponaninterview-blog]

“I may be bad, but I am perfectly good at it.”

When asked what I thought my weaknesses were, I replied by saying, “It’s funny, because when you ask for a weakness you’re still supposed to try and use it at as a strength… it’s kind of like that Rihanna song where she says, ‘I may be bad but I’m perfectly good at it.’” I was met with a dead stare and a large cloud of awkwardness growing between us.

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The Coffee Slip-up

"I was interviewing to become an undergraduate professor at a very traditional, prestigious university. I got there about 25 minutes early so I could look for parking, go to the bathroom, and maybe even get some coffee. It was 7:30 a.m. so nobody was in school yet. I went ahead and bought a small cup of coffee and walked with it towards a table where I could read a newspaper while I waited. Somehow, I spilled half the cup of coffee over my recently bought white blouse. "I had 25 minutes to fix it, so I sprinted to the bathroom and got some water and soap to get it off. I was halfway through washing it out, leaning over the sink in a very ridiculous position, and a lady came in and asks me if  was all right. I told her about my stupid mistake, and how this was a super traditional school so I had dressed up in my suit and white blouse, and so and so forth -- I kind of babbled all this at her. Once it looked decent enough (after eventually crawling under the hand dryer to make it dry), I was only five minutes early for my interview. I got in and the interviewer was the same lady that I bumped into the bathroom. My face must have clearly shown my embarrassment because she just laughed. I still got the job."

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The Forever Intern

"I once interviewed for a VP-level position, and the hiring manager asked me to describe each position I held, from first to most recent. I spent only a few seconds detailing my first internship, which I held more than 15 years earlier. Not so fast. He insisted I'd moved on too quickly, and he wanted me to spend more time explaining what I did as an intern. So I took out my resume and read it to him word for word to emphasize the pointlessness of his unweighted process."

[onceuponaninterview-blog]

The Miscalculated Hug

"In a final round of interviews with a large company, the women in HR who I had been speaking with for the majority of the process invited me into her office to see how my meetings with the hiring managers went. As she started to walk toward me, she began to put her arm up, signaling as if she was about to give me a small nice-to-see-you hug (we had gotten to know each other over the recent weeks). To reciprocate, I started to motion a hug back, until I noticed she was only trying to shut the door behind me. It was extremely awkward. She didn't call me back afterward."