People Shared The Most Ridiculous Job Interviews They've Ever Been Forced To Endure

There's so much advice out there about how you should behave in a job interview. Don't cross your arms. Wear the right thing. Turn up on time. Be polite. But why should the interviewer be the only one doing the judging? Sometimes we forget that an interview is also a brilliant place to discover any red flags about the company. Want to know what to watch out for? Redditor "JimmySaulGene" asked the website, "People who walked out of a job interview, why did you do it?" And the answers are pretty eye-opening.


Please note: answers have been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Top of the pyramid

"Pyramid scheme advertised as 'sales and marketing.'

It was a group interview. They served wine! They had obvious stooges initiating conversation about how great this opportunity was.

I got very drunk and stopped being polite about it." — [deleted]


"For anyone in the comments: If you have nerves of steel and are as stubborn as a horse, you can go to these kinds of things all the time and get a ton of free food and drink on the regular. Just make sure not to sign anything. It's not like they aren't scamming people anyways. Besides, they're giving it out for free." — bayygel

Security!

"I wasn't informed about the evidently very strict building security prior to the interview. The front door was practically unmarked, and you had to swipe a card to get in, but there was no intercom. The elevator required a card as well, but the stairs didn't. HOWEVER, no one informed me that the stairwells are locked from the outside, meaning I was locked in the stairwell with no way to get out.


I called the recruiter over and over and even called the front desk, but they just kept putting me on hold instead of sending someone to let me in at the correct floor. I ended up getting a call from the recruiter while STILL STUCK IN THE STAIRWELL telling me they would not be going forward with the interview because I was late.


They sent security to get me, and I was treated like a criminal as I was led from the building. I have never been so confused, humiliated, and angry in my entire life. I left them a scathing review on Glassdoor." — SnowMiser26

To beard or not to beard

"Sat down with the owner and the first thing he said was, I don't hire people with beards. I said okay, got up and walked out." — lookssharp


"I remember hearing a story about an engineer who went to a head-hunter for help in finding a job. He was told first thing that he needed to shave off his beard. The head-hunter lands him a group interview with an engineering firm. He walks into the room having noticeable tan lines on his face because he'd just shaved his beard, and each one of the male engineers who were interviewing him had a beard!" — [deleted]

Groupthink

"Applied for a software developer position for an online retailer. First round of interviews was a traditional technical-skills-and-whiteboard-coding session; second round was a cultural fit interview with HR.

I assumed it would be a one-on-one interview with HR. It was a room with 20-something people applying for anything from legal to finance.

They asked us to stand up, then crawl into a ball and pretend we were flowers opening.

At this point, I honestly thought it was some kind of prank, but then I saw everybody around me doing it.

I just said thanks for the opportunity and left." — neolabaque