"They Laughed In My Face," And 14 Other Job Interview Horror Stories That Are Straight Out Of My Worst Nightmare
A few weeks ago, I shared some stories of job interviews that were soooo bad, people literally walked out of them. Well, I asked the good readers of the BuzzFeed Community to share their own job interview horror stories, and...yikes, these are bad. Here are 15 of the very worst ones:
1.
"I had an interview at a job that didn't have an address. They proceeded to give me very complicated instructions, like, 'Turn left when you see the green building.' I got lost multiple times getting there and ended up being over an hour late. During the interview, I asked how they got mail delivered, and they said they didn't receive mail. When I walked out of the building after the obviously failed interview, I looked around and found their building number on the side of the building behind some bushes. I still wonder to this day if I failed some strange interview test."
2.
"In 1990, I had an interview with a natural cosmetics store. I was well groomed and clean but never got the interview. The manager refused and threw me out of the shop for having acne. She said, 'We don't have people with spots working here. Staff here look clean!'"
3.
"When I interviewed for residency positions, I did one-month-long rotations at my top-choice hospitals to see if I’d be a good fit. The last week of one of my rotations, I was supposed to meet with the two program directors. I met with one in the morning, and he asked some personal questions, like if I was planning on getting married or having kids. He probably wasn't supposed to ask these things, but I answered honestly and said no to both. I felt like it was going well — I was being myself, cracked a few jokes. Well, later that day I went to knock on the other program director's office door for our meeting, and I heard her and the other director talking. He was talking about my interview, mocking my answers and calling me a freak. I still interviewed with her and made it through the rest of the week, but I really wish I’d been brave enough to say something."
4.
"I had two companies interview me in the same week. As I was pulling up to an interview at the second company (which I was less excited about), I got a call from the other place saying I'd gotten the job. YAY! I figured I would follow through and tell the interviewer that I had accepted another position, thank you, etc. I wasn't even fully seated before she berated me for what I was wearing (black pants, white blouse, black cardigan). Then said she only did this interview out of courtesy for my friend who referred me, and that I wouldn't be getting the job. I smugly told her that it was OK, I got hired elsewhere. Why this shocked her, no idea. What a bitch."
5.
"I had an interview at a youth crisis shelter. I was super interested, and the first interview went well. They scheduled me for a second one where I'd be 'shadowing' a worker in one of the emergency placement shelters. I showed up, and the woman from my first interview walked me in and said she'd be back soon. I sat down and got to know the kids there a bit, played some card games, asked the staff on duty some questions about the job. Several hours had gone by, and she never came back. I kept asking if someone could contact the front office for me and get ahold of the interviewer, but they kept brushing me off.
"I was there so long, a shift change happened. Because they didn’t give me any sort of visitor pass, the next set of staff thought I was a teen living there! It was a high-security shelter, and nobody believed that I wasn’t a resident. I was there for six hours in total. When I finally got someone to call the office, the original woman thought I had been let out and left after an hour. She called me for a third interview, but I just let the phone ring."
6.
"Owner to me: 'You’re not a feminist, are you? Because (ha ha) none of us are!'"
7.
"I interviewed for a hostess position at a top restaurant in Manhattan. The chef was very well known and had several restaurants across the world. He was conducting the interview himself, which I found unusual but went along with it. The first thing he did was tell me to 'let down my hair' from its bun because 'presentation is everything' and I'd be the ‘face’ of the restaurant. Then he asked me to show him my boobs. WTF? When I just stared at him wondering if I'd really heard him correctly, he doubled down by repeating that 'presentation is everything' and he wants all his ‘girls’ to be beautiful and hot."
8.
"I was interviewing for a new job, and they asked why I'd left my old one. I explained that the place I'd been working at closed because of legal issues I had no part in. They demanded to know why, and — while I didn't have the specifics — I tried to explain the best I could. These motherfuckers pulled out a newspaper op-ed article that went into detail about the closing, then said, 'How do you explain this?' I mean, how could I explain someone else's opinion? This obviously wasn't going to work, and I said it was best for me to leave. For some reason, they tried having me come back in for a second interview."
9.
"When I was in the teaching credential program at my college, we had to go on 'mock' interviews at a real school district where we could potentially be offered a job if the staff liked us enough. Understandably, I was very nervous — I stuttered several times and didn’t do my best overall. But instead of the teachers/principals that interviewed me being understanding or sympathetic because I was in training, they laughed in my face. It was horrible, and I left feeling completely dejected and decided that teaching was not for me after all."
10.
"I had an interview during which the job's hours were revealed to me, and they were all over the place: 10–2 on Monday, 1–4 on Tuesday, 4–9 on Wednesday, etc. I told the interviewer that the job wasn't for me, and she started CRYING! She told me tearfully that she and her team were so impressed with my CV and that they'd been trying to fill the job for months. I awkwardly thanked her for her time as she tearfully led me out of the building."
11.
"When I was maybe 20, I applied for a bartending job. The job interview went pretty well, until the owner of the bar asked if I had a boyfriend. I was so confused as to why this would be an issue. As a gay woman, I tend to feel unsafe in situations regarding my sexuality (especially in a basement of a bar), so I said yes. The owner then asked me more invasive questions, like when was the last time I had sex, what kind of sex did I like, and how old was I when I lost my virginity. I tried to leave, but the owner stood between me and the only exit. He didn't let me leave until I told him I'd call the police. After this, I have always recorded my job interviews. I have thankfully never had an issue like this again, and every interview since, I've always interviewed in an open area."
12.
"I had an interview where the dude was literally like, 'We said $30 on the posting because that's what we used to pay, but we've realized that with the economy as it is, we can get great applicants anyway, so we're only paying $15. If you don't take it, someone else will, but you can work up to the normal wage in five years or so if the economy improves.'"
13.
"A few years ago, I was interviewing with a hospital for an admin position. We decided over email that the interview time was 1 p.m. The day of the interview, the same person called me at 10 a.m. pissed that I wasn't there. When I referenced our email, she got all annoyed and asked if I could come in right now. I hadn't even gotten out of bed yet that day! I said I couldn't, and we still met at 1 p.m., but she was clearly annoyed at me for her mistake. IDK why I went to the interview after that first phone call, tbh. That should've been red flag number one."
14.
"At an interview years ago, I was asked if I was taking any medications, and if so, they wanted to know what I'd been prescribed. Holy cow, not cool!"
15.
"I applied for a job as a cookie decorator at a popular cookie and cake bakery in my hometown. I sent in my résumé and a portfolio of all my art, and the woman was so impressed, she called me in for an interview right away.
"Now, I'm mixed — I’m Afro-Cuban and Italian. I have ear gauges, tattoos, and dreadlocks. I understand that not everyone is OK with hiring people who look like me, but this was something different. I showed up to the interview, she looked me up and down, and she then pointed out all of the things about me that she would never accept in an employee.
"She said my hair made me look like a 'feral child' who had never seen a brush or a shower. She said that the fact that I thought my tattoos were OK proved that I wasn't fit for this or any job. She criticized my makeup and said my ear gauges were 'the most repulsive thing' she'd ever seen and that she didn't want her customers 'vomiting on the food' because of how disgusting my appearance was.
"I was only 16 years old, and the whole experience really fucked up my self-esteem and confidence for a while. Eventually I just left."
