People Are Sharing The Biggest Red Flag They've Seen During Job Interviews, And I Don't Blame Them For Not Taking The Jobs
Earlier today, Reddit user u/ToxtethOGradyUSA asked the AskReddit community: "What was your worst job interview?"
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And the thread soon had hundreds of replies, as people shared some truly weird and/or awful red flags they've heard or seen during interviews. Here are some of the top-voted and best comments:
1."We're legally not allowed to tell you not to take your breaks, but nobody here does it, so keep that in mind."
2."When the first thing they ask is if you're available outside of your listed availability."
3."When I switched jobs earlier this year, I was specifically looking for something that was a remote/work from home situation. One interview began with an explanation that they used something similar to test proctoring software for their remote employees and that I was expected to have my webcam on for the full eight hours so they could ensure nobody 'seemed distracted.'"
"Come the fuck on... We’re all professionals here. I’m not going to sit there on camera for eight hours while I work so that you can ensure you’re milking every second of productivity out of me. Only the second time in my life I’ve left an interview early."
4."They said that they had paid $10,000 to the recruiter to send recruits, and if I left before one year, I would have to pay them back $10,000. It would be in my employment contract."
5."When asked if they had a radius requirement (that I needed to live within X miles in case of emergency), they laughed and said, 'Doesn't matter — you won't be going [home] very often.'"
6."So I went to a psychoanalysis counselor for an internship interview. I was expecting normal questions. Then he goes, 'What do you think of the trees outside?' and I was like, 'They are pretty; I like trees.' And he responded, 'No. Dig deeper.' So it was a half-hour interview just digging deeper about trees."
"Then at the end, he just goes, 'OK, goodbye. I need you to leave now.' And that was it. I obviously didn't think I got it, but at like 9 p.m. a week later he called and said, 'I guess we can make this work,' and I was like, 'Um. No. I already got one, thanks.'"
7."'How negotiable are you on payment?' Like bruh, your salary range was already scraping the bottom of the barrel."
8."I had applied for a marketing position with a local tech company. A woman called to set up the interview, but a few things seemed a little too vague in the job description."
"Since I really didn't need the job, I was very direct with her and asked, 'Is this an actual marketing job, or is this a sales job that's been given a marketing title?' I had run into that a couple times, but usually the job description clarifies it. Her response was, 'All I can tell you is what is in the job description.'So there's the red flag, but because the office was only a block away from where I was already working I figured I would go and entertain myself. Anyway, to make a long story short, I was right. It was a sales job, and to make matters worse it was probably the slimiest company I have ever applied for, and I once went to an Amway meeting, so that should say something."
9."I called out an interviewer one time when they started asking extremely invasive questions. They got all huffy and ended the interview."
10."I interviewed for a high school teaching position. As part of the interview, they had me teach a lesson to a group of students so they could see my teaching style. It didn't go great."
"For one thing, there was a group of students who refused to participate at all; they spent the entire time whispering to each other, wouldn't respond when I called on them.Later the principal told me that these students did not speak English and asked, 'How should you have adapted your lesson for a bilingual classroom?' I had not been told to prepare for a bilingual classroom, but the principal assured me that even though I did a poor job, their training program could turn me into an effective teacher.The whole thing felt like a setup to make me feel incompetent (which I did) and then present the job as a way to 'fix' my teaching."
11."I showed up 10 minutes early in my best suit. They sat me in a room and put on Mighty Joe Young. Over the next 45 minutes, about 20 other people shuffled in for what was apparently a group interview. I was comically overdressed."
"The owner was an hour late. Upon entry, he didn't ask, but rather told us, to smile.The job was supposedly a sales position that also required setting up and breaking down presentations. In reality, it was two girls in a small car going door to door and asking to do 'presentations' of a product in rich neighborhoods. Once someone accepted, I (and four others) were to show up in a van (which was to be roaming the neighborhood), and the girls would leave to 'set up more presentations.'It was the skeeziest operation I have ever seen. Owner was very adamant about rushing right in, so they 'didn't have a chance to change their mind.' I was 18 and naive, but I still managed to call them out on their massive red flag collection by day two."
12."I interviewed in-person for a job at the beginning of the pandemic. There were lots of arrangements done as far as rearranging furniture for social distancing, masks, hand washing, etc. The interview went great, but after it was done I was told we would be touring the facility."
"I'm a younger woman. The manager I would be reporting to, late middle-aged man, proceeded to put his arm around me to walk me through the place. If you can't respect personal boundaries during a pandemic, what the hell would you do if you weren't respecting safe distances?"
13."Interview was at 10 a.m. They made me wait until 10:45 before someone could finally see me."
"First question they asked me was how I feel about working overtime. They asked me another two to three times if I was REALLY sure I was OK with it, which tells me that a) They're going to make me work over a lot, and b) they've had people quit shortly after being hired because this job clearly SUCKS.When I asked them to describe the work environment/culture, one guy says they get at each other's throats sometimes and its intense, but they're like a big dysfunctional family. No, thanks."
14."During the interview, they offered half of the hourly wage that was listed on their website."
15."Interview was conducted in another office in the same building, after being told to wait outside the office in the hall before my interviewer met with me. Turns out the office was soundproofed to mask how much the owner yelled at people, and that he chain smoked."
16."A wall-sized Confederate flag hanging in the conference room we were interviewing in. Noped my way right out."
And lastly...
17."When I was asked what my husband does for a living. They wanted to see how little they could offer me."
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You can read the full thread of responses on Reddit.
Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.
