People Are Sharing Their Job Interviews That Didn’t Go Well, And Here Are The 10 Worst

By Ken Zwerdling on Nov 12, 2022

It’s completely normal to be at least a little bit nervous before going to a job interview. After all, we all want to leave a good impression on others. Especially those that get a vote on what our potential careers might look like.

However, some folks just can’t handle the stress and end up being total nervous wrecks—dripping with sweat, stuttering, forgetting where they even worked earlier, and worse. Meanwhile, some managers and recruiters simply don’t have enough emotional intelligence and end up being totally brutal to the interviewees for seemingly no good reason. Times have changed, and a firm handshake might not be enough to secure a quality position anymore just by itself.

Bored Panda has collected the very worst job interview experiences, as shared by the folks on r/AskReddit in a ton of gruesome threads. Seriously, if you’ve got a job interview coming up, don’t read this, otherwise, you’ll get nightmares… though, on the flip side, these stories might prepare you for the worst that’s possible.

Financial expert Sam Dogen was kind enough to tell us how to leave a positive impression on recruiters, how to avoid being nervous during an interview, and shared why it's important to be humble yet confident. Sam is the author of 'Buy This, Not That: How to Spend Your Way to Wealth and Freedom,' which comes out July 19, and is the founder of the Financial Samurai blog. He's been through a nightmare job interview experience himself in the past, having gone through a total of 55 interviews during 7 rounds to get the job he wanted!

I took vacation days to interview, bought my own plane ticket, and paid for my own hotel. First thing the interviewer said was, "I have no intention of hiring you. This is just a courtesy because I knew your brother." I had 8 more hours left in my interview day. It was painful.

They ended up offering me the position many weeks down the road because they couldn't fill the position. I politely declined and got a very passive aggressively worded survey to fill out explaining why I passed.

I'm an eye surgeon. This was for a training position at an Ivy League institution.

on-technical qualities are hugely important for interviewing well," Sam told Bored Panda, sharing that some of them include speaking with confidence, maintaining eye contact every so often instead of locking on as though with laser beams, sitting up straight, and pointing your feet and body towards the interviewer. What's more, it's vital to maintain good hygiene, have a "radiant smile," be full of enthusiasm, and give a "firm, non-sweaty handshake."

"At the end of the day, your manager wants to hire someone whom they can get along with and trust. The nicer and more competent you come across, the better," he explained.

We were very curious to find out whether there are any tricks to help someone control their nerves before a big job interview. Sam, the author of 'Buy This, Not That,' told Bored Panda that applicants should remind themselves that everyone's equal outside of the workplace. "If you bump into the interviewer at the supermarket, you have an equal right to be there as they do. If you see the interviewer at a concert or at a restaurant, you're both equal, even if the interviewer is a billionaire!"

Went for an interview with Oxygen magazine. Front desk lady...very shocked to see me. Asked me to sit and hurried off.

Hiring manager came out and she too was shocked to see me... Asked to see my resume.

Hands me a name tag with my last name only on it (it's a common female name).

She has me sit in the conference room while the CEO and CTO come back with hiring manager.

They explain that they thought I was a female and apologized for the mix up on the name tag then explained I was not a fit for their "office culture" and ended interview without a single question offered or answered.

About then I noticed the entire office was female. I wasn't even mad... Just kinda laughed and left.

Gotta be the worst one in terms of professionalism.

Guy stared at my b**bs the whole time, asked me how old I was, what my "credentials" were, told me I seemed young to be a director, and then said, "Are there even any men on this team?"

I was the one doing the interviewing, by the way.

Another way to get your nervousness under control is to know your stuff. "The more you know about the company, the industry it's in, and your qualifications, the less nervous you will be," the expert said that doing your research and putting in the effort to learn as much as you can should give you a boost of confidence.

Sam, the founder of the Financial Samurai project, explained the difference between confidence and over-confidence and stressed that it's far better to be humble than to err on the side of arrogance.

"Being humble and confident is better than being overconfident. Nobody likes overconfident people. They are often unpleasant to work with. Instead, the trick is to speak with confidence and humility," he said. "For example, you can point out some award or accomplishment on your resume as a learning moment where a lot of luck was involved. This shows humility. But you can confidently say that you will happily try again to see if the win wasn't a fluke. This is an example of confidence and humility."

I had a really big opportunity for a job with Siemens corporation sometime after I graduated from college for a technical job that would have paid alot of money. It was a multi-interview job and I actually got interviewed by 3 different people. Each one I was a nervous wreck but somehow nailed them and just stayed confident.

Finally they send me for the final interview at their headquarters so I show up prepared, early, suit and tie, certs and paperwork, etc. I'm sitting in this fancy lobby waiting for the interviewer to come get me and another dude walks in dressed for an interview just like me. I figured he was here for another job so we had a friendly chat while we waited for our interviewers to show up. This was clearly an older, more experienced guy.

Finally interviewer shows up and is surprised to see us, saying they accidentally scheduled our interviews for the same time. So he takes the older gentlemen and tells his employee to take me and we would be interviewed separately. At this point everything is falling apart...I'm not being interviewed by the man I showed up to talk to. Instead this employee dressed in a T shirt takes me downstairs to the cafeteria and asks me a handful of quick questions in a very unprofessional setting before letting me go.

It's like they decided who to hire before the interview even began. It was a huge let down.

Applied to work at a vet clinic. Veterinarian did the interview while spaying a cat, apparently one of the cleanest and quickest surgeries they do. I fainted. Was not offered the job (after I woke up).

Interviewed someone for a servers position in a club, she said she couldn't work weekends or past 8pm. We're a nightclub that's open from 7pm till 2am. 

He noted that we have to accept luck as an important factor in our lives and our successes: "It's important to never attribute all your success due to your own hard work and skills. Instead, be humble to recognize that a lot of success and tremendous wealth is due to luck. Once you accept luck, you tend to naturally be more humble and appreciate more of what you have. Because if you can get lucky, you can also get unlucky!"

It’s important to keep in mind that it’s not just you who’s being interviewed: you’re checking to see if the company you’re applying to gels well with you, too. You’ve got to be true to your standards and avoid showing that you’re desperate (even if you might be). There really are plenty of opportunities out there, and you shouldn’t have to settle for low pay, a toxic atmosphere, and micromanaging bosses just because you think you might not be worth anything better.

Career coach Jermaine Murray suggested to Bored Panda a while back that being too humble is the biggest mistake that any job applicant can make. You have to highlight your wins, your achievements, your accomplishments. Nobody else will do it for you. At least, in Jermaine's opinion.

"They humble themselves when they need to be boasting. If you understand why the work that you were doing was important and how it impacts your org then you should be explaining that to the interviewer without holding back. How did you go above and beyond to make sure things worked? What creative ways did you come up with? Show off,” he suggested.

Wanted to work at H&M, got interviewd by the worst person ever. One question was and I am legit not lying, "What is your favorite color and why?" I answered "baby blue because it's calming and not to harsh to the eyes." My interviewer then said Oooh, sorry! Red is what we were looking for. And then proceeded to show me the exit.

1.) I walked in as the HR lady farted 2.) it was a small office with no windows 3.) I asked her questions about their employee retention rate that she couldn’t answer 4.) the fart stayed the duration of the interview 5.) I hope the fart got the job, because I didn’t want it

I was 23 at the time. The manager of the company interviewed me. He was old enough to be my grandfather.

He asked if I had a bf and if he was jelaous.

He told me that there were going to be thee options for me: The first one was to work from home, the second one was to work from the office, the third one was to go on "business trips" with him twice a week. The 3d option was with the highest pay. He told me that I look like a smart girl and the third option would be the best for me.

It was clear he was hiring a personal escord.

He was such a creep and made me feel so uncomfortable. 

"If your body language or tone says otherwise [i.e. that you’re not confident], you destroy the perception of your skills. Once that's gone so are your chances of landing the job," Jermaine explained that you have to be as confident as can be.

Something that recruiters look at very closely is your personality. Technical skills alone might not be enough to secure a good position at a prestigious company.

"You can teach someone to be a better coder but it's near impossible to teach them how to be a better person. Recruiters will always value personality first, but technical skills are a very close second," the career coach said.

"Hiring managers keep that in mind and try to make sure candidates they like can perform competently. Different things contribute to this bar that aren't based on the candidate but the organization's internal ability to support and develop someone. Once those two elements are present, a hire will happen.”

During college I applied for a bunch of jobs at Ikea. I got an interview followed by a rejection email. A week later they called me for another interview. I got another rejection email. They interviewed five times for five different positions. I got rejected all five times. I'm still salty about it two decades later.