This week one of Maxwell Stephens’s candidates had a very embarrassing situation in an interview. He was told that in the event of a fire, he should head to the skip in the car park. However he misheard and thought the receptionist wanted him to stand by the skip to wait for the interviewer, so he did…
He is feeling a little embarrassed about the whole situation, so we wanted to make him feel better by researching some more interview horror stories. We are sharing the best ones (anonymously!) here on our website, so everyone can feel better about their interview mishaps.
“During an interview, my interviewer’s phone rang. After seeing the caller ID on his phone, he yelled “Oh for F**k sake!” and picked up. He then yelled at the person in Japanese, which really caught me off guard. Once he hung up, he smashed a vase that was placed on his desk and then ran out of the office! To this day, I still have no idea what happened.”
“I was interviewing for a very senior position at a formal company, so I dressed up in a nice suit. I went to the bathroom before the interview, when pulling up my zipper, it broke. Trying to find a way of fixing it, I worked myself up into a big sweat. This resulted in me walking into the interview room with a bright red, sweaty face and an open fly.”
“I once interviewed for a role at a cycling store, it seemed like the perfect job as I cycle frequently and the shop was close to my home. The store was at the top of quite a steep hill. On the morning of the interview, I cycled towards the shop, parked my bike up outside, resting my bike against the wall, with the helmet balancing, on the handlebars. A gust of wind came, causing my bike to fall over and the helmet then rolled down the hill into oncoming traffic. Whilst I was in a fluster of panic, the hiring manager walked out and greeted me, he complimented my bike but insisted “you should really be wearing a helmet”. I tried to explain the situation to him but the more that I tried, the more that it sounded like a lie. I did not get the job.”
“After graduating, I applied for a role as a marketing manager at a big hardware company. I was invited to an interview, where part of the process involved me giving a presentation to the hiring managers. As if I was cursed, I came down with the worst case of hiccups that I have ever experienced, meaning that I could hardly string a sentence together without having to gasp for air. The more I tried to overcome them, the worse that they got, causing me to get stressed and forget the lines to my presentation… it was a day to forget.”
