Interview Horror Stories

INTERVIEW HORROR STORIES INTERVIEW HORROR STORIES

Here are some more interview horror stories. Develop your own interview technique by learning from other people’s mistakes. Desperate For Love

26-year-old Janie Simmons revealed more than was necessary during her interview. “I was applying for a job in the marketing department of a top international publishing house. I am usually a bit of a nervous person, but the thought of an interview really put me on edge. During the interview I was asked all the standard questions: ‘What are you looking for? What don’t you like in a job? What role do you see your boss playing?’ I was fine with most of the questions, but my answer to the third question really sealed my fate. Without thinking, I said, ‘I need my boss to be my best friend. I’m so lonely. I just moved here a few months ago and I haven’t made any friends. I need a friend’. Unfortunately, the interviewer’s response wasn’t very friendly.”

After shock

Sometimes the worst comes after the interview is over, as twentyeight-year-old Arnold found out. “A few days after an interview with a graphic design company, I received a telephone call. ‘Well, you should be aware that you were not one of our top choices,’ the boss said. ‘All the top candidates refused our offer to work with us. You are the only one left so if you want the job, we’d be happy for you to take it.’ Not surprisingly, I politely declined.” Watch Out!

28-year-old Marsha Jones had three terrible interviews in a row. “I think I’m probably the unluckiest person in the world when it comes to interviews. During one interview with a vice president, the guy said, ‘Honey, you’ll never get a job because you don’t show enough skin’. In another interview with an entertainment company, the male interviewer came into the room, closed the door, turned off the light, put his foot on his desk, and asked, ‘So, baby, where do you live?’ In a further interview for a job as hotel receptionist, the interviewer proceeded to inform me that, ‘Most women enter the hospitality industry because of the “glamour”.’ He then went on to tell me that other women found him ‘really attractive’. Now, I bet he wouldn’t have made that comment if I’d been a man, or would he?” Weirdo

James Hargreaves’ interview was interrupted by some very unusual phone calls. “I was in this interview for a sales/marketing job when the phone suddenly went. The guy interviewing me cut me off in mid-sentence, picked up the receiver, and answered the call. ‘Yes, I know he’s French,’ he said, then hung up. About ten minutes he got another call. This one was even stranger. He seemed to be listening for a while then he suddenly said, ‘Is it his car?’ And then he hung up again. I couldn’t work out if he was being serious or not, or whether he was trying to make me nervous. Anyway, the last call was definitely the strangest of them all. It was clearly from his wife or partner. After saying, ‘Hi, Honey,’ he said three cryptic things: ‘Is he lucid?’; ‘Do you need me to come home tonight?’; And, ‘Call me when you know more.’ Then he hung up and looked at me and said, ‘So, where did you go to school’. I swear, I’d love to know what the hell that guy had been talking about. Oh, and by the way, I didn’t take the job.”

Bored

John Savage had to sit through a long exam when he applied for a job to be a security guard. “I had to undergo a ludicrous 500-question psychological examination when I applied to be a security guard during college. Among the 500 questions there were no less than 35 questions asking me in slightly varied ways whether or not I had ever thought of killing myself. By the time I got to the seventeenth question I was tempted to write something like, ‘No, but the idea is growing on me every time you ask’.”

G L O S S A R Y

to reveal vb to show to put someone on edge exp to make someone nervous to seal your fate exp to do something that creates a bad situation for you to decline vb to say that you don’t want to do something in a row exp if something happens three times “in a row”, it happens three times, one after the other honey n a word used to refer to someone you are emotionally close to I bet exp this means: “I’m sure” to cut someone off in mid-sentence exp to stop someone while they are talking to pick up the receiver exp to answer the phone when it is ringing a call n a telephone call to hang up phr vb to stop the telephone conversation by putting the phone down to work out phr vb to discover I swear exp this means: “I promise” the hell exp inform people use this to express anger to undergo vb to do ludicrous adj ridiculous