Hiring Managers Explain What A Potential Hire Did That Instantly Cost Them The Job

The current job market is terrible to navigate, and on the rare chance that someone lands a job interview, the last thing they'd want to do is mess it up.

But it seems even now, there are still some people who do not understand the gravity of the situation and walk into job interviews informally, inappropriately, and thoroughly unprepared.

Already cringing, Redditor DemonSk**k asked:

"People who have conducted job interviews, what's something someone said or did that made you instantly decide not to hire them?"

Bragging Rights

"The candidate kept boasting about how many languages he speaks, even though it was not a requirement for the position."

"I finally asked him in which foreign language he was most fluent, and he replied Spanish."

"I followed up with a simple question asked in Spanish. He did not speak Spanish."

- L48Shark

Not Time To Overshare

"She sat down, plunked her purse on the desk, and started with, 'I need to let you know, I have issues.'"

- DrakeSavory

"Ha! I don't see what the problem is. That young lady has upper management written all over her! (sarcasm)"

- DistantKarma

Coding Concerns

"Interviewing for an IT position, asked a basic question about virus removal. She said, 'Oh, I dunno, my husband does that.'"

"Well, then tell him to apply."

- xMcRaemanx

"Hiring developers for a creative agency here in NYC (10+ years ago). They had just graduated from Columbia or NYU (I forget which one)."

"I was excited to interview him as I really needed the extra staff. On his resume in the ‘about me’ section at the top, he mentioned he enjoys writing semantic code. I said, 'That’s great! What does semantic mean from a software coding perspective?'"

"His response was, 'I dunno. I just added it to my resume.'"

"I explained what it meant and then thanked him for his time. He didn’t get the job."

- Lawrence_Thorne

Micromanaging Red Flags

"She brought her boyfriend, and the boyfriend was answering all the questions."

- Medium-Sized-Jaque

"Ah, the ventriloquist method. Highly effective. Do not recommend."

- Comfortable-Home5437

"He even answered while she was drinking water. It was impressive."

- Medium-Sized-Jaque

Family Feuds

"I have two friends who work in HR. Both have told me of applicants showing up with their mom, and sitting together in the waiting area."

"'Odd, but who knows, lots of young people don't drive these days,' as one put it."

"When greeted and shown towards the interview room, the mom got up, and when told she could wait in the waiting area, a few insisted on being part of the interview."

"Others, the candidate asked or insisted that their mom be part of the interview."

"One mom in particular answered all the questions as the candidate sat playing on their phone."

- laughguy220

"The number of phone calls I've received from the mothers of twenty-year-olds regarding the status of their applications is laughable at this point." - DarkSideofPerrysmom

Confidence Issues

"'I’m not good enough. I’d like to end the interview.'"

"I told them that it was just nerves and everything would be okay, and we could continue and see where the discussion goes, but they were adamant that they were overwhelmed and wanted to end the interview, so we did."

"Poor lass."

- Pndrizzy

Ethical Dilemma, Indeed

"He told about how he stole goods from a store they worked at, put them in his buddy’s car, and called the cops so his buddy would get arrested. Then he slept with his buddy’s girlfriend while the buddy was in jail."

"All this was in response to the question, 'Tell us about a time when you had an ethical dilemma, what did you do, and what was the outcome?'"

"Apparently, his buddy was cheating him on their shared 'business,' so he told us what he did when his best friend wasn’t splitting the profits 50/50."

- C130IN

Service Worker Care Speaks Volumes

"I worked at a big-box retailer and got called up to the service counter to deal with a customer who was upset. This was only a couple of minutes before I was scheduled to conduct an interview with a potential new hire."

"I get up there, and this woman is berating the employee behind the counter, referring to her as 'this b***h,' etc."

"I ask her to lower her voice and to please stop being disrespectful to my employee."

"She isn’t happy, but she does eventually calm down enough to be reasonable, and we resolve the situation at the service desk."

"I turn to walk away, thinking we’re done here, and she goes, 'Anyway, I’m here for my interview.'"

"I can’t believe that this is actually happening. It seems like awful rom-com movie type s**t, but this rude a** woman actually expected me to proceed with interviewing her."

"I just slowly turned around and said, 'I’m sorry, ma’am, but that position is no longer available.'"

- D**nitBlueWasOld

This Looks Familiar

"Had a guy show up to a design interview with my work in his portfolio."

"I let him talk through it for a few minutes. Really grilled him on when the project was done, for what company, and on what team."

"I told him that’s so odd, I also worked at that place, at that time."

"Then I gave him a tip that it’s a VERY small industry. I’ve never seen someone want to melt through their chair so much in my life."

"In addition to calling him out, I talked with him about how to show work in a portfolio that had multiple contributors. You need to be specific about what YOU did. You need to be able to talk about your creative process and preferably show sketches and inspiration. Hopefully, he at least took that away."

- killersims

Toxic Work Environment Vibes

"She described former colleagues as ‘b***hes’ within fifteen minutes of the interview starting. I ended it immediately."

- GlitteringFlame888

"Yeah, that'll do it."

- KaiserFortinabras

"I had a woman come in and started going through everything wrong with the coworkers at her previous place of employment. All of them, far as I could tell."

"As she left, I advised her not to do that on her next interview, and she seemed to get it."

- dan_jeffers

Breach Of Privacy

"I work in healthcare analytics. Mid-interview (it was virtual as they were from another region), she shared her screen to demonstrate the type of work they were currently doing (which we DID not ask for, and she did not ask us if she could share her screen), and the screen she showed us had clear patient identifiers, health card numbers, etc."

"We immediately shut that s**t down. Patient privacy and data security are absolutely paramount, and that level of cavalier treatment of sensitive patient information immediately disqualified her from being considered."

"AND we had to submit a report to their institution afterwards. What a mess."

- kupo_moogle

Immediately No

"Guy had to do a presentation, but his laptop battery was dead, so he asked if he could plug it in."

"One of the panel members had to go under the boardroom table to do that for him, and the candidate said, 'Well, look at that, I've only been here five minutes and already got a woman on her knees.'"

"It couldn't actually get worse, of course, but it was extraordinary how bad this experience was."

"It was for a public sector position (UK), in health, and a considerable part of the role was procurement and contract management. Candidates were told how to prepare and what the assessment criteria would be."

"Part of this was confidentiality/data and records security."

"When the guy started his laptop, we had to wait while he shut down Discord, Stream, and a host of gaming-related apps that just kept booting. As he started his presentation, in the background, this startup music for 'Call of Duty' or something blasts out of his speaker, so he cancels that and carries on like it's perfectly normal."

"His desktop was also littered with invoices and quotes that clearly showed company and individual identities."

"He finished his presentation, no one on the panel asked a single question, and we said thanks."

"On his way out, he turned and said, 'I think I f**ked that up, didn't I?'"

"No champ, you were golden."

- woolfathering_fuzz

Incompatible Belief Systems

"I once interviewed a flat earther who admitted in the interview, within the first ten minutes, that the main reason he wanted to work in aviation was to be closer to airplanes so he could prove they were holograms, since clearly they shouldn’t be able to fly since the earth is flat."

"To this day, I’m not sure if he was just trying to show someone, 'Hey look, I’m applying for jobs, and I don't know why they all say no,' or if he genuinely believed it, but either way, I let the interview go on for like an hour and listened to him just rant his little heart out."

"Obviously, I ended up going in a different direction."

- Sm0key_the_bear

No More Disrespect

"He came into the interview room, and my assistant was seated next to me. I introduced myself, and my assistant did the same."

"Then she asked him if he’d like a drink, and he put his finger to his lips and said, 'Ssshhh.' Then he grinned at me."

"I immediately stood up and told him he needed to leave, the interview was terminated, and that he would never work for me."

"He looked completely shocked, slammed his fists down on the table, and tried storming out, but he kept pushing a door that you needed to pull, so my assistant laughed and went over to show him how to use a door."

"The 'best' part is that I work in finance, and the job he was interviewing for was entry-level. The arrogance still shocks me."

- Equivalent-Spring-99

Brand Illustration, Who?

"We were hiring for an illustrator at a crafting company. He had a nice portfolio, and he could clearly draw, but it was all in his own style."

"When he was asked if he would be able to shift gears and match other styles, he said, 'I won't need to because I am so good at my style.'"

"We explained that he would have to draw additional assets to match existing illustration styles pretty regularly, and he just snorted and said, 'No, they will have to match my style. Trust me, it'll be an improvement!'"

"He, uh... he was not hired."

- Berylldama

As hard as it is to land an interview in the first place, it's alarming that all of these accounts were passable enough on paper to get into the room in the first place. Fortunately, they revealed who they were during the interview, so these Redditors and their colleagues would not have to go through working with them to figure it out.