I ruined a job interview in seconds after I was asked ‘How did you get here today?’
A job seeker was left red-faced after misunderstanding a simple question from an employer.
The candidate sat across from her potential boss and was asked how she got there. She thought the boss was just curious about her commute and said she took the bus.
However, she was actually asked about her career background and what led her to apply for the job.
This admission prompted hundreds of others to share their own job interview “failures” with many funny mix-ups.
“What’s the first time you screwed up a job interview?” the job hunter asked on Reddit before sharing her own embarrassing story.
A candidate left a job interview feeling very embarrassed after misinterpreting the employer’s simple question. They sat down at the meeting and were asked how they got there
“I was asked, ‘Tell me how you got here today?’ and I said by bus. I got a stone cold look as the realization dawned on me.
‘He didn’t mean going to the physical office in my career. The remaining 58 minutes were just going through the motions.”
Users found the story hysterical and said the interviewer’s question was worded ambiguously.
“Honestly, that’s a strange way to phrase the question,” one person said.
“Tell me how you got here today?” is very open to interpretation. I would have done the same thing you did,” a second agreed.
‘I’ve been doing a lot of interviews lately. That answer wouldn’t bother me at all, it would honestly be a funny icebreaker,” said an employer.
“Any interviewer who didn’t find that funny would be a terrible person to work for,” another commented.
The job seeker said the interviewer was “in no mood to break the ice and laugh it off,” and said the “death look” he gave after they answered “still haunts them.”
Thinking they were curious about the commute, the candidate said they took the bus and were given a cold look. They were even asked about their career background
People started sharing nightmares about their job interviews, including one who became confused when asked about his “background.”
‘I look back and around me to make a video call: ‘Is it some kind of mirror?’ ‘I mean, what’s your background in work?’. I still haven’t recovered from that,” they laughed.
Another was asked if they had a driver’s license and a car. When they confirmed the interview, she wanted to know if “it was clean.”
‘Yes’ ‘Is it clean?’. “Um, yeah, I actually washed it the other day.” “I meant the permit,” they recalled.
‘The building was confusing and I walked through the wrong door. The interviewer saw it and told the receptionist, “I definitely don’t want that,” a third recalled.
‘It was one of my first job interviews since I was 18/19, but I asked what the notice period was. The look on their faces was priceless and clearly I didn’t get the job,” said a fourth.
Someone said they had a heated disagreement before their job interview, involving yelling and rude hand gestures, with a driver in the parking lot who turned out to be the hiring manager.
‘I was told that I had a colorful CV. I said, ‘Thanks, it’s just a Microsoft Word template,'” one woman cringed.
‘I had two interviews scheduled… one in the morning and one in the afternoon at competing companies. Only a special kind of idiot would mix them up,” replied a second.