Get Premium
Dark mode theme is available exclusively for premium users. Learn more about the benefits of subscribing.
No fees, cancel anytime.
Dark Mode 
No fees, cancel anytime 
then open in external browser
and click "Open in External Browser" 
26submissions
Finished
26 High-Level Job Candidates Who Failed At Interviews So Badly Hiring People Can’t Forget Them
Article created by: Monika Pašukonytė
Many people are afraid of failure, even though it's an inevitable part of life. Job interviews aren't an exception. Due to this fear, many people stress about them, sometimes so much that it ironically makes them botch them.
Witnessing someone fail can be as awkward as failing yourself, especially if there were high hopes for that person. For instance, if they were a candidate for a high-level job, but bungled the interview miserably. Today’s list is made up of such incidents — recruiters recalling interviews that went so badly that they remained memorable for a long time.
More info: Reddit
- Read More: 34 High-Level Job Candidates Who Failed At Interviews So Badly Hiring People Can’t Forget Them
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
We were interviewing for a chemical engineer position. Specifically, process engineer over a train with 3 reactors. The areas had some pretty bad chemicals, and as such, there was a tour as part of the interview. We asked all candidates to wear appropriate clothing. The candidate came in with open toe shoes, which were specified as a no-go in the communication. I asked if she had been aware of the tour and dress code, and she said, "Yes, but you can't wear closed toe shoes with this outfit!". I immediately dropped her off in the HR department and told them, "If she can't follow those basic instructions, there is no way I was going to hire her to deal with the chemicals we dealt with.".
RELATED:
#2
I interviewed a guy for a higher level management position for the company I worked for. Attire was supposed to be business professional.
He showed up in a Hawaiian shirt, jeans, and flip flops because he thought this interview was “just a formality” and he believed his supposed reputation in the industry just preceded him. I had no idea who he was.
When he realized we were actually asking questions he just said “trust me, I’m the guy for the job” over and over and over again. It became a running joke for all of us when we’d get a new assignment.
#3
She only spoke in high end corporate speak and non answers. I didn’t have any clue about her as a person leaving that interview but could tell she was the absolute wrong fit.
Of course she was hired and has tanked that program. I swear she has dirt on someone high up otherwise she would have been removed.
#4
Not a high level position, but two of us were interviewing a candidate for a job. He was perfect! Fully qualified, mature, exactly what we were looking for. He was a shoo-in for the job. At the end, I asked him if he had any questions or comments for us. He said he wanted to be honest with us. He was angry at his previous employer and was suing them over a faked injury. The candidate wanted us to know he was perfectly healthy and nothing was actually wrong with him. He felt like it was the right thing to do to tell us.
Boy, we dodged a bullet.
#5
Interviewed a woman for a Chief Product Officer role (probably in her mid 40s, for a large enterprise company, I was 34M). She was so nervous that she was shaking badly, and part-way through the interview asked if she could hold my hand to calm herself. I let her and it worked and she calmed down, but given our CEO was a straight-up psychopath, I decided she would probably not be able to handle him well.
#6
Not me but my mother. Interviewed a guy for their chief safety and security position. They asked why he was leaving his last job after 15+ years. He responds completely seriously that he was actually forced to resign shortly after he sent in his resume because he neglected a final security check at his facility which resulted in a fire. They asked for more details and learned that his negligence led to a loss of over $2mil for his former employer and because no one was hurt they made a deal that he would resign and forfeit his severance package to boot. When they asked why they should hire him, considering that information, he replied that it was just one mistake so they shouldn't take it so seriously.
#7
Some guy came in and he was the spitting image of Mr Bean. He had a briefcase/ suitcase and was dressed in tweed. It wasn't a joke he was just that way. But me and HR just couldn't keep it professional. He said things like 'oh I'm never sick except at Christmas when my mum said I was talking to the curtains!' HR woman had to leave after that one and get herself together.
#8
I was hiring for a role, and someone reached out to me via LinkedIn to let me know they'd applied. Totally fine. It turns out he was the son of a former coworker, which was interesting to know, but not really relevant to the hiring process.
I reviewed his resume, but unfortunately, he didn’t have the experience needed for the role—his background was in completely different industries. Since I used to work with his mom, I gave him that feedback, and he was totally understanding.
His mother, my former coworker, then reached out to me, pleading her son’s case. She even said she'd personally fill in any gaps in his knowledge and coach him through the role, insisting that I "give him a chance."
Two big problems with this:
Having your mom reach out like this makes it seem like you can’t stand on your own in the workplace.
His mom and I now work for direct competitors. There’s proprietary information involved, and she would potentially have access to it. That’s a major conflict.
Bottom line: Don’t have your mom reach out for you in a job application. And definitely don’t bring her with you.
#9
I'm a senior engineer at our firm and often sit in on interviews to gauge technical prowess.
We had some kid come in fresh out of college, and it was evident he read or was given some advice to come off demanding- the "if you know exactly what you want people will respect you" type of thing.
It was almost comical: he came in and said things like "Look, we all know the back and forth...the bottom line is I'll help progress this business and take you in new directions." He was also saying things like "I'll need you to stock Peet's Dark Roast coffee in the kitchen, I like my lunch time around 2pm, I need vacation time available immediately..."
Mr. Confidence turned into Mr. Confidently Rejected...on the spot. At one point my boss even asked "are you always like this or are you just nervous?" LOL I never saw a face sink like that so fast. We even gave him pointers to tone it down or he's going to have a really hard time out there.
#10
A friend of mine was interviewing a candidate for a customer-facing managerial position (public university, think head-of-department kind of role). This woman was adamant about being the opposite of a people person, said she prefers to work alone (the position is basically half delegation and the other half is collaboration), and said her biggest weakness was trying to relate to those who reported to her. She didn’t elaborate, and didn’t seem to understand that she was giving the literal worst answers possible at every point.
The most awkward part was the fact that when no one was hired for the role, they reposted the job listing and that woman applied again, and they were required by law to interview her again. The candidate was made aware that no one interviewed was deemed a good fit. Her answers did not change.
#11
I was chair of a committee to screen a new library director. The candidate came in and was dismissive of me from the beginning. It was if she was insulted that a lowly librarian was interviewing her instead of a dean or provost. Then during the interview she asked a question which I was answering, she interrupted me, told me I wasn't answering her question correctly and then proceeded to explain my library to me.
The faces of the rest of the committee were hilarious to watch. They gave up on poker faces and just let their true opinions show. Several just put their pens down and just went through the motions with the rest of the interview. I'm not sure she was savvy enough to notice.
#12
Not super high level but I conducted many interviews for senior SA positions. I had thought a good strategy would be to ask about the the things they list on their resume to give them a chance to 'show off' their skills and impress me. Turns out this is more of a land mine than a chance to show off. I had one guy tell me he had never used linux despite putting linux admin experience on his resume. His logic was that he knows windows so how much different can it be.
This happened many times and it's why I insisted competent technical staff be present at interviews and allowed to question candidates instead of just HR.
Edit: SA in this case is System Admin.
#13
I interviewed this candidate for a startup - every time he didn’t know how to answer a question about his previous experience, he’d claim he couldn’t because of an NDA. I gave him the benefit of the doubt until he finally admitted that he had put something on his resumé just so that he gets calls from recruiters. But this wasn’t even the worst part! At the very end, he thanked me for my time and then said, “I hope to work here at X”. X was not my company’s name… it’s not like he mixed us up with some other company, he got it wrong. And I corrected him, and he just casually said, “oh that’s what you’re called?” So it wasn’t a genuine slip of the tongue either. We didn’t really have a policy for ending an interview early when there’s no hope at all so that was a colossal waste of my precious time.
#14
I actually had my stalker come in to my office responding to a hiring notice I'd posted on LinkedIn, *after* the position was already filled. He was just trying to get access to me.
Security escorted him out. He ended up getting deported after police paid a visit to his *actual* workplace.
#15
In the middle of an interview I had a few years ago, my soon-to-be manager thanked me for dressing up and explained to me the guy he interviewed the day before showed up in a mesh t-shirt lol.
#16
One candidate showed up in pajamas and tried to pitch their startup idea while yawning through the whole interview.
#17
I was interviewing a candidate for a senior role at a tech company. At first, no immediate red flags when he came in. He was decently dressed, looked clean and professional. When we sat down to start the conversation, he handed me a pamphlet — ya know, like the kind you get at doctor’s offices for different disease or medication information. Except this pamphlet had a big picture of his headshot on the front, and he proceeded to walk me through the pamphlet about himself. This includes details of his personal interests as well as his resume details. I couldn’t take him seriously after that and was trying not to burst into laughter for the entire 45m interview.
#18
Interview for staff software engineer. Remote interview and she is really bombing at some point she says “sorry” stands up grabs her cat and cuddles it for like 15 minutes then leaves the interview.
#19
Not me but someone told me about a guy who applied at a Director position and brought his mom with him.
#20
Senior engineer position. She just straight up typed out questions in chat gpt and read them verbatim. She told us "I don't know what kql is, but then gave us a dictionary answer about 3 seconds later on log analytics workspaces, and the basis of kql as a language. She wasn't even good at cheating.
#22
We were interviewing for the Art Director position at a 50-person video game studio. A candidate had 27 mistakes on his resume - typos, formatting errors, and incomplete sentences. I brought this up to the studio general manager and he said “he’s dealing with art, how much is he going to have to write?”
They hired him, in part because he’d done one of the voices on the original Warcraft game.
Our studio closed five months later.
#23
9/10 years ago we were hiring for a CFO, the person came from the 3rd largest civil engineering contractor in the united states, total package was over 800k...
Our office is suit and tie, totally corporate, presidential and mayor candidates have been in our office (just to give an idea on the type of office it was)...guy walks in for the cfo interview in sandals/flip flops, shorts..fell asleep at the chair waiting for the interview.
Safe to say. He did not get the job.
The person was highly recommended, his name is well known in the industry. We couldn't believe it, i did meet him a few years back, and he fell asleep at a fundraiser.
#24
My boss and I interviewed a woman who spoke too long about her many cats, and when asked about her previous job began to cry. My instincts said "she might need some time to sort things out before diving into another job" and my boss hired her. I was flown up to train her for two weeks at great expense for the company and effort from me. She quit 6 months into the job.
#25
Interviewed someone for a security position - basically to handle cloud conversion stuff that I needed off my plate so I could focus on some higher level design. I asked him what his biggest screw-up was (while indicating that mine was once taking a datacenter offline and how I recovered). He said he once nuked a large production Oracle database. I asked him how he recovered from that and he responded, "Well I had root so nobody found out" with a smile. Why on Earth would you say something like that?
#26
Read their presentation off a word document on their laptop and kept losing their place.
Related on Bored Panda
