Biggest job interview red flags you've experienced?

[biggie.]

For my first IT job (I was young dumb and desperate):

1. The building looked like it was from the 70's. Parking lot was cramped and most of the cars looked like crap.

2. Dead bushes out front and no incline for any of the entrances; can you say ADA lawsuit?

3. Inside there was an awkward moldy smell and the carpet and cubicle walls in the call center we supported were stained. No one in there, including the management, knew the last time it was cleaned or if there was a cleaning schedule.

4. Boss had a pizza delivered in the middle of the interview.

5. Boss took me to the server room to "show me what I was getting myself into"; it was basically a sauna and the cable management was more like cable spaghetti.

6. In the server room the boss started complaining about the company. Guy ended up being a toxic POS, but luckily I only worked under him for a couple of months.

Edited February 28, 2023 by biggie.

[FinneasGage]

one time me and my roommates were watching a random old UFC card and i remember it was in the middle of kevin randleman v. pedro rizzo and i got a call from what i had forgot was like a phone interview. it's like 3pm and i'm pretty gone after smoking and drinking. i answered the phone like "can i take your order?" which is something i default to when i see a random number assuming it's a telemarketer. and then he's like yeah i'm calling for a scheduled interview with finneasgage. and then i quickly sobered up but still bombed the interview. i remember for like weaknesses i was like yeah i get overwhelmed pretty easy, but i'm working on it! everything else i said was equally bad. he asked for me to tell me about myself and i'm like i work pretty hard and don't get mad and then i blanked for a few seconds and was like and i'm really romantic, which didn't draw a laugh. he's like well that probably won't be a skill you need here or something. and i was like oh yeah probably not my bad. my roommates were listening to this and laughing, which was making me laugh and the interview guy was super annoyed and cut it short. the "interview" lasted like 3-4 minutes and i never heard back. 

this wasn't the prompt of the topic, i was just in the mood to put that out there for whatever reason 

[naptownskinsfan]

VP of Operations of the company cursed multiple times while “interviewing” me.  He seemed extremely disinterested, and as I found out later, he already pegged someone for position I was applying for because he was internal, I was external.  I was being interviewed as a favor for my best friend who put my resume in.  He didn’t even ask a question, but I answered it anyway and then he tried to salvage the interview.  The “question” was what I would do if a competing store came into my area, and he thought I wouldn’t even have an answer.  I told him that I dealt with that on a regular basis, and the most recent was one of our own locations opening up within a mile.  He basically offered me the chance to run a store and see what happened, and I declined.  I told my best friend that someone that was bringing what I did to the company, which was very different from their usual hire, that I would have created something in my job field for them.  

The interview for this Director of Operations position was also done in the attic of one of their stores, and it was poorly lit.  

Turns out I was right to stay with my company after all. 

[MWil23]

I graduated during the recession, so jobs were scarce. I was able to land an interview for a teaching position in middle school.

Upon arriving, the principal who interviewed me made it clear in no certain terms that it was a tough job and specifically it was a sixth grade position.

I immediately clarified that my licensure was grades 7-12 and asked “Will this be an issue from that standpoint?”

She gave me a blank stare and said “It’s just sixth grade social studies.” She then smirked and said that the teacher didn’t know that she was firing them effectively at the end of the year and also said if this job wasn’t a good fit for me she was “probably going to fire a high school guy anyway”.

She said “let me know if you want the job and send me an email”.

I declined. So many red flags.

[Daniel]

Not advertising the salary.

[kgarrett12486]

Mind you, this was before WebEx/Zoom, but the company wanted me to come to their corporate office (out of state) to interview in person. No big deal, pretty normal practice at the time.

However, they advised they would pay for an 18 hour bus ride (36 hour round trip) vs. the traditional commercial flight...

[AkronsWitness]

I work in Digital Marketing and there are 2 that stand out in my mind.

1) I had the owner of a company try testing me on my knowledge and he gave me a quiz in the middle of the interview. He handed me his laptop with their companies Google Adwords account pulled up and simply said 'tell me whats wrong.' I was like....uhhhhhh your not getting a good click through rate on ads. Apparently that wasnt the right answer. There is so much to goes into answering that question it was almost unfair and frankly weird. Then, when we got to salary--he wanted the entire salary to be based off of Google Ads performance and how many sales his company made from people clicking on paid search ads online. No. Just no.

2) I had a big tech company give me a brain puzzle as the final question after a 1.5 hour sweaty interview. "If there is a room at the end of the hallway and 3 lights are on in the room, but only 2 light switches next to you. How do you tell what lightswitch goes to what light when you can only go in the room once" I mentally threw my hands up like man wtf I have no idea my brain is not in critical brain teaser mode right now. Cheesy gordita crunch.....the answer is cheesy gordita crunch who cares get me out of here.

Edited February 28, 2023 by AkronsWitness

[Malfatron]

16 minutes ago, AkronsWitness said:

If there is a room at the end of the hallway and 3 lights are on in the room, but only 2 light switches next to you

Should have watched Alice in Borderland

 

[Mox]

2 minutes ago, Malfatron said:

Should have watched Alice in Borderland

 

I was thinking the exact same thing.

 

Took an online "job interview" to see if I could make it work as a 2nd gig. Lots of back and forth with the person before we could schedule a time. Turned out to be a PowerPoint presentation for 29 people that was supposed to be 90 minutes long. Dipped out after about 5 minutes.

[AkronsWitness]

3 hours ago, Malfatron said:

Should have watched Alice in Borderland

 

never seen it, just got pissed at the question and gave a bad answer lol If you give me 5 mins and a couple guesses Ill figure it out but on the spot it wasnt happening. I actually figured it out on the drive home lol It was just a extremely low point and wtf was that type of response to end a interview on. Didnt make me feel too good about the previous hour+ answering real questions about the position when you end it like that lol

Edited March 1, 2023 by AkronsWitness

[biggie.]

10 hours ago, Daniel said:

Not advertising the salary.

Honestly, this needs to become illegal. Just tell me how much you're offering and I'll decide if that will suffice for me.

[incognito_man]

On 2/28/2023 at 2:47 AM, FinneasGage said:

one time me and my roommates were watching a random old UFC card and i remember it was in the middle of kevin randleman v. pedro rizzo and i got a call from what i had forgot was like a phone interview. it's like 3pm and i'm pretty gone after smoking and drinking. i answered the phone like "can i take your order?" which is something i default to when i see a random number assuming it's a telemarketer. and then he's like yeah i'm calling for a scheduled interview with finneasgage. and then i quickly sobered up but still bombed the interview. i remember for like weaknesses i was like yeah i get overwhelmed pretty easy, but i'm working on it! everything else i said was equally bad. he asked for me to tell me about myself and i'm like i work pretty hard and don't get mad and then i blanked for a few seconds and was like and i'm really romantic, which didn't draw a laugh. he's like well that probably won't be a skill you need here or something. and i was like oh yeah probably not my bad. my roommates were listening to this and laughing, which was making me laugh and the interview guy was super annoyed and cut it short. the "interview" lasted like 3-4 minutes and i never heard back. 

this wasn't the prompt of the topic, i was just in the mood to put that out there for whatever reason 

It was definitely consistent with the prompt. It's just rare you get to hear the story from the giver of the red flag's perspective.

[incognito_man]

On 2/28/2023 at 2:23 PM, kgarrett12486 said:

Mind you, this was before WebEx/Zoom, but the company wanted me to come to their corporate office (out of state) to interview in person. No big deal, pretty normal practice at the time.

However, they advised they would pay for an 18 hour bus ride (36 hour round trip) vs. the traditional commercial flight...

Lol that's so awful. Why offer anything at all in that case 

[Sugashane]

Oh buddy. There is a number of them.

 

1. Danced about why the position was open (Manager was fired, as the previous 2 were).

2. They didn't want to go into issues with the facilities, everything was general just talking about the sanitation.

"Uh, yeah, that's literally the job, what BARRIERS has the plant had to getting the job done?"   *dances round it again, just need you to keep on task, be creative, and get everyone working together* "That is literally every member of management's general tasks..."

3. Refused to give details on downtimes and charges paid to the customer for downtimes. (Still dancing around problems, called a few people in HR I use to work with and found more details that landed the facility in the "Dirty 30" or the lowest scoring 30 plants in the country)

4. Asking what my expected shift was going to be and getting "You're open to work as much or little as you need once the ship is running smoothly." Wut?

5. Offered me the job on the spot as I said I said I had to go to another plant later in the week to see the facility and staff. Absolutely reeked of desperation.

6. Didn't want to say how long they had been without  Site Manager - per HR friend over 5 months, the Area had been there since he couldn't get anyone to take the job.

7. Didn't want to meet with the customer, which meant either the Area Manager was hated by them or the actual company was.