Employers reveal the one thing candidates did in interviews that cost them the job

If you've ever had a job interview, you know how awkward and stressful it can be. Many people worry about saying the wrong thing or doing something embarrassing that could eliminate them from the list of qualified candidates. Still, no matter how badly you think it went, you probably aren't the worst interview they've ever had.

People who have interviewed job applicants went on Reddit to share the one thing that cost candidates the job. Some of the reasons were obvious, while others were downright bizarre. Here are their stories:

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

“The person was literally running every question through an A.I. and reading the output to me (via Zoom).”

“Interviewing for an I.T. position, asked a basic question about virus removal. 'Oh, I dunno, my husband does that.' Well then tell him to apply."

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

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

“He pulled his pants down to his knees, to fix/tuck in his shirt. Didn't break eye contact with me as he stood up to do it.”

“Candidate kept boasting about how many languages he speaks even though it was not a requirement for the position. Finally asked him in which foreign language he was most fluent, and he replied Spanish. Followed up with a simple question asked in Spanish. He did not speak Spanish.”

“In a behavioral interview assessing leadership skills, etc.

Q: Did you enjoy having an intern?

A: Oh, yes, I was able to offload lots of work to him.

Not a word about mentoring, collaborating, etc.”

“Guy walked in with his application redacted. He redacted almost everything except his first name and middle initial. Under work history, he had a note saying, 'We can talk about this during my interview.' Yeah, no.”

“Told about how he stole goods from a store they worked at, put them in his buddy’s car, called the cops so his buddy would get arrested. Then slept with his buddy's girlfriend while the buddy was in jail. All this 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?’”

“At the end I asked if he had any questions for me. He said, ‘Yeah, that sign on the front door... Is that a rule or more of a guideline?... The one that says no guns allowed on premises… I have holsters all over. For me putting on my guns in the morning is like putting on my underwear.’ Important lesson here is never mention your guns or underwear in a first interview.”

“When asked about how he had handled issues with managers in the past, he started by describing the age, ethnicity and weight of his manager. Beyond irrelevant. That's going to be a no.”

“Brought their parents to sit in on the interview to ‘make sure I am fair’ in my decision making process.”

Some employers and recruiters who spoke to GOOD shared their own bad interview stories:

"When I explained a policy of unlimited P.T.O., the job candidate used it as an opportunity to express his feelings that such a policy was a scam," said Steven Lowell, a career coach and reverse recruiter with Find My Profession. "Playing devil's advocate, I just politely asked him how he thought so. And he flat out told me that if he worked in a company with such a policy he would never show up because he was getting paid not to work. That was the end of the interview."

"I interview candidates via Zoom," said Marshall Scabet, the founder and CEO of Precision Sales Recruiting. "One candidate for a sales position showed up to the interview while driving her car. Not parked somewhere to take the call, actually driving it. It was clear she did not have any intention of pulling over, so I ended the interview."

Even solid professionals sometimes slip up during job interviews

One professional who spoke with GOOD, Dr. Heather Maietta of Career In Progress, shared a nightmare interview experience that partly inspired her to become a career coach. The twist in the story was that she wasn't the interviewer at all—she was the interviewee in an all-day, on-campus job interview.

"I went shopping the day before to purchase a suit. I arrived early, feeling confident and prepared," said Maietta. "The first round was a one-hour panel with four staff members asking general questions, followed by a 15-minute break before I met with students. I felt good about my responses and the panelists' reactions."

"During the 15-minute break, I headed to the restroom to freshen up," she continued. "One of the panelists followed me in and, very nicely, let me know I still had the tags attached to my new suit. And when I say tags, I'm not talking about a single price tag, I mean a cluster of tags larger than my handprint, dangling under my armpit. When I got ready that morning, I'd completely failed to remove them and somehow missed this giant display in the mirror."

"Needless to say, the wardrobe malfunction killed my confidence, and the remainder of the interview was a bust," she said. "I did not get the job."

If you're nervous about an upcoming job interview, reading these horror stories from interviewers may help calm you down, both as a reminder that everyone makes mistakes and as reassurance that, at the very least, you won't do that.

There's no one-size-fits-all tip for landing a job through an interview, but mastering the basics—being prepared, polite, and positive—can sometimes be enough to help you stand out as a good fit. Just be sure to leave your parents and significant others at home or waiting in the car.