Candidates, hirers share 6 craziest, funniest things they encountered during job interviews

The interview process can be excruciating for everyone. As a candidate, you might spend hours of prep time running through sample questions, only to have the recruiter completely ignore your résumé. As a hiring manager, you might meet an ill-prepared applicant who doesn’t even remember the job title or company name. (Even worse, the job seeker might have misrepresented themselves. According to a 2023 ResumeLab survey, 70% of respondents admitted they’d lied on their résumés.) Plus, we’re all human—if you’re unlucky enough to share my particular style of sweat glands, you might wind up with distracting pit stains. Never ideal.

Most of us have felt the humbling, awkward sting of a painful interview. But if you go through this process enough, you inevitably wind up with funny stories—even if the comedy only presents itself in hindsight. If you’re preparing for an upcoming interview and need to deflate the tension—or if you want a good laugh—check out these seven stories of the funniest, craziest situations candidates and hirers have encountered.

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Treadmill boss

In a Reddit thread titled "What’s the strangest thing that’s happened during a job interview to you?", one user recalled interviewing for a "dermal therapist" role at a cosmetic clinic. When they walked in, the reception area was empty—but things got weirder when they heard "grunts" coming from nearby. "20 mins later, out walks the doctor who owns the place, dressed in karate gear and apologizes that he ran late," they wrote. "He then takes me to his office for the interview where there was a treadmill, and he walked on the treadmill the entire interview. The whole thing felt like a fever dream lol."

Mystery cat

In the same thread, someone recalled interviewing someone for an internship—only to be interrupted by a possible feline emergency that prompted detective work. "[S]he started screaming that she could hear a cat crying," they wrote. "I love cats, so I’m sympathetic, but she didn’t own a cat and she proceeded to carry her laptop with her (it was a video interview) while she spent 10 minutes trying to find the source of the cat-crying sounds before deciding that she might have misheard the noise." Obviously, we hope the kitty was OK. Bad timing all around.

Endless weaknesses

The ultimate job-interview cliché is an unanswerable question: "What’s your biggest weakness?" What are you looking for here? Do you really want me to tell you my biggest flaws? Would you prefer I give you a sanitized answer that scans as a backdoor compliment, subtly patting myself on the back through some Jedi mind trick? (Indeed has plenty of suggestions for how to approach this situation.) One candidate faced such a question and tried to navigate around it, responding with a "weakness that’s actually a secret positive, like, 'Oh, I’m just such a workaholic.'" But the interviewer never let up.

"He then asks me the same question again, and I respond with another canned response," they wrote. "He asks the same question again. I'm out of canned responses, and he's a shark that just smelled his first drop of blood. He starts writing, and I start sweating. He proceeds to ask me some variation of this question for the next FORTY-FIVE minutes, just over and over. 'Tell me about a big failure.' 'Tell me about what negative things your old manager would say about you,' 'Tell me another reason you're a failure,' 'Tell me another weakness,' 'What’s another weakness[?]'"

Eventually, they found themselves "actively holding back tears" because they were so initially enthused about the prospect, and after an hour, the manager walked them out to their car. Then the next day, the applicant received an unexpected call: a job offer. "I’m like, surely they called the wrong person," they wrote. "I ask them to make sure he was talking about me. They said yes. I literally have no other offers at this time, so I give them a cautious 'yes.' Fast forward to now, I still work at this same company. This man became like a second father to me and just recently retired. Probably one of the best managers and best jobs I've ever had. I might retire from this company someday, too."

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Topless in bed

Sometimes people aren’t able to keep their camera on during a virtual interview—and in this case, the interviewer was cool with that. At first, anyway. "[I]t was whatever until he accidentally turned it on for a brief moment during the interview and we saw that he was doing the interview topless while laying down in bed with another person laying there next to him," they wrote. He didn't realize immediately because he wasn't looking at the camera while talking. Needless to say, the vibes were off, and we wrapped it up quickly after that." Lesson learned: Be ultra-careful with your Zooms and Google Meets.

Bird poop surprise

Given the amount of bird poop I see on my car, I consider this story totally plausible. It’s almost a matter of time until you find yourself on the receiving end of an unwanted aerial drop. "I was once on a way to an interview. I was all dressed up nice, got out of my car, started walking into the building where the company was located," one Redditor wrote. "As I'm walking up to the door, a bird flies overhead and drops a HUGE load on me. Splashes on my shoulder and gets in my hair, all over my shirt, my arm, etc. So I run into the bathroom and try to clean myself off in the sink, take off my shirt, wash my hair in the sink, trying to dry my shirt with the hand dryer. I end up going into the interview with a wet wrinkled shirt and my hair all messed up. Didn't get the job." I hate that this happened at all, but at least this person has a sense of humor about it.

Unexpected dog cameo

Here’s another cautionary tale involving a virtual interview, a risky decision, and an unfortunate camera angle. "I had the person join the Zoom meeting for her interview," another Redditor wrote. "She was laying on her back in bed with her head on her pillow (holding the phone above her). Then I noticed that she was wearing a sports bra. Then I noticed someone was next to her on the pillow. They shifted. It was a dog, tongue lolling out, staring back at me (smiling). No, she did NOT get the job, nor did the dog." Hey, not the pup’s fault!

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