Why You Should Heed These Job Interview Red Flags

35. A Drawback of Youth

The entire department had been fired and replaced 6 months ago. The interviewer (my future boss and department head) spent most of it talking about his divorce and explaining in detail all the other people in other critical departments he didn’t like and refused to work with.

I was then told he’d love to hire me as I was young so they could pay me £10k less than the job was advertised at but that before they’d make me an offer I had to go through another 4 stages on interview.

To top it off the interview was held in a “flexible working space” that was literally a coffee table and chairs in the middle of a very busy corridor.

36. Math Skills

How do you feel about working six days a week?

You will open and close the restaurant. (this is 15 hours a day, minimum)

You will start at 30,000/year.

My answer: since I already told you I have a business degree, you should realize that I can do the math, and I am not willing to work for less than five dollars an hour.

37. Yes, In Fact.

When I was having my interview with the hiring manager, who seemed excited about the company and the job, he brought me into the conference room. Where the owner was. Who, I believe, forgot there was an interview at the time/day in that room.

But he stayed for the interview, so he could keep watching his golf game while holding an unlit cigar in his hand. (Can’t remember if the sound was on and low, or if he muted it).

And the only question he asked was when he heard the name of a previous company I’d worked for, was “Oh so did they talk about me? What’d they say? Probably not nice things.”

Yes, in fact, they did. No, I didn’t tell him what they said. They said he makes female engineers cry, kind of pointedly, since I am both an engineer and female… He was asking as my previous company formed out of a group of ppl that left his company, to start a competing company.

38. Fire Anyone For Any Reason

I moved to a new state. Was looking for employment and happened to be in the same restaurant chain getting food. Asked about a job while waiting at the bar. When I mentioned I worked for one of the busiest and newest ones, the first one in its area (literally an NRO or new restaurant opening, everyone was trained in a corporate-run program) I got an immediate interview with the kitchen manager. He was interested.

The first major red flag is “I have cooks who have been working here for 15 years” so literally zero upward mobility which I kinda figured.

The second was the biggest red flag ever

“why did you quit?” So I told him honestly.

“How did you find you out you were paid less than other cooks?”

“Uhh, I asked them?”

“Well, I would’ve fired them for that. Your pay is between you and your boss”

“You can’t do that… And my pay is between me and anyone I wish to talk about it with”

“I can fire anyone for any reason”

“Not according to the National Labor Relations Act, but o-f*cking-k chief. We’re done here”

Luckily my to-go wings had just been brought to be because the manager became a bit angry after I said that.

TalkoSkeva

39. Lack of Flexibility

Interviewing for a PR position at a dying symphony. During the interview, they asked for ideas on how I’d get larger audiences. Told them matinees for families that played music the kids would enjoy would be my first strategy.

‘We don’t want kids or teens in the audience’

A complete lack of flexibility isn’t a good sign in arts management.

40. So Desperate

I recently submitted my resume for a job online. The next day I got an email saying, you have moved on to the next phase of the interviewing process, here is a link to a personality test we would like you to take. I emailed them back and said, you haven’t reached out to me in any meaningful way, called or anything and you want me to submit a psychological profile? No thank you. He emailed me back and practically begged me to take the test. I replied back that I would be happy to take a personality test later in the process if there is mutual interest in my employment there. To not even have a single conversation with me prior to asking me to submit a psych test tells me that you have a culture I don’t want to be a part of. That was the end of it.

41. Unlikely to Fit Anywhere

Got called for an interview at one school. Got a call an hour later from another school wanting to set up an interview. They asked me “What time is your other interview” as I was honest and said I had a different interview that day. “What would happen if they offered you a job?” they asked. I was flabbergasted.

I had the interview at 9 at the other school. They said to come in at 8.

Get there and the principal didn’t know my name, that I had interned in that school, and just wanted to gossip about the teachers that I taught under when I mentioned my internship. It was maybe 15 minutes long. I hated it and it was clear I wouldn’t fit in.

I left that interview and went to the other one. The other one lasted an hour of just talking about my teaching philosophy and how much I enjoy teaching my students. Basically got the job right then and there.

So far, I’ve enjoyed this school. I’m so happy the other one didn’t work out. It was a sh*t school, to begin with when I was an intern there. No one seemed to like their job. The school I got hired in is just down the street and so welcoming.

0312838

42. “People Abuse Sick Days”

I just turned down a job because they said they didn’t offer sick days as “the science proves that people abuse sick days”, and that if I couldn’t get my shift covered I’d only be allowed to call in if I was “on a gurney into surgery after a car accident or something”. Direct quote. I have a chronic illness that requires surgery every year or two so I brought that up, and they started asking detailed questions about my medical conditions and then said “everyone has problems”. NOPE.

Oh, they also had me do a “working interview” to see if I was a good fit, then disappeared for over an hour and I was sitting there wanting to leave but couldn’t find anyone to sign off to. They didn’t pay me for that time lol

43. The Company Owner

I was in a job interview with like 6 people around the table. All white guys. In Canada. It was going really good till the end when one of them say “so what are you?” I was shocked so I looked around and said: “I’m Persian”. He starts laughing at me and says “Persia hasn’t existed since the early 1900s” I was so shocked. So I said “when you asked me what are you I assumed you meant my ethnicity. I was born in Iran. Which is a nationality. What do you prefer me to be?” He started laughing at me. But the other guys looked uncomfortable. Turns out he was the company owner. About a month into the job he accused me of being a thief and a cleptomaniac and fired me even though I was performing amazingly and had not done anything wrong. I think about it almost every day. It’s been about 6 years.

reddituser

44. A Major Bullet

I walked into a job interview once at an open space office. I realized very fast that I was the only woman in the room. It was a small company, but not small enough that there would be no women present at all. Towards the end of the interview, another woman walked into the space, walked up to the coffeemaker, and kind of announced to the room that it was a mess again, why hasn’t anyone cleaned it up? And with a huff, started organizing it.

I even asked about it in the interview. They said of course there are more women! They even got one to call me up after the interview, to prove there are girls. You shouldn’t have to do that.

There were other red flags there, but don’t work for any company that’s homogenous. If you can’t see any women/people of color in a big room, it speaks volumes about company culture, hiring practices, etc. At my next job, I met a woman who’d worked at that company and told me that I dodged a major bullet – she’d gotten a concussion on the job and they were trying to cheat her out of benefits.

45. The Only Thing That Accounts

When you ask, “what do you like about working here” and the interviewer talks about the location of the job (“it’s a great place to live!”) instead of the actual job.

46. Make Promises

They asked me to commit to working there for a minimum of 3 years.

I told them I’d stay forever as long as I was being treated well and compensated appropriately. I asked them why they wanted a 3-year minimum and they explained they’d had people leave after only working there for a few months.

They started back-peddling madly when I asked them why people were leaving who had only worked there for a few months.

47. Someone Who Can

Mass firing of several employees prior to the job posting because “they weren’t a good fit.”

Hallmark of a toxic work environment where blame is spread readily and management’s conclusion is that they just had the wrong people.

I took a job once where I found out only after I was employed that one of those who was mass fired was tricked to come in on a Sunday just so they could fire him.

I often heard managers say, “Do the job or I’ll find someone who can.”

48. Can You Handle It?

I was in the final round of an interview for a marketing position at a major Ad Agency. One of the younger associates that would be on the team kept asking/hinting at the general q: “Can you handle challenging/difficult personalities? That’s going to be a major component of the job and managing expectations and such of high-level managers on other teams.”

I’m not sure if she was genuinely trying to warn me that the job involves working with difficult people or if she wanted me to turn down the job because she had a friend/connect that was also in the running.

Ragnarotico

49. Just Bad Vibes

“We start at 12$ here for everyone no matter the experience then after ur 6-month trial is up we move u up to 13$ an hour. And after every year you go up!”

Me:” but the job listing said 14$ an hr starting pay and I was hoping since I have 5 years working in childcare at 2 different places and with the local school district during Those 5 years and my certifications are up to date, and I have SELMA training and everything. I could do 15$ or 15.25/50$”

Them” everyone starts at 12$”

I said nope after that and ignored all calls/emails, and plus while I was there I watched how a teacher worked with her 13-18-month-olds…..screaming and just bad vibes.

50. Nope Homie

I had an interview recently and holy sh*t was it a disaster.

I asked an employee (of a global athletic company) in the interview if they had a good work-to-life balance. His response,

“Yeah, I suppose. I’m working about 10 hours a day, 7 days a week. So, it’s been really good.”

Yup. There’s no life balance in there homie.