‘What’s your funniest interview story?’ – 23 people who (almost) deserved the job just for being unintentionally hilarious

Job interviews are nerve-wracking affairs, and feeling under pressure can lead people to say and do all sorts of strange and hilarious things.

Over on the AskUK subreddit, user Normal-Internal164 asked ‘What’s your funniest interview story?’ and followed it up with this absolute classic…

‘A friend of a friend of a friend (etc) once went for an interview for an arts degree and the panel asked who their favourite artist was…

“Helen Daniels.”’

The interviewer would have to have had an awful lot of self-control not to crack up at that one.

And it seems that comedy interview scenarios are very common if the replies are anything to go by. Check these corkers out…

1.

‘Folded my suit jacket over my arm after getting up to leave… conker fell out of the pocket.’
–Cam2910

2.

‘A candidate who was Russian and spoke quite broken English (which was not an issue) said he had predicted the question on his expectation for changes in the field. He asked if we would accept his printed out answer, for ease, given the language barrier.

‘I was happy with that, but less happy when I found that the answer was just a printed out white paper on the future of our industry, which had featured in Econsultancy’s ‘Thought Leaders’ series, about 3 weeks before.

‘Which I had written.’
–Pedantichrist

3.

‘I got an interview with Dixons, permanent but I was only interested as a summer job, I slipped up mid interview and mentioned going back to uni. The guy got really snotty, I got fed up and insulted him and stormed out. I then got to a keypad locked door and needed to wait for the interviewer to let me out.’
–GrimQuim

4.

‘”Did you think you could just rent an expensive suit and charm your way in, you’re barely qualified.”

‘My response? “And yet this is my 4th interview.”

‘Took the manager four interviews to notice my lack of qualifications.’
–the_Athereon

5.

‘I got a job because the woman interviewing me liked my enthusiasm towards Battenberg cake.’
–oscarx-ray

6.

‘I found out my interviewer liked Alan Partridge within five minutes of the interview started, and we spent the next 25 minutes throwing quotes at each other. I got the job!

‘It was silly on its surface, but it did boil down to me and another, equally unqualified candidate, so they went for the young man who was more fun and enthusiastic and willing to ad-lib about cakes in a job interview for Strathclyde Police, which are an integral part of office culture.’
–smedsterwho

7.

‘A guy rolled up a cigarette on the table, and asked how we felt it had gone. We still had a question left to ask, he’d just made an assumption that it was over.

‘It hadn’t gone well up until that point, and him pulling out his tobacco tin and rolling up a cig in the interview didn’t help matters.’
–Enough-Ad3818

8.

‘Was on the way to an interview and got a call about 45 minutes before the appointment saying if you’re not on your way could they make it another day – I said I’m nearly there (aim to get there 30 minutes before go in 10 minutes before).

‘They asked if they could push it 30 minutes. Fine I say. Then they call back and ask if they can move it to a hotel not their office – yes I can get there in 30 minutes.

‘Then I get there and they keep me waiting another 30 minutes. By this point I’m hot. Tired and decided I don’t want to work for such a disorganised company.

‘Then they get me and take to the roof top bar for the interview (not a meeting room as I was expecting) they offer me a drink. Fuck it. I don’t want this job anyway so I ask for a beer!

‘Apparently I wasn’t a “culture fit”.’
–dinobug77

9.

‘Once sneezed in an interview. I didn’t have a tissue to hand and it was a very unpleasant sneeze. Ugh. There’s no recovering from that.’
–BlackberryNice1270

10.

‘Interviewing an incredibly arrogant guy who had completely misunderstood the role and wouldn’t talk to the other two female interviewers, only to me, the bloke, even though one of them was the recruiting manager.

‘I was figuring out how to say “I don’t think this role is for you, let’s not carry on” when he said “I don’t think this role is for me, I’ll let you carry on” and left the room.

‘He definitely heard the burst of laughter before he got to the lift though.’
–sunheadeddeity

11.

‘I walked in and their opening line was, “You should’ve been here last week.”

‘I handed them my letter saying the interview was on that day. It went downhill from there.

‘If I’d had the wit I have now I’d have called it to a halt early on. It was obvious they were utterly disorganised and there was no way I was going to accept an offer even if they made one.’
–Physical-Bear2156

12.

‘Fresh out of university and applying for office jobs. Was asked in a council interview how I would fit a giraffe into a fridge. I asked if it was alive, and suggested dismembering it to fit… did not get the job.’
–NoEffortWentIntoThis