Workers Describe Bad Job Interview Questions and Red Flags

Job seekers who shared their worst interview experiences with BBC News described questions ranging from the odd to the arguably unlawful, and said the exchanges often previewed how a company would treat them as employees, according to BBC News.

What happened when a candidate was left waiting 40 minutes?

Tiara Allen arrived on time for a retail job interview, but her interviewer did not, BBC News reported. Allen said she waited roughly 40 minutes in a shopping centre while a co-worker of the interviewer called them "two or three times." When the interviewer finally arrived, Allen said she was told the meeting had not been entered into the schedule. Allen told the outlet she took the job anyway because she needed work at the time, but said she would not do so again. "I would not take a job if they took that long," she said, adding that she believed the delay signaled how the firm tended to treat staff.

Why did a book publisher ask an applicant if he cried?

Chas Edwards said he was asked during an interview for an assistant role at a New York book publisher whether he was "a crier," according to BBC News. Edwards said he assumed the interviewer was joking and answered that he did not cry. He was later told the question was serious: the interviewer's previous assistant had cried too often on the job, and she wanted someone who would not. Edwards described the job that followed as "a terrible, terrible job with a miserable boss," and said he lasted 13 months, longer than any previous assistant, while "crying inside." He said the experience left him able to "cry anywhere now" and made every subsequent bad job feel more tolerable by comparison.

What happened to a candidate who said she liked working with people?

Corinne Card said she was asked, as the first question of an interview for an administrative job, whether she liked working with people, BBC News reported. When she answered yes, she was told the job was not for her and the interview ended immediately. "I don't know if it was a deliberate trap," Card said. "Because who would answer 'I don't like working with people'?"

What do career advisers say job seekers should do about odd questions?

Corinne Mills, joint managing director of Personal Career Management, told BBC News it can help to ask an interviewer to repeat or clarify an unusual question before answering. Mills said interviews work in both directions, and a line of questioning that feels off-putting can be a legitimate signal about what working at the company would actually be like.

Are any interview questions illegal?

BBC News noted that questions touching on a protected characteristic can cross into unlawful discrimination, a reminder that not every uncomfortable interview moment is simply bad luck or poor planning. The accounts from Allen, Edwards and Card suggest that how a company runs its interviews, whether punctual, probing or presumptuous, often carries information candidates can use before accepting an offer, according to the reporting.

Read the full BBC News report: bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3j4751pqnj8o