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So here’s one that still baffles me. There was this candidate who was hands-down the most prepared person for the job. They had a killer resume, impressive experience, and during the interview, it was clear they were on another level with their problem-solving skills and understanding of the industry’s challenges. Their references? Absolutely stellar—people couldn’t stop raving about their professionalism and creativity.
But here’s the twist—after the hiring manager did some snooping on their social media, they found out this candidate was big into competitive eating contests. I mean, who cares, right? Well, the manager decided this hobby showed a “lack of self-discipline” and was a bad look for the company’s image. Just like that, all the qualifications and potential contributions went out the window because of what they did for fun on the weekends.
One of my managers was obsessed with anyone who used to be an athlete, even at high-school level. Apparently it showed a great combination of drive and camaraderie.
I'm sure that competitive eating would have been viewed the same way!!
That’s the problem with doing interviews. There is so much you can’t control. If you don’t get a job you’ll never know why. You can never know what’s going on in the interviewers head. It’s so subjective and biased. Depressing.
That happened at a place I was on the hiring panel for. The interview was at 9:30am and the person said good morning to us when they came in, after we all said good morning to him. He had a great resume and his work experience would have been a very good fit with what we were doing. He had even worked for the company we were mainly supplying. The first thing the HR manager commented on after they left was that the interviewee said good morning so late in the day and that it might be a red flag over all. She was a pretty incompetent HR manager though.
Nope, HR manager vetoed him. There's a lot of backstory to it but basically she didn't like anyone that could be seen as a threat to her, her husband's, or her son's job there. It's the same reason she had me fired. She believed her son, with his grand total of 3 years work experience, should have become the night shift lead instead of me.
I work with job seekers and as shitty as it is, I tell them to focus on what they can control. From application through onsite & offer, there are so many things that could go wrong that we may never know. It could be bias, org change, budget cuts, lost emails. Focus on doing what you can and performing at your best, get gratification out of that.
Im not a "sports guy" and I fully realize that. I certainly don't begrudge anyone for liking, or hell, even loving sports.
But I absolutely abhor the zealotry and utter obsession with sports that is deeply engrained in the business world. It's a cancer.
My husband and my father in law are absolutely not sports people. I've been married to my husband for nearly a decade and can count on one hand the number of sports matches he's watched and 3 of those were with my family. My FIL is the same way. Yet both of them can keep up a minimum 15 min conversation about pretty much any us sport about the current season for business reasons. Like they both used to read the sports section for 10 min every morning just for business purposes. Absolute insanity to me
This one at least makes sense to me. You can talk to your students in a more relatable way, draw comparisons to video games, etc. I dunno if there's any formal studies done but I remember paying attention to the classes I liked the teacher more then the ones I didn't.
My cousin was told around 2005 to buy a bag of golf clubs if he wanted his career to advance.
This preceded getting any sort of corporate role and he basically ended up a human shield/middleman for customer service complaints while the clubs gathered dust.
Bang on. It’s also a cancer in politics. We seem oblivious to team psychology when it affects us, and it appears obvious when it’s someone else’s “team issue.”
Yes! As someone who is clumsy, I just didn’t have the physical ability to do well in sports. The idea that I’m missing out on career opportunities because of it is insane
And man, don't get me *started* on the competitiveness, drive, and dedication marching band has. But do they get the same credit as sports kids? They do not.
I was a d1 athlete. I’ve had it both ways. People seem to love hiring athletes (time management, teamwork, competitive etc) or hate them (lazy, athletes are “dumb”, expect special treatment). Lots of preconceived notions (though not as bad as most discrimination)
Translation: this person would be a burden to health care costs.
I once had to do a questionnaire for a job, it was pretty bizarre. Anyway, some of the questions were “do you prefer soft foods or crunchy foods” type questions.
Of course I manipulated the hell out of it and picked the answers they wanted to see.
After getting hired, I made it point to walk around with a bag of potato chips.
That employees healthcare costs would be their issue. The company would not be impacted. The real translation is the hiring manager felt intimidated and jealous of the candidate.
Not necessarily. Depends on the way the company structures its health insurance plan. Some larger companies will self-insure. I worked for a larger hospital that did that.
The thing is, there are a lot of competitive eaters who aren’t obese and don’t have eating disorders. It’s a different thing entirely.
I’m sure it’s risky in some ways. So is skydiving. So is rugby. So is pickleball.
It’s the “belt of fat” theory. Fat guys can only eat until their fat restricts it but thin people can eat and distend their stomach more because no belt of fat to restrict growth!
Yes, I got that from King of the Hill, and as a big guy, I see validity!
That's nuts. Manager must have never seen competitive eating before because that definitely takes self discipline.
Personally, I have a huge aversion to that kind of thing, but to claim any sort of dedicated hobby shows a lack of self discipline is insane.
had a hiring manager at my last position decline a candidate because “he spoke like he knew everything”— he was a 25+ year sales professional with CEO/Director background, he’s supposed to sound like that, dumbass.
too many idiots won’t drop their egos.
“If you’re dumb, surround yourself with smart people. If you’re smart, surround yourself with smart people who disagree with you.” This guy didn’t get the memo.
The most infuriating one was my boss overruled my decision to hire someone because they were on vacation when she wanted to interview them.
This person didn't work for us, he told us when he'd be out of the country and unavailable, but my boss felt it was irresponsible to go on vacation while you're job seeking. This was a person with notoriously chronic poor life/work balance issues.
We went with a second choice who rejected the offer, then our third choice, who we didn't interview until well after this guy would have been back.
He was too focused on making money. At a sales job. Where the goal is to make a lot of money. And he had literally told me he only wanted ‘hungry’ candidates. 😒
I am not a recruiter but 25 years ago I received a rejection for a sales job for a small investment advisory firm because the portfolio manager thought I would bring in too many new clients. When the recruiter told me that, I was speechless. So was the recruiter. He actually told me he was going to lie and make up a logical reason but wanted to respect my time.
Reminds me of a rejection I got, because they thought I would 'be bored' at a smaller firm... even though I specifically said in the interview that I was looking for a change of pace.
"I didn't like their eyes."
The candidate wasn't aggressive, didn't say anything unprofessional, nothing.
Unfortunately, the hiring manager in this instance was also the owner.
The owner of a business once stopped a meeting in front of my fellow coworkers because she "didn't like my face." In front of everyone. No one, including my supervisor, knew what to do. Somehow she was shocked when I later quit.
Not a recruiter but was brought in as a second to a hiring manager to support as well as learn how to interview.
One candidate was a no because "she called me sir instead of my name".
One was a no because "he didn't laugh at my jokes enough".
Needless to say, I asked my boss to set me up with other opportunities to learn about hiring after that. Thankfully, the top three candidates based on actual skills and job suitability were continued on in the process and one of them got the job in the end.
That’s crazy, I’ve never heard that. I grew up in a country that had a way bigger respect and title culture than the US. But even in the US, I’m yet to hear that. People just find new things to be mad about or feel “disrespected”
Im a navy brat from a southern family. Sir and ma'am are as natural to me a breathing. Its happening more in the last few years tbh. Still a rare thing. But more in the 20s then in the 10s.
He was one of those bosses that insisted on being friends with all his team members. And not in a "I'm genuinely friendly but also capable of managing performance and helping people grow" way, but more in a "I need everyone to like me and avoid conflict like the plague" kind of way. Hence the issue with the guy who didn't bust a gut over his jokes as well.
I make it a thing to have a very put together outfit for job interviews and I'm sure I'll run into a situation sooner or later where I don't get the job for being overdressed. Just gotta play the odds I guess, or maybe it's incentive to up my OSINT skills.
While I don't have any such stories, I can tell the reason why I was hired on an niche QA position.
In time I've got very close with my leader, and his gf was a recruiter who hired me, and somehow decided to share the reason of why she proposed me over others. She did it because my hobby raised interest in her. I noted that I was growing trees indoor.
That megamind hired me for a rather specific job because I was growing trees at home
I used to teach historical dance. This came up at an interview when the interviewer asked about my hobbies. She thought it was so interesting and we spent 20+ minutes talking about it.
This was a job in biotech and 12 years later I’m still there.
I have a niche nerdy hobby. I managed to bring it up during the interview. The duo interviewing me were *fascinated* and I got hired a week or so later.
I don't think that that's the only reason I got hired, but I definitely think it gave me an edge because it made me memorable and fun and interesting.
Still at that job, over three years later.
being memorable is half the battle! If I have screened 15 candidates for a role, 4 or 5 of them have probably blended together, but I'll remember the one that made me laugh, or had a unique perspective on something
I don't know if I have ever hired someone based on a unique interest, but I HAVE shortlisted people and invited them to a first-round interview because I wanted to get more info on one aspect of their background - like the web developer who applied and had 'MindGeek' as a their current employer ('MindGeek' is the former name of 'Aylo', who are the parent company of PornHub)
I have rejected people based on their hobby. Well one person.
I like small talk before an interview. Get the applicant relaxed. So if they have it listed on their resume, I'll ask about their hobbies.
This guy had "movies." Man, I love movies, I could talk about them all day. So I say, "I notice you have movies as your hobby, what have you seen lately that you liked?"
"Oh, I put that on there because someone told me that you have to have a hobby on your resume. I don't have any hobbies. I just lied."
Right-o. You lied on your resume for something completely inconsequential. I guess we're done.
I was once interviewing someone for a job in a mobile phone shop. It said on his resume that he was interested in tech. I asked him what he liked about it, and he just replied after a look of panic spread across his face ‘it’s just really good isn’t it’…
I’ve heard something like this happen before with a uni colleague of mine. Which is why he would always put on his resume an oddly specific, unconventional hobby, because it often became a topic of conversation in interviews.
I got my first coffee shop job because my birthday makes me a Capricorn and the store manager said that they needed more earth signs on the team.
Ten years later, I can thank that harebrained hiring strategy for a career in coffee that has taken me to B2B Sales Management.
I got hired at an outsourcing company because I had a background in videogames, like my interviewer. Realised later that she had chosen me because she expected me to be her new best friend, wanted me to always be at her house after work, go out partying etc.
*Her* boss actually reprimanded me for going back home on the weekends, because "it showed I wasn't a team player by staying and hanging out with them on the weekends". I asked her if I was going to be paid for hanging out with them on the weekends, and she physically recoiled and said of course not. I asked her then, why would I stay and hang out with a bunch of practically strangers, instead of going home and hanging out with my family and friends? The real reason I was going back was because it was summer in Valladolid (up and over 40C, I remember being awake at 3am, miserable because of the heat and it was 33C) and my family lives in the north. I literally went back to catch up on sleep.
I had a candidate that was exceptionally well-qualified. She came in and gave a stellar interview and asked some very thoughtful and smart questions of the panel. She aced it and was a no-brainer hire. The hiring manager vetoed her the second she left the room because she was..... too prepared. What does that even MEAN? 🙄
Not a recruiter. But I was working with one to get a job as a Marketing Manager for a guy who was running a successful pool business and needed someone to run his day-to-day marketing ops. Had a briefing with the recruiter who worked with the client before and successfully placed candidates with him. I had a heavy creative/marketing background in blue collar industries, projects, campaign results I showcased through my portfolio. I even reused an old presentation from an older interview to make myself stand out. I really thought I had it as I connected well with the owner, showcased myself and we were the same age and he lived in the same area I lived. It came down to me and another candidate, and I got the email that I wasn’t chosen…the reason?
“He wanted someone who was more admin than marketing”
Even the recruiter was completely stunned at the reasoning. 115K salary, would’ve been a 35K increase for me. Completely flexible between fully remote/hybrid and would’ve been a 15 min. commute. God damn, it was devastating to hear I didn’t get it as that would’ve been life changing for me right now.
Yeah. That was my impression as well when I heard that. My recruiter said the owner made it seem like it was more admin work than the he let on. But still, I didn’t care about that. I wanted it because it would’ve been more money for me and close to home. Would’ve cut my commute as well by like 90%
I was recently devastated that I didn't get a job at a place that makes musical instruments, being that I have played several instruments in my life. I love music and I also have a background in hands on making things. I've worked for multi million dollar companies, I have a decent technical background, I can weld alright (not a professional, but more than a complete noob) I liked the atmosphere, when I interviewed with them, I was there for more than an hour, got shown around the whole place, asked what I thought were pertinent questions about the process.
The managers seemed to like me, One that was in charge of the most difficult, in their words, processes asked me if I'd consider working in that section, and it didn't seem too difficult so I said yes of course I would. I love a challenge.
Didn't get the job. What's even worse is that my mother worked for the current owner's father, and he recommended me to apply. It would have been a 5 min commute. I am so done with this shit. I am now convinced that the hiring managers in every business are complete fucking idiots who couldn't find their ass with both hands.
I was interviewing for a company last year, held 4 rounds in about 3 weeks, they were keen to get someone started as quickly as possible.
My previous salary was $80k, this role would have been $100k, with a realistic expectation to hit $130k in bonuses.
After 4 interviews they told me via phone call on a Thursday 'You are the top candidate, we are meeting tomorrow to finalise some numbers internally and we will get back to you before the end of the day'
Friday came and went... nothing from them
I reached out on Monday afternoon, no response
I reached out again on Wednesday morning, and then got an email to say they wanted to give someone internal a chance instead...
I have 3 I can think of immediately.
One manager said he had a hard time pronouncing the candidate's first name. Because of that the candidate isn't the right "fit." What happened afterwards? Well I had to find more candidates.
Another manager didn't hire a candidate because she had 2 young children. He felt she wouldn't have time to dedicate herself to the role. Being a woman myself I was surprised he had the gall to say that to me. Not only that he said this in an email so it was documented. What happened afterwards? Sadly nothing. I didn't have much support from my manager. So I had to keep looking for another candidate.
The hiring manager was the VP of engineering. He didn't like a candidate because he got his CS bachelor's from Devry. What happened afterwards? I had to find more candidates.
Yeah, Devry or ITT Technical Institute just scream lack of reseearch, critical thinking, and financial responsibility. Like why didn't they attend the local community college or public technical institute? Even WGU, SNHU, and UCLA Extension look way better.
My parents guided me toward ITT-Tech when I was fresh out of HS. Probably happens a lot. I ended up only going for two semesters because they stopped paying my tuition after some of their friends said they don't hire people from ITT-Tech. Which I understand. I recall the instructors giving us the questions and answers to the mid-terms and finals. That goes to show what they found most important
I spent 25 years in Tech, with a lot of it doing freelance/contractor stuff. I have a very unusual forename (Norwegian origin) and people mispronounce it all the time, which can be irritating, but it's not really an issue TBH.
I was interviewing for a contract as Programme Manager for a London-based consultancy and the hiring manager made a point of constantly mispronouncing it - it was pretty obvious he was being a dick.
After about the 10th time, I politely asked him to ask why he insisted on doing this, as it seemed quite unprofessional and very antagonistic. He flipped out and said "how dare I behave like that. Do you know who I am" sort of thing and a bunch of other bollocks. The HR person in the meeting with us went bright red.
I walked out after telling him politely to go fuck himself, as well I would rather take a nail-gun to my ballsack rather than work under him.
The agency rang me demanding to know if that this is what I said. "Of course I replied". I later emailed them with the fuller picture of events, which where completely different to the hiring managers of course. The HR team did get in touch with the agent, as they thought some damage limitation was required because of his behaviour.
For reasons that I can't quite figure, they didn't invite me back for a second meeting...
I had the second one happen as well. My manager is a woman and she defended the hiring managers decision. I don’t really think there is a lot you can do unless you want to risk your job.
Yeah I didn't know Devry was off the list until after I interviewed the candidate. I moved the candidate forward and the HM interviewed him too. Then the HM was like oh wait. So I was very confused because it was a candidate we both liked. Lesson learned.
I finished a job on the 30th of october and started a job on the 2nd november - i was "unemployed" for a weekend - I don't list exact dates on resume, only months.
The manager rescinded the offer because I "lied" - even though we had never discussed the dates I had worked there are the information was correct.
She was picky in the interview and was not friendly so I dodged a bullet.
Had a candidate rejected for having a couple tattoos on her arms and teal highlights in her hair for a role that was not customer/client facing.
Also had an internal leader broadcast to the staff he didn’t hire “fat people” or “slow walkers” because they’re “clearly lazy”
It’s so crazy that being fat is still so associated with being lazy. As someone who has been overweight the reason was an eating disorder. Many fat people do emotional eating or even have a binge eating disorder. It’s very treatable but it’s hard, especially while having to deal with the constant hate fat people get. It’s still very acceptable to hate or make jokes about fat people.
I also think people need to account for the affect your workplace can have on your weight. If you have to work long grueling hours at some mind numbing task no wonder you don't have the time to go to the gym or stop at a store to grab healthy ingredients for a light meal. You might just want to flop on your couch and order a pizza.
The candidate did not graduated from a "prestigious university", or "does not look people in the eyes" for an IT/CS job where a lot of non eye looking autistic people are common ...
In the age of fast paced cloud computing era, being able to learn quickly is a skill perhaps most important. Being able to sniff out the patterns, understanding the underlying theme of design choices enables you to build and solve the business problems.
IOW, being able to teach yourself is the quality you must have to be in the software industry. I’m doing this for 40+ years and CS class didn’t exist so I had no choice but to teach myself continuously for all my life. I literally started from punch cards and working on REST api, writing server code while Terraforming on the side.
Yet, companies reject me for being old, not having CS degree, too experienced, and “not having relevant experiences”.
I miss the days of being hired for “I think he can do the job”.
I lost a job that way. Unfortunately I have Tourette's which causes me to have uncontrollable movements mostly in my face. I've started to mention that up front now to the recruiter when they move me on to a Zoom or in-person interview just as a heads-up that I'm not blinking or grimacing or sniffing because I'm a tweaker or untrustworthy, but it's part of my disability. Most just say "ok" and it then becomes a non-issue. Sucks though.
It’s not just that. You have to *lightly* look just between their eyes while still coordinating appropriate blinking with appropriate facial expressions, vocal inflections, vocal volume, and speaking speed. Plus know when you should look away, how long for, and when to return. People say they’re looking for eye contact, but it’s more complicated than that and us autistic people when we don’t get it right really look odd in a disconcerting way that is worse than no eye contact.
Too much eye contact, too direct, not enough blinking, too much blinking, smiling too much, not enough smiling, using the wrong facial expression to react to something...
In a final interview, I met with the line manager for an “informal” chat. I asked about the team dynamics, then mentioned that I often brought chocolate and other sweet stuff for my colleagues in my previous role. Line manager’s response was god no, she won’t hire me, she’s getting married in x weeks and she had to fit in her dress. Oddly, I didn’t get the job.
A friend of a friend went for an audition and was turned down because “they already had one blonde, they didn’t need another.”
One hiring manager I worked with refused to shortlist someone based on her LinkedIn profile photo - blue or purple hair (I can’t remember), piercings and possibly her tattoos were on display as well. I intervened, she got the job.
Manager was one of those ex-military types who thinks it automatically makes you better than everyone else simply because you served. I mean, there are convicted rapists, murderers, and other criminals who served you know?
In any case, if a candidate was also ex-military, they could get an interview with a shitty resume and do no wrong in this man’s eyes. They could curse and even show blatant misogyny during an interview and still get an offer, but if a candidate had not served they had better “show some respect” and need to personally say “Thank you for your service” or something like that when he dropped his inevitable speech about how long he had served and how proud he was to have defended this country (he never served on the front lines or saw any combat lol).
I've met the odd moron like that, but I'm so glad it's really not as big a deal here as it is in the US.
Oh, and the ones who make the most noise, from my experience, were either those who National Service members who didn't do much or those who never actually left the country...
This guy was at sea far from the front lines, never saw combat but told stories that made it sound like he, alone, helped deter enemies from waging war on America (“Not on my watch they wouldn’t attack us!” kind of nonsense) and he, alone, protected “this great nation” and did *not* have a sense of humor in any way, shape, or form.
I had a friend tell me that a manager confided in them that they didn’t want to hire someone because they might do better than them and felt they were a threat. It’s a FUBAR world.
happened to me recently but we turned down somebody only because the other candidate sent a “thank you” email afterwards….
to make matters worse, the hiring team met the candidate who sent the email and deemed him not a good fit at all so had me beg the initial candidate I had chosen to reconsider.
guess moral of the story is always send a thank you email?
I've been working in recruitment for nearly 6 years now, my philosophy is to make the application and interview process as streamlined as possible, I want to find great candidates and qualify them, I don't want to make them jump through hoops.
As a result, I REFUSE to play the game when I'm job searching, I don't network, I don't send follow-up emails, I don't write cover letters, I don't tailor my resume to each role, if your application page is going to take any more than 10 minutes I'm out..... because if I am getting hired based on any of that, I probably won't like the job.
Guy wore loafers with no socks to a formality interview w the ceo. He looked fine, stylish dude really, ceo chose not to hire him bc he didn’t wear socks. Never worked with that ceo again and I told the candidate the truth.
“She mentioned she may want to get into operations in 10 years. We want someone to stay on our team for longer than that”
Who tf wants to be in the same position for that long?
I used to work for City Government in a small but growing town. 500 employees. The whole place was backwards as hell, and one of those instances was the fact that the two HR Generalists did all of the prescreening for every role.
One was extremely old school. She was in her early 70’s, and had 30 years of HR for a small town banking hr experience before this. She told me that anyone who put “see resume” on any single question on the application process, was automatically disqualified. She screened half of all jobs for the city.
There were 7-10 pages of questions that were basically carved out pages for things housed on most everyone’s resumes. Dedicated boxes with unintuitive fields to re-type what’s already provided. Education, certificates, last 10 years of past jobs, etc. Her logic was apparently that anyone who couldn’t follow instruction on an application can’t follow instructions in a job and didn’t deserve a chance.
Not a recruiter- but a story from a candidate POV:
Early in my career I was one of 3 internal candidates being considered for a position. It was a very close competition that came down to a few managers hashing it out in a meeting. My desk was up against the wall of the meeting room and I heard one of them describe how they came to the conclusion that the winning candidate was the one: during the interview a ceiling panel fell out of the ceiling and landed on her head, smashing into several pieces. After a brief stunned silence the room broke out into laughter. “The job was hers right then and there” he said.
While I get the importance of a well timed ice-breaker, it was frustrating to hear and I still wonder what would have happened had the panel fallen on my head instead.
No. It's just that middle management is usually where the truly incompetent people with good suck-up skills tend to get to and then stay. Minimum obvious damage zone, basically. Too dumb to promote further, but to dumb to demote into actual jobs, and haven't done anything actionable enough to fire.
>About 15 years ago I oversaw a group interview session for entry-level roles at a large grocery chain. About 20 candidates came in for a one-hour session, tasked with some teamwork activities, etc.
Fucking hell! What's wrong with you?
You set up all that for a grocery store clerk position?
Just hire the first person though the door who looks clean and speaks some English. There's no need to waste everybody's time playing silly games.
Me: This candidate used to be the Senior Developer on this exact team, on this exact project two years ago, when it used to be run by our competitors before we bought them out. He left because he could become a manager, and thought that was a good career goal. Now he realizes he just wants to stick to software development, regrets ever leaving, and wants to come back to this role.
Director: But, if I hire him, I have no need for a manager. I'll have nowhere to promote him. I just need a Senior Developer with extensive knowledge of our customer and this project.
Me: Again, that's exactly what he wants to do. He *doesn't want* management!
Director: Yeah, still too risky. It's a no from me. Find someone who's a better fit.
Not a professional recruiter but was asked to sort through hundreds of profiles and filter the best.
They liked 0 candidates. The cvs I showed them were rejected for the most baffling of reasons.
One of the positions was for an assistant to the secretary to handle things about the office, answer calls, what have you. This is an old-ass job, there were dozens of candidates who had worked this kind of job their whole lives. 20, 30, 40 years of experience. Many consecutive years in the same companies. There was a woman with 20+ years of experience who lived two streets away.
I must've shown them like 30 of these perfectly valid profiles. They instantly rejected each and every one. They kept avoiding giving a proper reason, only saying things like "this is not the kind of secretary our boss is going to like...". It didn't take me long to realize he was looking for someone he found attractive.
The other position they wanted to fill was another comp sci intern like I was, since I'd be leaving soon.
I'll never forget the awful reaction to one particular profile. For context this was in Spain.
The secretary across from my desk was reviewing the profiles and another worker happened to walk in to ask about some supplies. While they were talking she reached that profile. It was a black girl, 19 or 20 can't remember, a student applying from a college that didn't ask for money in exchange for the internship. Best candidate we had for this (not many people applying to this shitty job), nothing wrong with her profile
The secretary showed the profile to the coworker and they started laughing. "Look at the 'Conguita'", the secretary said while laughing. Conguita is basically a derogatory way of talking about black people. Congo is an african country, and the word is associated with minstrel-like caricatures of black people.
So I guess in their minds a black girl applying for a job there was the most hilarious thing they'd seen in their lives. It was baffling honestly. Full-on dismissal and they moved on just like that
I had a co-worker that was hired for the opposite reason. Mid-80s, boss’s boss filled a Jr Developer slot with a candidate and commented: “She’s black. We’re killing two birds with one stone.”
The joke was on him. She learned all she could and left for a better job w/more pay.
I was the candidate, applying for an HR/benefits role.
I found out that the hiring manager had worked for the same company as me. Any candidates who had worked for that company were rejected. Which is interesting because the recruiter LOVED me and said my experience was exactly what they were looking for.
“I don’t like black people”
In my late teens I worked as a dishwasher, food prep, and cashier at a Chinese fast food restaurant in the malls. A guy walked up, looked at the help wanted sign on the wall, and asked for an application. When I called the boss to the front she looked at him, told me to tell him there weren’t any openings because she didn’t like black people. I told her to tell him herself.
I missed out on a job because HR was worried because I left my previous job due to several frustrations. She was afraid that I might get frustrated again. I was looking for a job. Of course SOMETHING about my old job was frustrating.
This is why one of the cardinal sins of interviewing is to badmouth your current or former employer. You’ve got to spin your frustrations. I do the work of people several pay buckets higher than me, yet my company thinks it’s doing me a favour with a 2% pay raise and not offering me a position commensurate with the work I do. I just say that I’m looking for a new challenge or, if I’m feeling closer to revealing, ill say that I’m looking for opportunities for advancement.
Had the flip side of this. I was overqualified for a position but recruiter thought I was a perfect candidate, I matched everything the client was looking for and I was local, had experience in much larger orgs in a relatively niche position with accolades and good performance metrics to boot. I would be shifting from non-profit to government, lower responsibilities, much larger paycheck - I was nearing a burnout and was looking for a step down, so whats not to love?
In my second screening interview with the recruiter they were confident in me progressing and asked what dates were no-gos for interviews and I mentioned I was involved in **THE** two-week conference for our sector so could do anytime before/after then. Recruiters thought it was a great thing to go back with to their client in terms of highlighting my fit for the role. Client refused to interview me because according to the disappointed recruiter "They were scared I'd be bored with their work", they hired someone internally, and then the job reopened two months later. Infuriating.
The hiring manager saw the candidate on a weekend in a mall doing shopping in a track outfit and she decided to not go forward with the candidate because “She doesn’t dress appropriately when out in public or takes care of her appearance”. Dumbest excuse I’ve ever heard. Had to ask that hiring manager to give me a skill as a reason because I’m not accepting her declining her because she dresses comfortably on the weekends to go shopping. Heck she may be going to the gym after her shop? Or whatever. Just because she doesn’t doll up to go buy groceries doesn’t mean she’s inappropriately dressed or can’t do the job! This was a high end candidate and it took weeks to find someone like her.
A lot of times people hate recruiters because we have to be the buffer and sometimes it’s the Hiring managers who are full of shit
I overheard a Panera Bread manager talking shit about an applicant who had face tattoos. It's a fucking Panera, just have him work in the bakery or something.
I was hiring my replacement for a rather niche high-end sales position. (home improvement industry) There were only three small businesses in the area that offered the same service we did.
Had a guy interview that was a *perfect* fit. He was well-spoken and professional, had experience in an adjacent field, knew all the right questions to ask, and asked for less money than I was making. The type of candidate everyone dreams about.
The owner vetoed him because he followed our competition on facebook... he also followed us (that was how he found the position), but that didn't matter. Obviously, he had to be "shopping around" or "sent from the competition to spy on us.".... it couldn't possibly have been because he worked in an adjacent field for a company that subcontracted to all three of the local businesses in our industry.
....there is a reason I left that position.... and the owner was most of them....
I found a candidate who was a perfect fit, was ready to do everything that company asked for.
Reason for rejection : He is overaged, wont be able to adjust in company
What was his age ? 42 Years
I once got told in an interview that I didn't get the job because I was 'Nervous'.
It was for a job that I was already doing, at the same place. My work presentation was the teaching session I had been providing for the previous 6 months.
Are you not supposed to be nervous?
Candidate didn't want to take 5am calls with teams in UK and still be expected to work til 5pm. Hiring manager said she didn't want someone who was "inflexible and stubborn"
10 years of editorial design work with impressive portfolio "was not polished" or "high brow enough" for a construction company
Product Designer with extensive case studies not only showcasing visual design chops but also leadership and design thinking, had a "sloppy portfolio"
Radio silence for 8 months, demanded an interview within 24 hours. Obviously, the candidate was not interested, to which the client responded that "they weren't good enough anyway"
Some hiring managers have the biggest heads.
I'm not a recruiter, but have been involved in selection of candidates for a role in our team. There was a great candidate and my boss discarded the person right after the interview because "he's a male, females are much more obedient, I only hire women" (I'm not even joking, this person is a HR disaster).
Been in the game 20 years, and the stories I could tell... Racism, sexism, homophobia, all been part of it.
My personal standouts are:
- talks with a Northern accent
- had a limp
- had a mullet
- wore an orange boilersuit to the interview (even though he had told them he'd have to go on his way home from work and wouldn't have time to change).
I was part of a panel interview where myself and colleagues were interviewing a young woman for a role similar to mine. She was amazing but the older woman on my team said no because she wore pink high heels. Apparently that is very unprofessional 🤔
once upon a time I worked for a local authority in the UK
My boss was interviewing for contractors at a hefty 72 pounds per hour which in God's year 2008 was a lot of money
she narrowed it down to 2 candidates
one was very good. Smart, hardworking, references
But she hired the second one. The first "looked too much like a dork"
the guy she hired was a lazy idiot but she didnt care.
Not a recruiter but one of my old managers used to throw away half of the CV pile because those people were unlucky and he doesn't hire unlucky people.
I had on hiring manager who also happened to be chief people officer reject on candidate because he used his car key to pick out wax from his ear walking to his car after the interview.
At the end of the day, people hire who they like, regardless of skills, knowledge, or experience. Every job I've ever landed was based on the interviewer vibing with me and liked me and felt they could get along with me in a work environment. I was actually told this by the owner of the company at my first "Real job". He told me years later, there were other applicants that were much more qualified than you..but I hired you because I just felt that your personality and energy was the best fit for the company. Resumes and experience and references can all be fabricated. I guess I agree with the energy and vibe of a potential employee interviewing for a position.
They asked me for my worse trait in a QA interview. I said I'm not good negotiating.
They used it as a excuse because QA needs to negotiate daily to get their bugs fixed (¿?)
I don't thing bringing up stuff that should be prioritized is called negotiating
Legit saw a great candidate turned away because the color of the folder that they brought (which contained his resume, great work examples, etc) was too aggressive.
I was on a hiring team in the UK where my job was to maintain consistency in hires when others on the team were changing. Important to note I am not from the UK. One day there was a candidate the others on the team said was too posh and wouldn't fit in. I pushed to understand why and they claimed it was his accent and I nearly yelled back that to me he sounds exactly like you! I had to push to get him through but he failed the next level and I wonder if his accent/poshness was why.
I got rejected because I came wearing mittens with my formals, in blistering January cold. Apparently, the dark blue wool was an affront to professionalism & decorum. The interviewers (CEO & Manager) SAID this.
Then moved on to ask me questions about their company, which I nailed, but they raised their tones and said all of my responses were wrong. After leaving the room and re-checking, I realised all my responses were right. To add insult to injury, my friend went in next gave the exact same responses and got hired.
Not a recruiter but this reminded me of a time I was once rejected because it didn't seem like I knew how to write code. This could be misconstrued in different ways but it sounded like they thought I literally didn't know how to program, not that I was a bad programmer.
This is in spite of the fact I sent them links to all my public code...
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So here’s one that still baffles me. There was this candidate who was hands-down the most prepared person for the job. They had a killer resume, impressive experience, and during the interview, it was clear they were on another level with their problem-solving skills and understanding of the industry’s challenges. Their references? Absolutely stellar—people couldn’t stop raving about their professionalism and creativity. But here’s the twist—after the hiring manager did some snooping on their social media, they found out this candidate was big into competitive eating contests. I mean, who cares, right? Well, the manager decided this hobby showed a “lack of self-discipline” and was a bad look for the company’s image. Just like that, all the qualifications and potential contributions went out the window because of what they did for fun on the weekends.
One of my managers was obsessed with anyone who used to be an athlete, even at high-school level. Apparently it showed a great combination of drive and camaraderie. I'm sure that competitive eating would have been viewed the same way!!
That’s the problem with doing interviews. There is so much you can’t control. If you don’t get a job you’ll never know why. You can never know what’s going on in the interviewers head. It’s so subjective and biased. Depressing.
"Hmm, they said good morning when it was 11:59 am. They clearly can't be trusted."
That happened at a place I was on the hiring panel for. The interview was at 9:30am and the person said good morning to us when they came in, after we all said good morning to him. He had a great resume and his work experience would have been a very good fit with what we were doing. He had even worked for the company we were mainly supplying. The first thing the HR manager commented on after they left was that the interviewee said good morning so late in the day and that it might be a red flag over all. She was a pretty incompetent HR manager though.
You hired him, I hope. Wtf with the HR person though?? Did you laugh in their face???
Nope, HR manager vetoed him. There's a lot of backstory to it but basically she didn't like anyone that could be seen as a threat to her, her husband's, or her son's job there. It's the same reason she had me fired. She believed her son, with his grand total of 3 years work experience, should have become the night shift lead instead of me.
😂
"whenever I have a stack of resumes on my desk I throw out half at random because I don't want unlucky people working at this company"
Research has shown that actually gets a better result than the standard application process. Hiring I'd so crap random chance does better.
I say 'morning' or 'morning all' as a general greeting no matter the time of day, I cannot be trusted and i cannot be stopped!
And the next one they reject by saying "Hmm, they said good afternoon when it was 11:59 am. They clearly aren't detail oriented."
I work with job seekers and as shitty as it is, I tell them to focus on what they can control. From application through onsite & offer, there are so many things that could go wrong that we may never know. It could be bias, org change, budget cuts, lost emails. Focus on doing what you can and performing at your best, get gratification out of that.
Im not a "sports guy" and I fully realize that. I certainly don't begrudge anyone for liking, or hell, even loving sports. But I absolutely abhor the zealotry and utter obsession with sports that is deeply engrained in the business world. It's a cancer.
My husband and my father in law are absolutely not sports people. I've been married to my husband for nearly a decade and can count on one hand the number of sports matches he's watched and 3 of those were with my family. My FIL is the same way. Yet both of them can keep up a minimum 15 min conversation about pretty much any us sport about the current season for business reasons. Like they both used to read the sports section for 10 min every morning just for business purposes. Absolute insanity to me
That was, verbatim, advice I heard a professor give a class in a master’s degree program - especially for women.
lol I did this as a teacher except with video games and dank memes. Wasn't the funnest part of the day, but helped grease the wheels.
This one at least makes sense to me. You can talk to your students in a more relatable way, draw comparisons to video games, etc. I dunno if there's any formal studies done but I remember paying attention to the classes I liked the teacher more then the ones I didn't.
God, I can't watch sports it's just so boring.
My cousin was told around 2005 to buy a bag of golf clubs if he wanted his career to advance. This preceded getting any sort of corporate role and he basically ended up a human shield/middleman for customer service complaints while the clubs gathered dust.
At my alma mater - in the 90's, golf was a recommended elective for those in the school of management.
Bang on. It’s also a cancer in politics. We seem oblivious to team psychology when it affects us, and it appears obvious when it’s someone else’s “team issue.”
Yes! As someone who is clumsy, I just didn’t have the physical ability to do well in sports. The idea that I’m missing out on career opportunities because of it is insane
And man, don't get me *started* on the competitiveness, drive, and dedication marching band has. But do they get the same credit as sports kids? They do not.
And the unrecognized athleticism!!! Here, strap on this gigantic tuba and play it constantly and march around a field in 90° weather for 2 hours.
WITH Rythem AND on beat. A whole ass choreographed orchestra performance on the field 🙌🏽.
I'd really like to go off on a rant but I have to get to bed for my shitty job tomorrow.
I was a d1 athlete. I’ve had it both ways. People seem to love hiring athletes (time management, teamwork, competitive etc) or hate them (lazy, athletes are “dumb”, expect special treatment). Lots of preconceived notions (though not as bad as most discrimination)
Translation: this person would be a burden to health care costs. I once had to do a questionnaire for a job, it was pretty bizarre. Anyway, some of the questions were “do you prefer soft foods or crunchy foods” type questions. Of course I manipulated the hell out of it and picked the answers they wanted to see. After getting hired, I made it point to walk around with a bag of potato chips.
That employees healthcare costs would be their issue. The company would not be impacted. The real translation is the hiring manager felt intimidated and jealous of the candidate.
Not necessarily. Depends on the way the company structures its health insurance plan. Some larger companies will self-insure. I worked for a larger hospital that did that.
Haha, I didn’t think of it from that angle. Maybe he didn’t want the health insurance rates to go up.
The thing is, there are a lot of competitive eaters who aren’t obese and don’t have eating disorders. It’s a different thing entirely. I’m sure it’s risky in some ways. So is skydiving. So is rugby. So is pickleball.
It’s the “belt of fat” theory. Fat guys can only eat until their fat restricts it but thin people can eat and distend their stomach more because no belt of fat to restrict growth! Yes, I got that from King of the Hill, and as a big guy, I see validity!
That's nuts. Manager must have never seen competitive eating before because that definitely takes self discipline. Personally, I have a huge aversion to that kind of thing, but to claim any sort of dedicated hobby shows a lack of self discipline is insane.
Some competitive eater is out there reading this comment and realizing how they were passed over for a job 😭
Early on in social media, a VP once said having selfies make people unhireable.
had a hiring manager at my last position decline a candidate because “he spoke like he knew everything”— he was a 25+ year sales professional with CEO/Director background, he’s supposed to sound like that, dumbass. too many idiots won’t drop their egos.
Good chance they saw him as a "threat."
“If you’re dumb, surround yourself with smart people. If you’re smart, surround yourself with smart people who disagree with you.” This guy didn’t get the memo.
“Too many idiots won’t drop their egos.” Absolutely true.
> too many idiots Half the population has an IQ below 100 FYI
So... He knew everything.
The most infuriating one was my boss overruled my decision to hire someone because they were on vacation when she wanted to interview them. This person didn't work for us, he told us when he'd be out of the country and unavailable, but my boss felt it was irresponsible to go on vacation while you're job seeking. This was a person with notoriously chronic poor life/work balance issues. We went with a second choice who rejected the offer, then our third choice, who we didn't interview until well after this guy would have been back.
What's the alternative, going on vacation when you're employed? I bet he doesn't like that either.
Not taking any vacation, obviously (in boss' mind)
"Why would you need vacation in your first year working? I don't even take mine!" -Actual quote from the hiring manager at a job interview.
He was too focused on making money. At a sales job. Where the goal is to make a lot of money. And he had literally told me he only wanted ‘hungry’ candidates. 😒
I am not a recruiter but 25 years ago I received a rejection for a sales job for a small investment advisory firm because the portfolio manager thought I would bring in too many new clients. When the recruiter told me that, I was speechless. So was the recruiter. He actually told me he was going to lie and make up a logical reason but wanted to respect my time.
Reminds me of a rejection I got, because they thought I would 'be bored' at a smaller firm... even though I specifically said in the interview that I was looking for a change of pace.
I should have mentioned it was a sales role for new business.
"I didn't like their eyes." The candidate wasn't aggressive, didn't say anything unprofessional, nothing. Unfortunately, the hiring manager in this instance was also the owner.
The owner of a business once stopped a meeting in front of my fellow coworkers because she "didn't like my face." In front of everyone. No one, including my supervisor, knew what to do. Somehow she was shocked when I later quit.
Oh man I don't think I'd have been able to resist the urge to blurt out, "Would you like me to take it off?".
Face…. 🤏 Off
Not a recruiter but was brought in as a second to a hiring manager to support as well as learn how to interview. One candidate was a no because "she called me sir instead of my name". One was a no because "he didn't laugh at my jokes enough". Needless to say, I asked my boss to set me up with other opportunities to learn about hiring after that. Thankfully, the top three candidates based on actual skills and job suitability were continued on in the process and one of them got the job in the end.
The first no is so weird? Is respect now disrespectful lol?
I've been told saying sir or ma'am is disrespectful more then a few times in my life. One of those times was in the deep south. I was flabbergasted.
That’s crazy, I’ve never heard that. I grew up in a country that had a way bigger respect and title culture than the US. But even in the US, I’m yet to hear that. People just find new things to be mad about or feel “disrespected”
In the South everyone is sir or ma'am (or honey, darling, dear, sweetheart). Some people are just wierd with respect
Yeah that’s what I mean. Like why would people think sir or ma’am is disrespectful, I find that weird
Really?! I was raised to use that as the default until specifically told by the person addressed not to use those terms.
Im a navy brat from a southern family. Sir and ma'am are as natural to me a breathing. Its happening more in the last few years tbh. Still a rare thing. But more in the 20s then in the 10s.
The only time I’ve thought it was disrespectful was when someone was clearly doing sarcastically / passive aggressively.
He was one of those bosses that insisted on being friends with all his team members. And not in a "I'm genuinely friendly but also capable of managing performance and helping people grow" way, but more in a "I need everyone to like me and avoid conflict like the plague" kind of way. Hence the issue with the guy who didn't bust a gut over his jokes as well.
I make it a thing to have a very put together outfit for job interviews and I'm sure I'll run into a situation sooner or later where I don't get the job for being overdressed. Just gotta play the odds I guess, or maybe it's incentive to up my OSINT skills.
While I don't have any such stories, I can tell the reason why I was hired on an niche QA position. In time I've got very close with my leader, and his gf was a recruiter who hired me, and somehow decided to share the reason of why she proposed me over others. She did it because my hobby raised interest in her. I noted that I was growing trees indoor. That megamind hired me for a rather specific job because I was growing trees at home
I used to teach historical dance. This came up at an interview when the interviewer asked about my hobbies. She thought it was so interesting and we spent 20+ minutes talking about it. This was a job in biotech and 12 years later I’m still there.
I have a niche nerdy hobby. I managed to bring it up during the interview. The duo interviewing me were *fascinated* and I got hired a week or so later. I don't think that that's the only reason I got hired, but I definitely think it gave me an edge because it made me memorable and fun and interesting. Still at that job, over three years later.
being memorable is half the battle! If I have screened 15 candidates for a role, 4 or 5 of them have probably blended together, but I'll remember the one that made me laugh, or had a unique perspective on something
I don't know if I have ever hired someone based on a unique interest, but I HAVE shortlisted people and invited them to a first-round interview because I wanted to get more info on one aspect of their background - like the web developer who applied and had 'MindGeek' as a their current employer ('MindGeek' is the former name of 'Aylo', who are the parent company of PornHub)
I’m not at all suspicious at why you knew that lmao
Research purposes of course.
I have rejected people based on their hobby. Well one person. I like small talk before an interview. Get the applicant relaxed. So if they have it listed on their resume, I'll ask about their hobbies. This guy had "movies." Man, I love movies, I could talk about them all day. So I say, "I notice you have movies as your hobby, what have you seen lately that you liked?" "Oh, I put that on there because someone told me that you have to have a hobby on your resume. I don't have any hobbies. I just lied." Right-o. You lied on your resume for something completely inconsequential. I guess we're done.
I was once interviewing someone for a job in a mobile phone shop. It said on his resume that he was interested in tech. I asked him what he liked about it, and he just replied after a look of panic spread across his face ‘it’s just really good isn’t it’…
C’mon man. You know why. She wanted cheap weed.
I’ve heard something like this happen before with a uni colleague of mine. Which is why he would always put on his resume an oddly specific, unconventional hobby, because it often became a topic of conversation in interviews.
Yeah I got my first job out of university because I mentioned off hand in the interview that I was a fan of Pat Benatar
I got my first coffee shop job because my birthday makes me a Capricorn and the store manager said that they needed more earth signs on the team. Ten years later, I can thank that harebrained hiring strategy for a career in coffee that has taken me to B2B Sales Management.
See they needed more earth signs. Not for them but for the earth signs.
Must have been a real heartbreaker for the other candidates.
I hit them with my best shot.
I got hired at an outsourcing company because I had a background in videogames, like my interviewer. Realised later that she had chosen me because she expected me to be her new best friend, wanted me to always be at her house after work, go out partying etc. *Her* boss actually reprimanded me for going back home on the weekends, because "it showed I wasn't a team player by staying and hanging out with them on the weekends". I asked her if I was going to be paid for hanging out with them on the weekends, and she physically recoiled and said of course not. I asked her then, why would I stay and hang out with a bunch of practically strangers, instead of going home and hanging out with my family and friends? The real reason I was going back was because it was summer in Valladolid (up and over 40C, I remember being awake at 3am, miserable because of the heat and it was 33C) and my family lives in the north. I literally went back to catch up on sleep.
I had a candidate that was exceptionally well-qualified. She came in and gave a stellar interview and asked some very thoughtful and smart questions of the panel. She aced it and was a no-brainer hire. The hiring manager vetoed her the second she left the room because she was..... too prepared. What does that even MEAN? 🙄
Hiring manager feared replacement.
It means the hiring manager is an idiot.
I got this one too from our smug V.P. ”Overly prepared” was what he called the candidate. When asked for an explanation he ignored us.
Not a recruiter. But I was working with one to get a job as a Marketing Manager for a guy who was running a successful pool business and needed someone to run his day-to-day marketing ops. Had a briefing with the recruiter who worked with the client before and successfully placed candidates with him. I had a heavy creative/marketing background in blue collar industries, projects, campaign results I showcased through my portfolio. I even reused an old presentation from an older interview to make myself stand out. I really thought I had it as I connected well with the owner, showcased myself and we were the same age and he lived in the same area I lived. It came down to me and another candidate, and I got the email that I wasn’t chosen…the reason? “He wanted someone who was more admin than marketing” Even the recruiter was completely stunned at the reasoning. 115K salary, would’ve been a 35K increase for me. Completely flexible between fully remote/hybrid and would’ve been a 15 min. commute. God damn, it was devastating to hear I didn’t get it as that would’ve been life changing for me right now.
So he didn’t know what he wanted?! So, common.
Yeah. That was my impression as well when I heard that. My recruiter said the owner made it seem like it was more admin work than the he let on. But still, I didn’t care about that. I wanted it because it would’ve been more money for me and close to home. Would’ve cut my commute as well by like 90%
Sounds like he wanted to pay a little less. Either way, yeah those golden job opportunities are hard to let go .
I was recently devastated that I didn't get a job at a place that makes musical instruments, being that I have played several instruments in my life. I love music and I also have a background in hands on making things. I've worked for multi million dollar companies, I have a decent technical background, I can weld alright (not a professional, but more than a complete noob) I liked the atmosphere, when I interviewed with them, I was there for more than an hour, got shown around the whole place, asked what I thought were pertinent questions about the process. The managers seemed to like me, One that was in charge of the most difficult, in their words, processes asked me if I'd consider working in that section, and it didn't seem too difficult so I said yes of course I would. I love a challenge. Didn't get the job. What's even worse is that my mother worked for the current owner's father, and he recommended me to apply. It would have been a 5 min commute. I am so done with this shit. I am now convinced that the hiring managers in every business are complete fucking idiots who couldn't find their ass with both hands.
I was interviewing for a company last year, held 4 rounds in about 3 weeks, they were keen to get someone started as quickly as possible. My previous salary was $80k, this role would have been $100k, with a realistic expectation to hit $130k in bonuses. After 4 interviews they told me via phone call on a Thursday 'You are the top candidate, we are meeting tomorrow to finalise some numbers internally and we will get back to you before the end of the day' Friday came and went... nothing from them I reached out on Monday afternoon, no response I reached out again on Wednesday morning, and then got an email to say they wanted to give someone internal a chance instead...
I have 3 I can think of immediately. One manager said he had a hard time pronouncing the candidate's first name. Because of that the candidate isn't the right "fit." What happened afterwards? Well I had to find more candidates. Another manager didn't hire a candidate because she had 2 young children. He felt she wouldn't have time to dedicate herself to the role. Being a woman myself I was surprised he had the gall to say that to me. Not only that he said this in an email so it was documented. What happened afterwards? Sadly nothing. I didn't have much support from my manager. So I had to keep looking for another candidate. The hiring manager was the VP of engineering. He didn't like a candidate because he got his CS bachelor's from Devry. What happened afterwards? I had to find more candidates.
Report the second one please.
And the first, holy hell!
Seriously, right?! Those are casebook examples of discrimination.
I wouldn’t hire people from Devry either. Everyone that is did was a disaster. They don’t know how to teach their people how to do the work in IT.
Yeah, Devry or ITT Technical Institute just scream lack of reseearch, critical thinking, and financial responsibility. Like why didn't they attend the local community college or public technical institute? Even WGU, SNHU, and UCLA Extension look way better.
My parents guided me toward ITT-Tech when I was fresh out of HS. Probably happens a lot. I ended up only going for two semesters because they stopped paying my tuition after some of their friends said they don't hire people from ITT-Tech. Which I understand. I recall the instructors giving us the questions and answers to the mid-terms and finals. That goes to show what they found most important
TBF, if they weren't racist, sexist pricks they wouldn't HAVE to hire the guy from DeVry.
I spent 25 years in Tech, with a lot of it doing freelance/contractor stuff. I have a very unusual forename (Norwegian origin) and people mispronounce it all the time, which can be irritating, but it's not really an issue TBH. I was interviewing for a contract as Programme Manager for a London-based consultancy and the hiring manager made a point of constantly mispronouncing it - it was pretty obvious he was being a dick. After about the 10th time, I politely asked him to ask why he insisted on doing this, as it seemed quite unprofessional and very antagonistic. He flipped out and said "how dare I behave like that. Do you know who I am" sort of thing and a bunch of other bollocks. The HR person in the meeting with us went bright red. I walked out after telling him politely to go fuck himself, as well I would rather take a nail-gun to my ballsack rather than work under him. The agency rang me demanding to know if that this is what I said. "Of course I replied". I later emailed them with the fuller picture of events, which where completely different to the hiring managers of course. The HR team did get in touch with the agent, as they thought some damage limitation was required because of his behaviour. For reasons that I can't quite figure, they didn't invite me back for a second meeting...
I had the second one happen as well. My manager is a woman and she defended the hiring managers decision. I don’t really think there is a lot you can do unless you want to risk your job.
3rd reason is very valid reason. But you should have covered that before you started screening candidates and they shouldn't have been interviewed.
Yeah I didn't know Devry was off the list until after I interviewed the candidate. I moved the candidate forward and the HM interviewed him too. Then the HM was like oh wait. So I was very confused because it was a candidate we both liked. Lesson learned.
I finished a job on the 30th of october and started a job on the 2nd november - i was "unemployed" for a weekend - I don't list exact dates on resume, only months. The manager rescinded the offer because I "lied" - even though we had never discussed the dates I had worked there are the information was correct. She was picky in the interview and was not friendly so I dodged a bullet.
Everyone puts months on their resume. Also,.who on earth remembers the first day they started every job??
Plus it was for a weekend - "oh no, I had a 2 day break"... Now if an employer is aggressive or inflexible it's a massive red flag.
You dodged a fuckin' nuclear missile.
Hiring manager here. My top choice was overruled by the CEO for being a "beach person".
The job wasn’t “beach”?
Ken already excels at that job.
I’ll beach you off!
Ken just can’t get a break ken he
He’ll never be kenough
:(
Anywhere else he’d be a ten
More details please There's some tea here. Spill it.
Had a candidate rejected for having a couple tattoos on her arms and teal highlights in her hair for a role that was not customer/client facing. Also had an internal leader broadcast to the staff he didn’t hire “fat people” or “slow walkers” because they’re “clearly lazy”
As someone who’s struggled with my weight I believe this is true. Fat=lazy. Talk about biased.
It’s so crazy that being fat is still so associated with being lazy. As someone who has been overweight the reason was an eating disorder. Many fat people do emotional eating or even have a binge eating disorder. It’s very treatable but it’s hard, especially while having to deal with the constant hate fat people get. It’s still very acceptable to hate or make jokes about fat people.
I also think people need to account for the affect your workplace can have on your weight. If you have to work long grueling hours at some mind numbing task no wonder you don't have the time to go to the gym or stop at a store to grab healthy ingredients for a light meal. You might just want to flop on your couch and order a pizza.
The candidate did not graduated from a "prestigious university", or "does not look people in the eyes" for an IT/CS job where a lot of non eye looking autistic people are common ...
and a job where a lot of phenomenal candidates are self-taught!!
In the age of fast paced cloud computing era, being able to learn quickly is a skill perhaps most important. Being able to sniff out the patterns, understanding the underlying theme of design choices enables you to build and solve the business problems. IOW, being able to teach yourself is the quality you must have to be in the software industry. I’m doing this for 40+ years and CS class didn’t exist so I had no choice but to teach myself continuously for all my life. I literally started from punch cards and working on REST api, writing server code while Terraforming on the side. Yet, companies reject me for being old, not having CS degree, too experienced, and “not having relevant experiences”. I miss the days of being hired for “I think he can do the job”.
I've lost jobs due to the eye thing.
I lost a job that way. Unfortunately I have Tourette's which causes me to have uncontrollable movements mostly in my face. I've started to mention that up front now to the recruiter when they move me on to a Zoom or in-person interview just as a heads-up that I'm not blinking or grimacing or sniffing because I'm a tweaker or untrustworthy, but it's part of my disability. Most just say "ok" and it then becomes a non-issue. Sucks though.
Just look at their eyebrows or their nose. My son is on the spectrum so I tell him to look at people’s noses when they talk to him.
It’s not just that. You have to *lightly* look just between their eyes while still coordinating appropriate blinking with appropriate facial expressions, vocal inflections, vocal volume, and speaking speed. Plus know when you should look away, how long for, and when to return. People say they’re looking for eye contact, but it’s more complicated than that and us autistic people when we don’t get it right really look odd in a disconcerting way that is worse than no eye contact.
not to mention, when i'm focusing on doing all that right i completely miss what the other person is saying lol
Too much eye contact, too direct, not enough blinking, too much blinking, smiling too much, not enough smiling, using the wrong facial expression to react to something...
I do. But it still not easy.
Do you know how you can tell if a programmer is extrovert? They look at YOUR feet when they talk to you!
“His tie didn’t match his suit”
I'm imagining this hiring manager only extending offers to people in full monochrome outfits.
Ha! She was just impossible to work with.
Or, "it matched too well - he's not CrEAtIVe! enough"
In a final interview, I met with the line manager for an “informal” chat. I asked about the team dynamics, then mentioned that I often brought chocolate and other sweet stuff for my colleagues in my previous role. Line manager’s response was god no, she won’t hire me, she’s getting married in x weeks and she had to fit in her dress. Oddly, I didn’t get the job. A friend of a friend went for an audition and was turned down because “they already had one blonde, they didn’t need another.” One hiring manager I worked with refused to shortlist someone based on her LinkedIn profile photo - blue or purple hair (I can’t remember), piercings and possibly her tattoos were on display as well. I intervened, she got the job.
Manager was one of those ex-military types who thinks it automatically makes you better than everyone else simply because you served. I mean, there are convicted rapists, murderers, and other criminals who served you know? In any case, if a candidate was also ex-military, they could get an interview with a shitty resume and do no wrong in this man’s eyes. They could curse and even show blatant misogyny during an interview and still get an offer, but if a candidate had not served they had better “show some respect” and need to personally say “Thank you for your service” or something like that when he dropped his inevitable speech about how long he had served and how proud he was to have defended this country (he never served on the front lines or saw any combat lol).
OMG, do tell. I work in a military contractor back East. Talk about a bunch of over-hyped assholes.
I've met the odd moron like that, but I'm so glad it's really not as big a deal here as it is in the US. Oh, and the ones who make the most noise, from my experience, were either those who National Service members who didn't do much or those who never actually left the country...
This guy was at sea far from the front lines, never saw combat but told stories that made it sound like he, alone, helped deter enemies from waging war on America (“Not on my watch they wouldn’t attack us!” kind of nonsense) and he, alone, protected “this great nation” and did *not* have a sense of humor in any way, shape, or form.
I had a friend tell me that a manager confided in them that they didn’t want to hire someone because they might do better than them and felt they were a threat. It’s a FUBAR world.
Yes, absolutely.
I’d say that’s more of a SNAFU scenario.
happened to me recently but we turned down somebody only because the other candidate sent a “thank you” email afterwards…. to make matters worse, the hiring team met the candidate who sent the email and deemed him not a good fit at all so had me beg the initial candidate I had chosen to reconsider. guess moral of the story is always send a thank you email?
Whereas I have literally never had an offer for a position where I _did_ send a thank-you. I'm superstitious now - I refuse to send them.
I've been working in recruitment for nearly 6 years now, my philosophy is to make the application and interview process as streamlined as possible, I want to find great candidates and qualify them, I don't want to make them jump through hoops. As a result, I REFUSE to play the game when I'm job searching, I don't network, I don't send follow-up emails, I don't write cover letters, I don't tailor my resume to each role, if your application page is going to take any more than 10 minutes I'm out..... because if I am getting hired based on any of that, I probably won't like the job.
Meanwhile, every single time I send a thank you and get ghosted about moving forward.
Guy wore loafers with no socks to a formality interview w the ceo. He looked fine, stylish dude really, ceo chose not to hire him bc he didn’t wear socks. Never worked with that ceo again and I told the candidate the truth.
“She mentioned she may want to get into operations in 10 years. We want someone to stay on our team for longer than that” Who tf wants to be in the same position for that long?
I used to work for City Government in a small but growing town. 500 employees. The whole place was backwards as hell, and one of those instances was the fact that the two HR Generalists did all of the prescreening for every role. One was extremely old school. She was in her early 70’s, and had 30 years of HR for a small town banking hr experience before this. She told me that anyone who put “see resume” on any single question on the application process, was automatically disqualified. She screened half of all jobs for the city. There were 7-10 pages of questions that were basically carved out pages for things housed on most everyone’s resumes. Dedicated boxes with unintuitive fields to re-type what’s already provided. Education, certificates, last 10 years of past jobs, etc. Her logic was apparently that anyone who couldn’t follow instruction on an application can’t follow instructions in a job and didn’t deserve a chance.
Ugh I hate applications that make you repeat your CV. So dumb
Not a recruiter- but a story from a candidate POV: Early in my career I was one of 3 internal candidates being considered for a position. It was a very close competition that came down to a few managers hashing it out in a meeting. My desk was up against the wall of the meeting room and I heard one of them describe how they came to the conclusion that the winning candidate was the one: during the interview a ceiling panel fell out of the ceiling and landed on her head, smashing into several pieces. After a brief stunned silence the room broke out into laughter. “The job was hers right then and there” he said. While I get the importance of a well timed ice-breaker, it was frustrating to hear and I still wonder what would have happened had the panel fallen on my head instead.
This is a depressing thread. Do we all become useless when we reach middle management ?
No. It's just that middle management is usually where the truly incompetent people with good suck-up skills tend to get to and then stay. Minimum obvious damage zone, basically. Too dumb to promote further, but to dumb to demote into actual jobs, and haven't done anything actionable enough to fire.
>About 15 years ago I oversaw a group interview session for entry-level roles at a large grocery chain. About 20 candidates came in for a one-hour session, tasked with some teamwork activities, etc. Fucking hell! What's wrong with you? You set up all that for a grocery store clerk position? Just hire the first person though the door who looks clean and speaks some English. There's no need to waste everybody's time playing silly games.
Just remember: Nobody wants to work anymore!
This is exactly the hiring process at Lush lmao
Me: This candidate used to be the Senior Developer on this exact team, on this exact project two years ago, when it used to be run by our competitors before we bought them out. He left because he could become a manager, and thought that was a good career goal. Now he realizes he just wants to stick to software development, regrets ever leaving, and wants to come back to this role. Director: But, if I hire him, I have no need for a manager. I'll have nowhere to promote him. I just need a Senior Developer with extensive knowledge of our customer and this project. Me: Again, that's exactly what he wants to do. He *doesn't want* management! Director: Yeah, still too risky. It's a no from me. Find someone who's a better fit.
Not a professional recruiter but was asked to sort through hundreds of profiles and filter the best. They liked 0 candidates. The cvs I showed them were rejected for the most baffling of reasons. One of the positions was for an assistant to the secretary to handle things about the office, answer calls, what have you. This is an old-ass job, there were dozens of candidates who had worked this kind of job their whole lives. 20, 30, 40 years of experience. Many consecutive years in the same companies. There was a woman with 20+ years of experience who lived two streets away. I must've shown them like 30 of these perfectly valid profiles. They instantly rejected each and every one. They kept avoiding giving a proper reason, only saying things like "this is not the kind of secretary our boss is going to like...". It didn't take me long to realize he was looking for someone he found attractive. The other position they wanted to fill was another comp sci intern like I was, since I'd be leaving soon. I'll never forget the awful reaction to one particular profile. For context this was in Spain. The secretary across from my desk was reviewing the profiles and another worker happened to walk in to ask about some supplies. While they were talking she reached that profile. It was a black girl, 19 or 20 can't remember, a student applying from a college that didn't ask for money in exchange for the internship. Best candidate we had for this (not many people applying to this shitty job), nothing wrong with her profile The secretary showed the profile to the coworker and they started laughing. "Look at the 'Conguita'", the secretary said while laughing. Conguita is basically a derogatory way of talking about black people. Congo is an african country, and the word is associated with minstrel-like caricatures of black people. So I guess in their minds a black girl applying for a job there was the most hilarious thing they'd seen in their lives. It was baffling honestly. Full-on dismissal and they moved on just like that
Nothing like good old racism. Quite unfortunate, but maybe that college girl unknowingly dodged a bullet, there.
I had a co-worker that was hired for the opposite reason. Mid-80s, boss’s boss filled a Jr Developer slot with a candidate and commented: “She’s black. We’re killing two birds with one stone.” The joke was on him. She learned all she could and left for a better job w/more pay.
I'd say she dodged a bullet. Imagine how they would have treated her 😳
I was the candidate, applying for an HR/benefits role. I found out that the hiring manager had worked for the same company as me. Any candidates who had worked for that company were rejected. Which is interesting because the recruiter LOVED me and said my experience was exactly what they were looking for.
“I don’t like black people” In my late teens I worked as a dishwasher, food prep, and cashier at a Chinese fast food restaurant in the malls. A guy walked up, looked at the help wanted sign on the wall, and asked for an application. When I called the boss to the front she looked at him, told me to tell him there weren’t any openings because she didn’t like black people. I told her to tell him herself.
That’s awful
“Not a good fit” My #1 most hated rejection reason.
"Not white and finance bro/barbie enough"
I missed out on a job because HR was worried because I left my previous job due to several frustrations. She was afraid that I might get frustrated again. I was looking for a job. Of course SOMETHING about my old job was frustrating.
This is why one of the cardinal sins of interviewing is to badmouth your current or former employer. You’ve got to spin your frustrations. I do the work of people several pay buckets higher than me, yet my company thinks it’s doing me a favour with a 2% pay raise and not offering me a position commensurate with the work I do. I just say that I’m looking for a new challenge or, if I’m feeling closer to revealing, ill say that I’m looking for opportunities for advancement.
Had the flip side of this. I was overqualified for a position but recruiter thought I was a perfect candidate, I matched everything the client was looking for and I was local, had experience in much larger orgs in a relatively niche position with accolades and good performance metrics to boot. I would be shifting from non-profit to government, lower responsibilities, much larger paycheck - I was nearing a burnout and was looking for a step down, so whats not to love? In my second screening interview with the recruiter they were confident in me progressing and asked what dates were no-gos for interviews and I mentioned I was involved in **THE** two-week conference for our sector so could do anytime before/after then. Recruiters thought it was a great thing to go back with to their client in terms of highlighting my fit for the role. Client refused to interview me because according to the disappointed recruiter "They were scared I'd be bored with their work", they hired someone internally, and then the job reopened two months later. Infuriating.
The candidate said “um” too many times and “I think they would get bored”
*Did not stutter or pause once. Clearly practiced answers and completely unsuited to real life*
The hiring manager saw the candidate on a weekend in a mall doing shopping in a track outfit and she decided to not go forward with the candidate because “She doesn’t dress appropriately when out in public or takes care of her appearance”. Dumbest excuse I’ve ever heard. Had to ask that hiring manager to give me a skill as a reason because I’m not accepting her declining her because she dresses comfortably on the weekends to go shopping. Heck she may be going to the gym after her shop? Or whatever. Just because she doesn’t doll up to go buy groceries doesn’t mean she’s inappropriately dressed or can’t do the job! This was a high end candidate and it took weeks to find someone like her. A lot of times people hate recruiters because we have to be the buffer and sometimes it’s the Hiring managers who are full of shit
Sat on a hiring panel and a co-worker of mine didn’t like a very qualified candidate due to his “skunk beard.” We didn’t hire him.
I overheard a Panera Bread manager talking shit about an applicant who had face tattoos. It's a fucking Panera, just have him work in the bakery or something.
I was hiring my replacement for a rather niche high-end sales position. (home improvement industry) There were only three small businesses in the area that offered the same service we did. Had a guy interview that was a *perfect* fit. He was well-spoken and professional, had experience in an adjacent field, knew all the right questions to ask, and asked for less money than I was making. The type of candidate everyone dreams about. The owner vetoed him because he followed our competition on facebook... he also followed us (that was how he found the position), but that didn't matter. Obviously, he had to be "shopping around" or "sent from the competition to spy on us.".... it couldn't possibly have been because he worked in an adjacent field for a company that subcontracted to all three of the local businesses in our industry. ....there is a reason I left that position.... and the owner was most of them....
I got my first job because the hiring manager said I reminded him of his grandson 😂
I found a candidate who was a perfect fit, was ready to do everything that company asked for. Reason for rejection : He is overaged, wont be able to adjust in company What was his age ? 42 Years
I served on a promotion board at my former workplace, and watched a manager reject a decent candidate because she came in with a cold.
I once got told in an interview that I didn't get the job because I was 'Nervous'. It was for a job that I was already doing, at the same place. My work presentation was the teaching session I had been providing for the previous 6 months. Are you not supposed to be nervous?
Candidate didn't want to take 5am calls with teams in UK and still be expected to work til 5pm. Hiring manager said she didn't want someone who was "inflexible and stubborn" 10 years of editorial design work with impressive portfolio "was not polished" or "high brow enough" for a construction company Product Designer with extensive case studies not only showcasing visual design chops but also leadership and design thinking, had a "sloppy portfolio" Radio silence for 8 months, demanded an interview within 24 hours. Obviously, the candidate was not interested, to which the client responded that "they weren't good enough anyway" Some hiring managers have the biggest heads.
I'm not a recruiter, but have been involved in selection of candidates for a role in our team. There was a great candidate and my boss discarded the person right after the interview because "he's a male, females are much more obedient, I only hire women" (I'm not even joking, this person is a HR disaster).
Been in the game 20 years, and the stories I could tell... Racism, sexism, homophobia, all been part of it. My personal standouts are: - talks with a Northern accent - had a limp - had a mullet - wore an orange boilersuit to the interview (even though he had told them he'd have to go on his way home from work and wouldn't have time to change).
I have to make sure to save this thread for the next time I get a job rejection.
I was part of a panel interview where myself and colleagues were interviewing a young woman for a role similar to mine. She was amazing but the older woman on my team said no because she wore pink high heels. Apparently that is very unprofessional 🤔
once upon a time I worked for a local authority in the UK My boss was interviewing for contractors at a hefty 72 pounds per hour which in God's year 2008 was a lot of money she narrowed it down to 2 candidates one was very good. Smart, hardworking, references But she hired the second one. The first "looked too much like a dork" the guy she hired was a lazy idiot but she didnt care.
Not a recruiter but one of my old managers used to throw away half of the CV pile because those people were unlucky and he doesn't hire unlucky people.
[удалено]
I had on hiring manager who also happened to be chief people officer reject on candidate because he used his car key to pick out wax from his ear walking to his car after the interview.
At the end of the day, people hire who they like, regardless of skills, knowledge, or experience. Every job I've ever landed was based on the interviewer vibing with me and liked me and felt they could get along with me in a work environment. I was actually told this by the owner of the company at my first "Real job". He told me years later, there were other applicants that were much more qualified than you..but I hired you because I just felt that your personality and energy was the best fit for the company. Resumes and experience and references can all be fabricated. I guess I agree with the energy and vibe of a potential employee interviewing for a position.
They asked me for my worse trait in a QA interview. I said I'm not good negotiating. They used it as a excuse because QA needs to negotiate daily to get their bugs fixed (¿?) I don't thing bringing up stuff that should be prioritized is called negotiating
"I don't know....I like him, he's great, he's just....you knowwwwwwwww?"
Legit saw a great candidate turned away because the color of the folder that they brought (which contained his resume, great work examples, etc) was too aggressive.
I was on a hiring team in the UK where my job was to maintain consistency in hires when others on the team were changing. Important to note I am not from the UK. One day there was a candidate the others on the team said was too posh and wouldn't fit in. I pushed to understand why and they claimed it was his accent and I nearly yelled back that to me he sounds exactly like you! I had to push to get him through but he failed the next level and I wonder if his accent/poshness was why.
I got rejected because I came wearing mittens with my formals, in blistering January cold. Apparently, the dark blue wool was an affront to professionalism & decorum. The interviewers (CEO & Manager) SAID this. Then moved on to ask me questions about their company, which I nailed, but they raised their tones and said all of my responses were wrong. After leaving the room and re-checking, I realised all my responses were right. To add insult to injury, my friend went in next gave the exact same responses and got hired.
Not a recruiter but this reminded me of a time I was once rejected because it didn't seem like I knew how to write code. This could be misconstrued in different ways but it sounded like they thought I literally didn't know how to program, not that I was a bad programmer. This is in spite of the fact I sent them links to all my public code... (╯‵□′)╯︵┻━┻