Job seeker fails interview after being asked simple question by manager

A job hunter has recounted the cringe-worthy moment they botched an interview with a simple misunderstanding.

The applicant found themselves in hot water during an interview when they completely misread a straightforward question, leaving them utterly embarrassed.

The incident was later shared by the mortified candidate on social media, where she encouraged others to divulge their own interview mishaps, reports the Mirror.

She queried online: “What’s the earliest you’ve messed up a job interview? ” before revealing her own blunder by adding: “I was asked, ‘Tell me how you got here today? ‘ and I said by bus. I got a stone-cold stare as the realisation hit me.”

In her Reddit post, she elaborated: “He meant in my career not to the physical office. The remaining 58 minutes were going through the motions.”

Other Reddit users chimed in with laughter and sympathy, acknowledging that the mistake was understandable.

One sympathised: “To be honest, that’s a weird way to phrase the question.”

Another concurred, saying: ”Tell me how you got here today? is very open to interpretation. I’d have done the same as you.”

A third tried to offer solace, commenting: “I’ve been interviewing a lot lately. I would not at all be bothered by that answer, it would be an amusing ice-breaker, to be honest.”

A fourth social media user debriefed: “Any interviewer who didn’t find that amusing would be an awful person to work for. ”

The job hunter added more detail stating her interviewer “wasn’t in the mood to break the ice and laugh it off,” and his “death stare” still gives her nightmares.

More users joined in, sharing their horror tales from job interviews. One candidate confessed they got muddled during a video chat with a potential employer, and when asked about their “background”, they hilariously responded: “I look behind myself and back around to video call, ‘Well it’s a sort of mirror?’. ‘I mean what is your background in work?’. I still haven’t recovered from that.”

Another disclosed their embarrassing incident where they had a row in the car park before their interview involving yelling and rude hand gestures. The other driver turned out to be none other than the hiring manager.

Another comically wrote: “I was told I had a colourful CV. I said ‘Thanks, it’s just a Microsoft Word template’.”