Have you ever walked out of a job interview?

I once was asked to go for an interview in a school as a Finance Officer the time of interview was 9am. So I booked a half days holiday from my job. On arrival I found 5 other applicants waiting and we were told in was a full day interview and assessment, we hadn’t been told this previously.. Myself and 2 others said we couldn’t stay a whole day so left.
Years later I was on an interview panel and a new HR manager asked an applicant if she was planning to get pregnant. The applicant burst into tears and I had to stop the interview. I was furious with the HR manager who thought it a reasonable question to ask. We did actually give this person the job as she was the the best person, although frequently very emotional.

From the opposite perspective, I was once interviewing candidates for an admin job. During the interview, it turned out that unbeknownst to those of us doing the interviews that there had been 2 different adverts placed in the paper by HR, one for the job as full-time and the other as a job share. The candidate thought she was applying as a job share, but the HR panel member said this wasn't possible. The candidate understandably walked out, a very brief word with the HR person confirmed we could let the post be job-shared and I ended up running down the road after the candidate asking her to come back to the interview!

At a school secretarial job interview, Head took me to one side and asked if I was the wife of so and so who when teenagers had left said Head to continue his travels abroad alone and never forgiven or forgotten - should have walked away at that point!!

glammagran

I once went for an interview for an I.T. support role to manage a database and apps for a small company. It was freelance and I’d applied directly to a job advert. At the end of the interview I was informed of the hourly rate which was little more than minimum wage. I told the male interviewer I paid my cleaner more (which was true) and walked out.

I dislike this current idea on not quoting salaries or salary ranges on adverts. Often it says salary negotiable,
My son has recently wasted a lot of time going to interviews that were only offering minimum wage for highly skilled roles or when he was asked for his salary expectations being told we can’t afford that and offering far less.

I didn’t walk out at the interview but I once went for a secretarial job and was asked to do a typing test in the office where I would be working. I was taken to a small storage cupboard with no windows full of files piled around the desk to the ceiling. They phoned to offer me the job later and I explained that I couldn’t work under those conditions. They offered me more money, which we desperately needed at the time, but there was no way I could have done that to myself.

Many years ago I went for a job interview as an office admin support (very basic role and salary). The interviewer started off by saying ‘your hours of work are 9-5, but we expect you to be here to start working by 8.30 at the latest’. I immediately asked if they paid overtime and he said ‘WHAT?!’, so I repeated ‘do you pay overtime for the extra 2 or 3 hours a week?’. His face looked like he was about to burst a blood vessel so I walked out!

The sad thing is that I know there will have been someone desperate enough to take that job and just work the extra unpaid hours for that shouty man.

Back in the 1980's at the job centre, I applied for a job and they rang the company to arrange interview for me. My surname at the time was O'Sullivan the job centre lady was having a flaming row with them assuring them that NO I was not Irish, and they could be prosecuted for being so prejudiced! needless to say I did not want to work for them! Another interview where the person interviewing me said to be honest you are more qualified than me and I am scared you will nick my job! Another interview in a very quiet office when I was told I was too loud for their company environment! I applied to be a waitress in Pizza Express and was told I was too old (I was 40)!

I was once interviewed for a maternity cover job. There were five candidates, of whom four were female. No surprise that the one man got the job. I guess they didn't want another pregnancy!

In an interview for a full time post in a Roman Catholic school, I was asked how many children I had and how I would manage child-care. I turned to the LEA rep and said that this was not an admissable line of questioning. The interview continued on different lines, but I did not get the job.
I saw another advert for a modern languages teacher. I rang up in advance and I asked which languages were essential as it wasn't clear in the advert. I informed them that I was not qualified to teach German. They told me to come anyway. In the interview they said I would have to include some German and I could just prepare the lessons the night before, as I had done it to A level. I withdrew my application and did not get my expenses paid.
At another interview for temporary work I was informed that I might have to cover boys' PE. I declined to do so, but I got the job, as they were really in need of my main subject, French.
I had five temporary jobs in five years, thanks to moving around. After the fifth, I got a job in a wonderful school and stayed there for over twenty years until I retired.

Not quite the same but I once went for an interview at BHS. The interviewer told me that she was supposed to do an Equal Opportunities interview but couldnt be bothered so just chose the person she liked best. I did not get the job!! I was quite pleased when BHS went bust!

Any interview should be regarded as a two way exercise, as an employer once I have on occasion felt like I was the one being interviewed, although rare. It's an opportunity for both parties to investigate if the role and the company is right for the interviewee. Don't be afraid to ask questions and don't be afraid to admit if it isn't right for you.

In the 1980’s I was interviewed for a job marketing educational publications. The interviewers were two male managers, one older and more senior than the other. The younger man asked me what childcare arrangements I had organised. I told him that was not an appropriate question and that I would not be wasting their time or my own if I had not made appropriate arrangements. He then muttered something about “Guardian readers”. I stood up, agreed that I read The Guardian along with several other publications and said that I would not wish to work with someone with attitudes like his. As I was leaving I could see that his senior colleague was highly amused at his discomfiture. Rather than depressing me the episode energised me and I went on to do a master’s degree and have a much more rewarding career but I’m so glad that things have improved and working women are less likely to be subjected to this kind of nonsense. On the other hand I don’t approve of women using the excuse of family responsibilities to dodge work which then falls to their colleagues!

Haven't ever walked out of an interview but I've refused a job offer where the boss was rude and obnoxious at interview. All the staff looked scared of him and very unhappy working there. Not for me

Had a interview with a rapidly promoted manager who definitely felt like the king of his castle. He lent back in his chair with his arms above his head, very smug very self satisfied.
I didn't think I'd get the job and frankly wasn't too bothered.
However got offered the job and took it due to the significantly higher wage.
Maybe he could tell there was zero respect but it took 9 arduous month for me to pick up my bag and leave. The fact it was in a monthly 121, after he extended my probation from 6 to 9 months didn't help matters. In said 121 he was building up to 'letting' me go, when I abruptly stood up and told him it could have been a phone call and left.
I was older than him and I think he found me a threat to his authority. No love lost.

About 15 years ago my son was interviewed for a job with a very small company. Among the questions the company director asked were ‘Did he get on better with his mother or his father? Did he find it a disadvantage to be an only child’. !! I was gobsmacked as I’d only worked in the public sector where by then anyone interviewing was trained in what questions should and shouldn’t be asked. I couldn’t believe that in the 21st century someone could find this relevant, acceptable and get away with it.

henetha

I didn't walk out but did bring the interview to an end when it was made clear to me that many in the office did smoke and I would just have to put up with it. So I stood up and said that couldn't tolerate that and goodbye.
This was some years ago, the nineties.

In the late 1980's a job interview was arranged for a Monday morning. As I would have to travel about twenty miles I decided to do a recce on the Sunday. On looking through the windows of the building in which I would possibly be working I saw ashtrays full of ash and cigarette ends. On returning home I left a message on the company answer phone declining the interview.

Yes many years ago when applying for my first professional post. The interview was in central London though the job itself somewhere in rural Essex. I arrived to be kept waiting for nearly fifty minutes (and I was already nervous!) and then in the interview it turned out the post would include far more financial responsibility, record keeping and statistical work than had been included in the (sketchy) job description. The final straw was when they told me I'd have to sit an hour long test. That was it, timid as I then was, I stood up and just left! Soon after I found a job that suited me far better and have been mostly happy at work ever since.

I once walked out of a job as a temp secretary because on the first day I was sent down to the basement to do filing. The room and all files were dusty and it would have taken me all day. I quickly realised that this very unpleasant task was left for a temp 'mug' like me. After an hour I told the company I was leaving and why, then phoned my agency.

Things were very different in the early 1970s. I was 18, at my first job interview. I was asked if I planned to get married and have a family, then if I had a boyfriend! These were common questions then, most of us had vague answers prepared. I did get the job!

My voice was very attractive to men of all ages before pre cancerous lumps were removed from my voicebox in my early 70’s. I was used to being offered jobs which meant that I had to chat to people on the phone and also used to being told I didn’t look like my voice.
One company which offered men different treatments for baldness, ranging from wigs to hair transplants, actually applied to my then employer asking if I would consider working for them at a salary which was nearly double I was then receiving. As I was then working through an agency they were amused and told me straight away.
I went for an interview and went in to 3 men squashed behind one desk. Before I said a word one told me that at the risk of being considered ageist he was not tempted to employ me as I was obviously nearing retirement age. I smiled sweetly and said in my very sexiest voice that I was sorry about that but after meeting him I was unable to consider working for his company and walked out.
Within seconds all 3 men had come after me saying that it was my voice they wanted to employ and hadn’t realised it could belong to someone so old.

I was once being interviewed for the job I was already doing. I was the only applicant. Daft situation really. However, at the end I was asked if I had any questions. I did. I asked something I was concerned about. To my amazement the interview panel got up and left the room. It turned out that they couldn't answer my question and needed to formulate a response. I didn't know what was going on.
Luckily I got the job.

Almost, but only because I'd messed up on the test beforehand - I didn't think it was worth going on. The persuaded me to stay for the interview, but I didn't get the job.

I have walked out of a few jobs, though.... but that's another story.

On visiting a workplace I was interested in, I was asked ‘how will you find time to iron your husbands shirts’. I didn’t apply for the job.

I wish i had walked out at least a few interviews. one was before I sat down I was asked when I was going to get pregnant/and have kids
secondly when I was in a different interview - the fact I was vegetarian came up. so the interviewer concentrated on the potential flatulence cause by eating pulses

I remember the first day I started in my last job, domestic for the NHS. When my supervisor was to do various bits of training with me on my first day she said to me - "Im wasting my time training you as with a posh accent like that I doubt you will stay long"!! I have an English accent and job was here in Scotland where I had lived at that point for 30 yrs.
She made my life miserable for a long while. I got ill healthed out of the job after nearly 20 yrs. So I did stay and loved it.

I’ve never walked out of a job interview, but did make one manager squirm in his seat as he wasn’t expecting anyone to challenge his working practices. His face was picture when after asking if I had any questions, I pulled out a small note pad and proceeded to ask several questions, which he struggled to answer. I came out the interview smiling and my husband who was waiting to take me out to lunch asked me what had I done, we had a laugh over lunch and when we arrived home I received a phone call from the HR manager offering me the job, she told me later on the manager had felt I was interviewing him not the other way about. During my time with company I got a good few working practices improved.