The job interview process is one of the most important steps in securing a new job. While it can be exciting to meet with potential employers and learn about the company, it’s also important to be aware of any warning signs that may indicate a negative work environment. In this article, we explore the job interview red flags that real people have experienced and why you should heed them. Whether it’s a lack of professionalism, a condescending tone, or a lack of transparency, these red flags can signal a toxic work environment that you should avoid. Don’t compromise your happiness and well-being by ignoring these red flags. Instead, use this guide to protect yourself from a bad workplace experience.
I just declined a job offer because someone walked into the interviewer’s office, bent over her shoulder and said “how much longer?” She said, “we started 10 minutes ago.” He repeated, “so how much time?” She showed him her progress on the interview notes. Again “how long will you be?” She ended up saying I don’t know and he left. It was so unprofessional and I could see her discomfort the whole time. Before going to the interview I read reviews and saw someone say the workplace was very overbearing with people always over your shoulder, I didn’t think it was literal until I saw it.
Had an interview in a nice part of my city, so I assumed that this company was well-established. I showed up to a pretty office building with huge sparkling windows and company names in gold lettering. When I actually got to the company’s office, there were boxes stacked in the waiting room and the only employees present were the receptionist and the interviewer. My belief was that this was a sales position, and I wasn’t wrong. When I asked the interviewer what it is the company sells, he responded that they work hard and are a family. I asked what the product is and he replied “our product is dedication and faith in the company”. I thanked him for his time and left.
Interviewed as a waitress for a local busy deli I loved eating at. The manager/owner was very irritable and kept interrupting the interview to bark orders at employees. Spent most of the interview b*tching about her lazy no-good employees.
Told me she needed someone to whip them into shape and make them work harder. Told me, “it’s so hard to find good help these days”
I am professional so let her finish. She offered me the job. I thanked her for her time and let her know I wouldn’t be returning as either a waitress or a guest. Haven’t been back since.
I interviewed to be a property manager for an office complex. We did the interview with a regional director and the company’s HR director. The interview took place in the office of the property manager they were to hire. About 15 minutes into the interview the regional director’s phone rang on loud. Instead of apologizing and continuing on, he answered the call. He was very loud on the phone and didn’t even say anything about being in the middle of an interview. The HR director looked at me and gave me a look that was like, sorry, he thinks he is a big deal. I looked around while he was on the phone and noticed there was a camera on the ceiling with their company logo on it that faced the property manager’s desk. That was the last straw. I stood up and shook the HR director’s hand and thanked him for his time. The regional director, who was still on the phone, asked me what was going on. I told him he is rude for not only answering his phone but taking the call, no one is that important and he can go to h*ll. Felt good walking out of there and never regretted it at all.
I once interviewed for a job wherein the interviewer actually directly told me that the job was extremely stressful and they’d had a slew of new hires quit within a month or two. (The job was at a psychiatric hospital). I thanked her for being honest with me and said that I was not interested. As she was walking me out, she leaned in and said, “you’re doing the right thing. Our last hire quit because he said he was having palpitations all the time here and was worried he would have a heart attack.”
About 3 years later, at another company, I saw one of the women who had interviewed me. She worked in a totally different position in a totally different setting. She said that the other woman who had interviewed me, the one who gave me the warning actually DID suffer a heart attack! She survived, and she stopped working there. I was so thankful she warned me. Most interviewers wouldn’t do that.
Edit: and in thinking more about that woman, obviously SHE was very stressed and SHE was having to cover work for that position that needed to be filled. She could have easily (and understandably) gone into survival mode and thought “you know what, let’s just hire her [meaning me] and then at least I will have some relief for a month or two until this one quits too.”
But she didn’t do that, she thought of my welfare, a stranger, over her own interests. And clearly, she was suffering. I would have relocated for that job too, about 150 miles. She was aware of that–maybe that played into her decision to warn me, maybe not. Either way, she was an extraordinary person.
I didn’t know it at the time, but “you’ll be wearing many hats” was a sign that they were going to give me the work of four positions and the wage of one. I didn’t last a year there before I left and now I won’t even finish reading job ads that include that line.
I once showed up for an interview and the manager wasn’t there that day. No one called me to let me know.
The assistant manager was not apologetic for the scheduling issue at all. She was literally just like “oh, she’s not here today” in a tone that suggested I should somehow already know that. She said they would call me to reschedule sometime the next week. I told her I was currently unavailable M-W but could come in any time Th-F. She said if I couldn’t make time for the interview, I probably wouldn’t be a good fit. I said okay, and went on to my other interviews and ended up working elsewhere.
You’d think that would be the end of it, but both the manager and the assistant manager badmouthed me to a few other people in the industry, including one of my friends.
Hello? I made time for an interview. You disrespected me by not calling me to let me know it was canceled. I gave you the times I was available to reschedule, and that was disrespectful somehow.
“We don’t like ‘clockwatchers’ here. We expect everyone to be committed.” Expecting more work for no extra pay. Getting mad at you when you leave at 5 even though your stated work hours end a 5
During my last semester in nursing school, I went ahead and started applying for jobs. One was on a neuro floor (adults) at a local hospital. Interestingly enough, my own neurologist worked at that hospital. Anyway, the posting showed day shift 3 12’s, which is what I wanted. I got a call to interview 2 days after applying. When I got on the floor, everyone looked absolutely exhausted. However, the part that bothered me was that no one said hi or smiled when I introduced myself. They just ignored me while I was waiting on the supervisor. I interviewed her, as well as three other nurses on the floor. There was desperation on their faces, and I think they were hoping this new grad would be grateful for a job. However, the supervisor told me the position was actually night shift. I explained that I could not do that, for several reasons (sleep deprivation = seizures for me). She said, no worries, we will just change it to the day shift. You can go ahead and start after graduation (even before I took the NCLEX). Suspicious…I got a call the next day with an offer. I actually did accept though, but I ended up changing my mind. The day before graduation, another job on another neuro floor (different hospital), was offered to me. More money and a sign-on bonus.
Employees are either new hires or have been there for 15+ years with no in-between. There is no room for improvement – it’s better to leave for advancement
When you are signing all the forms they give you and you are taking your time to read over every document so that you can fully understand what you are getting into and people come in and start telling you that you don’t need to read this and that just sign here and so on.
Had an online interview with a company a few years ago.
Was interviewed by the regional manager, seemed like a normal interview.
Halfway through, he let slip that there were six other people from his company watching and listening in, but the software was set up so I could not see or hear them.
And he actually got a kick out of telling me this.
It was like being on a first date with someone, and finding out later she had a hidden camera on her and her parents and six other family members were watching the whole time.
I was once told, “Sometimes the hourly workers go on strike and they lock us in to keep the production line running, but management brings us steaks and we have an informal agreement with the unions so you can cross the picket lines once a week to visit your wife.”
I worked at a pizza place once, as the opener. I worked 9 to 5, and the first few hours of my job were just me prepping ingredients. I usually showed up 15 minutes early because that’s just how my schedule worked.
One of the other managers (I was technically a manager because I worked alone) said people thought it was rude that I always left at 5 sharp. Even if the place was super busy and people were struggling, 5 pm hit and I was out the door. He asked me, “Why do you leave at 5 even though we need help?” and I replied, “Because that’s when you stop paying me.”
I think a lot of people forget that labour is exchanged for currency, and there is no other transaction taking place. I get the money so I can leave and use the money to do the things I’d like to be doing if I didn’t have to work.
I was told we want a long-term employment. Don’t just leave after 5-6 years. Ok. What do you pay, and what about raises? His response. $12 an hour. 3-4% increases every year. Nope. Told him I’m all set. This was an armored truck service. I had to carry my gun and wear a vest. They did offer to pay for it, they just took it out of your pay. $600 for the handgun and $400 for the vest. (You had to possess a permit to carry prior to applying)
I went back to Private EMS. Same pay, but I didn’t have to protect other people’s money with my life for peanuts.
My issue with this is that this seemed like a place that would absolutely abuse you if anyone ever found out you were looking somewhere else. We want long-term employment and will pay you sh*t. To me, this means “we will retaliate and make your life h*ll if you try to leave”
When they tell you “what I’m paying you stays between you and me, don’t discuss pay with anyone else” usually means they are trying to pay you less than your coworkers who do the same job and don’t want you to know.
“You not going to have kids anytime soon, are you?”.
“What are your childcare arrangements?”.
These are both things my wife has been on the receiving end of. You’d assume you wouldn’t apply if it was an issue, right? Funnily enough, I’m a man and I’ve never been asked.
“We have a very special work culture here, it takes special people to thrive.”
Not always, but often means that the workplace is a pressured h*ll-hole with unreasonable demands heaped on staff and a kind of nasty employee-blaming mindset when things don’t work out.
Did an interview at a university a while back for a faculty position. At the point of the interview process where I met other members of the department’s faculty, they were telling me about and laughing at two previously interviewed contenders for the position. They were obnoxiously cruel, insensitive, and boorish as they mocked the previous interviewees.
Their behavior around a total stranger who was also interviewing for the position told me everything I needed to know about them as professionals, human beings, and potential future ‘friends’.
I was offered the job… I took a different position at a different university. Never looked back.
I scheduled an interview at a nursing home for a night nurse position. I arrived 15 minutes early, told the front desk who I was, and then sat and waited. Then waited some more. 35 minutes later, they still didn’t know who was going to interview me. They were talking about it right in the lobby I was sitting in. After 45 minutes, I stood up and said “I’ll just make it easier on you, I’m not interested.”
On my way to my car, I passed some professionally dressed women loudly discussing how they were “going to go in and write everybody up”. I turned to look at them and made eye contact, then left.
I tried to get a part-time job at the university but the interviewer out of the gate said he didn’t think a woman could do the job. I showed up to the interview to find he’d “forgotten” to tell me I had to prove I could lift a 30lb rock core, and obviously I couldn’t do that in my interview dress and heels. He wasn’t happy when I disproved him.
If the sexism wasn’t enough, he then said the job was 30 hours a week during the day – exactly during the time of 90% of the college classes. When I pointed this out, he said to switch to night classes (mid-semester)or drop out.
I left and reported him to student employment services.
I’m a nurse, and I interviewed for two positions at the same company (two different units). At the end when they asked if I had any questions, I asked both managers, “What are some changes or transitions your unit is currently working through?” Both of them mentioned they were leaving by the end of the month. I felt like if management was leaving and if they were both desperate to hire nurses, something bigger must be going on behind the scenes.
I had a weird interview years ago. I was applying to be a trade sales assistant as the job details and duties seemed to match what I was already doing at my temp job at the time.
The office didn’t feel like an office, it looked like only interviewers were there and a receptionist was extremely quiet and never looked at anyone. You didn’t see other workers or things going on which I thought was strange.
-Red Flag number one (It didn’t feel like an office, especially since I’ve worked in a few they have a certain way they are set up to be appealing to clients but also people running about busy and talking, I saw none of that) It didn’t feel professional. I’ve worked in start-ups but even then they had this feeling of people working and being productive.
I was in an interview with a woman and she asked me one or two questions then suddenly went into this huge pitch and I couldn’t understand anything she said because she was talking super fast. I picked up words like “soon you’ll be a manager before you know it” and stuff like that. In my eyes when you talk so fast about something like this (a pitch or important details) they are hoping to miss something.
My mental alarm bells went off after that. I didn’t hear a single thing about my role as a trade assistant, you know the person they apparently needed for their company. Red Flag.
I knew that since my job description never came up once, they were not actually looking for what they claimed online. I said thank you and left. Within two hours I got an email that I’m good for the job somehow and I needed to come in again on Friday that week. I sent them an email saying I must decline as I was no longer interested in the position. Never heard back from them again.
When I checked glass door and a few other sites, I realized this company has a habit of bringing people in with these job positions on LinkedIn but in reality, according to the claims, they were taking prospective employees on the street to do commission-only based sales. Like wearing a uniform and standing outside to hand out flyers, no matter what you applied for. Even if you applied as a receptionist you did this.
I reported them on LinkedIn right away as they were lying about these positions.
So yeah the red flags were how they seemed to be holding back info when I was there and I had a gut feeling something was wrong not to mention the interviewer was giving off warning signs.
Had a job interview at a game studio. Wasn’t a dream job or anything, but my company was having troubles and I was sure I was going to lose my job soon, so I started looking for work.
The whole interview was conducted by their managing director, who was no developer and had no real knowledge of game design, with their lead game designer sitting there as well but not really saying much.
In all my life I had never had a more awkward interview. The guy was actively trying to make me feel insecure and it was clear that he was immensely pleased with himself when he managed to unsettle me.
We proceeded to talk about salary and he told me to name my price, but that I should know that he has a maximum salary and that if I ask for more I wouldn’t get the job, because he doesn’t haggle.
The smug little f*cker then proceeded to beam at me across the desk and you could see that he was super proud of himself.
Didn’t get the job, but some friends of mine ended up working there. Turned out the guy was a supreme *sshole who was also very incompetent.
Who would have thought that someone who thinks the best way to lead a job interview is to bully the applicant would turn out to be a massive *sshole and a really bad boss.
I once applied for a job as a laborer at the local shipping company’s warehouse. They asked me to come in for a job interview and bring copies of my resume and criminal record, which I thought was reasonable since everybody else was asking for the same. The interview was conducted by the supervisor of the department, but the manager of the warehouse was also present for the interview. When I handed the documents to the supervisor he was immediately visually surprised and went “Woah! Hey, check it out! A clean record!” to the manager.
And that was it. The next thing I knew the interview was over and the manager went “alright kid, let’s show you around the place.”
Your prospective teammates all appear to be fearful.
The HR representative tells you that if you leave before one year you will be responsible for the $10,000 recruiting fee.
If this is a contract, the customer or broker says that the first month’s pay is withheld until the end of the contract period of one year, and also the contract rate is lower because they are “guaranteeing” a year’s engagement… but the contract says they can terminate at will.
During the interview process, try to come into contact with as many of the existing employees as possible and see how they act and how they treat you. During one interview process many years ago, the other girls I met came off as kind of b*tchy. Then during the interview, the boss asked me if I’m a “girly girl” – which I’m obviously not and I confirmed it. She said it was a girly girl environment so I might find it hard to fit in. So for me, that was a massive red flag for b*tchiness and toxicity. Got the job, but turned it down.
For later job interview processes I asked to meet a number of employees during the interview process and this was facilitated for me. If there’s nothing to hide and it’s a good environment, they’ll be happy to make this happen for you. I’d say it’s an incredibly useful thing to do to make sure the place matches your work ethic and your values.
When the interviewer is actively telling you how much the job sucks.
The manager of the Domino’s who interviewed looked like she was ready to cry during the whole thing. I knew right then and there I wasn’t going to be there long. She informed me during the interview that it’s “just like high school here” aka people were immature d*ckwads and nobody was getting 30 hours because then upper management would have to give them benefits.
I got the job and she quit on my second day I hadn’t even been trained and my only shifts were during the afternoon rush during the height of the pandemic. 4/5 of the people who were there when I first started working there either quit or were let go over the course of about 3 months. My paycheck was late several times. One of our drivers was regularly allowed to sit in the back room folding boxes for an hour during the rush because he had to charge his ankle monitor, essentially he wasn’t doing his job when we needed all the drivers we could get.
And to top it all off I got fired for getting close to 30 hours. They claimed it was because I’d had multiple warnings about my performance even though I’d never heard any complaints or comments or anything about how well I was doing. I was on time every day and was responsible for training everyone who came after me until I got let go.
Again, some guy sat on his *ss all shift and was fine but I got let go because I kept asking for more hours!
The entire department had been fired and replaced 6 months ago. The interviewer (my future boss and department head) spent most of it talking about his divorce and explaining in detail all the other people in other critical departments he didn’t like and refused to work with.
I was then told he’d love to hire me as I was young so they could pay me £10k less than the job was advertised at but that before they’d make me an offer I had to go through another 4 stages on interview.
To top it off the interview was held in a “flexible working space” that was literally a coffee table and chairs in the middle of a very busy corridor.
You will open and close the restaurant. (this is 15 hours a day, minimum)
You will start at 30,000/year.
My answer: since I already told you I have a business degree, you should realize that I can do the math, and I am not willing to work for less than five dollars an hour.
When I was having my interview with the hiring manager, who seemed excited about the company and the job, he brought me into the conference room. Where the owner was. Who, I believe, forgot there was an interview at the time/day in that room.
But he stayed for the interview, so he could keep watching his golf game while holding an unlit cigar in his hand. (Can’t remember if the sound was on and low, or if he muted it).
And the only question he asked was when he heard the name of a previous company I’d worked for, was “Oh so did they talk about me? What’d they say? Probably not nice things.”
Yes, in fact, they did. No, I didn’t tell him what they said. They said he makes female engineers cry, kind of pointedly, since I am both an engineer and female… He was asking as my previous company formed out of a group of ppl that left his company, to start a competing company.
I moved to a new state. Was looking for employment and happened to be in the same restaurant chain getting food. Asked about a job while waiting at the bar. When I mentioned I worked for one of the busiest and newest ones, the first one in its area (literally an NRO or new restaurant opening, everyone was trained in a corporate-run program) I got an immediate interview with the kitchen manager. He was interested.
The first major red flag is “I have cooks who have been working here for 15 years” so literally zero upward mobility which I kinda figured.
The second was the biggest red flag ever
“why did you quit?” So I told him honestly.
“How did you find you out you were paid less than other cooks?”
“Uhh, I asked them?”
“Well, I would’ve fired them for that. Your pay is between you and your boss”
“You can’t do that… And my pay is between me and anyone I wish to talk about it with”
“I can fire anyone for any reason”
“Not according to the National Labor Relations Act, but o-f*cking-k chief. We’re done here”
Luckily my to-go wings had just been brought to be because the manager became a bit angry after I said that.
Interviewing for a PR position at a dying symphony. During the interview, they asked for ideas on how I’d get larger audiences. Told them matinees for families that played music the kids would enjoy would be my first strategy.
‘We don’t want kids or teens in the audience’
A complete lack of flexibility isn’t a good sign in arts management.
I recently submitted my resume for a job online. The next day I got an email saying, you have moved on to the next phase of the interviewing process, here is a link to a personality test we would like you to take. I emailed them back and said, you haven’t reached out to me in any meaningful way, called or anything and you want me to submit a psychological profile? No thank you. He emailed me back and practically begged me to take the test. I replied back that I would be happy to take a personality test later in the process if there is mutual interest in my employment there. To not even have a single conversation with me prior to asking me to submit a psych test tells me that you have a culture I don’t want to be a part of. That was the end of it.
Got called for an interview at one school. Got a call an hour later from another school wanting to set up an interview. They asked me “What time is your other interview” as I was honest and said I had a different interview that day. “What would happen if they offered you a job?” they asked. I was flabbergasted.
I had the interview at 9 at the other school. They said to come in at 8.
Get there and the principal didn’t know my name, that I had interned in that school, and just wanted to gossip about the teachers that I taught under when I mentioned my internship. It was maybe 15 minutes long. I hated it and it was clear I wouldn’t fit in.
I left that interview and went to the other one. The other one lasted an hour of just talking about my teaching philosophy and how much I enjoy teaching my students. Basically got the job right then and there.
So far, I’ve enjoyed this school. I’m so happy the other one didn’t work out. It was a sh*t school, to begin with when I was an intern there. No one seemed to like their job. The school I got hired in is just down the street and so welcoming.
I just turned down a job because they said they didn’t offer sick days as “the science proves that people abuse sick days”, and that if I couldn’t get my shift covered I’d only be allowed to call in if I was “on a gurney into surgery after a car accident or something”. Direct quote. I have a chronic illness that requires surgery every year or two so I brought that up, and they started asking detailed questions about my medical conditions and then said “everyone has problems”. NOPE.
Oh, they also had me do a “working interview” to see if I was a good fit, then disappeared for over an hour and I was sitting there wanting to leave but couldn’t find anyone to sign off to. They didn’t pay me for that time lol
I was in a job interview with like 6 people around the table. All white guys. In Canada. It was going really good till the end when one of them say “so what are you?” I was shocked so I looked around and said: “I’m Persian”. He starts laughing at me and says “Persia hasn’t existed since the early 1900s” I was so shocked. So I said “when you asked me what are you I assumed you meant my ethnicity. I was born in Iran. Which is a nationality. What do you prefer me to be?” He started laughing at me. But the other guys looked uncomfortable. Turns out he was the company owner. About a month into the job he accused me of being a thief and a cleptomaniac and fired me even though I was performing amazingly and had not done anything wrong. I think about it almost every day. It’s been about 6 years.
I walked into a job interview once at an open space office. I realized very fast that I was the only woman in the room. It was a small company, but not small enough that there would be no women present at all. Towards the end of the interview, another woman walked into the space, walked up to the coffeemaker, and kind of announced to the room that it was a mess again, why hasn’t anyone cleaned it up? And with a huff, started organizing it.
I even asked about it in the interview. They said of course there are more women! They even got one to call me up after the interview, to prove there are girls. You shouldn’t have to do that.
There were other red flags there, but don’t work for any company that’s homogenous. If you can’t see any women/people of color in a big room, it speaks volumes about company culture, hiring practices, etc. At my next job, I met a woman who’d worked at that company and told me that I dodged a major bullet – she’d gotten a concussion on the job and they were trying to cheat her out of benefits.
When you ask, “what do you like about working here” and the interviewer talks about the location of the job (“it’s a great place to live!”) instead of the actual job.
They asked me to commit to working there for a minimum of 3 years.
I told them I’d stay forever as long as I was being treated well and compensated appropriately. I asked them why they wanted a 3-year minimum and they explained they’d had people leave after only working there for a few months.
They started back-peddling madly when I asked them why people were leaving who had only worked there for a few months.
Mass firing of several employees prior to the job posting because “they weren’t a good fit.”
Hallmark of a toxic work environment where blame is spread readily and management’s conclusion is that they just had the wrong people.
I took a job once where I found out only after I was employed that one of those who was mass fired was tricked to come in on a Sunday just so they could fire him.
I often heard managers say, “Do the job or I’ll find someone who can.”
I was in the final round of an interview for a marketing position at a major Ad Agency. One of the younger associates that would be on the team kept asking/hinting at the general q: “Can you handle challenging/difficult personalities? That’s going to be a major component of the job and managing expectations and such of high-level managers on other teams.”
I’m not sure if she was genuinely trying to warn me that the job involves working with difficult people or if she wanted me to turn down the job because she had a friend/connect that was also in the running.
“We start at 12$ here for everyone no matter the experience then after ur 6-month trial is up we move u up to 13$ an hour. And after every year you go up!”
Me:” but the job listing said 14$ an hr starting pay and I was hoping since I have 5 years working in childcare at 2 different places and with the local school district during Those 5 years and my certifications are up to date, and I have SELMA training and everything. I could do 15$ or 15.25/50$”
Them” everyone starts at 12$”
I said nope after that and ignored all calls/emails, and plus while I was there I watched how a teacher worked with her 13-18-month-olds…..screaming and just bad vibes.
