Most hiring managers would find an inquisitive candidate a delight. Whether it’s a question about company policies or asking for clarification on something, it shows that an applicant is determined to provide the best answers possible because they are serious about the role they’ve come in for.
This wasn’t the case for one TikToker, who shared in a viral video posted last week how a job interviewer chastised her for asking him questions of her own.
Graphic designer Korina (@sweetholywater) said she was excited to speak with the company, as she loves interviewing and was eager to go in person. She said she took a seat on an office couch across from two men who began describing the role in a manner that was “really intense,” though she relished it.
“I had a couple questions for him. He just did not like that,” Korina revealed of one job interviewer to over 47,700 viewers. “There was one question that he asked where I just asked for a little more clarity, and then he was like, ‘Actually, I want you to just answer the question, because I’m interviewing you and this is an interview.’”
Korina described the situation as “belittling,” stating that “the weirdness just continued” after that moment. The men asked her to share work that could not be found in her portfolio, which she had prepared for since they had emailed her ahead of time asking for such.
“I even emailed it to them prior at 8am that morning,” Korina said in her Mar. 11 TikTok. She offered to walk the men through the entire portfolio or allow them to choose specific projects they wanted to discuss, she said.
“Again, he said in a sarcastic tone—I’m not really sure if this is supposed to be a joke, it was very strange—he was like, ‘It’s not like you’re interviewing with two executives of the company,’” she shared.
An even stranger comment about the “suggestive” nature of some work Korina had done for Nike solidified the weird vibes, as the project was centered around women’s sports bras.
“I tried to just let it roll off me the whole time, but it was comment after comment,” she said. “By the end of it, they’re like, ‘Now’s the time for questions. Now’s where you ask questions.’”
@sweetholywater if you guess what company it was i will tell u
♬ original sound – korina
She tried apologizing for asking what may have been perceived to be too many questions at the start of the interview, to which they claimed they normally followed a structured interview process.
“There was just a belittling, condescending nature to the way that everything was conducted,” Korina explained in her video. “I felt so uncomfortable and it was really disappointing.”
She revealed that the motivation behind her questions was the hope of discovering whether or not the role would be a nice fit for her as well as the company, an explanation that many viewers found perfectly reasonable.
“Interviewing is a two way street. He’s just ego driven. The worst type of bosses,” one top comment read. “You dodged a bullet.”
“What kind of interviewer doesn’t encourage questions? Huge red flag,” user @leedellee opined.
Regarding the comment about the Nike project, some viewers urged Korina to report the interviewer to the company’s human resources department for unprofessionalism.
“He’s acting as a representative of that company and doing a really poor job. Definitely tell someone,” one pointed out.
Other viewers shared similar strange interview experiences in the video’s comment section.
“I had a first round interview last week that was also with 2 men. It was not for a computer science position but they just grilled me on CS stuff. Felt like they were on a power trip,” one viewer said.
“I did an interview where they put me in a room with a worksheet of math and grammar problems and timed me without my phone,” another revealed. “What a strange experience idk why i didn’t question it then.”
“The thing is, they failed my interview,” Korina stated at the end of her TikTok. “Are you nice people? Decent people to work with? That’s my one requirement when I’m working for a 9-5, if I’m working 40-plus hours a week.”
The nonexistence of that common decency made it clear she didn’t want to work there anyway, she determined.
“I could tell it just didn’t exist there, so I’m very happy I got the red flags early,” she concluded.
The Daily Dot reached out to Korina via Instagram direct message.
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