HR Managers Reveal the Interview Red Flags That Can Cost Candidates a Job: ‘Don’t Come in and Be a Robot or Use AI’

A thread posted on r/AskReddit on October 23, 2026, asks people in HR which red flags hurt a candidate’s chances of getting hired. The thread had drawn more than 68 upvotes and 88 comments at the time of publication.

One commenter said they prioritize preparation and honesty over clothing when interviewing candidates. They want applicants to be themselves, saying, “I really want the person to be themselves in the interview.” Unless a clear dress code applies, they said, jeans and a nice polo are appropriate.

The recruiter added that the economy is rough and that most people work for a paycheck, which is a valid reason for wanting a job. As for preparation, they wrote, “Just show me in the interview that you have read up on our company and what we do. I’m probably talking to 10 other people and at least half of them have that skill you don’t.”

Their list of red flags began with “Not knowing anything about the company.” The commenter also pointed to “not communicating the skills you claim you have” and said applicants should avoid coming across as automatons. “Don’t come in and be a robot,” they wrote. If a candidate is late, they want them to explain the reason directly. “If you’re up front with me, I won’t hold it against you; we’re all human,” they added.

Another commenter described rejecting qualified applicants because of their grooming and clothing. They wrote, “I’ve only hired 3 people, interviewed about 40 total.” They estimated that “around 30 of the 40 were perfectly good candidates and probably better than the ones I hired.”

The Redditor felt that those applicants presented themselves poorly through their clothing and grooming, acknowledging that the standard sounded shallow. “I refuse to hire anyone that doesn’t even take the time to care about their appearance for 1 hour of the day,” they said.

A separate reply from a self-described hiring manager identified the use of AI during remote interviews as a red flag. “Not HR, but a hiring manager,” they wrote. “Using AI in the virtual interview to listen and feed you answers. Yeah, we can tell.”

Another commenter questioned whether advice from interviewers can help applicants at all. They wrote that “one red flag is someone else’s green flag” and that “there’s no way at all any applicant will know which is which for the interviewer.” They concluded, “Posts like these are moot.”

Another commenter described a job candidate who gave a candid answer when asked why they wanted the role. According to the commenter, when they and an HR lead asked the candidate, the answer was, “To be honest, saw the job ad and thought it looked ok, don’t really know anything about you.”

“I love his honesty,” they wrote, “but it looked like HR was about to have a fit.”

The Daily Dot was unable to independently verify the accounts described in this thread. The details above reflect the commenters’ accounts as shared on r/AskReddit. The commenters’ identities, their described roles in hiring and the interviews they described have not been confirmed.