Job seeker ruined interview after misunderstanding simple question

Going for a job interview can be a stressful event, especially if you answer a question wrong. But what if that one question ruined your chance at landing the job?

Now, that would be awkward.

Unfortunately, that’s exactly what happened to this one person who misunderstood one pivotal question they were asked which could have got them the job.

There's plenty of tricks and pitfalls which interviewers employ to get what they think is a better insight into the candidates, and you've got to be prepared to have good answers for them.

It usually helps to actually figure out what the question is really asking before you fire away with your answers.

For instance, you may think you're telling the interviewer what they want to hear, but it's not going to make a good impression if you don't understand what they're talking to you about… it makes it a tough thing to continue past.

One person admitted they ruined their interview before it even began. Getty Stock Images

One poor soul went on to muck up their interview within seconds, leaving the next hour to pass by in autopilot.

Good old Reddit is the perfect place to share this type of information and recently someone created a post asking how people had destroyed their chances of getting a job during the interview.

They kicked off the post by admitting that two minutes into an hour-long interview they were asked 'tell me how you got here today' and their answer was 'by bus'.

That seems like a perfectly good answer, except that’s not what the interviewer meant.

Realising that they instead were asking about it in a career-sense and not how they physically made it to the office, they said that 'the remaining 58 minutes were going through the motions'.

This prompted plenty of others to share their own interview blunders, with someone else admitting that when asked 'what's your background' they turned around and started describing what had been behind them.

Okay, that’s probably worse than the bus thing.

Another in the comments said they were asked whether they had a driving licence and a car, to which they responded that they did, before being asked 'is it clean' and telling the interviewer they just washed their car recently, only to realise they were asking about points on the licence.

To be honest, some of those questions were ambiguous. Getty Stock Images

To be honest, these questions were ambiguously worded, and to ask somebody 'how you got here today', it's entirely reasonable to assume they'd tell you about their journey in.

One person even admitted that they'd gone for a job as a GP receptionist and got a call with no ID, leading them to pick up the phone and answer with silence.

However, it turned out to be someone calling to test their phone manner as part of the application process, and they didn't get the job.

Someone else shared how they’d exaggerated slightly on their CV and said they knew French, only to be bamboozled when their interviewer opened the conversation in fluent French.

"The interview was over before she'd even sat down," they admitted.

So, maybe prep yourself to high heavens before entering the interview room and treat everything like a work-related question.