'Everyone was flabbergasted...': IT job hopeful walks out of panel interview after 5 minutes

An IT job applicant’s decision to walk out of a hospital interview just five minutes in has sparked a heated conversation online about outdated and aggressive hiring tactics. Posting on Reddit, the candidate shared what he described as a “disrespecting” experience that caught him completely off guard.

“Today I had an appointment for an interview as an IT employee for a hospital. I had only had one phone call with HR and she told me I was invited on site for a short 30-minute interview, so I went there expecting it to be an easy-going conversation,” he wrote.

But what he walked into was far from that. According to the post, he was ushered into a small room and made to sit with his back against the wall, directly facing a panel of five people—including a manager, a technical staffer, and two HR trainees. “They all sat very close in my personal space, all eyes on me,” he recalled.

The interview quickly turned into a barrage of “classic stupid questions about gaps and previous experiences,” with no effort made to discuss the actual role. Feeling blindsided, he decided to cut the session short: “I answered a few rapid-fire questions and then told them I didn’t find this a pleasant way of recruiting and walked out. Everyone was flabbergasted including myself. Must been a world record.”

The post struck a chord with users who shared their own frustrations with poorly handled interviews.

One user wrote, “I've been to some interviews where they basically treated me like shit, and I always wished I had just walked out right when they started rather than sitting there taking a beating for an hour.”

Another added, “Managers who think this is a good way to see if employees 'thrive under pressure' are usually the 'pressure' their employees feel; not their responsibilities.”

A third user emphasized the need for transparency: “It’s one thing to think you are going to be speaking with one person but to have a panel interview with no heads-up is not cool.”

Others shared their own horror stories, including one where a female intern was interviewed by six male employees seated in a row across a large conference table. “The optics alone were just terrible… No more than three of our people in an interview at a time, and don’t all sit on one side of the table,” the commenter said.