How could he be so foolish?

Job interviews are a tough nut to crack. As the interviewee, it feels like the interviewer has all the power, and you have to read their cues and predict what they want to have a shot at the job. You feel like you have to answer every single question, no matter how silly or pointless. «Are you a morning or a night person?» obviously has a right and a wrong answer when you’re interviewing for a job that starts at 8 AM. «What is your biggest weakness?» has so many wrong answers, including but not limited to, «I work too hard.» When you’re in an interviewing stage of life, you have your four STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, Result) stories rolling around in your head, and you have to be incredibly strategic about which answers you give to which behavioral questions.

While some job interviews are incredibly complex, others are just a formality to make sure that you’re not going to be a total nightmare to work with, and that you understand basic workplace etiquette. If you show up to a job interview wearing a sweatshirt and gym shorts, how can the recruiter expect you to know how to dress in a professional setting? If you bring your mom to the job interview, there’s a good chance you will bring your mom to work, and that’s exactly why the young man in this story didn’t get the job he applied for.