A job seeker’s virtual interview, intended to showcase her professionalism, took a disastrous turn when her phone’s Google Assistant unexpectedly activated. The techie recounted on Reddit how the assistant began reading a random Wikipedia entry aloud, causing her to become flustered and lose focus for the remainder of the critical interview.
“My body is literally still shaking from the amount of embarrassment that happened about an hour ago,” she wrote on the platform. “I had a Zoom interview for a job I really wanted, and I was trying my best to appear professional and confident. Suddenly, the Google Assistant on my phone decided to activate on its own and started reading a Wikipedia article about something completely random out loud.”
The incident left her feeling completely out of sorts, impacting her performance for the rest of the interview.
The post quickly garnered a wide range of reactions on social media. One user commented, “Even ignoring what it says about potential job performance, nobody really wants to work with someone who completely lacks grace under pressure. People hire people they want to work with. If someone crashes out over their Google Assistant activating, how are they going to react after they really screw up, like dropping a table in production or something like that?”
Another user expressed a different perspective: “I feel like there’s more to the story here. Why did it upset you so much? It doesn’t sound like a big issue to me. Just say ‘Excuse me’ and turn it off.”
Others offered sympathy and advice, with one user suggesting, “If this happened while I was interviewing, I would make sure the person was able to handle it and settle down first. People being interviewed are stressed, and we don’t get the best interview if we don’t help soothe that. I’m sorry it was stressful. I’m wishing for the best!” Another added, “You could have just said, excuse me, I don’t know why my phone is taking right now, and turned it off. These things happen.”
(Disclaimer: This report is based on user-generated content from social media. HT.com has not independently verified the claims and does not endorse them.)