Woman Wanted Earth To Swallow Her After Embarrassing Misunderstanding At Job Interview

A woman in the Netherlands was praying for the ground to swallow her up after an embarrassing misunderstanding at a job interview.

The prospective employee had an interview with a CEO in person (which is very 2019 isn't it?) and she said she was 'super nervous', as she really wanted the job.

But when the CEO arrived, she made an embarrassing cock up.

Recalling what went down on Reddit, she said: "I tried to calm myself down but by the time the interviewer showed up I could literally feel my heartbeat in my throat. He (50ish/M) walked down the stairs towards me, in his nice suit, but stopped halfway down.

"I figured the interview would take place upstairs, so I got up to meet him. And as I was walking up the stairs towards him, he put his arm up.. and his elbow out. And my brain just sort of went 'ERRORRR!'.

"I suppose it could have only meant two things. It could have meant (A) 'Please take my arm, milady, so I can escort you to the room as if we're strolling down the promenade together', or (B) 'Please give me an elbow bump, since we can't shake hands', which is really not an uncommon gesture at all in the Netherlands. So what did I do?"

I'm afraid there are zero prizes for guessing folks - she plumped for option A.

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Her post continued: "I eagerly locked arms with this strange man that I'd never met before in my life, as if saying 'yes, good sir, let's go for that stroll'.

"And then we just stood there! Arm in arm, halfway up the stairs, sheepishly staring at each other. I wanted the earth to swallow me whole. I just didn't know what to do next and I don't think he'd fully understood what'd happened, so neither of us moved.

"When he'd finally gathered his senses, he said 'I eh.. meant to give you an elbow-bump?', after which I quickly put as much distance between us as I could and mumbled 'Right! Right, yes, that makes much more sense'. Because it did, let's face it.

"And then we had the interview."

Man, it's hard enough delivering coherent answers when you're paranoid about your clammy hands and your sweaty pits - imagine trying to get your sh*t together after that.

She must have done something right though, as she has since provided the following update: "OH MY WORD! I've been invited to the second round of interviews!"

Maybe it was charming after all?

Topics: Viral, Funny, Community, Reddit

Jake Massey

Jake Massey is a journalist at LADbible. He graduated from Newcastle University, where he learnt a bit about media and a lot about living without heating. After spending a few years in Australia and New Zealand, Jake secured a role at an obscure radio station in Norwich, inadvertently becoming a real-life Alan Partridge in the process. From there, Jake became a reporter at the Eastern Daily Press. Jake enjoys playing football, listening to music and writing about himself in the third person.

@jakesmassey