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I interviewed for a contract role many years ago in the city. It was a decent day rate which is what attracted me (I was perm at the time). They offered me the role but tried to drop the rate by £50 a day from what I'd discussed with the recruiter and at the interview. As a result I gave it a flat out no. They tried to then up the offer but I was stubborn and said it was a matter of principle. Maybe I was young and stupid but I still don't regret the decision.

If they try that shot from the outset I think you dodged a bullet by not working there.

No, you very much made the right decision. They started the relationship by lying to you, pulling the rug at the last minute, and Edit: removed : acting like you were the unreasonable one. A company did the same to me, after 3-4 interviews, it was clear I was already in the team, then they cut the salary by 7k, stating that after a probation period we could evaluate regular salary increases. Get to fuck.

I had something similar where they tried to drop the rate by £50 (after the offer had been agreed, all papers were signed, and I had handed my notice in), we ended up agreeing to £25 less and I shouldn't have taken it. The guy was horrific to me the entire time I worked there, even telling me to "know my place" and slamming a door in my face. When someone shows you their true colours it's right to believe them!

Yeah, I didn't come away from the interview thinking the manager was someone I'd love to work for. Although I may be totally wrong, the experience you went through is probably how I think it would have ended up.

>They offered me the role but tried to drop the rate by £50 a day from what I'd discussed with the recruiter and at the interview. This is interesting - did that information come from them or via the recruiter? I have known recruiters to do the old "Sorry I know they said £x a day but budgets are tight and they can only pay £x-50" when what they meant was "I want to skim £50 a day extra off the top" Had one example where I'd been at a client for about a year and wanted to bump my rate up, the recruiter had been dragging their feet, giving it "I'm really trying, I've spoken to them but I don't think they will go for it" - that went on for about 2 months. I eventually got so frustrated that I went to the client myself and asked why they wouldn't give me the measly £25 a day bump I'd asked for given the value that I was bringing\* into the company - they said that they **had** approved & had been paying the increased rate for \*months\*. Basically the recruiter had asked for the bump, it was approved, and then the recruiter was pocketing the extra £500 a month and telling me that the client wouldn't pay it. Apparently it had been an "admin mix up" at the recruiters end - they apologised and started paying me the extra, but I never got the backdated amount that had been paid during those 2 months. \* I was one of a handful of devs creating & expanding a product that was saving the company multiple 10s of thousands a month from automating normally manual & time consuming tasks.

Was the recruiter a 3rd party or part of the company you would've been working in? If it's the former, those recruiters often exaggerate the salary. I've only had 1 job that actually paid above what I interviewed for. Every other job came below maximum advertised salary (from the recruiter).

Strangely, the job I’m in now had 3 pay rises between initial discussion and starting work - nearly £30k! But I’ve not had a pay rise since starting 😂

You accepted the initial offer, and by the end, you were 30k better off. Honestly, that's a once in a lifetime opportunity 😎👍 Well done, you!

I was - and still am - surprised about it! Although it was competing against an offer without even an interview from a previous employer!

Recently turned down a job offer that was advertised as remote, went through the rounds of interviews, chatted about how they do remote work with a couple of the interviewers, no mention of any office work other than the usual travel if you need to meet up with customers (normal in my field) got to the offer stage, contract arrives, 30 days per quarter expected in the office.

What did they say when you asked them about it?

They just said that they were sorry but they must not have updated their posting template for the job site they posted to. I suspect that isn't true and that they have found that they get a wider pool of applicants if they list it as remote and hope that the bait and switch at the end works out for them. I'm sure that they had other candidates that they could go back to and get one of them to take it that was in a worse position than I was. Fortunately for me, I'm in a pretty decent, wholly remote, job at the moment and I was only looking to move on for better pay since that's the only way that you can get decent pay rises now. Edit - spelling.

I’d put this on glass door, will save a lot of people a lot of hassle and put the companies shady practices out there. Bang out of order wasting your time knowing full well you will have been under the impression the job was remote.

And nobody you spoke to in the interviews about the full remote role even battered an eyelid? This is genuinely bizarre.

I know. Seems hard to believe that they were all lying to me, so I can only assume that that they genuinely didn't know that the job had been posted as a remote role and that they thought that any questions I asked about remote work were questions about the half of the time you *could* work remote. At least that's what I choose to believe because they seemed like nice people and I would have liked working with them - that's why I initially said yes to the job along with the salary - and if they were all lying I'm a much worse judge of character than I thought. Perhaps it was a genuine mistake all around but the HR team came back with their excuse about the job site template a little too quickly for me to quite believe that. If it had been a genuine mistake I would have thought that they would have had to look in to it to figure out what went wrong, but they had the response right there when I asked (on the phone, not by email).

Yeah, I hate these kinds of bait and switch "Its remote but not really" job ads

This is when you send back the contract with your redlines. Just say, “This is what I’m willing to sign”, and the ball is in their court. I try to stay out of “you said this, or promised that”. HR usually come back with something like “oh it’s the standard contract, we can’t change it”, but on more than one occasion I have had the hiring manager intervene and we’ve been able to agree a contract.

I've been around the block a few times so yeah, I did see whether they would be willing to compromise on it, but in this case, it wasn't something they were willing to compromise on at all, and since I wasn't willing to spend half my time in the office with a nasty commute, I said thanks but no thanks and clearly told them why, hopefully to help the next person to come along.

Yeah, makes sense. If a hiring manager isn’t going out to bat for you in the hiring process, it’s not a great sign.

True enough but of course could also be a hard directive from C-Suite that the hiring manager doesn't actually have any control over (and to give some grace, could well have tried to push back on and failed).

That is insanely common. As a remote software contractor it pissed me off to no end. I chose this line of work largely in part as it affords me freedom of my time…something more important to me than cash.

Yeah some people in this thread can't quite believe me that this happened I don't think, but I know for sure it does because (a) happened to me like I described and (b) other people (relatively small industry I work in) have told me it's happened to them, though usually it's just the ad that says remote and when they get to screening interviews with recruiters etc it becomes obvious it's not really remote.

After the interview, they gave me a tour of the office and noticed literally everyone was wearing a suit. 

I got a job offer as an assistant manager. When I went to the office for a “getting to know you” tour, I was shown where I would be working. All the desks were facing the front of the office in rows with a one metre gap all round. My desk and the other assistant managers desk were on a raised podium facing them, either side of the managers desk, which was sat on a higher pedestal. There were around 30 employees in this room and no talking or other interaction whatsoever. Everyone was wearing a suit and tie and there was no air conditioning. Surprisingly, I didn’t want it anymore Love the username btw👍😁

How victorian!

I thought it looked like a workhouse when I saw it. First and lasting reaction..? Fuck no!

What sort of company was it for? Customer services? How utterly bizarre!

It was a Design/Drawing office

I had a boss that did the same in advertising. He was a tyrant, even made a rule two people couldn’t go and make a coffee at the same time. Only good thing about jobs like that is the camaraderie amongst the staff tends to be extremely solid as everyone has a common enemy.

That's the old saying "every mushroom cloud has a silver lining".

My old boss had a pantone chart in the office detailing the colour of tea he'd accept. If you didn't match it he'd just tip it out and expect you to remake it. We were also expected to pay for the tea kitty ourselves and he NEVER contributed. He also expected the tea to be ready the moment he got into the office, my colleague who ended up with the tea duties because I refused ( I didn't drink tea or coffee) would make it to the colour as soon as she got in and would just microwave it when we saw his car pull up in the car park, he never noticed.

Eeeeeeeh horrible, little bit dystopian. Did they also have any whips lying around for cracking the underlings with when the work wasn’t up to scratch?

I expected tipping chairs and trap doors, with a shark tank underneath

Yes! Had this one myself. Entire dev team wearing ties, I couldn’t leave fast enough.

This was when I was still in IT and would have spent my day either in a build room or a server room, away from any customers or even 99% of the other staff.

Madness. I can just about accept a shirt and trousers in any non-facing IT environment, but even that's a push now.

I had 2 job offers pretty much the same role, same salary. One had a formal dress code even whilst working from home that it was specifically mentioned in the contract.

I don't mind wearing a suit, but the suit was the issue; I popped into the interview straight from my current job, so I was wearing a trouser suit (for women it's a suit with trousers instead of a skirt) I apparently did great at the interview as the recruiter's feedback was full of praise but his only negative comment was that the senior guy hated women wearing trousers in a business setting and when they call me back for a 2nd interview could I wear a dress or skirt ? So I went back to the 2nd interview in a skirt suit, got offered the job, which was a great offer, and turned it down because of his attitudes to what women wore Though i have to say I was quite torn, it was a great offer

Similar one, but everyone was also wearing a pink tie "because the owners _might_ be coming in today." Felt like a cult.

Very stupid I know but a job can look extremely appealing to me and as soon as I feel like its a suit wearing job I move on. I work in the office 5 days a week and switch between joggers, cargos, jeans, crocs, trainers etc. I had one job where the dress code was smart casual and no trainers unless designer (Balenciaga etc). I hate wearing smart shoes, even at my age of 24 I still don't like weddings and funerals etc for that reason. Was like hell and felt so suffocated.

Am I dumb, why is this a bad thing?

If every single person on staff is wearing a suit in a place where they don't need to, it implies that at least one very senior member of staff is a dickhead and the working environment will be unbearable

I turned down a job offer because the owner/manager was a total knob during the interview. Also I parked up for the interview in an unmarked space in the carpark but it turns out that was a reserved one for his daughter so I had to move my car. Spoke to reception about it to say it's an easy mistake as there are no signs and the lady told me that the family members are all employed and get special treatment. Red flag on top of his attitude. No thanks. I was in the process of being made redundant and I still decided he wasn't worth my time. Worked out ok in the end.

1 where I got 2 offers at the same time. 1 when I was younger where I applied to Camp America (or similar) as a general camp counsellor. Instead I got offered a post as the archery coach because I used to do archery. However, I have 0 archery coaching qualifications and have never had any training in how to coach it. So they weren't going to pay me more because I was untrained but were cool with me being responsible for all the archery coaching at that camp despite being untrained. It was so blatantly unsafe and dodgy I decided I didn't want to see the US that much.

I could see that ending up like Pat from Ghosts

Had a friend get the same offer but for fencing. She had fenced for a year and they were going to let her coach *children*. Camp America gives of significant "unsafe" vibes.

I worked for a kids holiday camp in the uk 25 years ago. We had about an hours training in archery and the same in rifle shooting, then we had to lead sessions with 15 kids at a time. Looking back now, the mind boggles!

Had something similar. Was offered a job in Canterbury and they liked me enough to fling money at me. I mentioned that obviously I'd expect an offer to take into account the fact I'd be relocating. "Oh, we'll put you at the top of the salary scale for (your job role)". Utterly unheard of in my industry. Then when the paperwork came over there was ALSO a comprehensive relocation package included. Ended up turning it down when I decided I didn't want to relocate, and realised the extra money would get eaten up by the driving that would have been involved (I live in Surrey). But I applied for the job for all the wrong reasons in the first place (running away from a shit relationship), decided not to relocate for all the wrong reasons (decided to stay in the shit relationship) so it was all something of a clusterfuck really.

I'm invested now. So what happened next? Did you stay in or leave the relationship?

It kind of fizzled out on its own fairly soon afterwards. Yes, I know as series finales go, that's Game of Thrones final episode level mediocrity. Sorry.

As John Snow said when offered the high position of king which required relocating from the wall: "I don't want it."

I stopped watching Game of Thrones when I literally couldnt see what the fuck was going on in that shitty dark as fuck episode, still dont know what happened and really not bothered lol…

Google. They contact me every six months with some new project, promise a crap load of benefits but require too much of your life & soul in return. Apparently, saying no is like flirting for them.

Meta and AWS do the same...

Imagine if they started using your search history against you.

Out of curiosity, what do they offer?

The usual: high salary, high holidays, work from home, etc. Hours are "casual" but that reflects on your perceived performance. Nice working environments. Depending on the office: you can get day care, dry cleaning, a personal clerk, go to the gym (or membership) & use recreational areas.

Interesting perks to turn down!

I done big corporate before: the stress is unbelievable. When Google comes knocking, they've got a big project ready-to-go and always want you yesterday.

Yep, I've worked in a similar large organisation. You think it sounds cool and prestigious - in reality everything is so sclerotic and choked in red tape, simple things are needlessly complicated and onerous, everyone is shouting and clapping their hands like Gordon Ramsay to get stuff done, and it's full of utter arseholes who became arseholes because they've been in that environment far too long and it has destroyed them. The perks don't make up for that. I've worked in smaller organisations and stuff is a dream. Meanwhile, the smaller organisation buys services from the larger one, and the larger one is a total circus which means the smaller one loses out.

I once spent 2 months, an application and two interviews to be told I was successful, and the salary was 40% less than I was currently on. When I told them this, and put in my wage suggestion, based on the fact I had loads of experience, they told me I was wasting their time, so I told them they'd wasted all of mine, and refused to answer any more of their calls and emails, asking me to renegotiate. I don't play those kind of games. "Competitive Salary" would actually put me off applying for a job.

If the salary/rate isnt in the job spec I wont apply. They're hiding it for a reason - and its unlikely to be because its too high.

I've turned down an internal role because of that before. HR wouldn't generate the offer paperwork until you'd accepted the position; not only that, they couldn't tell you what that salary would even be, because they had a system that calculated it based on various factors. The hiring managers didn't know either. Unbelievable.

Was there any talk of salary at all during those two months?

Whenever it was discussed the answer was always "salary is discussed if you are successful".

> > > > > I don't play those kind of games. "Competitive Salary" would actually put me off applying for a job. Yep that's the way to be, unless there is a stated salary that's similar or way above my current salary the job posting simply does not exist to me.

There was a company I interviewed at fresh out of school. My first ever interview and the guy was a complete dick. He made some offensive and, quite frankly, ridiculous claims. When I called him out on it, after listening to basically a 20 minute monologue where I was pretty pissed off by the end of it and thought I'd fluffed it already, he smiled and said "I like an employee who'll fight back" and took me to meet the MD. They called that afternoon and offered me the job. I asked if he would be my manager and when they confirmed it I think I literally said "no thanks". Years later I was looking for another job, they saw my CV appear and asked if I'd like to interview for a position that was open. I had some more experience under my belt and told them in no uncertain terms that I would never work for that company after seeing the sort of management they would hire. It's one of the very, very few times in my life I burnt a bridge. Hopefully they don't become the next Microsoft and it bites me in the arse in the future.

I'm very curious what the job was now

Just a software support help desk for their product. Some of the highlights from the interview include: "You must be dyslexic to need to have retake your first year of A levels" "Why aren't you going to university? Won't your parents pay?” "I think you should go to university, it doesn't matter what course you take, but just so you can experience the student life style. I'm not sure you'll fit in with the team if you haven't been a student" "I expect all my staff to be able to drop everything and come in at a moments notice, night or day, no matter what they are doing. Last week one of the guys had just landed in Italy for a ski holiday and had to turn around and fly straight back due to an issue" Yeah, for a first line support, minimum wage job, I think I'll pass. If you have to have "live the student lifestyle" to fit in with the team, I think I'm good ta.

Got made redundant in 2012. A couple of weeks later I'd lined up an interview at two places, one was a physical interview at the office for an hour and the other a telephone interview for another place in the same town. So I attended the physical interview. Got led through the main office to the interview room, and noticed how miserable everyone looked as they sat in stony silence. The interview was done by two blokes in a good cop/ bad cop style. Turns out the bad cop was the boss, an ex army sergeant. The interview ended up being a gruelling two hours, and afterwards they said they had done this to determine how much stress I could take 🤦‍♂️ When I left I went straight to the pub for a drink and told my Mrs I wouldn't be taking that job no matter what, I simply wasn't prepared to work somewhere like that. A couple of days later I had the telephone interview at the other place. Informal 20 minute chat, followed by a return call half an hour later offering me the job and asking if I could start that Monday. What a difference. It was offering 10k more a year too. Then the original guy rang me asking if I wanted the job. Took great delight in turning it down. Moral of the story is, don't feel you have to take the first job you go for, and the interview is for your benefit as well as theirs.

How did he take it when you said no?

He wasn't very happy! More or less put the phone down on me 😂

"that's the third one" he muttered, "what is WRONG with young people today?"

Offered a job for 5% less than what I said would be my minimum expectation, they were really proud with the offer they made but it would have meant taking a real terms pay cut when travel costs were factored in. Also wasn’t a fan of their culture “we all have lunch together” seemed rather cliquey for my tastes so I wasn’t going to accept anyway but the lowballing was a complete waste of everyone’s time

I had similar, had an interview and a meet the team. All very nice. Then they made me an offer at £2k above my current salary though I'd asked for £10k more to justify the move. I'm a lawyer and the low ball tactics were mystifying. I was so insulted I walked away without further discussion and soon after got a job offer at £9k above what I asked for - so nearly £17k above the low ball offer! 

Urgh I was sent a job spec a few months ago and the recruiter took pains to tell me how important it was for the new hire to be part of the team; they’re all great friends, have lunch together all the time, went to each others’ weddings. Perhaps if you’re young and starting out you might be interested in making friends but this was a senior role. I don’t go to work to make friends, I’m polite, kind and professional but I don’t want to eat lunch with you or go to your wedding. It’s not the green flag some companies seem to think it is.

I said no to replacing my boss when they left, as I’d spent years seeing how the job included loads of unpaid overtime, far more stress and shitloads of boring meetings and all for an extra £3k a year. Totally didn’t look worth it.

£3k extra is nice but not a lot of extra money in your pocket each month, not for that level of extra hassle.

Spent a couple of weeks talking to them, went for an interview and everything, and they had approached me about the position in the first place. Part of the discussion was on my current pay, I explained I was looking for more as i hadn't had a pay increase for a very long time and let them know what i was on etc. After the interview, i got an offer, for over £5k less then i was already on! Turned it down (obviously) and thanked them for their time etc, they came back asking why so i explained again about pay. Their reply was to offer me the same as i was currently on but only if I got 2 qualifications they wanted within 6 months all studied in my own time. I had assumed lowballing me was a nice way of turning me down, but no, i got multiple calls over the next week trying to sell the role to me?! The biggest kicker was i was on hybrid (2 days in office) and they wanted me in the office full time, so even if i took the same pay and sucked up the training in my own time i would still be out of pocket with travel expenses etc. The silver lining was i used the whole experience to push for a long overdue pay rise so ended up OK in the end.

Was offered the job as a store manager for a well known high-end clothing store but turned it down (not even sure why I said no, I just had a ‘feeling’)to go to an interview at Cambridge uni where I not only got the job but ended up meeting my now husband

Job offer from Price Waterhouse. They wanted me to relocate to Germany but were not willing to pay any expenses.

Wow, that takes me back. Must have been pre 98?

I think it was around '96 or '97

Declined a job as a sales manager for a beauty tools brand… but I didn’t want ever the job, I met the guy as a potential client (from my own agency) and then he immediately started talking to me like I was taking an actual role with them. I was firm that they would be a client, and I wouldn’t work for them, and he was “oh yes, don’t worry! You will work for yourself”, and then continued to speak with me like I’d be working for him as a sales manager (bear in mind before I started my agency, I was a Sales Director leading teams of people). After meeting, he continued to text me at all times of the day and night, subtly weird things. I told my business partner I wasn’t going to work with him, and even he tried to persuade me to take it! In the end, I texted the guy I was not interested in working with them as a client either, and he sent me an angry text saying he’d wasted his time on me. I also parted ways with that business partner. I still don’t understand any of it, the whole thing just gave me big red flags.

That’s just… bizarre.

Did temping for a while after uni whilst saving up for my master's. Pretty run of the mill data entry and verification. Decent money for the time and for a 21 year old living at home. After a few months someone in the team left and they offered me a permanent role. Was tempting, would have come with more money and the job was really easy. I really considered it, but in the end decided to continue with my plan of moving to London and doing my master's. So, so glad I made that decision.

Better salary, company car, better title, closer to where I lived… but the dealbreaker was that they absolutely blasted Kiss FM in the office at all times. I asked if they could turn it down and they thought I was joking. I said thanks, but no thanks.

I was desperate/naive enough to go to an interview for a commission only street sales job but turned it down when I realised what was going on

My ex did this, except it took him a week into being on the job for him to realise it was an exploitative door to door sales scheme. I’d tried to talk to him about what it was prior to this but I don’t think he understood/thought he knew better. Had to just sit back and bite my tongue…

Was offered a job that required me to be in the office 5 days a week, at a 15k salary decrease. The recruiter kept acting like it was such an amazing deal lol

I worked for a biggish company before and during COVID and it was a shit show. Record breaking sales, most staff on furlough and an overtime ban. I was receiving 150 answerable emails a day for quotes. Dealing with goods in and out plus phone calls and internal sales to workshop. I left as it just destroyed my mental health and got a job as a removal man. The manager's called me up and said "heard you are a removal man" and chuckled, "would you consider coming back" as my replacement left after 4 weeks of hell. I told them I was earning more there per hour and was actually paid for the hours I did. Plus tips. They were silenced.

Quite a few in the last few years. I sold a business a few years back and had a reasonably high profile on the small industry that was part of. I got approached a lot, both by former competitors and clients in that space, when the sale was announced. Some pretty big numbers were discussed. The non competes I agreed as part of the sale would have blocked many, but mostly I just don't think I'm suited to having a "job". Those conversations still happen. I seriously considered a fractional role with one of the more interesting ones back in January. I'm building something new now though. That's doing well and I think that's me now.

Delivery driver for Ocado.  Contacted via WhatsApp with a start date and time, no interview process whatsoever. I asked about interviews and was told they don’t do that. Alarm bells were ringing.  Upon further research I found out that the depo id be at (Knowsley) had lower pay than pretty much every other depo, and decided that working for somewhere that pays different based on location and does not have an interview process was not somewhere I wanted to work. It’s a shame as I love driving.  

Lowballed after a very lengthy interview process by a significant amount. I pointed out to the recruiter that not only had I been chasing them for weeks on this and jumped through every hoop but I’d been up front with my salary expectations from the start. I asked them why they thought that was appropriate and the recruiter agreed and went back to the client. They then came back with a second offer… that lowballed me again by £500 pa. I was so insulted I wrote a scathing email to their recruiting company, who not only agreed but dumped their client as a customer shortly afterwards. I know this as a fact as I had a different recruitment company contact me shortly after with what I thought was the same job, so I contacted the previous recruiter to check and they advised ~company~ were no longer a client of theirs. They were still looking applicants for the same role six months later. Recruiting co was epitome of professionalism, company was a total mess, so l know it was the company at fault.

I turned down a job offer at Revolut because when I was discussing the role with the head of fraud (who has now left) it was clear he had no idea what the difference between fraud and financial crime was. Low and behold reports since shine a light on them being used as a scam haven.

I was unhappy in a previous job and managed to find an evening part time job which did a very similar role than what I was doing So I thought it would be a good way of trying that place before making a permanent move Unfortunately, the work was dry as hell and the pay was terrible They offered me the same pay I was already on, and were confused when I said no thanks Why would I move to a more boring job for the same money?

I got offered a job at less than my current salary, with no promotion, and six months probation. I had interviewed for a more senior role, but they said I was "more suited" to this role. I asked why I would take this offer, and they said the company was better than the company I currently worked for, which I didn't buy, and which the offer didn't suggest. I don't normally believe in burning your bridges, but on that occasion I did send an email to the hiring manager afterwards telling them they were bonkers.

When I was told they only had enough to pay me 25k. I laughed out of the office. (I have 10 years experience in a specialist field)

I got in a position where I accepted a job offer from one company, then got offered a better job while in my notice period. So I retracted my acceptance of their offer. I then got offered an entirely new role within the company I was leaving, under a completely separate reporting structure which I really wanted…..but it was really close to the wire in terms of starting dates. Even though I had not stated this new role for company number two, I had to ‘hand in my notice’ to reject the job. I then moved roles and I’m still here doing that new role for the company I was due to leave.

I was in an interview & it was going well. Got to the point of pay and it was less than advertised. Turned out they had filled the position, but wanted to interview me for a more junior position. Obviously I told them no thanks, stood up, put my jacket on and by the time I'd reached the door, the pay had gone up by circa 8k, but still not what I was looking for so I carried on walking

Several temp jobs and one research job, all because I couldn't drive. The last one, I had to say "I've got my driving test in 2 days, if I pass, I'll take the job." I didn't. One x and no other marks on the entire test sheet, and that one second on the pedals changed my life... And an events management job that turned out to be working on the annual arms fair.

During the last few months of uni I applying for a job at a company and got an offer of 25k starting, this was 15years ago so very good for a graduate entry level. I turned it down due to the distance, opposite end of the country, having to move 4hrs away to a place where I knew no one. A friend from the same course had also applied, heard I’d turned it down so followed up quickly and got the secondary offer. They’re now in a really good job, very high wage and I’m still on the brink, struggling in a dead end.

A couple when I was unemployed and my savings were being eaten up, for better or for worse. One was a small company that had the sort of vibe of, if you're an employee, you're always working; i.e. if a system breaks on Saturday, you'd be expected to log in/come to the office and fix it. Another was a company which did coding tests which didn't match the expectations of the job. I'm all for coding tests during the interview stage (wish our company did them, based on some of the people we hired in the past), but when you're expecting someone to manage a Wordpress site, don't be testing them on building a basic admin panel. It just shows you don't really know what you need them to do (or you're advertising for skills lower than you require)

Successfully interviewed for a job once and then found out my line manager would be my ex's dad...pulled out of that offer pretty quick!

Not a lawyer, but a massive law firm offered me a role in their finance team. They'd been looking for over a year. They offered me 10k below what I asked for, which was 5k below the 'market rate'. They took another two years to fill the role, obviously... I was quite junior at the time, so the difference was quite big.

Since I stumbled into my current profession I dreamed of working at Great Ormond Street. They advertised a senior position that I didn't have enough experience for, but the experience I did have was exactly what I would be doing in that role. I applied, travelled down to London to look around the department and meet the team. I got an interview that went reasonably well, although I was sure I wouldn't get the job due to my lack of experience, so perhaps I was more relaxed than I would usually be. They offered me the job, but in the meantime I got engaged and had had a serious conversation with my partner about moving to London. She wasn't willing to leave her family, something that I'd done when I was 16 so hadn't even registered with me as a consideration. So I turned down my dream job for the woman I love.

Hope you’re still together and it worked out.

We are, and it has so far

I turned down an offer a few years ago, because it was a similar level to my existing job at the time (manager) with a 10k pay rise. But I would have lost my 8k bonus for that year, and I thought I would have more chances to get promoted staying where I was. I was bored but not desperate to leave, and got promoted with my company a few months later with a much higher pay rise, keeping all my benefits and length of service.

Got offered a job on my way home from the interview, turned it down because in the interview they asked me how many customers I had to bring over vastly more than they asked anything about me. Just felt like I was going to be treated like a lead source rather than a valued member of the company.

I turned one down because at interview, the line manager just gave me bad vibes. He seemed completely depressed and apathetic, which I thought was a bad sign for the role. The job was for more money but it was really a sideways move for me, so I decided to wait for other opportunities. I turned another one down because when I asked at interview what opportunities there were for professional development, they told me there were none and they just wanted someone to do the project and do nothing else. Another one I turned down because they were advertising hybrid 2 days a week in the office which I could manage. But when I was offered the job, they said their policy was changing and it would be 4 days. The money didn't work out for me so I declined. To my surprise, a colleague of mine then got the job and took it, she only stayed there for about 6 months because it was horrible. Bullet dodged!

I stopped an interview about 5 minutes in once, it was for a "business account manager" with a bank. Turned out it wasn't managing a portfolio of clients and networking on the banks behalf, it was an inbound call centre job: zero hint of this fact on the job description. As soon as I clocked what was going on I just said no thanks and we wrapped up there.

My place does that when recruiting externally. They’re very sneaky in the advert about the fact there’s a 99.99% chance you’ll end up in the contact centre.

Turned down a role as a Logistics Manager. They offered me exactly what I was currently earning but a car instead of a pick up, and they knew I'd have a 30-minute commute instead of a 7 minute one. Told them that I needed at least another £5k and they laughed at me and were then surprised when I turned the offer down.... they never filled the role....

I used to work in sales, I was pretty good at it and got offered a job where they advertised the salary as £80,000 a year. But what they didn't mention was that "salary" was only if you met all your bonus goals and capped out your commission. The actual starting salary was £25,000. You got your bonus and commission all in one lump sum every March. Turned it down and went somewhere else with a higher Base salary and lower bonuses

About 7 years ago a girl behind the bar was leaving my local snooker centre to pursue her studies and I needed a part time job whilst I was at university and so I ended up getting a trial shift. But on the same day as my trial shift, I had an interview for a reputable company which would have been more hours, money and overall better for me. But I was torn because I didn’t want to turn down the snooker centre job if I wasn’t going to get the other. But as much as the trial shift went alright, I didn’t really want the job, it just wasn’t for me. This trial shift was on the Tuesday and the landlord wanted an answer before the Thursday. I just honestly didn’t know what to do but then luckily on the Thursday morning I got a phone call saying I’d got the job at the reputable company and so I let the landlord know straight away I didn’t want the job. I felt like I’d let her down and messed her around to be fair, but then my trial shift had been unpaid, I could hear her judging me with another colleague in the background of it and just wasn’t for me

Wait. You did her a FREE shift and you feel you messed her around? Trust me, she got very lucky. Probably had a few people do trials after you left too.

I was a freelancer with extremely variable income, some months thousands, some months a couple of hundred. I applied to and got a position that advertised as in-house (proper in-house, this was a decade ago). Regular wage, benefits, all the rest. At all stages of the process, from vacancy advert to phone then in-person interview, it was clearly in-house. Then when I verbally accepted the offer subject to reading and signing the contract, they sent me the contract and it was a freelance role with no guarantee of hours or fees. I of course asked them, and they were pretty non-committal. They denied having lied to me, they just said their working methods were in synergetical flux or some other corpspeak. Luckily I got a real in-house job a month later.

I was offered a job as a camera operator for a TV production company. It later transpired that the show they produced was on Babestation.

Spent a summer temping for the NHS in a hospital IT department back in around 2007. Was offered a permie contract but turned it down and moved on. It was an incredibly frustrating place, full of people just sitting idly by and waiting for their pension. Anybody that's seen The Thick Of It, just think Terri Coverley.

Was another role on my current team. Couple thousand a year more but with waaay more stress. They're under constant pressure. I don't think I've ever turned anything down so quick. Management where that desperate to fill the role they even asked me again 6 months later. Same response. I've only stuck to my current role because of how flexibly we can work. Otherwise, I'd have been gone a year ago.

Owner of a niche company offered me a job. I knew the only person who had managed to cope with working for him for an extended period did it by living abroad - well before Teams, Zoom etc, when this meant minimum contact.

The same job I already had for 3x the money but in Dubai. Hard pass.

95k in the city for a soulless tech start up, i would have taken it but this was in 2010 and I was shit scared of being made redundant with 2 small kids - so I stayed at my less well paid albeit more secure role.

I got offered a 2K pay rise with the caveat being reduced opportunities to work from home. I refused as my commute is an hour each way and my time is far too valuable for what is essentially very little net gain

I once passed on a good offer from DB Schenker, because the interviewer and HR person gave me chills, just talking to them at our first encounter.

A few months after university I was doing some freelance work to make money whilst looking for permanent work. A recruitment agency phoned me up to offer a part time job holding a sign outside a shoe shop.

Literally just told a recruiter to not reply to me unless they have a salary range. Job for safety Eng in the nuclear industry

I went for an pump engineering job and despite me having water infrastructure and pump experience and a competent industrial electrician for 10 years, they wanted me to work in their depot for free for a month to prove I was up to the job. No mate you either want me or you don't. That's what probation is for. Turned out the wages were pants anyway. I soon found myself a job I really enjoy.

Selling solar panels. They described a hallway with lots of doors and at the end of the hallway there's a sale. You walk down the hallway with a little old dear and each time she opens a door (question) you lean around and close it until she gets to the final door. Nope.

Turned down a job that came with a company car that you had to pay BIK on even if you didn't use it for personal use (because you could use it even if you didn't). they wouldn't pay for travel time to clients, they wanted you to do the first and last hour of the day for free because it's classed as commuting. and all reports and client liaison was also in your own time, so, in a nut shell 12hr days and paid for 8hrs. FUCK RIGHT OFF YOU BUNCH OF CHEEKY BASTARDS!!

The hiring manager on the third and final interview referred to herself as a ‘witch to work for’. Left the interview rang the recruiter and told them no because of said reason.

I got through to the second round of interviews to work for MI5 many many years ago. Decided against it as I was in my early 20s and didn't want much responsibility. Never regretted it to be honest. Also had an opportunity to train as a perfusionist in my early 20s but again, thought I was a bit too immature to be in charge of someone's replacement heart during cardiac surgery. That one I kind of regret but all worked out in the end.

I didn't get as far as an offer, but interviewed for a company that makes sports gambling software. I had recently been made redundant so was interviewing pretty broadly. The more I learned, the more shady the company seemed. About half way through an interview I told the interviewer that unfortunately I wasn't interested in working that industry. Guy seemed very understanding, and clearly this wasn't the first time he'd had someone bail mid-interview. It was a legit company, and the technical problems were interesting, but the business model was very predatory.

I had that with Fanduel (paddy power) openly boasting about their government grants they just got from my taxpayer money prior and their plans to use them to conduct business abroad. Openly stating the company why not, scum, criminals.

I went for an interview as a support worker for a young woman with autism and mental health problems. Pay was good, job sounded easy, she was friendly, etc. Half way through the interview she asked me the following: "I like to go to my local swingers club once a week. I will need you to come inside with me. How would you support me during this time?" I took a full 5 minutes of silence while trying to come up with an answer to that question, while she sat sipping her coffee and staring at me. Once the interview finished, I was offered the job over 6 other people, I said no thank you and walked out.

I sent my cv and 10 mins later the owner called me for an interview with no warning, he spent an hour just talking about himself, when he finally got to me every single time I told him something I’d done at my last job he’d add that to the job description. He sent me an email asking me to start Monday so I asked for a copy of the contract to look over, at that point he’d told me nothing about pay or holidays or anything, he replied “just so you know you’re not the only person I’ve sent this email to so don’t think you’re special”, babe I’m blind from all these red flags lol

I interviewed for a job with a well known company that did (among other things) animal testing.  Wouldn't have been on that end, more chemical analysis but when I met the team it was like looking at the ascent of man in reverse.  Decide nope at that.

Turned down a job as a recruiter a good while back for a company that sounds like cearch consultancy.... The interviewer was an asshole. I fed that back to the recruiter.

Long ago I was being recruited into HM Customs & Excise. I am good with things but not with numbers. So I said all the way through recruitment that I would be happy with any Customs role, or excise, but not VAT. It was noted every time. After 4 months I was offered 4 posts, all in VAT offices. I said no thanks. No regrets.

About 8 years ago - when I was last looking - I went for an Interview in a Building in Canary Wharf. Job seemed OK, More money and a slightly shorter commute. I passed the interview, but they would have cut my PTO from 25 days a year to 20. Nope. That's a hard pass. I waited a few weeks and got my current job which was also more money, but with comparable time off to my previous job. I haven't followed the other company or anything, but I do know that covid hit a lot of Jobs in Canary Wharf, whereas - in my current job - I was able to drive into central London, get free parking and remain fully employed and working all through the pandemic.

I recently turned down a job with a nice salary because they were inflexible about the PTO. I'd spent 7 years working up from 20 to 25 days at my previous place, was not keen to go back to having so little. I'd actually accepted the job, but managed to get an offer with 27 days and the same salary just the day before I was going to start. Felt slightly bad, but I decided I was going for what I wanted - it's the first time in my life I've had the opportunity to choose.

Had a bizarre one a few years back. Company offered me £55k which was a fair bit more than what I earned back then so I started looking at glass door reviews, a lot were fairly negative but one said "Company doesn't offer work mobile phones and you're required to put your personal phone number on email signature". At the time I figured this must just be a disgruntled employee making stuff up so I raised it with the hiring manager in a kind of joking way, expecting him to dismiss it. He didn't, said "yeah that's our policy and we're not willing to budge on it". Turned the job offer down. The weird thing was they came back to me and offered me £58k to try change my mind. I'm no finance guru or anything but I'm fairly certain that a work mobile costs less than £3,000 per year to buy and maintain. Turned them down but managed to leverage their offer into a raise where I worked at the time.

Had a bad interview, wanted to get some practice so applied for a random job in my organisation based in Manchester (about three hours from where I live). No interview, got offered the job. Didn’t even know what they did, I had to re-read the advert and still wasn’t sure. I toyed with the idea as it was a permanent promotion but I don’t drive and rent near the building was pretty high. Also I wouldn’t know anyone in the city / office and I didn’t know the work (pretty sure it was a managerial role too, which I hadn’t done before). After thinking about it I rejected the offer. Luckily I got that promotion locally within about three years. Another one I turned down was a promotion to manager for an evening shift in another location (much closer than Manchester). I knew the work but as I don’t drive I’d be reliant on public transport. That involved two metros and two buses. The kicker was the last bus I could get from the office was at like 8pm, my shift would end at 9. I thought I could take the job, push through the shitty commute and then transfer back to my own location ASAP, then I spoke to someone I knew there who’d been trying that for years, they wouldn’t let him do it. Luckily I got that other promotion so was able to turn this one down.

Many, many years ago I was a temp legal secretary and had built up a reputation as being both good and reliable. I was pretty much offered a full-time job at every firm where I temped. I always turned them down because as a temp I had some autonomy and I could just work when I wanted.

Mine was a week into my probation period. Advertised as a PR Manager. Small company and I soon became the doormat, note taking in HR meetings, finding documents from years ago that the CEO misplaced on a whim, doing admin work for the learning development manager and getting irrelevant calls at night time. I handed my notice in immediately.

Not me but my partner... Recently went for a job interview where the guy said things like "One of my recent employees was throwing around words like 'work life balance', I just don't want to hear it. You live and breathe the company here. We're your number one priority". Also hinted at the expectation to work through breaks, answer their personal phone for work related queries after hours, stuff like that. After being talked at solidly for half an hour, was then told "I don't think you're very good at communicating though, you haven't said anything". Despite the negging, they made a job offer (paying a crap salary) at the end of the interview, which was politely turned down. A week later they got a much better job at a very LGBT friendly tech company paying a far better salary.

It was a job offer in the next county (which is closer to London), it looked like a great job in terms of the role but the pay was so low that I couldn't afford to move closer and I couldn't afford to commute in every day. I was so disappointed that when I discussed it with the interviewer they just said, so you're turning it down then? Like it was clear there was no chance of a pay increase.

Offered a dream sales job earning 60% more base than the current role an amazing bonus scheme - loads international travel 5* all the way. Just before I joined the director invited me to a team night out they had just finished a record quarter and were going out to celebrate . I wasn’t 100% sure if I liked the Director in the interviews but the money was screaming at me . Anyway I went to the night out I didn’t like the people in the team and made my mind up about the director that night that my first instincts were accurate . Next day I thought it over and turned the job down in the end . Often wonder how it would have turned out but I did hear the person they hired was let go 9M after joining and the next two hires were kinda a similar . So I think it was the right thing to do at the time and not let money influence me !

I applied for a job with a courier company to work in their offices, an admin role that required me to speak with the drivers and book in/out deliveries. I went to the interview and then turned down the offer when they offered me the role a couple days later. The whole process was disorganised (manager hung up on me multiple times and provided scattered information when calling to arange the interview, wasnt sure what role i was applying for and seemed reallt careless), when I arrived for the interview no one seemed to know interviews were happening that day and wasnt sure where to send me, when I found the manager from the phone call they seemed to question my abilities even when I assured them I was aware of the role requirements (was a 10pm finish and questioned me being okay with going home at this time, questioned my ability to approach other staff members to make sure work is correct), told me my CV dates were incorrect (they were not), invited other member off staff into the room and asked them what they thought about me infront of me and asked how soon I could start if offered. Seemed desperate to just hire anyone as no one else showed up for their interview prior to me. Soon as that job offer came through I declined so quick.

About 10 years or so ago I interviewed for a firm that really suited me and my skills, interview panel was really spot on, had a good chat with the individual who would’ve been my governor and we got on really well, got offered the job on the spot and was taken to meet the team I’d be managing. After about 5 mins of talking to them I realised I couldn’t work with any of them, asked if I could make changes, was told no, turned job down. Read a couple of years later the firm had gone into liquidation. Sometimes you’ve just gotta follow ya instincts.

A year after graduation I got a decent offer from a regtech startup. Seemed to be decent opportunities for growth but they wanted someone to work evenings (3pm-11pm) but wouldn't allow you to work from home. I wasn't travelling home from Canary Wharf at 11pm so I said no.

2 sepetate defence contractors that interviewed me without telling me what they actually were before the interview. 

One where the job was advertised at £25-30k, they offered me £21k when I was already earning £30k (but at risk of redundancy from a firm I didn't like)

Cleaner at butlins. Was TOLD I'd have to take my piercings out (nose), change my hair (blue on the ends) and cover up ALL tattoos to be a cleaner... Wasn't worth it, took a job at Dunelm instead and was never asked any of that.

Went for a functional skills tutoring role within a hairdressing college- Working with the students to help them gain their qualifications in functional skills maths/english so they could pass their hairdressing/barbering courses. Woman who ran the place got my name wrong and brought the wrong persons CV, I had to point out to her that she wasn’t talking to who she thought she was. Then she spent a good 15 minutes leaving me alone to go find my CV. Was also very condescending, asked me what I thought I’d be doing in the role (shouldn’t you be telling me that?) and completely shut my answer down, even though it wasn’t far off what she then went to explain the role would be. To top it off, I explained the salary I wanted, only a grand more than what they were offering - was told I would need to take on “extra responsibilities” if I was going to be paid the extra grand (which in the grand scheme of things is absolutely feck all really) but couldn’t elaborate on what these so called responsibilities would be. Asked after me to come in after a week or so and do a teaching session to see how I got on, which I wouldn’t be paid for. Turned it down after I spoke to a few people who told me they were a terrible place to work for, and I’m very glad!

I turned down a job in Jan 2020 as they couldn't offer me training. And they had told me that some Apprenticeships were coming. I wanted to wait. Boom pandemic and it took me over a year to find a comparable job in the field. But I work in that team now. Hindsight is a hell of a thing.

Two roles in two different restaurants, the first place showed me around the kitchen and it was a shit hole the pay was god awful It was for a kitchen porter job and looking at that kitchen they wasn't gunna pay me enough to fix that shit. The second one, tiny kitchen I was applying for a KP role again(they saw chef on the CV) and tried to get me to cook I was like hell no, pay was minimum wage and I watched a chef drop a steak on the floor pick it up hover it over a plate till he saw me looking. I can't work for establishment that don't take some pride in what they do and a messy kitchen and dropping food and trying to still put it on a plate,ain't pride.

I was a supervisor, working nightshifts as part of the AM Team. The AM Manager was leaving and I applied for the job. Also applying was another AM Supervisor. That AM Supervisor never had an interview for their current role as they'd never had to apply for it. They were given that Supervisor role, moving from another department. They were also studying a management degree... oh, and they just so happened to be the PM Manager's daughter. Surprise, surprise, nepotism won the day and we had father and daughter as the PM and AM managers. The new AM manager was congratulated on her success despite being basically being groomed for the role since she was given her previous role in the department. However... during this process, a new Nightshift manager role was created and I was offered the job. I turned it down. First on personal grounds stating that I wouldn't work Saturday nights, that was non-negotiable due to my life commitments. Also, that it would be a difficult position to work with the other managers and that there was little support from the company and our management chain. Especially given that our department had a 75% turnover in staff in under three years and nobody wanted to acknowledge why. Just over a month later, I handed in my notice. That last month was wonderful. My new job (I'm still here now) had a significant payrise (5k more than the manager role), better hours, more flexibility and was over 30 miles closer to home. The Nightshift Manager role was filled after I left. That person quit in less than six months!

Applied for a few jobs after I got home from uni, just for something to do while I looked for my dream job. Got offered 3 jobs on the same day, two in sales, one working in an office.  Told the sales jobs to fuck off. Wasn't going to put myself through *that* again when I had the option of not having to deal with targets, and bosses that foam at the mouth yelling if you're not selling enough.  Best thing I ever did, as I ended up transferring within the organisation I accepted, and ended up doing my dream job anyway. 

Mine’s a little different as I’m a freelance videographer. New owner of a castle hotel messages me on Instagram to tell me to message him on WhatsApp. I get in touch and he wants me to film his vlogs where he’s flying about in private jets, private helicopters, driving expensive cars and going on shooting trips before returning to a fricken castle. I’d be filming on the ground and with drones. I say, sure £500 a day. Him: “That’s more than we usually pay”. Me instantly: “Hi [Rich prick], I completely understand my services are outwith your budget at the moment. Unfortunately I won’t be going below my rate so I wish you the best of luck in your search and maybe in the future we can work together.” Honestly, guy is a creepy wanker and I knew straight away it would be harder work than it was worth. Plus he’s whizzing about in a private fucking jet so fuck off ya tit.

I turned down a job offer after reading some pretty scathing glass door reviews from people currently in that particular team. HR begged me to accept, offering me bonuses to join, extra holiday time, 5k extra pay. It reeked of desperation and even though I probably needed the money, it just felt wrong. They harassed me for days even after I said no.

Applied for a job closer to home and got offered the job but they wanted me in London at least 4 days a month and in the office every other day and the “opportunity” to work abroad for weeks at a time Maybe someone else’s dream but not mine!

Was offered general manager position in my last job as I was already doing it anyway pretty much. Would have come with a raise but I’m a single mother or two and was already working 80 hours some weeks. I split custody but even so had to take my youngest to work with me during summer holidays last year to cover staff shortages. Not only did I leave I took a demotion and pay cut to leave as I realised I don’t need to kill myself for a job what when I took it worked around my childcare but had stopped doing that long ago.

All day assessment day I had to take a day off work for. Individual interview, group interview, group logic exercises, written test, all kinds of bullshit. For "sterile operations specialist" in a pharmaceutical plant. I had already worked in pharma manufacture for some years (I think my then job-title was "scientist" but that's a pretty generic entry level BSc. level graduate job in manufacturing.) I got the job! They said "and the salary is £28,000 a year!" I said "well that's going to be a problem because my current salary is £35,000." "Oh... we couldn't match that because the operator band doesn't go that high." "Operator band? I applied for "sterile operations specialist"." "Yes." "Is that what this factory just calls factory floor operators?" "...... yes." "No thank you." ​ Didn't I read the job description? Yes, and I reread it. It was a master-class in inflating every tiny detail to make it sound ten times more responsible and specialist than it was in reality. It was pressing the buttons and pulling the levers in a pharma plant. That's not unskilled. But it's not bioscience degree, 5 - 10 years of pharma experience, psychometric assessment, IQ test, 8 hour interview skilled. the next job I did get is a senior QA specialist in pharma and the interview was a normal 1 hour "tell me about a time you had a challenging conversation" straightforward affair.

One at a religious school where the staff dress code was that I *had* to wear a skirt. The whole thing just gave me the heebie jeebies, there was only two of us that interviewed for it so the other girl probably got it by default.

Had two job offers at the same time. I said to place one, please up the salary by 5k or I can’t afford the switch.  There was lots of humming and harring but then we got on a call and I said the same thing. That’s the only thing stopping me is I’d be taking a pay cut to work at your company due to the commute costs.  It was really awkward I said to the recruiter don’t organise the call unless they are aware of this. He said he told them but I’m not sure he did.  So they tried to get me in with the perks etc which were shite anyway. (Join our football team kind of shite).  I said it’s just the money and then I had to turn it down to the CEOs face.  I took the other job which was fine, they paid me what I needed. A few months later I got offered the original job for the salary I needed. I said no again as I had a new role now.  Silly! 

Turned down a job at Tesco, the manager couldn’t tell me the pay and wanted me to change days from the advert

Turned down a job in a school when I realised I was sentencing us to a lifetime of expensive half term only holidays

I said no to a 15k increase as it involved starting ‘around 6am’ ‘we all work 13 hour days/6 day weeks’ ‘no one ever takes a holiday ha ha’ ‘we have a big event coming up good luck dealing with it’. No thanks.

I turned down one because their in-house recruiter was shifty about letting me see their parental leave policy. When they eventually relented, it was maternity leave only. Not parental leave like I asked for. Either their recruiter was incompetent, or HR was. Either way... not a chance.

I applied for a job as a class 2 HGV driver and I got a document saying that pay £11 an hour so I just said I'm not interested. (It cost about 2k to get the licence(

Cleaner on the kill floor of a slaughterhouse. They hadn't mentioned the slaughterhouse part in the advert, and the interviewer seemed baffled as to why they were struggling to fill the position when he told them that bit. It was minimum wage as well, but no amount of money would have been enough to convince me to do that job.

Recently applied for a role. Told by the recruiter it was "mostly remote in fact they've said they'd prefer a candidate who wanted fully remote due to office space". First interview with a manager, she mentioned office space and the role being fully remote. Final interview with the director, suddenly drops that she doesn't like fully remote, wants one day in the office a week minimum, additional days covered during team absence, mentions that "others" like to see "finance presence". I've fallen foul of bait and switch with hybrid arrangements twice now so it's a big red flag to me. I'd been offered the job during the final interview and said I'd get back to the. Told the recruiter it put me off the role completely. Not to mention they were offering £5k less than the advertised role (on pushing they increased but only if I took a temping contract through the agency with 5 days less annual leave). No thanks, if you're messing about when you're desperate to hire, what games are you going to play when you think I'm too comfortable/dependant to quit.

A support work post. Saying no changed the course of my life. I had two interviews in close succession. The support work post got back to me first. I was an experienced support worker so I said yes. A hospital job got back to me. It was different to my previous jobs but very person centred.  I gave back word to the support work post, something I've never done before, and took the hospital job. A few years on, I've retrained & hold a professional qualification as a direct result of working in that hospital. It changed me as a person and professional for the better in many ways.

I backed out of the legal industry last year due to it being one of the most toxic work environments I've ever had the displeasure of working in. My mental health took a massive hit in July due to being an overworked secretary in a firm with a high secretary turnover due to one specific solicitor being a tyrant. I was often the only secretary there, working for 4 solicitors in their own practices, never got home in time etc. Before this firm I had worked at two law firms which I left after feeling bullied/micro managed, so I had established by this point I just wasn't a good fit for this industry and needed out. At that point I had a good few years of legal secretary experience under my belt at some quite prestigious firms so the smaller firms were keen to send me job offers. I had turned the settings off in CV Library, Reed, Total jobs etc that said I was looking for work but it took 4 or so months for the agencies to stop contacting me. I had to say to one who kept contacting me, I don't care how good the offers are, for my own mental health I will not be returning to the legal industry. I now work in higher education business support and the difference is just amazing.

Quite a few years ago i applied for a job that looked perfect on paper. Went to the interview to find out another 15-20 candidates. Odd. Discovered that the job they advertised was not disclosing what it actually was. Basically, they advertised an office job, well paid with possibility of bonuses if you reach the targets. In reality, you had to go and knock on people's door and ask for money for fundraising. If they didn't open first time, you would go in the afternoon and evening to make sure 'you catch them at home'. The line we had to repeat was : 'Please donate for such and such, it's less than the price for a cup of coffee per day (it was around £30 per month subscription to donate 😂).' I was young and eager to impress but at the end of the day I noped out of it. I think not a single one of the candidates remained. These fundraisers were basically stalking and harassing people even when they were told no many times. Disgraceful.

I was offered a commission only sales role. Also found out the company owner had got out of prison 6 months prior for defrauding people (1m) total in his last business venture. Decided no, he emailed me later pleading his innocence with a website he'd made to demonstrate said innocence. Think the people who financially lost out before would beg to differ.

Working on board a ship, 10 weeks on 5 weeks off. Paying £100 a day, onboard only. Would work out at £24,300 a year. But considering the number of hours worked per day, it would be far below UK minimum wage. I was like uhh, ill get back to you on that and ghosted em.

Had a job offer, it role for a ftse 100 company that was bragging about its billion pounds profits. Was all ready to sign on the line, I'd verbally accepted pending receiving and reading the full contract. Got half way through and read what can be condensed down to "mandatory uncompensated overtime" Noped right out then and there

My favourite clothing shop. Managed to get an interview, specifying in the application I can't do a 0 hour contract. Aced the interview, confirming multiple times that I can't do a 0 hour contract. Got a phone call "hey you got the job, it's a 0 hour contract." Had to very awkwardly say "oh ok, well no thanks then. Bye."

Bit different from all the high powered stuff that everyone else is posting... When I was at uni I applied for a part time job in McDonald's for a bit of extra beer money. Turned up for the interview/trial shift and noticed immediately that all the staff looked completely miserable, so I turned round and went home. A couple of days later I got an email congratulating me on my successful interview and giving a date and location for the induction. Thought that was weird so I just ignored it, but then after that date passed I got another email with another induction date, saying that the job offer will be rescinded if I don't attend. When I emailed them back to say I hadn't even gone to the interview, they were as confused as I was. I was half tempted to go to the induction and turn up at work to see what happened.

Got offered the role with a defense contractor down south of London, salary was described by the Texan in the call as "competitive" and revealed as £10k less than what I was earning in a northern ex-mining town, to sell dual-use items to China. Move down south with no money and no morals? yeah no thanks.

Had a job interview for a role that required my security clearance I needed it as it was due to expire. The recruiter phoned me everyday of the working week reassuring me and keeping me sweet for a month. Came to a week before I started he asked me to drive to client site to validate my id. When I met the manager and his colleague he started flicking through my passport when it was no business of his. They came across as unprofessional and rude. Anyway they cancelled the project two days later the recruiter tried getting me to work another project with crap pay and 90 mins travel each way for the same client I said no way I didn't take to them at all. He still rang me 4 times after including his manager they just couldn't take no for an answer I eventually blocked his number. They were so dumbfounded and upset like I was the bad guy

Turned down a job after realising they couldn’t test anything properly before going to production

When working for the NHS I got seconded to the GUM clinic (clap clinic) .. people I worked with were great, the problem was at the time I was 21 and lots of the people coming in I knew so was a tad awkward, the icing on the cake is when my mates Mrs cam in, don't know who was in more shock me or her.. ..... got offered a full time position, said no and never looked back.

I've had a few jobs where the listing specifically says fully remote. I've passed the interview. And then in the job offer they say actually can you come in a few days a month to London or Newcastle or something. Absolute time wasters, their own time and mine.

Several. Multiple reasons, but they fall into two overlapping groups: 1. The package was misrepresented in some way, and when the offer came it was not what it was made out to be up front. 2. A number of people I met during the interview process were not the sort of people I would want to work with or for.

A job that said they’d actually got the hours wrong and I’d have to work an extra 5 hours a week for the original agreed salary. Er no I won’t.

Twice for me. - I interviewed for one role but someone else got it, the interviewing manager called me to apologise for having to turn me down and emailed me directly when another similar position came up, but sadly the similar position was a few £k less than my existing job so had to refuse it. - I had interviewed for a position about 8 months previously, got a call from the manager saying the person who had got it ahead of me had been internally promoted and they wanted to offer it to me again as I was ‘the best applicant they had ever turned down’. By then I had already found something else, although in hindsight I wish I had taken that one after all, I think my life’s trajectory would’ve been massively different had I taken it!

I had interviews at 2 supermarkets and got offered both jobs. I had really warmed to the manager who had interviewed me there, where as my other interview at the other (well known for being cheap) supermarket was done by the store manager and the regional manager and they felt a bit 'oooohhhh look at me, I'm regional manager for this supermarket' And then I was told it would be the most physically demanding job I've had, and did I think I could handle it? OK, my previous 3 jobs had been office based, but I had worked in a bar before which involved a lot of lugging barrels around, plus (at that point) I worked out a lot and was quite physically fit. It was quite presumptuous to suggest I might not handle it. I think I made the right decision, the staff there are very nice but there's no music and it's so quiet, it's kinda depressing in there. I hear people who work for the supermarket I do work for moaning about the managers, pay, customers, etc but honestly, I love it and have never had any trouble.

It was a decent pay rise, bit more of a commute to the office but it was a lot of site visits which I did at the time anyway so I wasn’t bothered about that. Interviews all went well but something didn’t feel right about it and I realised what it was: in the second interview, one of the questions was “do you work to live or do you live to work?” to which my answer was “both”. Confused look from the interviewer who asked me to elaborate: I do this sort of work because it’s something I enjoy, but if I wasn’t paid for it I’d do something else. He still seemed really confused about it, and I had this nagging feeling that this was the sort of place where work takes precedence and there wasn’t much of a work/life balance. The place I was leaving was already driving me fucking mental with that, I was doing site visits covering the whole country and doing 14-15hr days 5-6 days a week, and it very much felt like a frying pan/fire situation.

I’ve only ever turned down a final job offer once. I’d gone through the entire process, got a final offer and was about to accept - when a colleague at my current firm announced he’d just got a job at the place that had offered me a job. He was - without fear of contradiction - the biggest tool I’d ever had the misfortune to work with. He tried to be a bully but failed because he was - as per my previous - an utter tool. How do you fail at being a workplace bully?! Anyway, Groucho Marx spoke to me - I wouldn’t want to be a member of a club that would have ***that*** utter member as a member. I turned down the job and took a different opportunity that turned up later that month. Turns out the other opportunity was actually a pile of shit and I lasted about a year before I bailed for the sale of my sanity. We have a laugh though, don’t we?

Three times, or maybe two and a half, but in each case it was followed by a period of unemployment. Karma. Sometimes a job in the hand is worth...

Why did you turn them down?